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Comments
On topic...driving an American car is much cooler elsewhere than at home, funny how that works.
Great observation. Must the grass is always greener syndrome at work. Maybe it's a mistake for the majors to go to "world" cars.
Yeah, it can be a risky move. When I did it with the Park Ave, it made sense. The annual interest rate was, and still is, only 3.5%. I was (and still am, admittedly) a bit cash-poor, so I would've had to sell off some stock or mutual fund or something. I would've most likely had to pay capital gains tax, but I also would have lost out on any future profit. And the market has gone up a LOT since December 2009!
It makes sense if your smart about it, which you definitely were. Where it went bad is in places where home values skyrocketed and people thought the 100k in extra equity was essentially free money. They took the loan for as much as they could and spent it. Oops, that needs to be paid back? What do you mean my house isn't worth what it was appraised? Oh $#!^
Maybe the pizza was better for the same reason that beer is supposed to be better in Germany than here...
Don't forget that one reason folks used home equity to buy a car was that the interest was tax deductible...I know there were certain restrictions on that deductibility (kathy2 will probably know) but deducting some interest was better then no interest...PLUS, the homes were increasing in value, what, 10% annually???...home values went up until, ahem, they didn't...
The skyrocketing price of oil and the super-historic high of sugar and cotton, which China does not produce, has rocked China's economy once again...
Check third paragraph:
U.S. stock futures fall after latest data
Remember, China suffers a worse problem with petroleum than the United States does---it does not produce much of it, where the United States is the 3rd largest producer (we happen to consume almost all of what we produce). That requires China to buy from neighbors like Russia, Petrobras in Brazil, Chavez, etc.
Minerals and metallurgy is another area where China has a built-in deficit except in rare-earth metals. It pumps money into Australia's economy to get raw materials like ore.
This has caused Australia's economy to overheat and it's raised the Australian dollar above the USD.
On top of this, the great worldwide food inflation crisis has now pumped a huge amount of money into US agriculture. Most farmers in the US are having their flushest year ever thanks to the destruction of grains crops this past summer in Russia, which leaves the United States, Brazil and Mexico feeding most of the developing world on their terms.
Could this be the beginning of the end of China's great wealth-sucking vortex? Could the raw materials producers like Australia be the new "it" country?
Speaking of buying American, I think I've narrowed down my next purchase to a new Jeep Grand Cherokee. I drove the new Explorer and didn't like the FWD; really nice vehicle, though, very well put together.
I pray for those poor souls on the other side of the Pacific. My heart goes out to them.
Anyway, I am trying to talk him into a new 2011 JGC not because of the great quality but because the chassis is world class as in WWII class.
The way I look at it, it's the only Chrysler that has a hint of retaining some resale value. He needs the durability but not the USA-breakdowns. It's a trade-off! Support America but don't go Bankrupt by doing it! :lemon:
BTW, I wish Japan all the love of God. I can appreciate my Honda CR-V and pray for the people over there as well. Bless all of the souls that have departed to a better place...all of the energy is free there.
Regards,
OW
I just got back from a test drive of the '11 Kia Optima.
The car was so surprisingly good. It really is a slam dunk as is the Sonata, which I will test drive next week. (24/34mpg).
The turbo performance and efficiency is very hard to deny. The entire package was so buttoned down it amazed me. I would have no problem plunking 25K down for the car I drove.
Regards,
OW
Elsewhere on Edmunds, you've said that when you bought your current car, you shopped the German & Asian competition but chose a Fusion because "it was different and that is what I wanted." Your words, my friend. (Here's the link.)
There's nothing wrong with that. Many of us shop for cars that way. But what you don't say is that you picked the Fusion because it's an American brand. You bought it because you liked it more than the other cars in that price bracket. So it looks to me that your car-shopping process is pretty much the same as mine, even though we may end up with different results.
Incidentally, I like the Fusion. If I were in the market for a family sedan - I'm not, because my family is grown & out of the house - I would seriously consider it.
They don't believe in them, or else they put their own money behind the warranty.
They just want to make a sale and that is all.
They say professional sales people always sell something "beneficial" to the buyer, and believe and stand behind that product.
Since GM and Chrysler have obviously not done those things in the past, they have a serious problem to overcome for many buyers "out there."
They have no skin in the game.
I bet even the Japanese cars MADE here are made from Japanese parts that won't be available in a few months.
I am betting that in the long run this will cause Toyota and likely Honda to increase their US content which is good for all of us here.
Man, i would hate to be in the market for a Prius right now.
I appreciate your thoughts...but if the American product was junk, and the import was better, I wonder if you would have paid extra for it just to keep an American working...
That is what it comes down to when buying a purchase as large as a car...many believe that some import cars are made better than ours with better quality and better workmanship...for a good number of years (1975-2000, maybe 2005), that was quite true, as our unionized workforce, IMO, made junk barely qualified for boat anchor duty...
That situation has changed, and Big 3 do make better cars...but if you were one of those burned between 1975 and 2005, and if your Big 3 car(s) were junk, it might be difficult for you to go back to Big 3 if you have been very happy with your Honda, Nissan or Toyota...
To gamble a few bucks on American-made garden equipment is one thing...to spend $20K or more on an American car after you were burned with multiple purchases, and the poor quality pushed you to the imports, you may be quite reluctant to try Big 3 again, afraid that you might waste another $25K on American junk...
Not trying to alter your opinion, but try and understand why some folks who were burned over and over with Big 3 junk, went to the imports, were really happy with their cars, and may never come back to American again...
The Big 3 did it to themselves...while I blame heavy UAW influence for the poor quality and workmanship, and others may see other reasons, the bottom line is that we didn't spontaneously desert the Big 3...they made the junk and PUSHED us into the arms of the imports, and suddenly we found a product that was as good as we EXPECTED our American car to be, but came up short...
It's a new day and a new era, but if you were burned by Big 3 cars, you might want to wait another 10 or 20 years to see if they are really any better...it took them 25-plus years to destroy their reputation...it might be hard for some to believe that they have changed that much that quickly...maybe not for you, but for some on this board, they may wait until, say, the next century before they gamble their money on an American car made with UAW labor...
The price of oil has been falling so maybe pump prices will fall too. That would ease Prii demand.
Worse than being in the market would be having no inventory to sell; the Asian car dealers may be hurting for inventory for some models for a while.
But no US automaker does.
So I won't.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
It would be great if the imports did, in fact, use more domestic parts.
I read a while back that the Ford Econoline van had the most domestic parts content out of all the D3 vehicles made here. Why can't they trickle that down to other models . . .
Off topic: my heart and prayers go out to our brothers in Japan. Have you noticed there are no videos of any looting?
If your neighbor cared about his job, he wouldn't make the kind of crap we often see...so when your neighbor willingly makes junk and EXPECTS you to buy it to save his job, I tell the neighbor to pound salt and make a product I would be proud to buy...
After living in Detroit for 10 years, in the worst UAW period from 1980-1990, I saw the rotten quality yet they kept advertising to Buy American and save your neighbor's job...my neighbor made crap that I wouldn;t buy and I went over to Honda...many folks did the same...
It took a few DECADES before the UAW and management finally figured that we won't buy the product unless you make it as well as the Japanese...now they do...it only took losing a half a million UAW jobs before those ignorant union idiots figured out that maybe they ought to put some quality workmanship in the product...
That is why I believe that the "average" UAW worker has brains just slightly better developed than a mentally handicapped monkey...the "smart" UAW workers still have IQs under 70, ranking them somewhere between moron and worthless...
You can't say "UAW" and "intelligent being" in the same sentence or even the same paragraph, as the two concepts cannot exist in the same being, like matter and anti-matter...
If Wisconsin can destroy more unions, then this world will be a better place...bring back the 1920s...
I remember reading something to that effect back in the early/mid 90's in, of all things, a Pontiac enthusiast magazine! Or, it might have been GM in general. One of the editorials in the beginning told the story of a woman who tried to stay loyal to Pontiac, but ultimately went to the imports. She bought a 1984 Fiero that turned out to be junk. Then, soon after, she bought a Trans Am, that was a lemon. She gave GM one final chance with a 1987 Grand Prix...a model that GM had been building, relatively unchanged, in the 10 years since it was downsized. It was the very type of GM product I usually put faith in. V-8, RWD, body-on-frame, relatively simple, durable, and rugged. Well, that Grand Prix turned out to be even worse than the others!
So this woman actually gave GM THREE chances, burned every single time, and went to an import and never looked back. I forget what the article said she bought.
I thought it was impressive that a GM enthusiast magazine, of all sources, was willing to admit that GM and the rest of the domestics did it to themselves.
That being said, I have no problem buying a GM, Ford, or Chrysler product if I feel it's the best car that fits my needs and wants. But I'm not going to turn a blind eye to the competition, either.
That's how I see it. I buy what I like and what fits my needs at the price I want to spend.
I may by another GM product again. If they make something I like and it fits all of my criteria better than other vehicles I'm looking at, I'll buy it.
JK! :P
I do like the style of the new Sonata/Optima and consider the performance and efficiency No. 1 at the moment, particularly the blown versions. No other sedan in the segment can touch this pair afaic.
Regards,
OW
And that makes my point why one may not blindly "Buy American" if what we make is trash...
Now, this seems to have happened to this person back in the 80s, so one might argue that it is over 20 years ago, far in the past...
But this person, who was burned three times, each one worse than the last, may not see it that way...if they went to the imports, and were satisfied with the quality, they may NEVER come back to Big 3 again, and why should they???
Tell me what INTELLIGENT argument you would give this person as to why they should buy American...please don;t use that crappy argument "to save your neighbor's job" because, quite frankly, the "neighbors" that make her cars do not DESERVE to have jobs, and they were all UAW people...that's right, those low-life, sub-normal intelligence, almost humans that populate and make up the entire UAW...they made that junk, and they are the same union, with the same idiots today...
Why should she buy American when she has been treated better by the imports...and now you know why GM & C went bankrupt, because she didn't desert them, they PUSHED her away...and why should she give them a second chance now, when she gave them 3 chances years ago???
How much $$$ did she lose with those 3 lemons???...that is why folks may be reluctant to EVER come back to Big 3 again, even tho their bad experience(s) happened 10, 20 years ago...you lose that much money on JUNK, and you may never give your money to those people ever again, and those rah-rah, pro-UAW, Buy American folks can offer you all the excuses in the world, but can they offer you a quality automobile and will you trust them to make it even tho that is what they say???
Kill the UAW, bring quality and workmanship back to the USA...simple as that...
Anti-UAW rant to start soon...
Where I do blame them was so actively pushing back progress when even GM, Ford and Chrysler could see what was going on. I'm referring mostly to the early 80s when they tried to introduce robots into the process and ended up keeping on guys whose jobs were replaced by robots to jobs like "robot duster."
I also blame them for their vandalism to foreign cars in their parking lots, the soda bottles in door panels and all the other "we'll show them" crap they pulled back in that time frame. They succeeded in moving me from a "look who makes it" sort to a strictly look at the product guy.
The past decade or so I think puts the blame on management. The bean counters running things cause engineers to short cut and cheapen. It also encourages purchasing to brow beat and go with low bidders. Most of the vehicle shortcomings are mechanical rather than assembly. Hopefully its the bean counters and not our engineering schools dumbing down.
I have his picture on a dartboard. This [non-permissible content removed] belongs in the lowest pits of hell next to Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, and Idi Amin. He is one of the 20th Century's worst monsters for what he did to my beloved GM!
Yes, they could only build what management designed, so if the car looked like an Edsel, it was not the UAW's fault...but loose screws, missing parts, rattling parts, poor workmanship and sabotage like soda bottles in door frames lies SOLELY with that worthless worker on the line who, by getting back at "the man" sent millions of customers away from the product...then, they have the GALL to say "Buy American and save your Neighbor's job" and America responded with "Go to He**" and bought Hondas...then, they had the gall to call us unpatriotic, but where was the "patriotism" in making the absolute WORST product that a factory could make, except for the Yugo???
As far as Roger Smith, he tried to automate and eliminate human labor positions, which, had it worked, would have been the brilliant move of the century...
Smith is only a bad guy in MY book because around 1984, GM had to deal with the 3 year UAW contract, coming off their first losing year since the Depression...GM, had it stood firm could have broken the UAW into splinters and killed it, saving American industry and possibly starting the death knell for ALL unions, the most patriotic move of all...Smith took a strike that only lasted 2 months and caved...
The UAW was living on their strike fund of $65 per week...Smith could have waited 6 months, starved the membership into bankruptcy and killed the entire UAW in one stroke...he missed the chance of a lifetime, and I will always believe that we have lived with the UAW for 35 years since that time of 1984...think how much better the Big 3 cars would have been if all the mindless, ignorant, worthless drones had been fired...just the thought makes my hair curl...HE COULD HAVE BROKEN THE UAW 35 YEARS AGO AND MISSED THE CHANCE...no guts, no glory...
UAW?
(WGN - cached page)
Hey, Lemko, you know anything about this? :mad: :shades:
Regards,
OW
Lincoln leads car brands in widely watched dependability study; Toyota loses ground to rivals
ap
On Thursday March 17, 2011, 2:02 pm
NEW YORK (AP) -- Lincoln took the top spot for the first time in a closely watched survey of long-term vehicle quality.
J.D. Power and Associates says Ford's luxury brand leads its annual vehicle dependability survey for 2011. The study measures problems experienced by the original owners of vehicles after three years.
Lexus is No. 2 in the study, followed by Jaguar, Porsche and Toyota.
Toyota swept seven segment awards, more than any other automaker this year. The brand also performed well in long-term dependability, J.D. Power said.
The Japanese company's reputation for quality came under fire after massive recalls starting in 2009. But U.S. regulators closed their investigation into the No. 1 carmaker last month and concluded that electronic flaws were not to blame for reports of sudden, unintended acceleration.
Interesting that at the end of the day, Toyota suffered big bucks because of floor mats and crappy accelerator parts from a company called CTS.
Regards,
OW
Years ago, someone in one of my Mopar clubs mentioned that a local dealership had a Hummer H1 on display, parked at a steep angle partially on top of an old '79-81 Chrysler Newport like it was going to drive up over it and crush it. He said we should round up a few guys and go Hummer-tipping one night! :shades:
Lack of parts from Japan forces General Motors to halt production at US pickup plant
ap
DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors Co. says a lack of parts from Japan is forcing the company.to halt production at its pickup assembly plant in Shreveport, La., next week.
It's the first time a U.S.-based automaker has slowed production in North America because of disruptions in parts shipments after last week's earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Toyota Motor Co. and Subaru have already slowed production at their North American plants to conserve stockpiles of parts.
GM's other North American plants haven't been affected so far.
GM won't say which parts are involved. The company says it will resume production as soon as possible.
GM employs 800 factory workers in Shreveport, which makes the GMC Canyon and Chevrolet Colorado small pickups.
We're all connected.
Regards,
OW
OUCH! But sometimes the truth hurts;)
Shame, shame.
Regards,
OW
77,000 vehicles involved in recall for Honda civic Hybrid.. and another by Toyota for 22,000 SUV's and trucks. Over the last 3 years Toyota has been pummeled by recalls, yet still holds top spot for reliability?? How is this? Honda the same. They too have had their fair share of recalls.