Businesses do business anyway

the car industry does not operate to make any kind of loss, instead it will deceive regulators and consumers while maintaining profit

that means that regulations force substandard products usually

but car manufacturers aren't going to start producing things that literally wont sell

Hol' up

cocaine why are you the only rational person in this chat

Was it the Porsche 944 or some other car that...wait I'm gonna need to look this up to get numbers

@Sediment It would be incredibly unusual for an industry to not have loss leaders.

I don't know of any other industry that does, at least not that sells directly to private consumers

What the fuck do you think a loss leader is for?

What is the function of a loss leader

Or other products sold for a loss.

loss leaders don't work in the car industry

No one is going to the car store for a big sale and then deciding "Oh while I'm here let me just spend *an extra fifty thousand dollars*"

loss leaders work for places like walmart to get people through the door and buy the loss product and other products which counter the loss, but yeah

cars are mostly a one off purchase

You can, however, sell a car with the intention of shining positive light on a brand

Ie, halo cars

but no mass production car can do that because it would be too costly

I will apologize for being rude earlier. @Sediment I was frustrated after the deal with Matt.

I won't apologize but I will accept yours

Well....fuck you I guess?

Did you mean that to sound assholish?

It kind of did.

ford europe got themselves into a slight issue by basically upping the quality of the fiesta and focus so far that it was better than the vast majority of their competitors but simultaneously couldn't up their cost to match due to the brand

they weren't making a loss, but it ate into profits a fair chunk

Alright I will admit I was wrong on the subject of selling the cars at a complete loss.

Word of advice though, @Sediment Going on the back end of horseshit and calling names tends to result in more shit being stirred up

ford now sell the fiesta at the same money as the vw polo, but it means a lot of people buy the polo because "german engineering" while the fiesta is the better car

Brand loyalty is disgusting

Hell "[x] country makes this car so I love it" loyalty is disgusting

French cars are the best cars prove me wrong

well the thing is traditionally germany made reliable products, and well

I don't get that actually.

like because of historical durability and quality of products, you felt safe buying from german manufacturers

it's the same with japanese stuff

Doesn't VW, BMW, and Mercedes stuff tend to be hit-or-miss?

They make some amazing shit

But holy shit do they make a few stinkers

I have a personal dislike of VW

Mercedes I like, their stuff is usually good