We've Reached Peak Doug
It's not his fault, really.
I was Editor-In-Chief of TTAC for twelve and a half months, about two weeks of which I spent in the hospital in two separate incidents and much of which I spent crippled by a broken pelvis. As some of you will remember, I made promises to the readers. I kept those promises, but the one that caused me the most personal anguish was the "open invitation" to our former contributors.
Over the course of my seven-year tenure with the site, I've met and/or corresponded with many people whose virtues, capabilities, and ethics have impressed and occasionally humbled me. This would be a good place for a list but there would be something like fifty names on it and I don't want to mess up anyone's Google rankings. The friendships I've made from the site have changed my life, almost always for the better. There have been adventures as well, everything from driving that new-in-box 1995 Cobra R around NCM to playing my Rainsong at the retirement ceremony of a decorated Air Force officer to "racing" against Bob Lutz on SPEED TV. It's been a privilege to know, correspond with, and meet ninety-five percent of the individuals I've known through this job.
That last five percent, though... We've had a few contributors over the course of the years who were complete and total pieces of shit. Opportunists. Congenital liars. There's one guy in particular who just drips slime. As Megan Fox's co-worker says in "This Is 40"... "Everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. And everything that goes into his mouth, is a dick." If we still lived in the days of the Old Testament, the ground would open up and swallow this scumbag.
I am not referring to Doug DeMuro in that last paragraph.
Doug, by all accounts, is an inoffensive person who desperately wants to be liked. I don't think I've ever enjoyed or respected a single thing he's written, but he is not in any way evil. He likes to stretch the truth a bit in service of the story, but that's par for the course in humor writing, even bad humor writing. He's kind of the Dave Barry of cars.
The problem is that Dave Barry didn't have to turn out nearly the kind of authorial volume that Jalopnik and TTAC require of Doug, and Dave had the luxury of covering much more topical ground in his work. Doug's "brand" is narrow enough that he's really only allowed to write:
* Stories about cars he's bought * Generic "Has $CAR_MANUFACTURER Lost Its Soul?" pieces * Generic "The $CAR_OR_FEATURE Is The Worst Thing Ever" pieces * Questions Of The Day
Doug can only buy so many cars, and there are only so many manufacturers out there to "lose their zing", and the "feature" articles tend to bring out the sharks in the commentariat. So if he wants to keep cranking articles, he has to rely on QOTDs.
Personally, I don't see why anybody gets paid to write QOTDs. I used to toss them in for free when I ran TTAC. It doesn't take any talent or intelligence to write a QOTD. Here are ten of them, offered at no charge to TTAC editors and contributors, and all of them guaranteed comment-churning hits:
* What's The Deal With Hatchbacks That Look Like Wagons? * What's The Worst Service Experience You Ever Had? * When It Comes To Manual Transmissions, Isn't Six Speeds Enough? * Should Sergio Stick With Sweaters? * Why Are Modern Cars So Wide, Anyway? * Do You Really Think CarMax Offers A Good Deal? * Why Would Anybody Buy A Yukon Instead Of A Yukon XL? * Has Ferrari Lost The Plot Lately? * Why Are Minivans So Big? * Is It Ethical To Call Yourself A "Porsche Manager" When You Had No Direct Reports?
Perhaps you'll see one of those QOTDs in the near future. In the present, however, this is what Doug has: "Why Do Automakers Care So Much About Sales?" Insofar as the man doesn't really have much industry experience, I'll explain the answer to that question for him, and for you. The true customer of auto manufacturers, as I've told everyone with ears to listen, is the dealer. Dealers need volume. Plain and simple. They need cars on the street. So they have service business, so they have parts business, so they have brand awareness in their communities, so they can skim smaller profits off each car and still cover their sales department's expenses.
Given a choice, a dealer would rather make $200 per car with monthly volume of 100 cars than make $2000 per car with monthly volume of ten. Selling 100 cars means you take in more trades, do more F&I business, sell more oil changes. It's that simple.
But even if that didn't provide all the reason manufacturers need, there's also the fact that by building more cars they are better able to wield economic and political clout, they have an easier time keeping their labor relations smooth, and they can obtain better prices from their suppliers.
So there you have it, Doug: that's why automakers care so much about sales. As to the other question in the post --- why doesn't Honda do fleet sales? --- the answer is also right out in front of you, and it, like the answer to the first question, is entirely dealer-centric. But I'll leave finding it as an exercise to the reader, and the best place to start is with the outstanding book, "Arrogance And Accords", available as a PDF from Amazon. Go read it. When you're done with it, you will understand automotive retailing better than you do now. And better than Doug does. Which is worth something, right?