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Automotive News & Views Buying American Cars What Does It Mean?
7263 messages, Last post on May 27, 2009 at 4:31 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
With parts coming from everywhere, does "Buying American" have much meaning anymore? Is quality and price the bottom line?
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Replying to: cooterbfd (Oct 23, 2008 2:26 pm) you know this may all be true, it may indeed take 10 UAW employees to do what one employee can do in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Alabama (to name a few) - a really sad commentary on an industry that the US (and the so called Big 3) dominated not that many years ago. Sure all those ludricrous pensions and free healthcare that the US makers count - for whatever portion of the overall economic pie that really is BUT when GM, for example, is spending $2500.00 PER CAR to fund these programs and that also happens to be about what they lose on every car they sell - there is something definitely wrong with this picture. Ford, closes dozens of plants in recent years, buys out the contracts of many of those employed at these plants, so they too can reap the rewards of these negotiated pension programs AFTER they spend their unemployment checks that you and I both funded. And after they do all that to us, then they seek some justification for injecting so more pesos down south of the border? Gimme a break. Ford is a Mexican car manufacturer, Buick will shortly be a Chinese one and then, they expect me to spend my hard earned $ on generally inferior products, watch that money disappear into other economies - and all because the brand names don't happen to end in a vowel??? Thanks anyway, I think I know a way to get some real value for my money and most importantly put more of that money back into the pockets of genuine Americans - where it belongs.
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Oct 24, 2008 3:04 am)
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Replying to: tlong (Oct 23, 2008 4:44 pm) Well said...and you can't buy your way into prosperity on credit. Things balance out. The big 3 or undergoing the re-balancing that is a long time coming. Regards, OW |
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Replying to: tlong (Oct 23, 2008 9:28 pm) Sounds like the formula is as complex as the risk aversion on CDS's! Regards, OW |
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Replying to: lemko (Oct 24, 2008 5:51 am) Last Caddy i drove was my dad's last DeVille. Probably a 2001. I actually enjoyed that one. Had that one ended up as dad's last car I probably would have bought it just to have his last car. Unfortunately he went from that to a Buick Century that he never liked and didn't do much for me either. It got turned back in about a year ago.
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Replying to: fezo (Oct 24, 2008 10:54 am) The Buick LaCrosse was a vast improvement over the Century/Regal. I've seen recent pictures of the next LaCrosse based on the Invicta concept that makes me want to consider a LaCrosse for myself if my '88 Park Ave ever dies. So far, I'm extremely happy with my new Cadillac DTS Performance. |
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Not in America, but China of all places! http://www.baltimoresun.com/topic/sns-ap-as-china-factory-woes,0,5598442.story |
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Replying to: fezo (Oct 24, 2008 10:54 am) I think that's the kind of car where, if I needed a car and the price was right, I'd be willing to put up with it. A few years back, when my Dad was looking for a car, and we found this used '03 Regal LS for something like $10,995, I told him that if he didn't buy it, I would! I mean, I still prefer my Intrepid to it, but at the time the Trep was pushing about 86,000 miles, while this thing only had 19,500 on it. I think Buick firmed up the suspension a bit on the Regal though. I've never driven a Century from the '97-05 generation, but I heard they're really sloppy and vague. Dad doesn't drive a whole lot, and after 5 years, I think he FINALLY hit the 50,000 mile mark. The last time I saw him, for some reason he was complaining about the sloppy build quality of the car, like how the panels fit together and such. I didn't say anything but here I'm thinking wait...you've had this car for HOW long now, and you're just noticing that?! I was tempted to ask him if he's started hanging out with Honda and Toyota owners, because that was the first time I ever heard him mentioning build quality/fit and finish on a car! Still, he's happy with it, and doesn't regret buying it. I think it was actually a pretty decent car that was "almost there". If GM had just paid a bit more attention to build quality, and maybe threw an extra 50 bucks per car at the interior, they could've had a really nice car.
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Replying to: andre1969 (Oct 24, 2008 11:23 am) He probably would have liked the LaCrosse which was just coming out. |
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Replying to: captain2 (Oct 24, 2008 5:55 am) I agree with the issue of Mexican built cars, but not Canada, for the simple reason that while neither country has their own auto mfr., at least Canadians BUY our cars, while the old Beetle was for years Mexico's most popular car. As far as the money the Big 3 spend on benefits, the new contract signed makes the difference in costs under $700 per car, so close that Toyota is looking at ways of cutting costs in this country to keep their advantage. Imagine that; the union negotiates AWAY something, and automatically non-union companies look to take things away.
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