Build It and They Might Come
If you build it, they will come. The idea worked in the movie “Field of Dreams” when an Iowa farmer cleared his corn fields to build a baseball diamond to summon the ghosts of long-dead players. So will the Big Three U.S. auto makers be assured a hardy market in Japan if they build more cars with the steering wheel on the right?
One sure thing is that Chrysler, Ford and General Motors are each making a major effort to cater to Japan, where motorists drive on the left side of the road. At the Tokyo Motor Show this week the companies introduced more than half a dozen models of right-hand-drive cars. Until now, the only two such vehicles with U.S. nameplates were Chrysler’s Jeep Cherokee and Ford’s Probe. Among the specially adapted U.S. models that will be available in Tokyo beginning next year are Chrysler’s Voyager, Grand Cherokee, Neon and Jeep Wrangler; Ford will offer the Taurus and the Explorer, its popular sports utility model, and General Motors’ Chevrolet Cavalier will be sold by Toyota dealers as the Toyota Cavalier.
The vehicles will provide a major market test of whether Japanese consumers will buy American cars that are adapted to their needs. U.S. auto makers have long decried Tokyo’s obstacles to Americans cracking the market. Japanese critics in turn have maintained that Detroit’s failure to provide right-hand-drive vehicles has been the problem.
Other factors, too, are likely to work in favor of American autos. In June, Washington and Tokyo reached a trade accord designed to increase sales of American cars and parts to Japan. In the months since, the Big Three have begun an effort to establish Japanese dealerships. Their right-hand-drive vehicles are being introduced at a time when sales of imported cars are rising in Japan because their prices are attractive due to the strong yen.
Even if U.S. models catch on, however, their sales may not make much of a dent in the $37-billion U.S. trade deficit in cars and auto parts with Japan. The Big Three hope collectively to sell 400,000 cars in Japan in the year 2000. That compares to 2 million Japanese autos a year now coming into U.S. ports. And many cars sold in Japan with U.S. nameplates will be made at factories outside the United States. For example, Chrysler’s Voyager minivans and Grand Cherokees sold in Japan will be manufactured in Australia. Of the 100,000 cars that GM plans to sell in the year 2000, 80% will be produced at its German subsidiary. A good portion of Ford’s cars for Japan will be made by its Mazda affiliate.
In the face of unknowns, Detroit will have to earn the trust and yen of Japanese consumers. If it doesn’t build it right, they surely won’t come.
