I’ve always been interested in what the world market uses in comparison to the US. As for the car market, the US has the most diverse by far with cars varying from domestic and foreign. However, I find that in most other countries, the home maker has the advantage. The same case is found here in Japan. There are very few American makes here,… very very few. I see a Chevy or two rolling around and maybe an old Dodge once in a great while, even a Chrysler or two, but most of the others are domestic brands. The big surprises are that of the European makes. I found Opel and Peugeot to be very popular amongst others (VW, Mercedes, and BMW) in the foreign brands. Another seemingly sought after “foreign” brand is Lexus.

Cars here aren’t as small as everyone thinks they are. Brands like Peugeot and Opel specialize in these small cars, but others such as Chevy, BMW, Lexus and Mercedes do not. Even the domestic makers seem to have shifted their attention away from small cars and are making these large beasts. I guess it all depends on the brand… I find domestic Japanese brands that are successful in markets abroad have shied away from small car production. On the other hand, companies like Daihatsu, not so popular in the US, focus their attention on a small cheap car for the masses, (literally a box on wheels smaller than any Scion you can think of).

I know this may not be interesting to most of you, but given what I studied I like to observe these kinds of things. I think the car market is by far the best to observe because there is so much diversity to it. So many countries strive to get into the mix and the two newest competitors are that of China and India! How many of you realize that India aims to sell cars in the US? If I’m not mistaken they already started this past year with Tata Motors.