Those days are gone, and some industry observers say it's getting worse. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have virtually nothing to offer this fall in terms of new automobiles for the 2002 model year, says Jerry Flint. Writing recently in Forbes, he says except for the limited-volume Thunderbird, this is the thinnest new car season he's seen in a half-century of reporting.
The foreign marques, conversely, are launching new vehicles across the entire market. Toyota will have a brand-new Camry this fall, and Flint expects it to be the best-selling car in the United States. Lexus will unveil a new luxury model as well as a new five-door near-luxury performance car. Nissan plans to launch 22 new models over the next 3 years, 10 of them in the United States. In the family sedan market, Flint predicts that Nissan's all-new Altima will garner major sales gains and become a category killer!