Had a doctor's apt this morning and as I was walking in from the million acre parking lot I kind of looked what kinds of vehicles were parked in the row. Maybe it's a regional thing but I saw WAY more "American" vehicles than "foreign". I put them in quotes because what is really American or foreign anymore. Let's just say Chrysler, Ford and GM are the American ones.
An informal count would be at least a 4:1 ratio for American and foreign. This thread has had me paying attention on the road, in parking lots, etc as to the makes of the vehicles. You see WAY, WAY, WAY more American than Asian or European.
There's quite a few foreign makes where the nearest dealer is a minimum 100 miles away. Here's what dealers there are in the metro area (All with slash marks are the same dealership). Dodge/Chrysler/Ram/Jeep, Ford/Lincoln, Chevy, Buick/GMC, Cadillac/Honda, Toyota, Nissan/Kia, Audi/VW/Hyundai, Subaru. That's it. No Lexus, no Infinity, no Mazda, no Mitsubishi, BMW, Mercedes, no Volvo(since a couple years ago) etc, etc, etc. Among all the new car dealerships in the area the American ones are huge where the foreign dealers are much smaller. There has been BMW, Mercedes, Mazda, Mitsubishi and a couple other is the past but none of them ever made it.
My thinking is, there isn't a lot more Mopar, GM and Ford around here because of the makes that aren't sold near here, it's the makes that aren't sold near here aren't sold because no one bought them when they were here. The only European luxury brand (Audi) would never stand on it's own in this market. The only way it sticks around is being in the same dealership with VW and Hyundai. Of course, Mercedes used to be at the Toyota dealership and BMW the Buick/GMC (and Pontiac at the time) dealership and they went away too.
Obviously in this market there's also no Rolls Royce, Bentley, Ferrari or Porsche dealers either but that's a whole different thing.
