The small car market around the world is witnessing a huge explosion like never before. With the striking of the economic recession during the latter part of 2008, the small cars have become a darling with the general public. Around the same time oil prices hovered to $140 per barrel and the U.S government started its cash for clunkers program. This was aimed at promoting customers to use small cars and discard themselves of the gas guzzlers. Due to this change in the preferences of customers, many automobile manufacturers had to discontinue few of their models.
Models like Hummer, Saab, and gas guzzlers of GM and Ford had to either be disbanded or has seen a huge erosion in their volumes. Primarily in the Asian countries, that is deemed as the growth engine of the automotive industry, small cars seems to be the flavor of the day. In India small car manufacturers like Maruti and Tata have mastered the art of making cheap and reliable cars. All across the world during this troubled phase, Toyota capitalized on its light and fuel efficient cars and saw its market share improving in the U.S.
It is not that dangerous cars are being sold for cheaper rates. With the introduction of the Nano; Tata Motors have proven to the world a new definition of the term “Frugal Engineering.” Even foreign car manufacturers like Volkswagen, GM, Ford and Chevrolet are going back to the drawing table to design newer cars which fit into the small car and the compact cars category. JD power has shown that over the years there has been a constant surge in the number of people buying small cars.
