Zero Hedge: The Worlds Unsold Car Stockpile (updated*)

"Houston...We have a problem!... Nobody is buying brand new cars anymore!  Well they are, but not on the scale they once were.  Millions of brand new unsold cars are just sitting redundant on runways and car parks around the world.  There, they stay, slowly deteriorating without being maintained."

"The car industry would never sell these cars at massive reductions in their prices to get rid of them, no they still want every buck.  If they were to price these cars for a couple of thousand they would sell them.  However, nobody would then buy any expensive cars and then they  would end up being unsold."

(The images on this webpage showing all of these unsold cars are just a very small portion of those around the world.  There are literally thousands of these "car parks" rammed full of unsold cars in practically every country on the planet.)

*Update : That Zero Hedge Article On Unsold Cars Is Bullshit

"Casanovas on Foot Baffle Toyota CEO..."

While Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) President Akio Toyoda is on the cusp of a record year for profit, kids nowadays make him nervous. They’re so clueless that boys without cars have the nerve to ask girls out.

“In the past, if you wanted to date someone, you couldn’t ask her out if you didn’t have a car,” Toyoda, 57, told a packed auditorium of about 900 Meiji University students in Tokyo on Sept. 26. “It’s all changed now. Money goes on monthly phone bills. Also, parking’s expensive and it’s easy to get around Tokyo on public transport.”

Though he’s kidding about the dating, the underlying theme is no joke.

“Younger Japanese are quite different from the older Japanese and cars mean much less to many than 20 or 25 years ago,” said Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo, who’s been in Japan since the 1970s. “They’re more interested in tech gadgets, like the iPhone. Young people nowadays don’t have the money to buy cars too.”

If more Japanese youths are like Keiko Kato, Toyoda may find kids will be kids and won’t always share the values of the older generation. Kato was one of three students who said after the talk that they still couldn’t see the need to own a car.

“If someone gave me 100,000 yen ($1,000) a month to spend on whatever I wanted, I don’t think I’d save for a car,” said Kato, 19. “I’d rather spend it on something practical like a fridge, microwave, or pretty furniture.”

Bloomberg via Instapundit