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Automotive News & Views Do You Favor A Government Loan To The Detroit 3?
3958 messages, Last post on Oct 02, 2009 at 4:52 PM
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Nov 24, 2008 5:21 am) I do agree with you that DC and Wall Street have stuck it to everyone. However we can't change the past. I do see where the government needs to fix some of the problems they created (analogy might be a DUI driver stopping to help the person they just ran off the road). Well I think the problem is that just like your house could be $300K, or if no one wants it - purely psychological - they may value it at $150K at auction. Well this is the problem with banks, meaning that the value of what Citi is holding is in question. I believe what the government is trying to do in the financial sector is to firm up that Citi's assets are worth $3T, or close to it. For if Citi's assets collapse in value, then every similar type of asset also goes down. It's a domino effect on the value of EVERYTHING, everywhere. That was the same reasoning with AIG. A manufacturer of autos however does not drag down the value of everything. If automaker A goes out of business Automakers B, C, and D can hire and produce more. There is no net loss. 12M autos will be built and sold whether it is A,B,C,D, and E selling them or just B,C,D,E, and a new F (using some of A's people and equipment). There is plenty of excess capacity in Ford, Chrysler, and all the import factories to makeup for any closure of GM. The auto suppliers also are slow and could easily produce more parts for the remaining companies. |
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Is PBS that bad. We don't watch american idol or the like. Noticed a list of vehicles that you've gone through. 1999 Ranger, any chance it's the top of the line version FX4. Some got out of the market too earlier and some couldn't be convinced to get out after the peak started down. Most people knew 14K+ was pumped. Happened to chance upon a coin/metals store recently. People buying bags of silver coins and a gold coin is hard to come buy. But like the owner said, people can't even make change and you expect to barter gold (of what value relative to what) for goods that who has? Started to think of all those home safes bolted down with bags of coins. Then there is the CN fund that holds ninety percent bullion. Maybe the amero will be bypassed for that little chip.
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I hope the Big 3's plans that they are going to present to Congress, don't include the unrealistic forecast that auto sales are going to pickup anytime soon. http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2008-11-23-cars-trucks-delinquent-loans_N.ht- m
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Replying to: tired_old_dave (Nov 24, 2008 8:06 am) I don't think so. It is a Flex Fuel V6. Of course E85 in CA is nearly non existent. Gold coins in the safety box at the bank is a good hedge. If they were bought when gold bottomed out around $275. I would not buy now for sure. You always take a hit on the selling end of precious metals.
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SNL's skit Saturday night showing the big 3 CEO's is exactly what they are fighting. While I got a good chuckle, they presented domestic cars as still having the reliability/quality of a '74 Vega. I find it interesting the UAW supports the Dems and hope they will bail out Detroit. Among my friends, all of the liberals despise domestic cars and none drive them. Not all, but the vast majority of my conservative friends drive domestics. Hmm. Don't know how this plays out with the rest of the country, but it's how I see it from my perspective.
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| had 1 subaru, 2 toyotas, 2 nissans, 3 fords, 1 chevy, 3 chryslers (burned each time), probably some forgotten about, and used buick and used cadillac. Now have a malibu and an H3, looking to replace the malibu (only because of a tired back and it has not been trouble free but still darn nice for a first year build) with what should be a give away price half ton american truck, but because of limited garage space, bouncing between another H3, ford?, or a JK unlimited even with its known problems and JustEmptyEveryPocket history. | |
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Replying to: dieselone (Nov 24, 2008 8:48 am) Will those currently driving SUV monsters and laughing at the greenie movement suddenly find religion in the Volt and Fusion hybrids? Will more of your liberal friends find the domestics attractive now? Or will your conservative friends park their SUVs to support the new fuel-saving greenie technology from our American industry despite their normal resistance to agreeing with anything the liberal left holds dear? Ahhhh difficult choices...
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Replying to: kdhspyder (Nov 24, 2008 9:32 am) My Honda and Toyota friends all make fun of my dometics. I get the "has it left you stranded yet" or "is it falling apart" question all of the time. One of my best friends put a large piece of cardboard on his driveway for me to park on. When I pulled up he (joking around) told me to park on it because he didn't want my POS Ford leaking on his driveway. He drives a Toyota and his wife a Honda. I got a good laugh and responded with the one finger salute and proceeded to drink all of his beer. |
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Replying to: kernick (Nov 24, 2008 8:34 am) Or who you'd like to be, he added. Easy credit, Reed says, lured many buyers to buy more car than they could afford, thinking they'd stretch to make it work and eventually their pay would go up. Instead, Reed says high gas prices earlier this year strained many car owners. In addition, increasing unemployment also is taking a toll. This is a point that everyone has overlooked. the domestics have up the ante on the use of rebates and financing to artificially raise the number of sales. yes, I know the foreign companies do it as well but the domestics use more incentives per sale. Rebates kill your resale value. Also "discounting" the price of the car feeds the perception that your car is not as good as those who do not have "discounts". Now re-possession are up and these are more people who won't be able to finance a new car for a while.
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pfft! I am squarely setting my sights on this little Italian/French squirtplug called the 2010 Pininfarina-Bollore B-Zero.  This car is an all-electric car with batteries built by Bollore of France. They have worked on them for 15 years. At the heart of any electric car, lies the battery. Bolloré is a highly diversified group of companies with a combined yearly turnover of 10 billion US dollars and 35,000 employees. For the past 30 years, the group has been the world’s leading producer of components for capacitors. Thanks to its acquired know-how in extruded polymers and the storage of electrical energy, Bolloré has been working for 15 years through its subsidiary, Batscap, to develop a solid-state lithium polymer battery. This battery is able to store, weight-for-weight, and it can be recharged in just a few hours. The battery does not require any maintenance and has a lifespan of around 200,000 km (125,000 miles). Another key benefit is its unmatched safety while in operation. Added to that, the B0 electric car does not emit any exhaust gases, nor any fine particles. The car’s LMP batteries thus help combat air pollution. The batteries of the B0 also contribute to reducing noise, another nuisance which affects people’s quality of life in urban environments. Supercapacitors: boosting acceleration and recycling power Supercapacitors are sophisticated energy storage components developed by the Bolloré Group. In an electric car, supercapacitors draw and store energy generated while the car is braking and feed it back into the system when the car moves off again. The result is greater acceleration, increased range and a longer lifespan for the car’s battery. The electric cars powered by BatScap’s LMP batteries and supercapacitors have a range of over 250 km. They are fast (with a top speed of 130 km/h), pleasant to drive, safe, and long-lasting. Here's one that fires up my boilers here in sunny Arizona! Natural energy from solar panels Because it is 100% electric powered, the B0 does not generate any pollution. But the process of generating the electricity which the car uses must also, as far as possible, not have produced any atmospheric pollution. That is why the creators of the B0 have designed it to incorporate every possible solution designed to optimise the car’s energy efficiency and use of clean energy sources. For instance, the B0 electric car is fitted with supercapacitors, which enable it to store and recycle the energy that is generated while braking. Similarly, the car’s roof and part of its hood are covered with highperformance solar panels which help power some of its equipment. It goes without saying that a responsible environmental approach must be coherent throughout. Which is why all the materials used to build the car’s body, battery and interior trim have been carefully selected for their low environmental impact. All are recyclable or reusable. The Bolloré Group is also in the process of developing straight-forward panels of photovoltaic cells which might be installed by individuals or in public places to fully or partly recharge the B0 electric car’s batteries using solar energy. http://www.pininfarina.com/index/storiaModelli/B0.html The 2010 Pininfarina-Bollore B-Zero only takes 5 hours to re-charge! Pininfarina-Bollore are proposing to send the Los Angeles market some early B0's in 2009, along with two more U.S. market areas. Only 2,000 cars are even set to be imported in 2010, so the amount in 2009 will surely not be very many, either. I'd guess 200 cars to each of the 3 U.S. market areas, but realize that is just a guess. The rest of America wil get these truly smart automobiles in September of 2010. And a recent clarification occurred on the internet where it was confirmed that Bollore will not rent out the battery pack separately, while the owner bought the rest of the car. It will be sold as one package, which makes more sense to me. Early testing on the LeBlue cars(made by the same two companies in partnership)has been wonderful. The LeBlue's have gone 125,000 kilometres without any trouble and without any maintenance. Bollore is saying that the batteries will last 125,000 miles. Warranty and pricing are not yet announced(and believe me I've tried to find out both) but there have been internet rumours of pricing at around $27,000, converting over from the Euro in one of Pininfarina-Bollore's press releases from the fall of '08. This price should be knocked down by $7,500 with the Barack Obama rebate, which he has promised for cars built like this to serve the auto-buying public like this. It's sort of a Green Ford for da masses.
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