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If the world just got fed up with the USA and decided to not use the Dollar as the world currency, THAT would have some grave consequences. It's not out of the realm of possibility. especially now where Asia is being handed markets on a silver platter.
Prediction: No trade war.
As the U.S., Mexico, and Canada enter into the final day of the seventh round of NAFTA renegotiation talks, President Trump is offering his neighbors an incentive for signing a favorable deal.
“Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum will only come off if new & fair NAFTA agreement is signed,” Trump tweeted on Monday morning.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2018/03/steel-aluminum-tariffs-might-not-happen-trump-says/
BMW and MB borrow from each other more. A 6er Gran Coupe is a CLS, 2er Active Tourer is a B-Class, GLC/GLE "coupes" are X4/X6 etc.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Just being trendy doesn't mean it's going to "stick". Remember all that rather naive Space Age design and architecture from the 50s? You know, with the jet pontoons and flying saucer shapes and spirally antennae? You hardly see anyone doing that anymore. Now it seems we've gravitated to everything looking like a Star Wars model or Captain Kirk's console.
Yes, it looks like a HyunKia.
I do think the LT aluminum wheels have some polish, and even my Asian-car-supporter buddy commented on the chrome instrument panel accents and cloth on the right half of the panel. And the back seat space is almost hard-to-believe IMHO.
If the daughter's old PT cashes it out (my wife is driving it and doesn't mind--first car she's driven that I don't care about door nicks, LOL), I could see us buying another Cruze. As noted before, built just 40 miles down the road and there's no bad to that.
Have put two kids through Miami U. with no loans and that has been done in no small part to holding onto cars longer than I normally would've. Younger daughter is interning in D.C. this semester and we just got back from visiting this past weekend. She has met Pelosi, Ryan, Steve Scalise, John Lewis, and a couple reporters from Fox.
'24 Chevy Blazer EV 2LT
I remember hearing how the market was going to sink like a stone after the last election--it just didn't happen. A lot of things just don't seem to be conventional wisdom lately, for good or bad.
I often find the Edmunds TCO calculators to have way too much included for repairs (not maintenance) in the first 5 years. There really shouldn't be any repairs in the first 5 years/100,000 miles. Not sure where they get the figures.
Perhaps fuel system cleanings are considered a repair. Maybe alignments too. I consider them maintenance.
I'm glad your Cruze has been reliable and cheap to own. While not good for the dealership (no chargeable warranty work), not good for tow truck companies (no roadside assistance), it is good for the economy, as I imagine you may spend that money elsewhere.
I know my tow truck and auto repair shop funds have been reallocated since I've bought reliable cars.
Funny! Another agent pointed to San Francisco as an example of why San Diego had room to go up.
Salesman
In terms of selling cars, it is probably a good time to be in Seattle.
Economies built on the FIRE sector can fail in an instant.
Instability also creates oil price spikes, which might not bode well for US makers addicted to trucks and SUVs/
Twitter should ban certain people, keeps their feet out of their gaping maw.
Put those two variables in the mix and you can see how the "unemployment rate" is a chimera. It's probably more like 8-9%, and in some areas, easily 15%.
Most Americans are broke. The government certainly is.
Have put two kids through Miami U. with no loans and that has been done in no small part to holding onto cars longer than I normally would've.
We did the same thing Uplander, except a different university. Funny thing, I learned cars do last longer than they used to and now don't buy as often. Of course that is also made easier by the fact I don't like all this touch screen and tiny knob crap on many new vehicles.
The politically correct term is assumption driven shifty
A sixty-year Chevy salesman in Wisconsin, who met General George Patton after his tank was hit and all his other tankmates were killed, sold a new Equinox recently to Patton's grandson. The two had met in Europe a few years back. Patton's grandson is from the Carolinas but bought the car in Wisconsin.
I love stories like this, being a longtime Chevy owner who spent much of his teenage years hanging around my hometown Chevy-Cadillac dealer, and also being a twentieth-century U.S. history buff.
I wonder why a WWII vet continues to work, but with sixty years of selling only Chevys, he remembers those golden years of selling Chevys, I'm sure! What a Rolodex he probably has.
My friend's Dad went from selling Studebakers, Packards, Willys, and Nashes in the mid-fifties at his own dealership, to selling Pontiacs for someone else. He said he couldn't believe the difference--"people come in in a trance, asking 'where do I sign?'", LOL.
I was never a fan of the last Equinox (although bought one for my daughter after her Cruze was totalled last year), but I like the looks of the current Equinox--especially the wheels like Patton's grandson chose. I hear the luggage space is less than the previous Equinox though.
http://fox11online.com/news/local/world-war-ii-veteran-sells-car-to-general-george-s-pattons-grandson
We did the same thing Uplander, except a different university. Funny thing, I learned cars do last longer than they used to and now don't buy as often. Of course that is also made easier by the fact I don't like all this touch screen and tiny knob crap on many new vehicles
Same here. Even on a Cruze, there are features I'll never learn and never use.
For me, a big part of it all, too, is I just don't find new cars nearly as interesting as I did even 33 or 34 years ago.
You know, I made the comment that I hold onto cars longer, and that's true, but I realized that in 2017 I bought five cars! My new Cruze in Jan.; Studebaker in March; a 2015 Cruze to replace my younger daughter's totalled Cobalt in June; another 2015 Cruze since my older daughter was getting leery of driving the PT everywhere and she was over a couple hours away; the older daughter's Cruze was totalled in September in an accident and replaced with the '15 Equinox which she is contributing to. I don't want another year like that!
The first total still has not been settled yet--the other guy hit and took off but was followed by a witness who brought him back! The second total involved a woman hitting my daughter and her boyfriend (he was driving her car) after they were stopped at a red light and the light turned green and they went into the intersection and were hit by a woman. No charges of any kind there since no witnesses could corroborate, grrr.
Shifty, besides interest rates, a continued and significant weakening of the dollar will jack up oil prices and may also impact the automotive business.
UP - hard to say what the 2020 presidential election may bring. I think it could cut either way if a new president is elected. OTOH, some seem to wonder if there won't be a new president before that. Personally, I don't think I'd buy/sell investments on any of these speculations. I suspect any impact from it will be short lived.
A remember a poll done some years ago, asking economists, academics and stock traders what would happen to the U.S. economy if the office of POTUS suddenly disappeared one day.
The answer? Nothing. The economy basically does not do what a POTUS wants it to do.
The dealership where Dee works will have their 100th anniversary in 2019. They sold more new Chevys than any dealer in Summit County in 2008, but amazingly, had their franchise pulled in 2009 during the car-czar/bankruptcy thing. The owner was a Republican contributor, which had people wondering (including me). After about four months his franchise was reinstated by GM...after he had lost some longtime employees and customers, sadly. He has since built a big new facility and they are busy. I do miss the small family Chevy dealerships though, where it seems I could get in and out quicker than at the large dealers. Where I live now, lost its small Chevy dealership. I used to enjoy being able to walk home from there on a service visit.
That whole era reminds me of "cash for clunkers". I remember seeing a row of them at a local dealer and hearing how slow it was getting paid by the government for them.
Cash for clunkers was indeed a poor use of resources, and I haven't seen any analysis claiming it had a net benefit.
Looks like another fun day on the market so far.
But maybe not so much for the next few years. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/02/trump-epa-will-revise-obama-fuel-efficiency-rules-for-autos.html. I looked at Edmunds but haven't seen mention of this so far.
The largest percentage gain in stock prices after a presidential election, in U.S. history, happened in Nov. 1928 to Oct. 1929.