←back to thread

152 points voisin | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
jogjayr ◴[] No.42168526[source]
Money quote:

“As automakers were profit maximizing during the supply chain crisis era, you are going to prioritize the bigger vehicles, the more expensive vehicles with their higher margins,” Tyson Jominy, vice president of data and analytics at J.D. Power, told me. “Now we just don’t have” these cheaper models.

replies(4): >>42172751 #>>42173463 #>>42173971 #>>42174674 #
FergusArgyll ◴[] No.42174674[source]
Why did they just start "maximizing profit" recently?

Did all the bad bad no good CEO's just read The Prince or something?

replies(3): >>42174978 #>>42176213 #>>42185542 #
1. acdha ◴[] No.42185542[source]
They’ve done it for ages but there were market constraints. The pandemic broke that in two key ways: the first was the chip shortage they accidentally created by breaking their supply contracts early on but the second was because so many people stopped using transit. That created a demand spike at the same time supply was limited, which they capitalized on by prioritizing the most expensive models for production since they knew many buyers would feel they had no ability to negotiate.

Higher interest rates and other inflation caused by profit-taking in other industries drove this to a head since consumers couldn’t just soak it up, but none of the manufacturers wants to be the first to lower their margins.