R.I.P. General Motors (1931-2006)

Only to morons who can't or aren't following the thread. I'm having no
problem following along.

 

I noticed that you are also a top-poster. Maybe that influenced
your juvenile response.

 

I don't care whether they go through a dealership or not. The bottom
line is that GM and Ford are getting a lot less money off fleet sales.
All the knowledgeable sources which I posted (and which you
conveniently clipped) agreed on this point. you so make a point that
they are also heavily discounting retail sales as well. Bottom line is
that no one will by the cars unless they are sold for less than the
total cost of production. Hence GM's predicament.

 

It did import the Ford Aspire. And if rebadging a Mazda suits its purpose,
it will rebadge imports again as Fords.

You Forgot Mazda, which has some imported cars. Jaguar, LandRover, and
Austin Martin are mostly if not exclusively imported.

Toyota has made over 15,000,00 cars in the US, including the Camry, Corolla,
Av alon, Tacoma, Tundra, Sienna, Sequola and Samry Solara. In 2005, it made
over 1,500,000 vehicles in North America (NA), which is about 60% of its
North American Sales. It builds over 1,300,00 engines in NA, and 400,000
transmissions. It buys more than $28B worth of parts, materials, goods and
services in NA.

http://www.toyota.com/about/operations/numbers/factsfigures04/na_sales.html

I don't know the percentage, on average, of each car that is from US
content, but clearly, it is pretty big and growing.

 

Can you provide evidence that most Toyota parts are made overseas? A stupid
character in the VIN does not make tell me the statistics for all the
Toyotas. I can't see the VIN as I pass cars on the highway. ANd the Sienna
has the highest NA content of any vehicle made in the US.

You can go on and on about the VIN, but you are not demonstrating anything
other than you are too lazy to stop top posting.

Jeff

 

Mike,
You seem to know a lot about Ford cars and trucks. Therefore, please
answer these questions:
Do any of Ford cars have engines made by foreign car companies?

Do Ford cars have parts in them that were made in foreign countries?

I should note that I don't know the answers to either question. I know
that I once owned a Dodge Ram 50 pickup that had an engine in it that was
made
by Mitsubishi.

 

It's also possible that Toyota makes more money by selling cars to people
than by fleet sales. One of the other posters pointed out that Toyota is
having a difficult time producing as many cars as they would like to
produce. They need to build some more factories. These could be two of the
reasons that Toyota is not making serious inroads in the U.S. fleet sales
business.
Jason

 

(...)

Or their dealers make more money by selling directly to the public rather
than fleet sales. Toyota and Honda dealers are able to charge MSRP more
often than American car dealers. After all, according to top-posting Hunt,
all cars have to be sold by dealers.

The Ford Crown Vic is a preferred car for police and taxis. They are better
suited to police work than most of the imports. And police like the RWD. I
see them every day in NYC and in other places. The Lincoln Town Car is the
preferred car for limos in NYC and surrounding communities. And governments
often like to buy cars from American manufacturers.

Plus Avis and Hertz were owned by American car makers. So they used to buy a
lot more from their owners. (Avis and Hertz are no longer owned by the car
makers.)

Jeff

 

No, dealer cost is the same for fleet and retail deliveries. As Mike
stated, manufacturers, including Toyota, make the same money whether the
vehicle is delivered to a fleet of to a retail customer.

One of the other posters pointed out that Toyota is

When I was a Toyota employee, the demand for Toyota was greater than their
ability to deliver vehicles to dealers in the U.S. so automotive fleet sales
were not a high priority. We were encouraged to develop fleet sales of cab
and chassis and cargo vans, where supply was greater than demand. At that
time, there was a limited market for small cab and chassis, something which
seems to still be true, and Toyota's cargo van was designed for use in
Japan's crowded urban streets and was ill-suited for commercial use in the
U.S.

Mike pointed out that the days supply of the Camry is over 100 days at the
end of the 2005 and 2006 model years. From a Toyota dealer's point of view,
60 to 90 days is good, more than that means that they have to carry
inventory longer and less than that means that they do not have a good
selection of vehicles to choose from.

There seems to be a feeling that Ford and GM's high numbers of fleet sales
is a bad thing, and that is incorrect. From the manufacturer and dealer's
point of view, fleet sales provide incremental sales and profits. In order
for a dealer to sell a car, he has to purchase from the automaker and in
most cases, hold it in inventory while incurring flooring charges or tying
up cash. Small mom and pop dealers often do not have the financial
resources to purchase hundreds or thousands of additional vehicles above
what they retail each month, hire a fleet manager, and so they do not
actively pursue the fleet market.

 

The Yahoo stock market pages have "Historical prices" on the side bar
menu. Click on it and download it to a spreadsheet for easier
reading.

Here is the page for Honda:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=HMC

The Adjusted Price tells you what your basis would be if you had
invested on that day and reinvested the dividends.

 

Not stopping you from buying one, just stopping you from driving it on
residential roads. Is their a Federal law that requires residential
roads to be open to medium duty trucks?

This is a law that could be changed and should be IMO. Manufacturers
should not be allowed to certify these vehicles as trucks under
Federal law and then turn around and license them as cars.

 

It doesn't have to consume your entire day's pay in fuel to break your
back financially. And don't forget about the monthly payments on the
beast. You might be surprised at how many people are "truck poor."

 

No, but the do use two engines made by Ford companies off shore, one from
Europe and one from
Japan as well as some hybrid copmponants and transmissions from partners

Yes a small percange in some models. Mostly from Canada and Mexico

 

Whether you like it or not the 'evidence' you seek is in the first digit of
the VIN, as defined by federal law, and it is as a described.

If your Sienna is indeed, as you suggest, then the first number will be a
'1,' as it is on the Toyotas and Vibes made in the GM/Toyota plant in
California, the Honda Accord or the Ford F150 all vehicles that are actually
built in the US of more than 70% American parts. You will not find a '4' or
'5' as is the case with most of the Sienna, Camrys and Tundras that I see on
the east coast.

If you have a problem with how I post, don't open my posts, WBMA


mike hunt

 

I fail to see you point. Volvo, Mazda, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Austin
Martin are their own brand and the only ones imported in any numbers are
Volvo and Mazda. Mazda is not owned by Ford. I believe you are confusing
Japanese
vehicles made by a Ford partner, or European companies that are owed by
Ford, with the Ford Division. They are not 'Fords' or counted as FMC
vehicles, as part its market share, as are Lincoln and Mercury. Scion,
Toyota and Lexus are all TMC(SALES) in the US, as part its market share, and
the majority are imported from Japan or made in Canada, not assembled in the
US of more than 70% American parts, as you seem to believe

The Aspire was built by KIA not Mazda and is no longer sold by Ford, nor is
there currently any other rebaged import sold as a Ford.


mike hunt

 

I fail to see you point. Volvo, Mazda, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Austin
Martin are their own brand and the only ones imported in any numbers are
Volvo and Mazda. Mazda is not owned by Ford. I believe you are confusing
Japanese vehicles made by a Ford partner, or European companies that are
owed by
Ford, with the Ford Division. They are not 'Fords' or counted as FMC
vehicles, as part its market share, as are Lincoln and Mercury. Scion,
Toyota and Lexus are all TMC(SALES) in the US, as part its market share, and
the majority are imported from Japan or made in Canada, not assembled in the
US of more than 70% American parts, as you seem to believe

The Aspire was built by KIA not Mazda and is no longer sold by Ford, nor is
there currently any other rebaged import sold as a Ford.


mike hunt

 

I would say what a sad day for America, when the American consumer helps in
creating a situation where other Americans, including their own children and
grand children, have so many fewer jobs available were they can make a good
living.

If we American keep exporting our jobs, as fast as we are today, the only
skill their children will need is how to say, "Do you want fries with that?"
or "Welcome to WalMart."

mike hunt

 

Statically those that buy cheaper new vehicles and used vehicles finance a
larger portion of the selling price, for a longer period of time, than those
that buy new and more expensive vehicles. Seems to me they would be the
ones being hurt the most by higher fuel costs not those with vehicles that
cost 50K or more ;0

For instance I have not financed a new vehicle in over thirty years and I
buy a new vehicle every year.



mike hunt

 

Why not, they must have a cargo area as required by law. If the law was
otherwise it would hurt business that NEED trucks with extra seating in
their business. Why should a family of seven have to pay a higher license
fee for the vehicle they need, than a family of four pays for their license?

The President wants the Congress to give him the power to set fuel standards
and to base CAFE on vehicle weight. The last time the forced people into
less safe small under powered cars the death and injury rate climbed and the
cost of converting plant to make the more costly to build FWD car led to the
price of cars tippling.

Do we really want the government to get involved in our fuel costs. The
President wants us to use more ethanol, yet ethanol consume more energy to
make from corn then it produces. We would have to farm most of the country
to produce enough ethanol to replace the gasoline we use now.

As to using local streets there is the exception for local deliveries, why
would there not be one local for residents and how would that be enforced?

Why in the world would the people want to give the government more power?
What's next, we have to ride motorcycles? We must walk if it is less than
six blocks? Where would it end? It bad enough the government can tell us
how many MPG our cars can get, will they tell us how many miles a year we
can drive? If the government can tell is were to drive, it will not be
long before they can tell us how far. Probation was repealed for a REASON

mike hunt

 

Ah, a top poster too moronic to even leave a space between his post
and the one that follows. Obviously, the twit is not worth ever
reading again. Plonk!