DETROIT, June 22 (UPI) -- The downturn in the U.S. auto market favors the little guys who do not need to sell as many cars to turn a profit, an industry analyst said Monday.
Smaller companies "can be profitable at a much smaller market size, selling to ... fewer numbers of people," Ron Pinelli, president of Autodata, told The New York Times.
The current rate of sales -- about 10 million vehicles a year -- could explain a Hyundai and Kia jump in U.S. market share from 5 percent in 2008 to about 7.3 percent this year, the Times said.
While General Motors Corp. and Chrysler floundered in bankruptcy court, consumers have turned away from loyalty to a certain brand to a hunt for a quality product, he said.
"There are so many good cars out there to choose from. Everybody's building a good car right now," Pinelli said.
"The smaller automakers are having pretty good success in the last few years … coming out with competitive products and benefiting from the misery of the bigger automakers," said Jesse Toprak, an industry analyst at Edmunds.com.
