More on the bailout

Maybe it's because they're on the road and running, rather than
sitting in auction houses and the garages of geezers who still say
"Jap"

 

Past reputation? Because it sure can't be their current one.

 

Like this 1967 Toyota, asking price $285,000?
http://www.automobilemag.com/features/collectible_classic/0803_1967-70_toyota_2000gt/index.html

 

"Ray O" ...

Some of these have been modified into targas. My question is: what is a
targa?
Tomes

 

Elliptically speaking.

 

Do you know a Toyota Tundra has more North American content that all others
in it's class?

Don't be so quick to listen to CAW/UAW rehtoric.

 

The Detroit mindset of looking no further than about the next quarter
or two will not be changed by the bailout. The Japanese have accepted
near term losses for long term gain, an idea that is anathema to the
Detroit 3 (*not* the Big Three anymore). Detroit is not too big to
fail:

Why Detroit Is Not Too Big to Fail
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1867847,00.html

The Remains of Detroit (slideshow)
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1864272_1810098,00.html

Detroit's "best" hope is a forced bankruptcy reorganization to change
the outdated and lethal mindset that has done them in.
========
Actually, Detroit is now small and insignifigant.

If GM and Chrysler-Cerberus go flat belly up, which is unlikely, the market
place will not miss them. There is enough idle capacity in North American
factories at Ford, Toyota, Nissan, BMW and Honda to easily pick up the
market needs to deliver product. While that was not true 40-50 years ago,
the mismanagmenet and union abose has diminished Detriots need to
essentially nothing but hot air.

And if the union and management don't get real at Ford, they two can join
the Cerberus dogs of Detroit in bankruptcy.

 

Get real, you don't know what you are talking about. I spent my last ten
years in the business as Group Sales Manager for one of the largest
mega-dealership groups on the east cost that operated in six states. NO
new car dealership worth its salt BUYS used cars, they MUST retail or
wholesale their used cars within three months so as not to tie up capital.

If a dealership NEEDS to buy used cars they are not selling enough NEW cars.
When the partners were looking to buy a another dealership, with growth
potential, the first thing they had me look for those that were buying USED
cars at the Manheim auctions

If we traded an 'off brand,' say a Toyota or Honda, at one of our domestic
dealerships we moved it to one of our Toyota or Honda stores, where we could
make more profit off of the buyers. Why, because WE thought they were
better cars? No, we did it because our import buyers THOUGHT they were
better cars and we could get more out of the import buyers

As to old cars shows, I attend shows all over the east cost and the ONLY Jap
cars I see are an occasional low mileage RX7 or "Z." On the other hand a
see plenty of domestic, British and European cars, even Italian cars, from
the seventies at those shows

Toyota and all other manufacturers in Japan have been subsidized by the
Japanese government ever since WWII

 

I think that has been happening for 30 years.

GM & Chrysler got their asses kicked good.

 

Yes, those American collector cars sure command high prices. Here is
a 1941 Packard for $110,000:

http://www.cars-on-line.com/37257.html

Unfortunately, you can't buy a new Packard. Maybe those Roadrunners,
Mustangs and GTOs will be even more valuable when their manufacturers
go the way of Packard.

The quality and value of current cars has nothing to do with the
auction price of collectibles.

 

That is an anecdotal report, at best. Since Import brands are taking
more market share every year, it is obvious that more people are
trading domestics for imports than the other way around.

If you go to a domestic car dealer, you may find they have closed
their doors.

If GM sales are so great, why are they threatening to declare
bankruptcy?

 

Why don't you ask GM owners that question? GM's market share has
dropped from 50% to 22%.

 

I'm no Detroit defender. I haven't bought an American brand car since
the early 1980 and have no expectations to purchase anything except
Toyotas in the future. But it's wrong to say Detroit hasn't embraced
a culture of quality. They have, only not nearly enough, and much of
their attitude remains completely wrong (Toyota stops its production
lines 100-300 times as often as Chrysler does; Chrysler wants to
reduce the number of stoppages).

 

My information is from reputable sources, not sources that mistakenly
ranked Cadillac highly. Some Fuji factories appeared to be run as well
as similar Honda factories.

 

Chamber of Commerce anti-unionist types haven't been of help, but the
main problem is American auto executives who simply won't listen to
reason or face reality. Frankly the U.S. auto bureaucracy hasn't
attracted the smartest people in the world, unlike Japan's auto
industry or the U.S. semiconductor and biomedical businesses.

 

When GM does attract talent, they drive them off the board quickly.
Innovation is not favored at GM. One has to assume that they mentality
pervades management on down the line (making their dismal performance
easy to understand).

 

Where did I say anything about dealers buying used cars? I said that
the Jap dealers wholesale out anything that doesn't match what their
buyers want i.e. Japanese cars. The GM dealers, sensing that their
buyers want foreign cars, keep/sell their trades on their lot, even
Japanese cars, instead of wholesaling them, because they know they
will sell. Try reading more carefully.

Again, this has nothing to do with my post.

Perhaps you should re-read what YOU wrote then: "If Jap vehicles are
so good why are the owners trading them on domestics? Look on the GM
and Ford dealers lots and you will plenty of Jap cars and trucks that
were traded on GM and Ford vehicles."

 

What dismal performance? Do you live in a cave in Afghanistan? GM
outsells every other manufacturer in the US

 

What part of "If Jap vehicles are so good why are the owners trading them on
domestics? Look on the GM and Ford dealers lots and you will plenty of Jap
cars and trucks that were traded on GM and Ford vehicles," do you not
understand? LOL

 

They've got plenty of "innovative" talent. What they don't have is a
long-term quality-driven ideology.
Poorly executed "innovation" is what got them where they are.

--Vic