Hear ya on that - Just bought the Odyssey instead of the Sequoia for the little lady and the rugrats. Gave up my manhood, true, but saved $10k in the process, and the wife does like the improved gas mileage and the voice recognition gegaws. I'll live with the old SUV. Wanted to buy US, but until they face their problems, can't do it. What I heard about ford today from someone in the know was so terrible that I just about wanted to cry.
Fords policy of never fix a car, just obsolete it, totally offended me. This is what I heard from the execs during dealer meetings back in 97. The Odyssey is nice. I just need more room than it will provide. I am buying used. Pre-Vortec. 90 Million 350's out there. I'll be fine for parts. LOL.
Unfortunately, they may just get what they ask, because the executives, the unions and everyone involved are infinitely more concerned with the here and now than the future. That's the way their compensation packages are structured.
so true. every labor agreement seems to have short term solutions that lead to more long term problems. Not unlike our recent fed policies. I was born and raised in Detroit and despite their woes and my hatred for the big three's business handling, I remain a loyal American car buyer (At least until I can afford that Ferrari). Product quality these days rivals their foreign counterparts. This is no longer the 80's. However because of their horrible labor contracts they still have to charge 5k-7k more for the same product. Good negotiating skills guys.
Very true. Before my exodus, I had a buddy working at Chrysler (The new Auburn Hills Complex). When they were building the Neons back in the early 90's, he told me the actual cost was $4000/unit (labor/materials/marketing) yet they had to inflate it to nearly 12K because of pensions and such.
gm and ford are fubar because of the healthcare and pension benefits they've promised the retirees. it's quite a gig to be a uaw worker, all you do is tighten bolts and press some buttons for $60/hr. for many decades, american automakers dominated and they became complacent. the japanese came along and kicked their collective asses and it has taken over 2 decades (and counting) to undo the perceived quality gap. nowadays it's hard to tell where a car is made but it doesn't matter: to many consumers, a honda (even if it's american-made) is automatically better than a gm. today, american cars on average are very close quality-wise with japanese on average, but many people got burned with an american car from the 80s or mid 90s and won't go back.