The Tyranny of Average Cost - part the twenty second

Yet another case of The Tyranny. This time brought to you by that Nutball South African. This report poses the question: why continue to make older, lower selling models? The answer, of course, is amortization and depreciation. And it can work its wonder in two ways: either there's still A&D to recoup, so stopping production is shooting oneself in the foot, or A&D are paid off so average cost has reached its controllable nadir (materiel cost can be out of reach of control).

The longer an automaker can continue selling the same model, the more money can be made on that huge initial investment.