Chevy Malibu Challenging For Market Supremacy

Anthony Fontanelle
December 27, 2007

For the past years, the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord have been the undisputed leaders in the midsize car market. The reliability of these vehicles has been known all around the world and in the United States. Year after year, Japanese automakers posted increasing sales of their midsize cars. But recently, they are facing a tough challenge from the Chevy Malibu.

The midsize car from General Motors has been received with much praise ever since it was launched in November this year. The Malibu is also nominated to be the Car of the Year at the 12th annual Urban Wheels Awards. Consumers are also creating good feedback for the Malibu. With the increasing popularity of the midsize car showing the bowtie badge, some analysts are claiming that Toyota and Honda should watch out for the Malibu eating into their market share.

Doug Schuster, the executive director of global forecasting for J.D. Power and Associates, said that the new Malibu is definitely a different car from what consumers have been given in the past. "It’s a more competitive ‘retail’ Malibu compared to the ‘fleet’ Malibu we’ve seen before. It could start to sway some buyers who were focused on leaders in the past, but we’ll have to wait until next year to see how it does and where trade-ins come from," said Schuster.

Schuster also pointed out that the focus on value, performance and style of the Malibu makes it a tough contender in its class and is evidence that the automotive brand is taking a step in the right direction. "We saw that with the Volkswagen Passat and Mazda 6, and then later with the new Camry and Accord," he said pertaining to the focus in style, performance and overall value.

Jeff Soga, Toyota's project manager for the Camry, Solara, and Avalon, agreed with Schuster saying: "Consumers continue to demand more value and features from their midsize sedans, and, unlike the past, stylish design has become a competitive differentiator." He also pointed out that consumers are still looking for reliability, ride quality, overall comfort, value, and of course, safety when it comes to buying a new vehicle. This is the same as Acura owners focusing on reliability when out shopping for Acura brake pads.

For nine out of the past ten years, the Toyota Camry is the best selling passenger car in the United States. This year, for the first eleven months alone, Toyota has already sold 434,277 units of the Camry - an improvement of 5.8 percent compared to the same period last year. In comparison, Chevy sold 116,140 units of the Malibu, 23.8 percent lower than last year.

Source:  Amazines.com