With every automaker from Toyota and General Motors on down dealing with crippling global sales, the obvious question is, what happens to the small automakers? We're not talking about high profit-margin brands like Porsche and Aston Martin, but the companies that sell entry-level to mid-price cars with wafer-thin profit margins.
Mazda may be happy to be out from under Ford Motor Company's thumb, yet the Japanese company is also being weaned from Ford's purchasing power. The new North American-market Mazda6, while it will continue to be built in Flat Rock, Michigan, alongside rear-drive Ford Mustangs, has much less in common with Fords than with the previous 6.
Mitsubishi, struggling to retain six-digit annual sales here, is essentially a tax writeoff for Mitsubishi UFJ, one of Japan's largest banks. If and when that tax writeoff becomes marginal, Mitsubishi will pull out of the U.S. market -- and perhaps out of the car business.
Subaru, having lost its connection with GM, is also "dicey," a source says. The Toyota connection will help keep it viable, which means, potentially, future Subie models powered with something other than horizontally opposed engines. The proposed joint venture sport coupe (with Toyota) is on hold, however.
Then there's Suzuki, which has seen some growth in North America in the last couple years. Later this year, it says it will launch its new midsize car, based on the Kizashi concept and sharing GM's Epsilon platform and optional gas direct-injection 3.6-liter V-6. Recent reports had suggested that the launch will be canceled, but a U.S. Suzuki spokesman says the production version of the car is on track for a 2009 New York show debut. Suzuki's biggest problem remains a lack of stand-alone dealers in good locations. Between these other brands, and the weeding out of dealers among the Detroit Three, that may not be a problem for very long.