dpro0102

Five Reasons Not to Buy American Cars

Yes indeed, why purchase goods designed, engineered and produced by your Country. It's FAR smarter to send your dollars overseas to be converted to Yen and Euros and Yuan. We don't make anyhting else here, so why should we make cars and trucks? Great logic. Let the Chinese make them. We can still offer each other our 'Services' and be a 'Consumer' driven economy. You DO understand that our #1 export is wealth right? The boats pull away from the California coastline empty - only because the dollars can go back over the wires. Keep it up, keep rooting against the men and women who live in your country. Maybe brush up on you Chinese too, as you may soon have to speak it. Moron.

The Yen Needs to Depreciate

What now - no currency manipulation to hide behind? Perhaps the Japanese companies will have to find a way to compete without protectionism? Honestly - I am shedding no tears for them. What happened to the $$ Billions in profits made from an artificially weak yen. Maybe they should have prepared for this eventuality.

Turning Japanese: The Audacity of Reality (Part 3 of 3)

Ya Jim - I think your comment is correct - I'm not advocating protectionism. My point is - do you really want to argue about Free Market Capitalism in your market when your domestic companies are competing with others that are protected? Death to the domestics while the protected Japanese prosper? How does that help the U.S.A?


On Feb 02 10:33 AM Jim Quinn wrote:

> Bankruptcy would allow the US car companies to come out debt free
> and right sized to compete in the global marketplace. They wouldn't
> go out of business. If the entire world decides protectionism is
> the way to go, this will be THE GREATEST DEPRESSION.

Turning Japanese: The Audacity of Reality (Part 3 of 3)

Good article - but I think you've missed an important point. You want GM and Ford and Chrysler to fail - but you also point out just how much of our GDP depends on consumer spending. It seems that the Japanese car makers currently have the competitive advantage - is this perhaps a by-product of 2 decades of Japanese Government protectionism via currency manipulation? Cars are one of the last things here in the good ole' USA that contribute to the GDP outside of consumer spending. You really want to keep giving those industries away under the guise of 'free market capatilism'? You're headed for 90%+ consumer spending for the GDP - and that (in my opinion) makes you a 3rd world country. It sure isn't free market in Japan! (The #1 importer of cars in Japan (heavily taxed and tarrifed) is Mercedes Benz - and their Market Share in Japan is a 'whopping' 1.6%!) Give up our domestic industries under the arguments of 'free trade' and 'capitalism' to countries that don't play the same way - and you may as well be losing a ground war to them. Wake Up!!!

Bail Out Capitalism, Not Detroit

Yes - the 'American' way out responsibility - bankruptcy. Stick the retirees, the suppliers and shareholders with the bill. They'll figure it out - and in the mean time everything will be made in China and Vietnam.

Walk away from your responsibilities - not up to them. It's the American way. Say your sorry and stick someone else with the bill. Nice.

Let GM Fail

So - how many 'Americans' does Wall Street employ and provide pensions for and health care for? Why is there so much hatred against Detroit asking for a loan - when you gave Wall Street $700 Billion - which has no repayment terms???

TO REMIND ALL OF YOU AS TO WHY GM AND FORD ARE IN A MARKET WHERE NO ONE IS BUYING CARS - LET ME TAKE YOU BACK TO LAST CHRISTMAS ON WALL STREET:

"Goldman breaks Wall Street Bonus record"
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/1...

"$15,000 bottle of bubbly? No Problem"
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/1...

"Bad year? Bonuses on Wall Street surge 14%"
usatoday.com/money/ind...

So - please tell me how you can look beyond the additional $40 Billion to save AIG (which must have been approved in about 2 hours) - but giving a loan to your domestic manufacturing industry is just such a horrible idea. Wall Streets mess is spilling out onto Main Street - and your mad at main street.

Not too much press on the Wall Street of December 2007 these days. I WONDER WHY!?!

Let GM Fail

Dan S1 - I think that maybe you are of the opinion that you are unbiased.

Is my factual statement of GM's recent and good product story a fly in your opinions' ointment? How about some facts in response to mine?

I agree that the Hummer brand has quality lagging the industry average. I would also point out that the quality gap used to be 100's of problems per hundred vehicles. Now your talking a about 80 problems per hundred being stellar, and 150 problems being 'deplorable', 120 problems being the average. Not really a huge disparity. One of GM's problems was size - which is admittedly shrinking. As Toyota is growing - however - their quality reputation contunues to outshine their quality reality. Wonder how long it'll take factual reality to supplant public perception - but given our general Media frenzy regarding the uber-horrible American manufacturers - my guess is it may take longer than GM or Ford has.....

My favorite argument from those that purchase Japanese vehicles is the investment angle - and the re-sale value.

To them I can only ask one question - if your Honda is worth $1000 more than my Chevrolet after 3 years of ownership - how does that off-set the tens of thousands of dollars of lost equity in your pro
On Nov 17 04:46 PM Dan S1 wrote:

> James West is simply telling the truth in general about GM and the
> truth hurts. I applaud him in being brave enough to tell the truth.
>
>
> dpro0102, it sounds like you have or had some related employment
> with a US automaker or a supplier. That's where you show your bias.
> I do not and have not worked for any automaker. There are some solid
> GM products out there, but the few of them cannot make up for the
> bulk of the other products few care to buy. Why don't you speak of
> Hummer quality and reliability or lack of it, to be fair?
>
> Also, I used to buy Ford products and now own a Honda product. Why?
> Ford in the past seemed to have better reliability than Honda long
> ago, but Honda has since eclipsed Ford in quality and reliability,
> in general. The consumer is voting for what they want with their
> pocketbook. Let's respect that.

Let GM Fail

"if maintained by government money, can only churn out even more cars that nobody wants or can afford to buy"

Start out with that comment - and it makes you a Moron. Pure and simple. GM outsells all comers in North America. Cars that Americans are buying. It's funny how we can't stereotype people any longer - as it's been proven that - for instance - calling all poor people stupid isn't all that truthful. Taking out your wide tipped marker and painting all of GM's vehicles as being 'cars nobody wants to buy' shows the same sort of stereotyping ,and a lot of ignorance. Get over yourself, and stop attempting to pass off your opinion as fact. Opinions are most often not fact. Especially in the case of yours'.

There are plenty of Americans that want to buy a GMC Acadia. There a tons of them that want to buy a Chevy Malibu. Quite a few want a Cadillac CTS. The Buick Enclave is selling very well, under 30 days of inventory even in these market conditions. Their pick-ups and Tahoes/Suburbans are the best of their breed. Look at the here and now, and not the 90's when trying to sum up GM's product offerings. The here and now is impressive.

Impact of GM Destroying the EV1

If you really did watch the documentary - you'd note that Honda, Toyota, and Ford also crushed their Electric cars. One landfill documentary even caught Honda's getting crushed with their window stickers still in place (but the batteries were removed). GM made the biggest gamble - and they lost the most. Fact is that America wasn't interested. Unless you think that Honda and Toyota just mindlessly followed GM's lead - and abondoned the EV when they really shouldn't have. All are driven by profits, and the EV vehicles were not going to generate any. I know that when the media looks for a punching bag - GM is the first choice. Maybe take a breath - do a little more research - and realize that your article shouldn't single out GM. It's easy to make this argument in the beckdrop of $4.00+ Gasoline. But face it - when it was $1.25/gallon - it didn't make sense. CARB could have and shold have stayed the course. GM, Honda and Ford don't profit from gasoline - oil companies do. Times have changed. Government had their chance to help force the change - but when the pocketbook economics don't make sense at the kithchen table level - we don't buy into them. I don't have a lot of faith that a $40,000 small electric car will strike a cord all that quickly with mainstream Americans......

GM's Last Fatal Mistake

Weak Dollar and Zooming Sales in overseas market. Maybe the domestic market (the only market the author seems to know anything about) won't fully control this Global Companies' fate? Perhaps it's the American's turn to benefit from the currency trade, under free and open market economic forces. This has benefited the Japanese Automakers for decades - but of course their currency values have been heavily subsidized by the Japanese Government. It's nice to know that their government is more or less willing to bankrupt their home economy to help ensure their success overseas. Euro is up 50% vs. the Dollar - but the Yen has only moved from 120 to 107? Point is the demise of GM has been predicted by everyone, it's the Wolf we've been hearing for years. It's really easy to write about, and really easy to get wrong. The reality is that GM is still the top global auto manufacturer in terms of sales (may lose out this year - but that makes them #2 - the spot Toyota has held for a few years. Didn't seem to be death sentence for them?). I'd put a lot more worry in Chrysler and Ford.

Why Auto Stocks Are an Easy Short

Dude - you're 19. What cars in the past decade have you even sat in? My guess - Mommy and Daddy have import cars, you grew up in California and couldn't even find the Chevy or Ford dealership in youe neighborhood. (You know - the dealerships that have been selling cars for a lot more years than you've been alive). God Bless the internet - any moron can post their opinion. Get a clue - or at least grab a fact or two. Do us all a favor - and stick something I imagine you might have clue about - typing away at your nerdy computer. BTW - I'll see if someone can send you the I Love Japan and I Love Germeny bumper stickers you wanted....