QOTD: Your Prediction for 2019?
365 days. A year. One trip around the sun. Whatever you call it, we’re here: the last day of 2018.
Here’s where we let you look into the TTAC Magic 8 Ball and ask for your predictions of auto industry news you think will happen in 2019.
The year past was packed with all kinds of surprise news, from Elon’s debilitating Twitter habit to the loss of an industry titan to a constant buzz about tariffs. Two of the three home teams in Detroit debuted new versions of their profit centers (read: half-ton pickup trucks) and just about everyone frittered away copious amounts of time and money on autonomy and mobility solutions. And, oh yeah, Ford bought a train station.
One story to watch? The whole Ford/VW dance. After significant levels of talk and public bon mots, there are still many questions to be answered about just how involved the tie-up will be. It may be a case of getting-together-but-not-getting-married, as a good many people in Detroit still remember the last time an American brand invited a German brand to live with them.
Look for a host of new technologies to wend their way into the mainstream. Hyundai is working on a pair of neato convenience ideas that I would welcome on my own cars — fingerprint technology that’ll reliably unlock doors in any weather, plus something called Separated Sound Zones, which allegedly will allow four quadrants of solitude inside a vehicle. Parents of teenagers with strange tastes in music rejoice.
What are your predictions for the automotive sphere in 2019? Whatever they may be, know that you’ve made it to the end of another calendar, so give yourself a pat on the back. Here’s to a great twelve months ahead!
[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]
Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.
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Deadweight will be back with vengeance. Porsche will cut cars including 911 and introduce Porsche Cuckan Nurburgring bred BOF pick-up truck family: full-size, midsize and compact ones with hundred of different options and combinations to serve rich American and Chinese contractors.
Tesla, Apple and Rivian create a joint venture to make electric pickups and SUVs in a recently closed GM plant.
Nissan will turn the Maxima into a 4DSC by making it an AWD, manual transmission car. They will replace all CVT transmissions with the ZF 8 speed if you want an auto. They will turn the Murano into the 4 door sport sport utility vehicle, or the 4DSSUV for short. It will offer the aforementioned AWD with manual transmission plus they'll offer it as a convertible. Ford will turn the Mustang into an Urus looking SUV but only offer it with a V8 and manual transmission. The key option will be deleting the back seats and making it a 4 door shooting brake with lots of cargo room. The Lincoln version will offer suicide doors, but only with an automatic transmission. MINI will offer their version of the new BMW X7. It will be offered in 30 different colors for the body, 10 for the roof and 5 different wheels. It will be offered with a dinner plate sized speedometer in the middle of the dash and will be value priced at $75,000. The first oil change is included, but all subsequent oil changes will be value priced at $350. GM will close all of their plants in the US and Canada. They will import all of their South American cars to avoid the coming trade war with China and will turn to PSA to significantly increase the number of Buick Regals we Americans can buy. Infiniti will rename all of their cars "kuruma", the Japanese word for car, and will re-introduce the Kuruma 45, the old Q car they used to foist upon us. They will begin ads featuring trees and nature. Lexus will be rolled out as an independent car company and will immediately buy VW in order to appeal to younger buyers with a desire for less reliable transportation, but with a longer warranty. FCA will only sell V8 and electric cars. None will be boring. All will be overpriced. All will be fun. They will also be the only car company to offer a 12 month, 1 year warranty. Ferrari will introduce a re-badged Grand Cherokee with a V12 to compete with the Urus. Tesla will buy Allison Transmission in an effort to offer a more compelling driving experience and make all of their vehicles equipped with manual transmissions. Porsche will be spun off as an independent company, will partner with Caterpillar and will finally breathe life into the underserved performance construction sector. BMW and Fisher Price will merge (merger of equals?) in order to more quickly fulfill BMWs need of plastics, especially with electrics, water pumps and other critical non-engine parts. As with MINI, the first oil change is on the house, but all subsequent ones will be $350. In an effort to provide less customer service than today, all BMW dealerships will only hire those who have failed pre-employment background checks. Additionally, BMW will create several new SUVs named X1.5, X2.5, X3.4, X4.57, X5.55, X6.66. Neither numbers or letters have any meaning.
My prediction: car sales will hold steady, held up by the huge inventory of discontinued models being sold at a discount, but profits will go down, due to the huge inventory of discontinued models being sold at a discount. Gas prices won't spike, due to US crude production that made America controller of marginal prices. The stock market will, as J.P. Morgan once said, "fluctuate", but the economy will still grow at a decent clip, held back only by a shortage of trained labor. Companies will have to invest in training to keep growing. Finally, by year's end the inventory of discontinued models will be gone and car sales will plummet due to lack of product, triggering a mild recession, while automakers scramble to reopen factories to build compact and midsize cars again.