Word: isuzu
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...major factor in a deepening recession. Domestic car and truck sales are down 13% from the 1990 peak of 7.7 ( million vehicles, and profits for the five biggest carmakers -- Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi and Mazda -- are off about 64% from the same year. Some of the smaller companies, like Isuzu, have been in the red for two years and may soon be joined by the likes of Nissan and Mazda...
...result is a shake-out among Japan's 11 domestic companies, with the smaller firms suffering the heaviest impact. Their emergency measures include reductions in product lines, severe cost cutting, mergers with other automakers and drastic rethinking of business practices. In mid-December, sixth-ranked Isuzu announced that it was getting out of the passenger-car business to concentrate on its truck business. Second-ranked Nissan is slowly absorbing ninth-ranked Fuji Heavy Industries, the parent of ailing Subaru...
...mass-marketing reliable, well- engineered cars, the Japanese seem to have descended on Los Angeles specifically to master the improbable art of creating cars that thrill. The most successful California designs have been tough-but-smart, fun-but- practical Middle American vehicles (Toyota's Previa minivan, Nissan's Pathfinder, Isuzu's Trooper and Amigo) or else sports cars that temper the species' inherent sexiness with a certain grownup decorousness (the Celica, the Miata...
Detroit is hardly alone in its struggle. The coming shake-out could well include such Japanese weak sisters as Suzuki, Subaru, Isuzu and Daihatsu, which lack deep pockets and far-flung distribution networks. "The smaller Japanese makers are doing absolutely atrociously," says Ron de Vogel, sales manager for the San Francisco Auto Center, a hypermarket that offers 11 American, Japanese and European makes under one roof. Concurs analyst Keller: "We're going to have to stop talking about Japan Inc. and start talking about individual Japanese companies. Some are going to shrink and maybe give...
...credit show that it is still growing, but economists expect such borrowing to expand only 3.5% this year, in contrast to increases of about 8% in each of the past two years. As for the Fiorentinos, when their 1980 Volkswagen broke down, they replaced it with a modest 1986 Isuzu Trooper. Autoworker Bruce Boyd, 30, of Leonard, Mich., says his family has been trying to avoid using credit cards for the past several months. "I'm trying to tighten up just because of the world situation," says Boyd. "I am more conscious of it. I'd just as soon...