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What Will You Do When Your Favorite Brand Dies? - READ ONLY

66 messages,  Last post on Apr 28, 2009 at 4:53 PM

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Messages Page 3 of 7

#17 of 66 Re: If Buick Goes... [lemko] by euphonium

Feb 18, 2009 (12:26 pm)

Replying to: lemko (Feb 18, 2009 8:32 am)
"made a V-8 an option on the MKS"
 
When did that happen and which engine is the V8 option? Perhaps the one that was in the LS?

#18 of 66 Re: If Buick Goes... [euphonium] by lemko

Feb 18, 2009 (1:07 pm)

Replying to: euphonium (Feb 18, 2009 12:26 pm)
I hear it's a 4.4 litre V-8 - the same one that's used in the Volvo crossover, whatever it's called.

#19 of 66 If GM goes I don't know what I'll do by bhill2

Feb 18, 2009 (2:36 pm)

I am looking forward to them keeping me in Corvettes until I'm done with my second childhood (maybe when I'm 100 but I'm not committing.) I can't afford anything else with similar performance.

#20 of 66 One car is pretty much by boaz47

Feb 18, 2009 (3:06 pm)

like another. I won't shed a tear or jump for joy for the cars themselves. I would for the lost jobs but a car is a car much like a drill is a drill. I don't think much will happen to Toyota either. Honda is a rather small target and should be spared any real damage. I agree with Nippon that Suzuki and Subaru will be living on the edge but the Japanese government will more than likely step in to help them out. Nissan on the other hand is in a different position. They are being controlled by the French and the French own their financial arm so they are at the mercy of someone they have no control over. Still the Japanese Government will not allow 51 percent ownership of one of their national companies, or they didn't used to, so the government could step in to save them as well. But once again it wouldn't bother me one bit to see them go or even to see Subaru and Suzuki go. It is just rubber, steel, plastic, glass and wire.
 
Someone will always step in to take their place and after a few years we will forget them. They are just car companies they are not people that we need to treat like they are a living thing. It is no different than when we lost so many electronic companies, someone always steps in to make us forget what used to be.

#21 of 66 Re: If Buick Goes... [lemko] by euphonium

Feb 18, 2009 (9:59 pm)

Replying to: lemko (Feb 18, 2009 1:07 pm)
An AWD MKS, V8 would be attractive to me if I didn't have to buy the "Limited" option costing over $5,000.

#22 of 66 Re: One car is pretty much [boaz47] by nippononly

Feb 18, 2009 (11:11 pm)

Replying to: boaz47 (Feb 18, 2009 3:06 pm)
I think Porsche is an exception to your comments, and while I will never be able to afford a new one in my lifetime, I would miss them if they went belly up. I'm not too worried about it happening though.
 
As for Subaru, I would miss them too, and there I do have some real concern for the company's viability without a tie-up or buy-up, but OTOH they are a lot less distinctive than the likes of Porsche. Honda and Mitsubishi pretty much have all of Sube's territory covered between them.

#23 of 66 Re: One car is pretty much [nippononly] by boaz47

Feb 19, 2009 (5:21 pm)

Replying to: nippononly (Feb 18, 2009 11:11 pm)
'I think Porsche is an exception to your comments, and while I will never be able to afford a new one in my lifetime, I would miss them if they went belly up."
 
but why? It is just a car nothing more. Do we miss Dussenberg or Cord? Do we miss D-Jags or any other number of classic vehicles? It is just a tool made up of pieces of material. They would be replaced by something else or the will survive but it won't matter because they too will change and those that loved the old Speedster will have to wonder what ever happened to the old 911.
 
I believe Porsche /VW will survive and some of the others will as well but in reality what does it matter if Subaru is gone? We survived Studebaker, Nash, Hudson and several others and no one lost much sleep over them. Even Mini Cooper is just a name the car is gone. The new one is nothing like the origional. It might look a little like one but that is it.
 
There are cars I miss but it is much like any other tool when a new and improved one replaces the old one you soon forget the old one.
 
To give you a classic example I remember having a 1966 VW bug. I thought it was a great car and it was so easy to maintain and drive. Got reasonable fuel mileage and was about as simple to own as any vehicle I have ever owned. Around 1994 to 1996 I got a chance to to pick up a clean 71 VW bug. I got a new rebuilt engine and transmission and replaced the carb and exhaust with a Bug spray and stinger. I sold the car a year later because I got tired of working on it all the time. It was then that I remember I used to work on my old 66 all the time as well.
 
Do I miss air cooled VW bugs? Nope. Would I get another one if I had to pick between a Hyundai today and it? Nope. And you know I don't like Hyundai.
 
But Porsche isn't my favorite brand so it isn't part of the question for me. But what I would do if one of my favorite brands died wouldn't be to buy a Porsche. Unless they were the only choice left. Otherwise if a new private company comes along, or even Porsche, and offers me something that doesn't use gas or oil I won't miss any of the old cars. Not even when I get old enough to be assigned a walker to drive.

#24 of 66 Re: What Will You Do When Your Favorite Brand Dies? [fezo] by gagrice

Feb 19, 2009 (5:40 pm)

Replying to: fezo (Feb 17, 2009 6:18 pm)
You mean my Studebaker is going away?
 
Amen to that brother. I owned 3 Studebaker cars and a PU. They all got better mileage than anything else in Detroit. I always figured they were run out of business because the others could not compete. Quite frankly NOTHING built today is really worth get excited about. If GM, Toyota, Ford, Honda and Chrysler all went belly up, I would not lose a wink of sleep. I doubt I will ever buy any of them again.

#25 of 66 Re: What Will You Do When Your Favorite Brand Dies? [gagrice] by fezo

Feb 19, 2009 (6:26 pm)

Replying to: gagrice (Feb 19, 2009 5:40 pm)
Funny thing - the late Studebakers had a reputation as rust buckets but to me what the heck from that period wasn't a rust bucket?

#26 of 66 Re: What Will You Do When Your Favorite Brand Dies? [gagrice] by boaz47

Feb 19, 2009 (8:13 pm)

Replying to: gagrice (Feb 19, 2009 5:40 pm)
"Amen to that brother. I owned 3 Studebaker cars and a PU. They all got better mileage than anything else in Detroit. I always figured they were run out of business because the others could not compete."
 
They made the hawk and the Super Hawk and they were anything but rust buckets. But most of all they had one of the best sports coupe ever.
 
http://photovalet.com/data/comps/VCC/VCCV06P07_10.jpg
 
It was so good they continued making long after the company shut down. Still life went on and no one lost much sleep over it. If Honda dropped off the face of the earth buyers would just buy Toyotas. If they don't make any more Mazdas people will simply buy Hondas or whatever is being sold. I am no different than 99 percent of the people in the US. I will buy what I can buy and I will not worry all that much about what I can't buy. Take a name tag off of one car and put it on another and if I like the car I don't care who made it. Unlike some people I was not fooled for a second when Toyota came out with the Scion. It was a Toyota just like Buick was GM. I would burst peoples bubble every time I would see one and they would say, oh it is a new brand from Japan. I would point out it was a Toyota and some might disagree and say it was only serviced by Toyota. We would walk over to the window and I would point out the Toyota name on the back window glass.
 
Honda tried to pull the new car on us with Acura but it was only Acura here for so many years it was a joke. It was a Honda with a different name plate.
 
A bit long winded but it was to simply point out that a car is just a car and it doesn't matter who puts their name on it.

Messages Page 3 of 7

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