Import owners are to blame for the recession

If all Americans bought American cars, the US economy would be rockin
and rollin right now. Don't give me that stuff about Toyota and Honda
manufacturing over here either. GM employs 130,000 in the United
States. Toyota employs 30,000, Honda less than that. Most of the
import jobs are just blue collar jobs also, where GM has over 50,000
engineers. The Japanese automakers have brainwashed us into thinking
that buying their car is an investment in this country. I say we buy
from the Big Three and take our economy back.

 

I say we buy what is the best, most economical, most intelligent buy. The
American automakers have screwed up time & again; they've become mired in
their own mud. Problem is... the mud's splattering.

Cathy (aat)

 

Buying cars that don't meet our needs is not helping anyone.

Jeff

 

idiot. "big three" are spending all their resources on ways to have their
stuff made in china and mexico. why should we support that?

japanese manufacturers make their stuff in the good old usa, with usa
components and usa workers. buy japanese instead.

 

So it's ok though for GM and the others to import parts
and set-up plants overseas but it's not ok when a working man
wants to cut his losses by buying a foriegn car?

You'll need a better rationale than: Let's give our money
to the big 3 so they'll be happy. They never seemed to care
much about the American Public until they've come around
with their hand out. Let the company and investors declare
chapter 11 and straighten out their house. No one gives a
damn if they lose money (except themselves).

dennis
in nca

 

How about the big three start making an appealing product that I can
afford, then I'll consider it.

By appealing, I mean something more reliable, durable, and in the same
ballpark of fun to drive as my 20 year old 944 for less than $20K.
Can't do it? I won't buy. (when was the last time you saw a 20 year
old Big Three product on the road?)

nate

 

GMs management team has been raping the consumer for years.... the UAW has
been raping the company and the consumer for years... Just like Bob Dylan
said, the times they are a-changin'.... the guys are going to have to pull
their dicks out of our wallets and get back to profitability - and that will
include realistic pay packages...

Putting tab A in slot B is NOT worth what some of these people were getting
paid... welcome to the real world.

 

I believe that is what most buyers believe they are doing, don't you? If
you suggest one buy the best, most economical, most intelligent buy, you
must mean buy from GM because more Americans buy their new vehicles from GM
than any other manufacturer

 

Import owner are traitors.

 

Yeh and send all the profits back to good Japan. If the US auto
manufacturing dies, you all will be suckers sucking up to whatever
foriegners make, even when the quality goes down and it will as it is
beginning to already. And if things get really tight and someone fires a
shot at someone and a war breaks out the US won't even have the industry to
build a tank or other war machines on a mass scale.

 

So it's ok though for GM and the others to import parts
and set-up plants overseas but it's not ok when a working man
wants to cut his losses by buying a foriegn car?

You'll need a better rationale than: Let's give our money
to the big 3 so they'll be happy. They never seemed to care
much about the American Public until they've come around
with their hand out. Let the company and investors declare
chapter 11 and straighten out their house. No one gives a
damn if they lose money (except themselves).

dennis
in nca

The ironic thing is many of the foriegn owners have never even once in there
life owned an American car, and at least not in the last 10 years. So they
are simply caught up in the hype that japanes are better. Consumer Reports
magazine is even caught up in it, saying the Toyota Matrix was a good car,
then doing a review on the Pontiac Vibe giving it a low review not even
knowing they are the same vehicle coming right off the same assembly line.
They blew there whole credibility on that fiasco.

 

I was thinking about the age of cars the other day and decided to count them
and on average I did find that most of the older cars did in fact seem to be
American made. Just go to a store parking lot and average them out.

 

Amen! And don't forget Ford's manufacturing plant in Brazil.

 

Go to an old car show and try to find any old Jap cars

 

DUH! Ford make vehicles in Brazil that are for dale in Brazil, not for
export. Other manufactures do the same, dummy

Amen! And don't forget Ford's manufacturing plant in Brazil.

 

So... start listing what cars are imports and what aren't... Once you have
that going, let's start figuring out what portion of what cars is produced
domestically and what is offshore.... How about that wiring harness that
says "Hecho en Brasil".... or the box that says "package made in USA" (no
indication of where the contents were made).

Of interesting note... All of my vehicles are "imports"... read on,
cretin.... My 2005 Mustang was built in Flat Rock.... well, most of it
was.... Most of my truck was made in Kansas City... Most of my motorcycle
was made in Milwaukee.. All of my holiday trailer was made somewhere in the
US (not in Canada) and the quality is.......... what Pacific Rim used to be
in the 50s.... Give me a break... Two year olds are up to this kind of
quality.

You have no idea what is American and what isn't....

One thing I do admire, though.... you really want a steak... but cattle
ranchers piss you off so you are going to eat lamb.... yes, dammit...
without mint jelly....

 

i would not mind buying american cars again only if they can produce
quality like Honda and Toyota
until they can they and their UNIONS can go and $$$$ themselfs.
they still have not learned from their own mistakes, they just keep
producing the same old SHIT.

 

I have owned 1 American Motors car, 3 Chrysler cars, one Chevy Bereta
(the worst - had to be towed at least 12 times). We now own a Toyota
and a Honda. Absolutely no comparison.

You probably missed this article I posted. There is no such thing as
an "American Car". A Toyota or Honda made in the US is probably as
much or more American than one made by the Big 3.

Detroit spinners?
By John Reed and Bernard Simon

Published: November 19 2008 02:00

The plant that assembles Chrysler's Jeep Wrangler near Toledo, Ohio
sprawls across four buildings, but Chrysler occupies only one of
them. The others house three of the troubled carmaker's suppliers.
South Korea's Hyundai Mobis builds the Wrangler's chassis, while Kuka,
a German maker of robots and welding machines, puts together the
body. The facility's paint shop is operated by Magna International of
Canada, with Chrysler responsible only for the vehicle's final
assembly.

The plant, opened in 2005, illustrates the interdependence of
Detroit's troubled carmakers and their myriad suppliers in the US and
overseas. Relationships like these lie at the heart of the intense
lobbying effort by Chrysler and its two bigger Detroit-based rivals -
General Motors and Ford - to persuade US lawmakers to approve a $25bn
(€20bn, $17bn) rescue package.

Congress began hearings yesterday on the plan, aimed at averting the
collapse of an industry that accounts for about 4 per cent of gross
domestic product but is quickly running out of cash. Were either GM or
Ford to go bankrupt, it would mark the biggest business failure in US
history. The Detroit carmakers operate 105 US assembly and component
plants, with close to 240,000 employees. They provide healthcare
benefits for 2m Americans and pensions for almost three-quarters of a
million people.

Proponents of the bail-out claim that the damage would spread much
further. Carmaking, they argue, has one of the largest "multiplier"
effects of any industry: for every job, at least seven more people are
employed indirectly. Manufacturers, parts suppliers and dealers say
the impact of a collapse on the real economy would dwarf that of this
year's bank failures. Nearly all the jobs lost would be blue-collar,
with the pain felt largely in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. Michigan
already has unemployment of almost 9 per cent, the highest of any
state.

(Article continues)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b1ebe4b4-b5d9-11dd-ab71-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1

Here's a video about Ford's plant in Brazil.
http://info.detnews.com/video/index.cfm?id=1189

 

Luckily for the fact that Foriegn car companies have come in under different
rules to a field that wasnt level they were able to build a smaller car and
make a profit. US companies barely make a profit on small cars which is why
they were pushing trucks. If foriegn companies were tied up over 80 years of
outdated union contracts they would be in the same mess. Once the union is
controlled and agree to labor cost and pensions that foriegn makers have
then you will see a field that is level. So this isnt even about what car is
better. Its about money, contracts, profitability and pure hype regarding
japanese quality. When japan came here in the early 70s they sold tin
painted boxes with wheels on go-kart frames that got good mileage right in
the middle of a gas crises. Those were not better they were junk that
American craved because they could go further on a tank of gas, so Americans
bought and bought and made them rich giving them the profits to actually
invest in R and D and begin to add some quality. Meanwhile US automakers
were still tied up under high waged union contracts that union leaders would
never undo, until now. Which is why they have again agreed to renegotiate to
save everyones skin. It amazes me on how ignorant people are thinking that
Japanese have super powers.

 

And we support Al Qaeda and all world-wide terrorists too, right?
Butthead. You must work directly or indirectly for an automaker.