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Automotive News & Views Does America Even Need Its Own Automakers?
1788 messages, Last post on Mar 03, 2009 at 2:18 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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hold that El-train for me, buddy! I'm pedalin' as fast as I can. Took me a while to catch up...my favorite car websites can have some long-winded..umm...I mean real interesting writers to keep up on and keep up with. If I get even two days behind I'm having to do the Evelyn Woodhead School of Speed Readin' thing to catch up. Add this post to that sort of list.  Any how, did you see this pic I put up on Edmunds a few days ago. I have the Pinanfarina-Bollore website saved to my faves at home but here at work I don't. I searched on Google for it and got two sites, one has my post here on Edmunds with the picture! Whoo-hoo! Here the little beast is:  This thing will have underneath and balanced placement of it's battery pack(Bollore made, I need to access that website to get the particulars on the battery packs)for better handling, about a 200 mile range, a top speed of 85 mph and a charge-up time of 7-8 hours on a common 120-volt socket at your American homes. The hinge-point in my research on this little car is whether or not Pinanfarina-Bollore will import this little monster to the U.S. I will go research when I get home some more and bring some more venison to this table for y'all. I am certainly interested in this car...my '08 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS is currently sitting at about 29,235 miles, getting set to get it's 30,000 mile service soon. So there's really not a screaming need for a 2010 Mitsubishi i-MIEV or a 2010 Pinanfarina-Bollore super-mini in my SE Arizona driveway. But, gagrice, you may have read my Edmund's posts of several months ago where I stated my thoughts on "green" technology vehicles. I have firmly planted my foot in the shipbeds of manufacturers who are working on bringing these types of vehicles to our fine shores. Mitsubishi has won me over, as a lot of you know I have been an ardent Kia fan for years. I still believe Kia is here(West Point, GA, USA)and is in S.Korea to stay. I have stated this fact for years, a lot of times to hoots and catcalls. But Kia is lagging a bit, both with a sporty 4-door sedan that I longed for, and with an all-EV or hybrid vehicle ready to buy at this time. They have now designed a new Kia Forte sedan and Koup that are real lookers. There's a great chance I would've traded the '01 Sportage 4X4 in on a Forte 4-door sedan if it were available in 2007. But it wasn't and the Sportage 4X4 had 130,000 miles on it, was meticulously maintained and was ready to trade. Avondale Mitsubishi treated me well in my trade-in for the '08 Lancer GTS. I made sure they did, the small SUV was very well cared for. BTW-Kia has apparently decided to retain the Spectra name for the new Forte that is coming here in 2009. It's a beautiful new car, body designed by Peter Schreyer, Kia's new Design Chief, wooed away from Audi Motors. Schreyer designed the Audi TT. So, long story somewhat shorter, I have a late-model Mitsubishi Lancer GTS that I love. I also have a yearning to drive an all-electric. gagrice, I'm all over this new i-MIEV from Mitsu like "white on rice." Tee-hee. I really am. I'm following the i-MIEV from Mitsu and the rig from Pinanfarina-Bollore like a hawk. Or perhaps a Seahawk. No, make that a hawk. If Misubishi is going to sell the tiny i-MIEV for only $24,000, then the $7,500 knockdown in price with the energy rebate would be a coup for us. It is quite likely an i-MIEV from Mitsubishi will be my next choice, however, when the Mrs. and I get wild hairs and want to go play in Tucson, 80 miles NW of us here, what will I do with an i-MIEV that only has a traveling range of 100 miles. Plug in somewhere's in fair Tucson? Maybe the only Mitsubishi dealer in Tucson, Wildcat Mitsubishi? Or at Ideal Mitsubishi in Sierra Vista, AZ, about 90 miles west of us here, located near Fort Huachuca. Remember, too, Mitsubishi offers a generous 10 year and 100,000 miles Warranty. That figures strongly in to this search result. These are by no means insurmountable problems here, gentlemen. An excited schoolboy with a chipped front tooth looking like Jim Carrey in 'Dumb and Dumber' going after Mary Swanson(OK, I'm not quite that excited for an all-EV  )on a mission will spare no prisoners and take no down-hearted souls' negative advice as he seeks out a viable energy-propulsion alternative. Foreign oil is vile...it's going bye-bye and it's old-hat. It's spittle in the dusty Arizona flutter-winds. It must pass on by me like Dennis Rodman into relative obscurity. Be gone with you, ghastly! gagrice, the Chevy Volt is not scratched off my list but it's beginning to fade. When they make comments like "we may not realize a decent profit pricing the 2010 Volt at $40,000" I look to the side, just as I would when Baw-bwa Wahh-Wah is ready to speak on "The View". Yikes, Barbara, has the word "retirement" ever entered your mind? You were never really that good and yet you intend on scouring our televisions endlessly? Enough already. So, it's the '08 Lancer GTS, the 2010 Mitsubishi i-MIEV and the 2010 Pinanfarina-Bollore(that may not ever be coming over here, anyway)that have my interest at this point, gagrice. The next purchase is really pointing towards an all-electric. As a side point to boot, BYD of China is building some hybrids and all-electrics, one all-electric is named the e6, with intentions of eventually importing to the U.S. with some of them. Keep an early eye out-they'll make it here. The e6 is a large crossover that BYD envisions selling for taxicabs(taken from one of their news releases)that is really not that homely looking at all, actually. It has a decent body design. It will sell for around $28,000USD. Range of 200 some miles, top speed of 85 mph and is another EV with a 8-10 hour 120-volt re-charge time. I would be remiss to cross the BYD e6 off of my list, but, the i-MIEV stands a sooner chance of landing on these U.S. shores. The Pinanfarina-Bollore is more of an idea of what I'm really more interested in at this time, but it's entirely possible that that train may have sailed before it even gets here. Over.. and, out. |
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considered the possibility that the domestics may just NEVER make it back to profitability? They have had a "great plan with a turnaround just around the corner" for soooo long. Why is anyone convinced that now is any different, even if the economy HADN'T tanked? Me, I don't think we need our own automakers if they are going to be perennially unprofitable. Better then just to leave automaking to companies that know how to do it and make money at the same time. As for the bailout, where was the steelworkers' bailout? The clothing manufacturers' bailout? If GM did liquidate, established automakers from all over would step into the void and buy up some of the brands and keep them running with all-new products uniquely their own, I'm convinced. If for no other reason than that large and established dealer network. INDIVIDUAL names and products at GM have cash value, the problem is just that the vast majority do not.
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Replying to: nippononly (Nov 15, 2008 1:06 pm) They got theirs earlier this decade. Bush administration lifts steel tariffs CNN Looks like clothing tariffs still exist. I think one or all of the Big 3 could remain unprofitable. Going out of business slowly in this climate may be easier for the country to absorb than a bankruptcy reorganization by GM or a liquidation sale by Chrysler. "In the next two to four months, GM will run out of cash and turn out the lights. Only government money can prevent that." The Cost of General Motors' Death Much Greater Than a GM Bailout, Editorial Says
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Replying to: lemko (Nov 15, 2008 8:36 am)  Regards, OW |
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Replying to: steve_ (Nov 15, 2008 3:14 pm) Either way, no pain, no gain. Change hurts and big change hurts big time. At the end of the day, they will get help from us. First I have to buy second rate product and now I have to bail them out...along with the financial thieves. I love this country! Really. No matter what happens, there is always a second chance! So, the moral of the story is " Relax! It will all work out just fine." I really can not wait for the new cars produced as a result of a major overhaul of this industry. Perhaps in 3 years or so. Regards, OW
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Replying to: circlew (Nov 15, 2008 4:46 pm) If I am right, then the victory will go to the technological leaders, not the design leaders/style leaders, and that does not give me a good feeling for the future of the Big Three.
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Nov 15, 2008 5:00 pm) As far as the future of the Big Three relating to design, retro was only one way to go but you can't tell me they led the way in design over the last 30 years which they should have. (I look at the Cobalt and feel PAIN!) I believe that the basic structure of these companies limit their capabilities in the end after a certain critical mass is reached in terms of size. Cutting quality of parts and design got them where they are today. Nothing is more telling than the disaster interiors in the GM stuff up until 2008 saw CTS, Lambda and Malibu. What, they all of a sudden woke up? It might have been better off to have 10 auto companies in the US instead of one. Failure of all 10 at the same time would be far removed than we are today. Toyota is getting there fast and should continuously re-invent itself to stay solvent. They have a far better strategic infrastructure but cracks have been forming of late. Who knows what the future brings but I would welcome many companies the size of BMW or Mercedes in the US to stimulate competition and better products in design and tech. Perhaps we already can see this will take place as the global players face the new reality. Regards, OW
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Replying to: circlew (Nov 15, 2008 5:31 pm) I don't see how a computer is going to fit pieces of plastic and steel and glass together any more imaginatively than before. Remember, this is a finite universe. We are not talking about thoughts or ideas or undiscovered technology, but doors and windows and fenders in 3D space. The combinations are limited. If anything, computers merely accelerated the End of Design. So I'm betting that new technology will have the same appeal that "design" used to have. Instead of "looking good" we will be "working good". Electronics will become a status symbol rather than fashion being status. Don't you think that this, in a sense, explains the success of Toyota Hybrids and BMW 3-Series cars? Toyota's Prius and Mr. Bangle's trunk lids certainly can't be called "pretty".
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Replying to: jeffyscott (Nov 15, 2008 7:30 am) Just curious, what decisions went into you and your wives' moves to foreign nameplates?
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Nov 15, 2008 5:55 pm) But I do agree I'd rather see a preference change to Working Good from Looking good. Perhaps that's one of the strengths the new paradigm for US Auto needs to pursue because the other global competition are far ahead here. just in build quality alone and mechanical integrity. In terms of status from that perspective, the lines in the sand were drawn years ago. Yes, the Prius and the Bangle designs are tough on the eyes but the hybrids appeal is a new status. But don't you think we have a way to go on the looks side of things?    Regards, OW
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