Import owners are to blame for the recession

Stupid fucker. If the US companies made a car like what I wanted instead of
tossing us their second class shit in small cars, I might buy one. I've
been buying Toyotas since 1974. I tried buying an American vehicle in the
1990's, it started nickle and dimeing me on maintenance almost immediately.
The maintenance was worse than the last previous US vehicle I had to deal
with (a 1962 Corvair)

Probably a redneck like the guy that used to get mad at me for driving a
used Toyota (my first car) back in the 70's and not buying American.

I fart in your general direction.

Sir Charles the Curmudgeon

 

A majority of 70's and 80's cars are junk. I've yet to see anything outside
of a Vette from that era. Maybe a couple Monte Crapos and some
well-preserved Firebirds. The Toyotas were driven until the wheels fell
off. The US cars, the wheels fell off first.

If it wasn't for blacks and Southerners, there wouldn't be a Ford Motor
Company left in the US.

Sir Charles the Curmudgeon.

 

When the Detroit 3 build cars that are not junk, then I'll change my buying
habits...also the days of the $70/hour unskilled auto worker has to end.

 

What is this, some kind of meat market?

 

wrote in @j32g2000yqn.googlegroups.com:

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You are a case in point, a 72 Duster was well over 30 years. By the way my
mother own a 73 Dart Sport slant 6 which was pretty much the same car, it
was tough as nails and had well over 120k before it got wrecked. People
still compare 30 year old cars with 2008.

 

Germany owned a large share of Chrysler but I also questioned if it was
still American. My understanding was Chrysler was still a registered entity
in the US.

 

Yeah, I know. Its engine was good, but its body started to rust by around
year 3, & the driver's seat cushion had a tear after about 2 years. I sold
it when it was only 4 years old. And although it was considered small in
'72, by'76 it was on the relatively large side. Too large to get aonother
one, or one like it, IMO.

Cathy






By the way my

 

How many times did she have the oil changed, once, twice?

Oh this wasn't about oil. This was such a mess the various dealer mechanics
she went to couldn't fix it even though every time she left the lot they
swore it was fixed. The car nickled and dimed her with the same problems
over and over. It made me a believer that Japanese don't make supercars. My
sister inlaw owned a mazda 626 in the early 90s and it went through 2
transmissions before reaching 100k miles, not like she was racing it. She
ended up getting rid of it and went out and bought another Mazda. Now how
whack is that?

 

What a skilled polemicist you are! Your premise and argument were DOA
before you clicked Send.

You need a better come back that that if you can't think of a logical
response.

 

Well, Toyota now outsells GM worldwide, so where does that leave your
theory? Toyota is also outselling Ford in the US.

So where do you stand on the bailout, Mike? Are you in favor of the
Big Government solution of using tax dollars to create a corporate
welfare state? Or would you like to say goodbye to at least one or
two of your favorite car companies?

 

?
Wow, and I am still wondering what makes someone so eager to buy a Toyota
Matrix but not a Pontiac Vibe? Its the same vehicle coming right off the
same line. Consumer reports gave the Matrix higher ratings than the Vibe by
2 different reviewers not knowing they were the same cars. Could it be a
bias issue?

 

I live in a community where we have an association that does our mantenance
and upkeep. If a part breaks and needs replacing I buy it from my community,
the price is about the same if I went outside and bought it myself or maybe
just a dollar or 2 higher. The bottom line is I buy inside my own community
because the money I spend here goes back into my community to maintain
itself. It is the same thing I do when I buy my cars. Did I mention my next
car will be the new Camaro SS? or the Z06 Corvette??

 

Because the unions have been a anchor around their necks for 80 years, only
in the last 35 years it has actually begun to pull them down do to non
unionized competition.

 

Sure they focused on Higher profit trucks and SUVs because the barely break
even on small car sales do to union labor.

 

Ford owns a plant in Brazil. Ford makes cars in South America to be
sold in S.A. and Europe and the US. They don't make the cars here to
be exported. Ford and the other US car makers are multinational
corporations.

Having a problem following the discussion?

No not at all, Ford GM and Chrysler own plants all over the world. But they
are still American companies. And your comment about japanese manufacturers
make their stuff in the good old usa, with usa
components and usa workers makes no sense. They import components from
suppliers all over the world. So to say or even think that they make each
separate part and component is just so ignorant even I am surprised.

 

Yeh...no one else has a real problem with them except a segment of
Americans.

 

OK.... I see it now... It doesn't matter what country gets the money as long
as it a US registered trademark?

 

You have little grasp of the business issues. Union labor is part of
the problem, but there are much greater issues involved.

As for the vehicle mix - that was more shortsighted vision on their
part. Instead of seeing the writing on the wall and taking slightly
less profit today in order to be prepared for tomorrow (tomorrow is
here, BTW), the Big 3 chose to concentrate on quarterly profits and
executive bonuses. They've fought tooth and nail against building
smaller, better handling, better engineered cars since the 1970s.

The larger problem is that they focused on short term profits at the
expense of the long term investments and changes that would have made
them profitable companies. While the Japanese were adopting Dr.
Deming's ideas of constant improvements in quality that would earn
long term customer loyalty, the Big 3 were rejecting Deming's ideas
and concentrating on quarterly profits and cutting corners.

Guess which approach paid off.

 

WTF difference does it make where the corporate registration is held?