tomwilly

Top 10 Autos for Customer Brand Loyalty

This study directly validates my experience. I own a 05 Fusion V6 FWD and a 07 Edge AWD, both have been flawless. My only dealer experience was when I purchased the cars, they have not been back for any issues. I'm a self maintainer. I've owned Asian cars in the past and quite frankly both my fords have given me less trouble. From the perspective of owner loyalty, yes, I will buy a ford next, I'm looking at a new Taurus to replace the Fusion, AWD this time.

Tata Nano About to Give Detroit a Run for Its Money

Ronno, I’m not sure where you get your data, probably the same place investment bankers get their info to develop toxic loans, but, the Nano probably won’t be coming stateside anytime soon. So, I don’t think GM, Ford or Chrysler and for that matter Toyota or Honda have anything to worry about. Sure, this thing is CHEAP, but you get what you pay for. I don’t think you’ll have folks standing in line to purchase this product in the US market. It was designed for the Indian market, where it’s competing for road space with bicycles and motorcycles. This thing does not get significantly better mileage than a Prius, Insight or Fusion Hybrid and sure it’s less expensive but in my home state of Colorado, it’s top speed is significantly less than the posted speed on or highways. It’s much like a reincarnation of the Iso Isetta from the early 50’s. That thing had a nickname of the “coffin”. You can get in an accident and once they scrape you off the road, they can simply stick you in the ground in the thing. This car was not designed with the US market in mind, and while Tata is considering bring this to the US market, the price of this appliance will increase dramatically to accommodate the emissions and safety standards required for sale over here, and maybe they can achieve a 5K price point. But, how many folks are going to buy a car that you can’t drive on the interstate system, has only 1 cubic foot of storage space and in an accident situation becomes another inch of chrome plating on some SUV’s bumper. At least in my opinion…… not likely.

GM and Chrysler Buyout Offers: Should Taxpayers Be Angry?

The sad thing about this writer is that we have another example of someone from academia that is profoundly out of touch with business. In my experience, students graduating from MBA programs these days have such a warped sense of how business should function that they are virtually trained to run a business into the ground. The funny thing is that the better the institution the worse the education is. If a kid goes to Regis or a similar institution they are likely getting a professor that actually started and ran his company for 30 years, If they go to Harvard, they get some moron that never ran a business and is educating kids in very poor, unethical and unsustainable business modeling. These guys would put a lemonade stand out of business let alone a major corporation. This guy is an example of the systemic problem with our country and a core business issue, idiots with a so called “education”. And this guy is teaching our kids….. It’s really sad!

GM and Chrysler Buyout Offers: Should Taxpayers Be Angry?

The sad thing about this writer is that we have another example of someone from academia that is profoundly out of touch with business. In my experience, students graduating from MBA programs these days have such a warped sense of how business should function that they are virtually trained to run a business into the ground. The funny thing is that the better the institution the worse the education is. If a kid goes to Regis or a similar institution they are likely getting a professor that actually started and ran his company for 30 years, If they go to Harvard, they get some moron that never ran a business and is educating kids in very poor, unethical and unsustainable business modeling. These guys would put a lemonade stand out of business let alone a major corporation. This guy is an example of the systemic problem with our country and a core business issue, idiots with a so called “education”. And this guy is teaching our kids….. It’s really sad!

Why Won't GM Just Go Away?

Tony,

I freely admit I’m an Idiot, I must be, I’ve never purchased a non ford/GM/Chrysler in my life… I’m 53. However, I’ll reiterate, VW held the recall record for 2007 model rear produced cars. You’re stating that a small percentage of the product involved in the recall were actually impacted vehicles typically is the standard for all recalls. Also, many recalls are voluntary, does Ford get demerits because they did a voluntary recall on a half a million mustangs because they felt the passenger side airbag may deploy with to much force and they want to mitigate any POTENTIAL problems and they recall 3 model years of the things, I would say they’re being proactive. And yes, I am an advocate of domestic lines, but I’m an advocate of any US manufacturing as I’m not like many of these Ivy League educated nit-wits that say we can exist on a service led economy, we can’t and anyone who thinks we can is…. Here’s my favorite word…. An Idiot. I try to buy domestically produced anything, and I DON’T shop at Wal-Mart.
Also, as you stated, I didn’t state that the US manufacturers’ didn’t make a bunch of crap, actually if you did read my message, I stated that the US manufacturers’ DID make crap, in the late 70’s through the early 80’s, due to government intervention into their business and their legislation of CAFÉ standards with a timeline that was unrealistic in it’s expectation. To meet those guidelines, yes in fact, Detroit made a whole lot of crap, but, my point is that they have never lived it down, which in my opinion, and remember it’s only an opinion because I’m obviously an idiot, it’s a shame, because we’re exporting a whole lot of US dollars overseas for no good reason, solely due to marketing perception. One other point I’d like to make as long as I’m on another rant….. Most surveys that are used to put any manufacturer in a good light are also crap. JD Powers, consumer reports etc. There are issues with those surveys. 1. they have a very small sample size based on the actual fleet of vehicles (tell me how Consumer Reports can draw a valid conclusion when they sample 3-400 folks who own a Camry when there are 400K or so sold in a year) 2. Samples are easily biased, let me explain…. If you buy a Camry, you’ve been told by everyone that it’s the best product on the planet; JD Powers gives you a call and asks what problems you’ve had, well, you’ve bought the best car on the planet right? So you won’t tell them about the trunk that you have to slam shut because the lid had an alignment problem, you’d look like an idiot…. But, the guy that bought the Ford Taurus, everyone told him he was a moron for buying it in the first place…. So when JD powers gives him a call, he flames the car because the “Damn cigarette lighter quit working”…. Much of this survey data can be manipulated through psychological impact.
A more accurate way of determining reliability of a particular car line would be to see the actual parts usage based on the fleet size, but unfortunately no car manufacturer will provide that data. It would be rather telling though.
Last comment, since 1973, I’ve owned 22 domestic car line vehicles, including a Chevy Citation (total Turd); both used and new with a typical odometer reading of 100-120K when I retire them. I’ve only had one significant service issue other than normal maintenance. A rear main seal on the engine block of my 1987 Ford Mustang, which was out of warranty and Ford repaired under warrantee at no cost to me. In my experience domestics simply are not unreliable and I want to make sure my money goes to US companies, failings and all.

Sorry again for the rant…….

Why Won't GM Just Go Away?

This string has become comical. People who love their Asian cars will never admit that domestics are on an equal footing from a performance, reliability and engineering perspective to top imports, even though this is the case. As one person commented, the reliability difference between top domestics and top imports’ are a statistical tie. And let’s face it, there is crap coming out of Asia, Europe and US, but the ratio of junk is no greater out of any of the markets. Somebody out there convince me that Mitsubishi could engineer their way out of a paper bag…. Someone mentioned that VW had the most recalls in 07’ followed by Toyota, some other idiot stated that was incorrect and that Ford was the top contender. The data was based on 07’ model year production, not recalls across multiple model years, so to the idiot who stated Ford was the leader…. You’re an idiot. I want to make one other comment, Japan DOES have a protected market, and the door is essentially closed to others. I spent 35 years of my life in the consumer electronics industry, that was the first one to go to the Japanese, and it was in fact trade warfare and the US government did absolutely nothing to protect our industries, that why there is NO American TV or Audio manufacture left in the mainstream, they’ve been run out of business years ago. If you don’t believe this, I encourage you to read Akio Morita’s book, founder of Sony, where he essentially calls Americans idiots because we can be convinced to by based only on marketing, and we’ll buy crap, he laughs at us, and rightfully so. Americans will buy anything through good marketing, hell we just elected a president based on that philosophy.

The only other comment I’ll make is that the PERCIEVED reliability downfall of the domestic industry can be traced back to Government intervention into the industry. When the first CAFÉ standards were passed in the late 70’s, the domestics were manufacturing largely a fleet with large V8’s. No because they were out of touch with the wants of the American market, but because that’s what people wanted. Our fabulously intelligent federal government decided that they would be required to meet a CAFÉ in a short time frame, essentially requiring them to redesign their entire product portfolio in a very short period of time. Anyone who knows anything about automotive engineering knows that it takes some time to develop a car from the ground up, and we’re talking about pre-cad days, guys were still using slide rules. America had to redesign the fleet in couple years, hence, yes they brought out a bunch of crap, like X cars, gas V8’s converted to diesel, multi displacement engines without any computer control etc., a reliability nightmare. But I assure you, Detroit didn’t WANT to make junk, they were forced to by out incredibly inept government, and they haven’t lived it down to this day.

Sorry for the rant….. Carry on.

Why Won't GM Just Go Away?

Andy, your an idiot, enough said...... Bet you've never owned a domestic branded car...... You look like another Ivy League MBA that know absolutly nothing about nothing..... We have WAY too many of them running our financial institutions into the ground...... Idiot, just an idiot

The 12 Most Important Cars of 2009

Good pick on the F150, Ford should have no worries as anyone with an ounce of intelligence should recognize that Toyota’s foray into the large pickup market is a failure. They may sell a good number of these turds, but based on the poor engineering, high recall rate and pathetic gas mileage they’re selling these things based on their expertise with cars, certainly not trucks, which they obviously have none.

Let GM Fail

As are Fords and GM's in Europe....


On Nov 17 05:46 PM bosun.j wrote:

> Buick in China is made in China. Chinese workers.

Let GM Fail

Reliability for domestics is as good or better than the asian product regardless of manufacturing site, highest recalled 07 vehical line was Toyota, their legendary reliability is just that, legendary.... Some one metioned only americans will purchase american car company products, Hmm let me see, number one import in china is buick, look at the to 10 selling cars in europe, ahhh no asian stuff on that list, but wow! fords and GM's, clearly the US manufacturers have their issues, they're called unions, or bloodsuckers for short. They have great engineering but the US population has been brainwashed by effective marketing that the asian makers are better, ya, their better at closing their markets to our products and dumping thiers here. Kill the unions, open the asian markets, and watch GM an Ford kick some butt!! P.S. it's unfortunate that us idiot americans can't seem to get off the gas guzzlers, GM and Ford build product based on demand, we like pickups and SUV's till gas price goes up and then we all bitch, Asians build for their home market, lil' tiny cars and they just fill the void when we fat ass americans get pissed cause gas hits 4 bucks a gallon, and the domestics make a great target when we want to whine about all those SUV's..... GROW UP!!!