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Automotive News & Views Would You Avoid a Manufacturer Because of Bad Public Policy?
56 messages, Last post on Mar 12, 2007 at 7:37 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: snakeweasel (Nov 07, 2006 11:15 am) You are going to have to pay Daley a fee for the use of his motto. Seriously, had a friend of mine at our local bakery whisper to me that Saturday was her last day. I asked her where she would be going. Her response was that she was heading to the new WalMart Supercenter. Asked her what she thought about working for WalMart ... and she told me this. She had been working at a union grocery BUT they would never give her any hours and the union dues she was paying were as much as the full-time employees. Her current employer (the local business guy) gives no benefits and few raises ... AND she'll get a $2.50/hr raise. All I have to say is that I USED to work for one of those "BEST 100 EMPLOYERS" that would give all those "politically correct" benefits - flex time, extra time for mothers, etc. And all I remember is having to cover for all those benefits ... at no extra pay. Give me ANY corporation and generally you can make a good argument for or against them. Ford, Daimler Benz, and VW had strong pro-Nazi ties. Mitsubishi built the planes that bombed Pearl Harbor ... you get the drift. |
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...back to cars, I wonder how the upcoming arrival of Chinese cars will be treated by U.S. consumers? Though plenty of the smaller items in our lives (televisions, etc.) are already made there, there's something different about a vehicle that still is able to provoke strong emotion in people. Given our balance of trade with China, and that it's an honest-to-god totalitarian state, I wonder how much negative reaction they'll be. Or will people just shrug and say the like how inexpensive a new car can be? 
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Replying to: john_324 (Nov 08, 2006 6:38 am) People are going to be cautious and be thinking Yugo. Though plenty of the smaller items in our lives (televisions, etc.) are already made there, Consumer electronics and clothing have very few moving parts. A car is a moving part with many moving parts making it work. There in lies the big difference. The Chinese are going to have to prove that they are not the next Yugo. |
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Replying to: john_324 (Nov 07, 2006 7:41 am) EltonRon Host- Automotive News and Views
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...is that people are avoiding car companies with too many past lemons in the closet - Cadillac Cimarron, Oldsmobile Diesel, Cadillac V-4-6-8, the infamous Ford 3.8 V-6 head gasket eater; VWs that do everything but spew pea soup and speak in strange voices; and way too many Mopar automatic trannies. Yes, some of those vehicles were old over 20 years ago, but, fair or not, many car buyers have LONG memories. Outside these forums, I've never heard anyone say, "I'm not buying this brand of car because of its maker supports this or that policy." It's always because of a bad experience with a lemon, coupled with a dealer who didn't really care about service after the sale.
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Replying to: grbeck (Nov 08, 2006 11:21 am)  's
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Replying to: snakeweasel (Nov 08, 2006 11:37 am)
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Replying to: grbeck (Nov 08, 2006 12:08 pm)
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Replying to: eltonron (Nov 08, 2006 8:29 am) But thinking more about something jrdwyer said earlier (about if public policy positions will take on growing importance as market competition intensifies)... With the Chinese cars, I imagine they'll be Yugo-like at first, but then quickly evolve into something Hyundai-like in quality. So they'll be fairly attractive to buyers in the U.S. But is the fact that they're produced in a dictatorship with an appalling human-rights record and poor labor/environmental standards, coupled with an increased feeling in the U.S. of being economically disadvantaged by China's growth, lead to some people avoiding the cars? Esp. when a S. Korean one is not that much more expensive? As we've just seen, the country is moving leftward...will it more leftward enough for these things to matter in the market? |
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