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The Magnum was the fun boat, the Cigarette was party boat, and the Donzi took the honors of "chime walking", horrible handling at speed, too much weight aft w/Vette engines plus the TRS outdrives..
After going through 23 boats, my last venture was in 1985, joined a country club and took up golf..Boating season in Michigan is too short, however golf can be done 8 mos, and the other 3 in Florida, take 1 mo off..
The boating world when I was active in it was all-American merchandise game..Too expensive today..too old for the 90 mph haulers
No, but you can see it from here. Flew in this afternoon and the skyline and view of the Detroit River flowing into Lake St. Clair was really pretty. The highlight was flying over the Ford Proving Grounds. Couldn't identify the car, but one was cruising on the track.
(Go Tigers! - dang, I'm turning into a Michigander. :shades: )
When I first read that post, I thought something wasn't right. I believe the Lake St. Clair flows into the Detroit River which then flows into Lake Erie and on to the Atlantia ocean. Is my geography right?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Perhaps you should convince that machinist's union in Seattle to quit trying to get Boeing's new plant in S.C. closed. We ARE all connected!
I'd say the S2 is one of the few things I have that's paid for, but can you really say a boat is ever truly paid for?
Kinda like Palin can see Russia from her house.
Fair enough, but the Chevy Spark is also Korean designed and will be built there. The Sonic is also Korean designed. Chrysler might be happy to sell you an (Italian) Fiat 500 made in Mexico, also. The Fiesta is European designed.
I cannot even pronounce Cuautitlán and I'm fluent in Spanish.
Help your fellow Cuautitlanians! Buy a Fiesta!
¡¡andale andale, arriba arriba!!
We live in a global economy, get used to it.
Or obama can see all 57 states from his Chicago home.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Cannon, how do we respond to this, under your logic???...if the Ford Fusion is built in Mexico, and the Chrysler 200 or 300 is built in Canada, define for me how we "buy American" when some Hondas and Toyotas have more American content than Big 3 products that like to deceive us as American products but they are not...
If GM was based in Detroit but imported all their products from Mexico, would you not be supporting the American worker more by buying a Honda made in Ohio???
Just because the company has an American name does that mean you blindly buy its products because you WANT to think the stuff is made here when you know it isn't???
Did you know that GMs are perfect because the parts are cheap and readily available?
I agree with your sentiments entirely. I will never own a Chinese car.
So Saab still has hope to earn a sale?
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/10/24/saab-shirks-takeover-bid-by-chinas-pang-da-an- d-youngman-termin/
I wouldn't buy a used Chinese car either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbe5ILICT4M
(well known Brilliance crash test)
Update on Brilliance, here's their copy of the BMW SAV:
http://www.burlappcars.com/2011/03/bmw-x1-vsbrilliance-a3.html
So they're still at it, even now.
But, if I lived 50 miles from here near West Point, Georgia, my neighbor HAS a job paying good money because he makes Kias here in GA...and if I lived there, it would be a high probability that my friend the pizza maker may open a store and serve those workers pizza for lunch and dinner, and if his business takes off, he may hire 3 servers and a driver for take-out, all American jobs within an American business, enabling THOSE workers to buy other things like piano lessons, and blue jeans, and get their cars serviced by local mechanics, etc...
And, if I understand cannon correctly, he would complain because the profit for the Kias go back to Korea, but all those OTHER jobs are right here for Americans...and don't forget that by not having the UAW here, we don;t live with that entitlement attitude that pervades the north and we don't have to worry about the militants going on strike, so life here is much more peaceful...when you deal with UAW products, every three years the entire town goes into bunker mentality until the new contract is ratified, causing great stress on the local businesses who wonder if they will last long enough until the strike ends...until you have lived in Detroit, that is a concept that an outsider simply does not understand...
Buying Kia supports American jobs, and they give that 100K warranty...why doesn't Ford/GM/or C give that???...after all, they now have the same suppliers making the same parts, why such a lousy warranty from the Big 3???...why blindly buy "American" with a car that was made in Mexico or Brazil by Ford???...does he believe that is really buying American???
I am confused, very confused...
My whole point with this young lady not being able to find higher paying jobs prospects is: You send your money overseas, you create opportunity, jobs/taxes ect overseas. It is amazing how people respond and understand the logic of keeping your money as close to home as possible benefits them, thier community/city/state/country.
I am in no way a union supporter, nor am I for those who feel entitled. However, I am in full support of AMERICA and AMERICANS. Time, way past time to take of our own, our house. AMERICA.
When a foreign maker makes their product here, you have failed to explain to me why Americand are hurt but that Ford made cars in Mexico are good for America...
You can still buy from U.S. car manufacturers many vehicles made here in the U.S. Just to name a few. Malibu, Cruze, Sonic, Focus, Escape, Fseries, and many more.
The same agrument can go for your Kia plant. Where do you think Kia gets most of its parts from? The Hyundai Sonata is 39% U.S. sourced parts. Yet they fool Americans into thinking it is all manufactured here in the United States. Making it look like it is all made here in the U.S.
Plus, there is this thing called profits. Where do you think the profits go for the Kia plant? Where to you think the profits go from the GM plants/Ford plants?
My whole point here is the majority of the labor in the forgien plants are menial labor. Assembly labor. The higher paying jobs/positions go to the imported workers while Americans become the menial laborers. If you think this is ok, then this country is in worse shape than I thought..
I'm sure we all want the US to be successful, but please recognize that intelligent people can differ on what it takes to get there. IMHO your approach is simplistic and short term improvement for longer-term decline. I want longer-term ascendancy, and supporting junky products is NOT the way to get there. And it's long term strength that will REALLY create lasting jobs in this country.
This is a city that once made fine Budd Silverliner railcars back in the 1960s that are still in service today. Budd is no longer in business in Philly, it's massive Hunting Park Avenue plant is a now a gigantic pigeon loft and its newer Northeast Philly plant was demolished and replaced by a golf course for corporate criminals. SEPTA, the regional bus and rail transportation authority, had to contract out to Hyundai-Rotem to replace some of its rolling stock. The Hyundai-Rotem people hired low-wage unqualified workers to build these new cars which are riddled with more defects than a 1985 Yugo.
GM acquired the pieces left from Daewoo and those guys are designing their small cars.
I'm not sure, but isn't the Cruze also Korean designed?
The Escape replacement, i.e. the Kuga, is a European design. Given how old the current design is, I don't think an American engineer has worked on that for a decade or so.
We're in a global economy, that's just the way it is.
Why does the USA have to make everything?
I say specialize on the things you do best.
If the US can make Product A best, and {insert favorite other country here} can make Product B best, then let each focus on that strength and then trade.
I realize cars are not quite that simple, but GM has never done well at designing small cars. Vega? Chevette? Cavalier? Cobalt? No wonder they keep changing names.
GM-DAT specializes in small cars, so let them do what they do best, and design a competitive small car, the Chevy Sonic.
Spark? You guessed it, being designed in Korea also.
I also have a question to ask, why do German cars get ignored compared to Asian vehicles when people argue buy American? Germany is no more an American ally than most Asian countries.
My guess would be because the German cars aren't produced with cheap labor like an Asian car is (or, gasp, a Mexican-built car?)
There are German makes produced in low cost countries. VW in China, Brazil, Mexico. Audi in Hungary. Just to name two.
I'd argue that's far worse. The reliable and durable cars actually raise the industry standard and make everyone better. Pressure from Japanese brands indeed made American cars better.
Can't say the same for VWs built in Mexico.
That was before transportation was much cheaper. Largely due to Boeing. Do we not want them to have sold airplanes all over the world as one of our biggest exporters? And it was before the internet. Do we not want Dell, Apple, IBM, Cisco to have been highly successful US companies in creating the information age?
We lament what we lost, but not what we gained. It's not so simplistic that we could have preserved the old-style manufacturing situation WITHOUT other losses or lack of opportunities we eventually did gain. The economy is always a moving target.
We lost a TON of farmers over the years due to mechanization when compared to the 1800's. We don't seem to lament that. Perhaps because those who remember it are now gone. We aren't lamenting the availability of produce -- almost 12 mos/year-- due to South American fruits and vegges - something we didn't have when the US made everything. And overseas oil - in the old days, the US used only its OWN oil. Why are we still driving 15mpg tanks, yet using foreign oil? Isn't that terrible?
We seem to want our cake and eat it too. Is that very realistic?
Our Vega certainly proved otherwise. One time the door fell off.
Do I feel sorry for the UAW guy who fastened that door? No.
When it comes to cars, pressure from imports certainly made American cars better. We would not have seen as much improvement if we only had the Big Three.
Vega had the Pinto an as excuse. It was the less bad one, so why bother improving it?
Small cars became competent when the Big Three had to compete with the imports from Japan.
Look at the Cruze Eco today - 42mpg, direct injection, 87 octane for a turbo, decent interior, good space efficiency, 138hp from just 1.4 liters of displacement. Wow!
Would the Vega ever have evolved into such a competent small car today? Heck no!
Competition improves the breed, plain and simple.
Now, having said that, you don't just open the doors wide and let anybody in. Make 'em play by the rules, and if they use underpaid labor overseas, without health insurance, then tax those imports at a higher rate to keep them out (if you're thinking China, so am I).
The Japanese have been playing by the rules. "Build them here", Iacocca said. Fine, they did. Not only are the Camry and Accord made here, they are unique from the JDM models and actually designed in the USA.
Wisely, they've avoided the UAW and most of those employees have been able to avoid layoffs at age 60.
Our country will never have adequate number of jobs again as long as we buy all that STUFF from China.
In the past 15 years I heard just one President even mention this issue and it was Obamma in his debates 3 years ago. Then he did nothing.
I told my wife 12 years ago that issue would some day be a key issue in a Presidential election. Maybe this year!
I still have not heard anyone mention the issue of lost jobs in this country this year other than in the normal political BS. A world wide FREE Market sure sounds good until you drive around the South and look at all the closed factories that now grow pigeons.
It's not just China. Productivity is a huge part of it. The steel mill my FIL retired from produces more tonnage of steel with less than half the number of employees from 30 years ago. When LTV went bankrupt in 2000 my FIL had 30 years of service and was still near the bottom of the seniority list in his department.
Employees? There were stories that something on the order of 40% of Georgetown toyota employees were part timers. So does that mean most of those weren't laid off as things slowed down in toyotaville? Or just the 60% who were full time?
I can understand not wanting the flagrant work rules of the UAW. Reason is obvious. But then there are abuses by management in firing people just for convenience and expense reasons. The sword cuts both ways.
Actually, that is the position GM needs to be in rather than with the albatross of UAW around their neck from the Obama bailout union preservation program.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
The mills got cranked up in the US in the early 1800s. Start up was difficult because England had the textile business and they passed a law in 1765 prohibiting export of textile machinery. Being a third world country at the time, the US was able to take over the industry anyway, and at first the labor force was just about all child labor. (clemson.edu)
All that seems familiar eh? Nothing new under the sun. Once the standard of living in China and India rises, those countries will be looking over their shoulder at Africa as that continent takes over their industrial jobs with cheaper labor and production costs.
Interesting point in a good post. Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it (was that an Abraham Lincoln quote like those others?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
So, why is Germany's industrial base apparently thriving? Smaller, more manageable country? "Free" health care? Longer union/management history? Better schools, better engineers, better training for the trades?
Detroit's only saving grace at this point is that it's a lot cheaper to ship clothing around the world than cars.
Budd railcars
Baldwin locomotives
Botany 500 suits
Breyer's ice cream
Philco appliances
Fleer bubblegum
Flexible Flyer sleds
Dodge steel castings
Stetson hats
General Electric industrial electrical equipment
Quaker lace
Goldtex apparel
Marcus-Pincus menswear
Bill Blass formalwear
Bachmann plastic products
Nearby Camden, NJ was once home to a huge RCA plant.
Chester, PA had Sun Ship and a huge Ford plant.
North of Philadelphia, United States Steel had the massive Fairless Works.
And shipping them to South Korea.
"Korea makes the nineteenth country to which Toyota exports U.S.-made models."
South Korea To Get U.S.-Made Toyota Minivans (AutoObserver)
Gets a bit mind-bending. Maybe it's not the US that's the problem, it's Philly.
North American production didn't slow down nearly as much as Japan, and now Thailand.
Good point. I've read of many strikes and labor disputes.
Japanese brands didn't have the pension and health care costs of the UAW-affected Big Three. The 2nd OPEC oil crisis is what really gave them a segue, though. Big Three didn't have good small cars, and small cars were the *only* thing the Japanese had at the time.
Now the Koreans have officially arrived in a big way, and their cost structure is lower than Japan's. Back at ya. Korea has been stealing Japanese market share in a big way. Toyota's and Honda's losses have mostly ended up in Hyundai/Kia gains. Check the numbers, they coincide.
Next China, then India. Then who? Who knows.
I just don't get why China gets most favored trading nation status. As if they need that help.
I think they've carved out a premium niche for themselves, ably exlpoiting both old money luxury themes as well as Nurburgring-inspired heritage.
They had to fight, though, when Lexus arrived suddenly things like quality mattered. The Germans had to (and did) respond.