Toyota FJ Cruiser - I know someone has one
05-23-2007, 10:20 PM
#17
Racer
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 497
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally Posted by sillbeer
good ole vacaville...I strongly and openly support the Japanese auto market. Lets face facts: most of their cars are built here. they are an excellent value, excellent quality. GM lays off people by the tens of thousands. Ford and GM both close plants like it's going out of style, while Nissan, Honda, and Toyota continue to build more plants and employ more americans building their vehicles. In a few years when GM goes bankrupt, Toyota will move and buy them out. Then it will get interesting.
GM, Ford, and Chrysler have to pay unions. Nissan, Toyota, and Honda do NOT.
It doesn't get much more simlpe than that. The Japanese auto workers make HALF what the GM employees do.
Todd,
2006 Pontiac Solstice
2004 VW Beetle Convertible (Wife's)
2002 Ford Crown Victoria LX-P74
1987 Pontiac Fiero SE / V6
1984 Porsche 944
1981 Pontiac Trans Am WS6
1973 Volkswagen Type-2 Transporter
05-24-2007, 03:53 PM
#18
its more than that. Besides the UAW bankrupting them, they also put most of their eggs in one basket. All Dodge, GM and Ford care about is SUV's. Now that gas will hit well over $4 by the end of the summer, and will probably settle back down to $3.90 or so people will buy less and less of them. Ford posted RECORD LOSSES last year. It was in the BILLIONS with a "B". The main reason? most of the small cars they make are crap. Who would buy a chevy cobalt when you could have a civic or a corrolla? Its a no brainer. Another thing that GM made a mistake on, is when they admitted a few years back that they only designed and built their product to last 100,000 miles and thats it. They assumed people would just buy a new one every 100,000 miles or so. While that may be true for NEW buyers, if they cant sell it for even half of what they paid for it, they are losing money in addition to driving a $hitbox. Thats why you can buy a 2 or 3 year old dodge neon for roughly half of what it cost new. Meanwhile, civic's STILL have the best resale value in that market, with the corrolla not too far behind. I'll NEVER drive an american vehicle. Simply because the Japanese build a superior product. Im in the market for a BMW M5 right now and they arent nearly as reliable as a Honda Toyota or Nissan and they cost over $50,000 brand new.
