Between us, we Australians own 19.5 million cars, which is not bad given there are only 25 million of us. In fact, most of our homes have two or more vehicles under the carport. And for most of us, a car is the second most expensive purchase we will ever make.
Don't think about it too much but if you buy a new car for $50k, pay it off over five years and sell it, that piece of metal will cost you $82k, not to mention the $71 a week you hand over to your friendly lack of service station for a few litres of liquid Saudi gold.
So, it's a big, important industry that affects as many punters as, say, the banking industry. When the ACCC did a review a couple of years ago, car dealer revenues were around $64 billion.
It's an industry where manufacturers, distributors and dealers make a shed load more money from the razor blades than the razors (new cars). In a new car dealership, sales, repair and service generate just 15 per cent of sales but 49 per cent of profit.
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will open an investigation into 3 million Hyundai and Kia cars after reviewing reports of more than 3000 fires that injured 103 people.
Only a royal commission into the car retailing industry looking at all the pain points for owners, including servicing and the cost of parts, will get some results.