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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: john_324 (Nov 07, 2006 8:25 am) If there were, in theory, the company would already have adapted its stance, rather than lose that majority business. I think one thing being over looked here, that corporations and manufacturers of all sorts are certainly not unaware of, is this: Voter Ignorance/Voter Apathy. How many people even vote? How many of those voters care (much less know) what a corporation's stance is on most issues? Most people aren't even familiar with all of the candidates on a ballot. I have to bring a list into the booth with me sometimes. How often are people going to go in with reams of information concerning all of the companies that they do business with? Huge corporations know that most of their wheeling and dealing can be done below the radar of public perception. They know this and count it. Even more, there is a limited public attention span. For every faux pas that Toyota (or any other company) commits, there is going to be a new announcement about who Paris Hilton is dating, or what Tom Cruise did in the media this week. People don't care. More to the point, people care more about things that don't matter. Entertain them, distract them, and companies know they can pretty much do what they want. It takes a major problem that ignites the ire of an advocacy group with Washington access to make a corporation change its stance. Even then its usually settled in court and away from the general public's knowledge. People are blissfully ignorant in this country, by and large. They want the newest DVDs, they want to get drunk, they want to watch football, they want to eat at Burger King. The people contributing to this forum represent an unusual, and depressingly small, class of the populace. We care, we read, we listen, we think. A lot of us Americans don't. What do the people at your office talk about? Are they more interested in who got kicked off of Survivor and who won American Idle (Idol), or do they come to work worried about the fact that Exxon still hasn't paid Alaska the money they owe them for the Valdez oil spill? The problem is so much deeper than what corporations are doing. Corporations do what they do because they can. I eat whatever pizza tastes the best and gets to my house the fastest. I drive whatever car is cheapest, most reliable, and best fits my needs. As a previous poster said, most people don't have time to be that universally informed. And as I've pointed out, I hope, most people don't care anyway. |
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http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=119045 Rocky |
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SEOUL — A South Korean court has found eight people guilty of paying or taking bribes to help Hyundai Motor fraudulently write down debt. http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=119412 iluv, Loren, you both like Hyundai/Kia, what do you think about this bad news ???? Rocky |
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Replying to: kirstie_h (Nov 21, 2006 10:37 am) 
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Replying to: spoom (Mar 03, 2007 4:12 pm) Plus, handling conversations like that by e-mail helps keep the discussions automotive focused. |
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my thoughts on the Hyundai case go like this. You could call my view unethical, but, when I go shopping for a car I don't research their lobbyists to see how they've bought out a certain politician. Lobbying extends beyond Seoul or Washington, D.C. You see, when I express myself on how much I love my Kia(and then go about doing so in great detail on forums like this)I am lobbying for Kia Motors. Anyone on Edmunds for more than a few months knows how much good I have done for the brand on this and other forums. Kia represents hope for the automotive industry. Companies like Ford and DCX and GM are giant bringdowns for the car industry. They charge a lot but don't deliver on their promises. You could argue that Kia hasn't provided excellent quality up-front product for everyone. Indeed, my first Kia, a 1999 Kia Sephia, had weak brake pads which caused premature rotor wear. I had them replaced at around 52,000 miles. I just paid the bill myself and didn't feel like involving myself in a class-action lawsuit. I traded in the Sephia just after the two jets crashed into the WTC in NYC. I was itching to trade in and was going to buy a 2002 Kia Spectra sedan. My wife eschewed that idea within the first minute we hit the Kia sales lot! I looked at a 2002 Rio Cinco station wagon and even sat in it. She would have no part of it. She said that she's always liked Kia Sportage's and wanted a Sportage. So, we bought a Sportage. It's been a great litle SUV. Without writing a novel on my Kia experiences I will say that I do love the brand and Mitsubishi has swayed me into liking their new Lancer. But I will always love the Kia brand. And if someone within Kia broke some South Korean laws I will still love the brand. I am buying the car not the workers and front-office personnel and people involved in bribing officials. I have always been treated fairly by the two Kia dealerships I've done business with. If something didn't work right I'd tell them and they'd fix it. These Kia's have been very cheap to own and operate. Besides regular maintenance I have probably put about $500 in to buy an alternator and brake light switch. That is in 5 and a half years of ownership. I call that very low cost of ownership over 5 1/2 years. We're at about 126,975 miles right now. My OEM Hankook(Korean)tires lasted 102,000 miles and the top of Lincoln's head still was plunging below the tread! Incredible! Ford and GM are a bunch of jerks who not only overlooked the American car buying public by over-milking their large pickup and SUV market here for way too long but they haven't been able to provide a good small car(the Geo Metro is a possible exception here...but it was made by Suzuki and marketed by GM). That was a dumb, bone-headed mistake on their part. Too little too late. The Pontiac Solstice is a positive step but it's too little too late. GM stands the best chance of surviving financially because of good moves like their 2002 acquisition of South Korea's Daewoo Motors. And for some weird reason the American public's idea of a nice rig still seems to be a large pick-em-up truck or SUV. So they'll continue ad naseum to sell these largre, ugly monstrosites that are stinking and polluting up our environment to the hilt. Go figure. Anyhoo-buy what you like but I think that Hyundai and Kia Motors America are well-established here. Sure, you have the CEO in trouble with S.Korea's legal system and large amounts of inventory available in Hyundai cars. They'll sell 'em off at discounts and continue on. I'm just glad there's a variety of rigs to choose from and IMO the best vehicles to buy are either Japanese or South Korean. The Germans rigs are hideously pathetic and the Americans best just shut down their carmaking operations altogether and try to get work at Boeing building airplanes. Learn how to put other people down constantly and build yourself up. In a while you'll be wearing nice clothes to work and ordering people around and calling yourself hotshot. Join the union and carry your union card proudly. Boeing does not frown on their workers drinking Starbuck's coffee and listening to music on their headphones while working. It's a good job with good pay and excellent benefits. America has become, for whatever reason, crappy at making cars. Like it or lump it it's true, gentlemen. |
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