soon the unions will become unemployed... as they start to build all cars offshore. Outsourcing, what a beautifull concept.
Not trying to be anti-US autos. Simply stating a business fact. I would love it if the US automakers could compete because I like the styles better usually. Fact remains though... US automakers are losing an incredible amount of money each year because of union contracts that they never should have signed. They made one of the biggest mistakes in business. They assumed that imports wouldn't ever be popular and that their sales would continue to increase year after year. The contracts they signed have them paying thousands of employees for doing no work. Imagine what they could produce if they followed "lean" principals that toyota follows.
Well, dandxg, to every rule there's an exception. Hyundai very recently outdid Toyota in the JD Power new owner survey in fewer problems reported per vehicle. Part of the credit goes to a new manufacturing plant in Alabama. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006606080400
No body is arguing that US manufacturers arent capable of doing a great job. They are, no question there. The problem is that they can´t do it cheaply enough. While having a few manufacturing plants based in the US might help the company, having most of it´s production based on the US will drive em into bankrupcy.
Had an Audi Quattro with 265K on it, and a Ford Ranger with 206k (mechanic said it has better compression than many new cars- still going strong). Audi nickel and dimed me, but engine and transmission were still running strong. Gordo
Must be about 10 - 15 years ago that I was in Sydney. Most cabs in Sydney were the old Ford Falcon 4.1 ltr XA / XB / XC models. Most of them had 500 - 800 K Km on the clock. They told me they kept them running 24 hours a day, just one driver changing with the other. It's the starting up and shutting down that does hte damage and distances in Australia are normally huge. They wore out the diff's, the shocks, the automatic transmission (often 300K) but the engine itself hardly needed touching. These days we get a lot of secondhand imports into New Zealand from Japan and most of them have a) never seen an oil change and b) have only been in start - stop traffic in Japan. Needless to say that a lot of them do not have a good engine life. Have seen some of them that needed a complete overhaul at 40K..... I find this "buy foreign" very shortsighted. Basically if you look at a country as a business you have to think: what am I going to export in order to be able to import? The balance of trade has to come from somewhere. You may be able to buy things very cheap but if your whole indiustry / export collapses in the process what are you going to do to pay it with? This is what always amazed me about China: because they are primarily self sufficient almost every export dollar is pure profit. And these days they'll even take the rubbish because it has so many raw materials and they cannot get these raw materials any cheaper than that. It is not internally what is cheaper, it is the income versus expenses for a country that's important. vital analitics
That is exactly what I believe -- GM, Ford and Chrysler are not capable of doing a great job anymore. They are bloated mismanaged bureaucracies that screw up the good work that U.S. labor is capable of. The American worker is capable of making a great car. Toyota, Honda and now Hyundai are churning out reliable well-make cars made by U.S. labor. And, believe it or not, a Honda worker in the US makes the same wage as a GM worker. The whole business of blaming the UAW is poppycock. It's bad management and layers of mid-level bureaucracy at the Big Three that's doing them in. Toyota, Honda and Hyundai are beating the Big Three on U.S. soil because of superior engineering and management. GM and Ford could de-unionize tomorrow and it wouldn't improve their product nor their profitability.
Funny how driving an old beater can project an image of wealth moreso than a flashy sports car. Billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Ted Turner, Andy Beal, Ross Perot, Warren Buffett etc drive bangers because they just don't care... meanwhile the guy with the hot ride is statistically likely to be a yuppie twerp in over his head on lifestyle payments. p.s. yes I'm talking my book, currently driving a '97 Subaru with 170K miles and it is just great.
Well, think about it. On an older vehicle, you can get about a years worth of insurance, for about the same price as a couple of monthes on a new one. And it's less likely to get stolen (depending on the model), especially if it's not flashy. Cars are nice, but they can be an expensive way to get around. I've had nice cars, but hate to keep putting out the cash for them. Dependability/affordability are first for me, then the rest. When I get the other things done, that I want to do, I might spring for a nice ride. Gordo