Edmunds.com | Inside Line | Auto Observer Your Account | Help | Directory
You are here:
![[F]](http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/webxicons/site.gif){kind=small}
Forums
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
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
|
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.
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
| 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. | |
|
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...
|
|
|
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. |
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Replying to: dtownfb (Nov 24, 2008 9:59 am) They do that so that on popular models, or during extremely good economic times they can make the most profit. But on the other end the high MSRP can be a turnoff for the reasons you mentioned, or the number just looks daunting. Who wants to buy an Impala with a $23K+ options sticker, when a 2 year old one is listed for $10K. GM wanted to stick with 1 price - the MSRP on Saturn; and they blew this by trying to price in too much profit. The Saturns looked expensive compared to the discounted prices on other brands. Now they offer rebates and special financing on Saturns. I think GM should have kept MSRP, but took the rebates off the MSRP and sold it for that. They would have had a significant MSRP advantage this way for their advertising to take advantage of.
|
|
|
|
|
Replying to: gagrice (Nov 24, 2008 8:47 am) Knew people who made a killing when gold was first out of the bag decades ago and hit a ceiling. Chatter said gold should hit 600-650 for a bottom but believed the 714 it recently hit was a new bottom. No safe deposit vault - no protection no insurance - guess the reason for a safe at home by those buying metals. Just surprised by the amount of activity at that store. And it is true the old buy/sell, but that is how the broker lives. |
|
|
Replying to: rogeliov (Nov 23, 2008 11:59 pm) As a former owner of a Cressida and current owner of a Lexus - I have to disagree - My Cressida, though reliable in general (Air Conditioning was problematic) was noisy, rattly, and reminded me a lot of a Ford Fairmont in the way it drove. In fact, it was no better than the Fairmont my wife drove at the same time. The Toyota was a bit more dependable, but certainly lacked any more refinement. Both had inline 6 cylinder engines and RWD. Both had a host of rattles and squeaks, and both drove rather erratically. The Ford had a better Air Conditioner, which never needed service, while the Toyota A/C gave me multiple issues and never was right. The Ford had other weaknesses, but both were amazingly comparable IMO. My Lexus (both of them) have been extraordinary vehicles in most every way. The seats could be more comfortable, but there are few squeaks and rattles, they are drop dead dependable, smooth beyond description, and intelligent in the extreme. About the only High Tech device on my Cressida was an equalizer on the Radio, which frankly did little to improve its performance.... IOW, the Lexus is a way better car than the already very good Toyota.....even today. As to the question of the topic; I feel a bailout of the Auto Industry in this country is nothing more or less than a bailout of the UAW - and I do not favor that. I think the only way for Ford & GM to survive is to go into Chapter 11, and dismiss the union and dealer contracts, and totally restructure the companies, in a much leaner and more efficient manner, pay the workers what Toyota and Honda and Subaru pay, and invite the workers back. But the legacy costs, the union contracts that require that a plant produce, or the workers be paid not to produce, and generally paying the "employee bank" to show up and play cards all day MUST go if the companies are going to survive. The build good cars already. They could afford to built just as good a car as Toyota does, IF they didn't have to roll in these extra expenses to each car, making them non-competitive. At least that's the way I see it. By the way, my bank has not needed, nor have we accepted any bailout funds from the government.
|
|
You are here:
Forums
Automotive News & Views Do You Favor A Government Loan To The Detroit 3?
New? Join Now!
Forum Tools
Search Forums
Browse by Vehicle
Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
Today's Chats
