• DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2354.2007.00471.x
• Corpus ID: 13085087

Vehicle Choice Behavior and the Declining Market Share of U.S. Automakers

@article{Train2004VehicleCB,
  title={Vehicle Choice Behavior and the Declining Market Share of U.S. Automakers},
  author={Kenneth E. Train and Clifford M. Winston},
  journal={ERN: Market Structure (Topic)},
  year={2004}
}

• K. Train, C. Winston
• Published 23 November 2004
• Business
• ERN: Market Structure (Topic)

We develop a consumer-level model of vehicle choice to shed light on the erosion of the U.S. automobile manufacturers' market share during the past decade. We examine the influence of vehicle attributes, brand loyalty, product line characteristics, and dealerships. We find that nearly all of the loss in market share for U.S. manufacturers can be explained by changes in basic vehicle attributes, namely: price, size, power, operating cost, transmission type, reliability, and body type. U.S. manufacturers have improved their vehicles' attributes but not as much as Japanese and European manufacturers have improved the attributes of their vehicles.