The impact of the global downturn on the car manufacturing industry

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: Sehr gut, The University of Surrey (School of Management), language: English, abstract: As many other industries the car manufacturing industry has been hardly hit in the most countries by the international financial crisis and subsequent economic slowdown. Several reasons of the credit crunch have also been the trigger for turbulences in the car industry, especially in Europe and the United States of America. Years of cheap and extensive opportunities to finance new cars (low interest rates and negligent credit approvals) have decoupled the economic growth from the car sales and have lead to extensive excess in demand. Based on major theories in strategic management (e.g. Porter's five forces), this works examines the reasons for car manufactures problems during the crisis, strategic implications and measures to enable a future growth story.