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[Marks DTM Calib]

Tesla stay afloat thanks to big cash input from China 

Dev costs are huge, as an example the new line needed for XJ would have been half a billion, plus the dev costs (which get capitalised), certification (in every country of sale), crash testing, component tooling etc etc.....and then on-going costs.

Hence why a Dacia is cheap, the dev costs got covered under the original 2002 clit design, re-used tooling, lower cost build centre, low cost car (all be it 20 years out of date with terrible crash credentials).

The more cars you build the better, of course, as you amortise the bill over bigger numbers.

Raw material price is probably 50% of list, rough guess, that's probably higher than most commodities

[Marks DTM Calib]

Your big assumption is that car manufacturers make a decent profit. A lot of money passes through them, but as you say they have enormous costs. This is why the remaining small manufacturers are still fading away; they can no longer be propped up by rich benefactors playing at being industrialists. Aston Martin is  a good example of this, and Jaguar is teetering on the edge of it.


Remember the American auto industry bailout from 10 years ago? It made General Motors realise they were a finance company pissing away millions building cars. Which is one of the reasons it off loaded their European operations to the French government that is prepared to spend the money for other reasons.

I'm not surprised Jaguar is in trouble, all the money they must be giving to that DTM fella. 

I am worth every penny 

Jaguar are ok, with the exception of F-type, they are the same platforms as Land Rovers, the bigger challenge is nobody is buying saloons. 

[Kevin Wood]

Jaguar are ok, with the exception of F-type, they are the same platforms as Land Rovers, the bigger challenge is nobody is buying saloons. 

Yes, why everybody wants to drive ponderous SUVs these days beats me.

[STEMO]

Jaguar are ok, with the exception of F-type, they are the same platforms as Land Rovers, the bigger challenge is nobody is buying saloons. 

Yes, why everybody wants to drive ponderous SUVs these days beats me.

Everything will be ponderous when the new rules kick in, so you might as well travel in comfort 

[Doctor Gollum]

Manufacturers only produce cars to sell finance

[Kevin Wood]

Manufacturers only produce cars to sell finance

Good point. So the models have to appeal to the "Considerably richer than Youww" brigade.

[Doctor Gollum]

Zackly

[Rangie]

Cannot understand getting into debt for a car , paying interest on something that reduces in value every week definitely not for me.

[grifter]

Jaguar are ok, with the exception of F-type, they are the same platforms as Land Rovers, the bigger challenge is nobody is buying saloons. 

Yes, why everybody wants to drive ponderous SUVs these days beats me.

Image and ego, lording over you and looking down at you makes those owners feel superior. Doesn't chuffin bother me, as I said crying in my wee low omega with all the range rover owners looking down at me!

[Nick W]

Manufacturers only produce cars to sell finance

Good point. So the models have to appeal to the "Considerably richer than Youww" brigade.

That's also the reason for including the age of the car as part of the registration number.

[Kevin Wood]

Jaguar are ok, with the exception of F-type, they are the same platforms as Land Rovers, the bigger challenge is nobody is buying saloons. 

Yes, why everybody wants to drive ponderous SUVs these days beats me.

Image and ego, lording over you and looking down at you makes those owners feel superior. Doesn't chuffin bother me, as I said crying in my wee low omega with all the range rover owners looking down at me!

.. and outbraking them on the approach to a roundabout and then driving round the inside of them while being hugged tight in my bucket seat makes me feel superior, so we're even.

[Viral_Jim]

what is the cost to the environment should be the question perhaps 
if a new car is so much better carbon footprint wise  taking all the above into account ....
then surely all car manufacturers would be screaming the figures from the rooftops

I'm not so sure that's the relevant questions when it comes to EVs or other 'green' cars. People have been buying new cars (and lots of other products) that they don't need, since, well, someone invented money.

The real question is whether the new cars that would be made anyway are more or less damaging to the environment because they're powered by AA's, or fossil juice.

[Doctor Gollum]

There's the added issue of the raw materials for said AAs.

Fundamentally the rest of the car can be produced by recycling older cars.

And fossil fuels aren't wasted, their simply repurposed dinosaurs which are turned into carbon dioxide and water, which makes trees, which in turn can be processed into ethanol. Which is nice.

[Rangie]

Only ever bought three brand new cars the first one was in 1973, next in 1987 & the last in 2002 total cost of all 3 was £19,030 wouldn't buy me much of a new car now..

[New POD]

Having worked in the automotive parts world for much of my career, making switches, solenoid, brakes, turbos, for Lucas and Garrett, you'd be amazed at how cheap each of the bits are.

The major costs is sucked in through development and infrastructure and tooling. The one off costs. Having spent the money, they need to recoup it, but it's probably 35% of the cost over the first 2 years. After that, they could probably drop the price, but they need to use the profit on existing vehicles to pay for thier replacement.

If they stopped designing new cars and new technology and just produced the same car for the next 50 years, they could concentrate on just making it cheaper and more reliable.
Think Daewoo nexia...