There are lots of reasons right now for automakers to watch their product-development spending with hawkish fervor. Not that long ago, automakers were more eager to fully redesign a model if it was lagging the competition in sales, styling, or feature content – requiring well over $1 billion in most cases. But today, if a current model is selling well and just needs some tweaks here and there while the sheetmetal still looks fresh, the cost to refresh will be less than half.
Â
