26th Aug 2009, 19:30
15:51 is it too late to make a concerted effort even one family per community throughout the country?
I admit I was wrong buying a new Mercedes in the 80's and new imports before and up until 2004.
Some members of my family, friends and downtown fellow merchants are closing or on furloughs, reduced hours or jobless.
I am 100% domestics now. Maybe my small effort however late is an effort. I saw no significant quality or repair advantage in the past several years with new imports anyway. I will certainly include my German car purchases as well as Japanese models. The ones actually made here with smaller salaries and less benefits is not offsetting the higher salary loss. If your comment on everyone including first time buyers should pay and lose their homes now; is that the punishment you wish on people?
Everyone can buy whatever they want and I certainly did. In times of prosperity it was easy to pay off a home, buy a new luxury import Mercedes, BMW, Jaquar, Lexus, etc. who cares? Everyone was working, no friends or family out of work. It's a bit hard feeling that way for us right now. I could buy a new Lexus... why not, my home is paid off and drive over downtown and park in front of the store. I am sure my fellow merchants would appreciate my purchase... and it's a free country and I can buy whatever I want. Maybe the 80's attitude has remained reading this import forum; buy for today and forget tomorrow.
26th Aug 2009, 19:43
I had the Nissan in Texas, actually. We do not have much snow, but now that you mention it, the Maxima did GREAT in snow and rain. I didn't hydroplane, skid, excellent car. As for the AC, this is a regular maintenance issue. I never said I didn't do regular maintenance, along with oil changes, timing belts, alignment, brakes. That may be people's problem, when someone says 'no maintenance' they believe it literally means NO maintenance. There were no costly repairs on my Nissan Maxima. Really, had a poor 16-year old not ran into it last year, I'd still be driving it. It was my daily driver from the day I bought it in '87 until it was forced into retirement in 2008. I was scared to put my GMC on the road after it hit the 200K mile mark, it lasted to 225K with two lists of long, costly repair bills. That truck broke so often I dreaded the thought of driving it.
27th Aug 2009, 10:29
Of course I don't wish any bad luck on anyone, and I wish we could all go back to the way things were when we were in good times. That reality is gone though, and supporting poor business practices isn't going to make it return to the good old days. America is one big mismanaged business that has been controlled by greed for a very long time. Every day you read the paper, there is another scam going on or another company is failing because of poor business practices and shady dealings. The punishment, as you call it, is living in these times when the money is gone and we, as a country, are in debt beyond belief... and it is only getting worse due to the "bail out" of these failing industries. You can blame the overpaid execs in these businesses who drove their companies into the ground and still got handsomely rewarded for it, more than you can blame the guy next to you at the light in his Accord, for the misfortunes of your neighbors. The big 3 are some of the worst offenders... showing up in private jets to ask for tax payer money! Give me a break.
I am not saying that abandoning US companies is the only way to go or even a good idea, but I would like to see a viable plan for our domestic companies to produce the high quality cars they are capable of producing AND stay competitive in their pricing all, while continuing to prosper on their own. I would then be more than happy to support them again. Big changes have to occur in order for this to happen with the current companies. Believe me, I would rather be looking at another solution for our future... but greed seems to rule all and the 200 year life expectancy of the empire has expired, just has it as done many times before throughout history.
Throwing money at this situation will only end up more disastrous down the road for all of us and our children. We need to break the traditions of bad business and start anew and head into a new direction toward a more viable prosperity in the USA. Many of us will lose jobs and homes and everything else in the process, but is there really any alternative? We simply can't keep living in the dream world we've been in for so long.
Not sure how a Honda review got this far off track, but it just goes to show how interconnected one industry is to another in this world.
27th Aug 2009, 21:36
Good for you. My family has had 2 C-class Mercedes, 2 Japanese cars (both garbage) and one VW. We are now 100% domestic and plan to stay that way. I am talking to all of our friends, neighbors and business associates and pointing out the advantages to our country of buying from AMERICAN industry. A lot of misconceptions are bandied about by import dealers and uninformed import buyers. The truth is that buying Japanese hurts 90% of those working in the U.S. auto industry while helping only a handful and routing 99% of the profits to Japan. In addition, there is much evidence that proves that Japanese cars are no better (or as good as) domestics (just see comment 19:08 above).
I have started volunteering to take friends who own Japanese cars to domestic dealerships to compare. Thus far NO ONE who has test driven the new Ford Fusion has not bought one. Our local Ford dealer can't keep up with the demand. Their used car lot is full of late model Accords, Camrys and Altimas (as well as a couple of Acuras that managed to limp in before their transmissions expired).
I encourage you to join with other patriotic Americans and help to educate the people who don't understand business or automobiles. Usually an open-minded person truly appreciates having someone point out how they can support U.S. industries and get better cars at lower prices.
27th Aug 2009, 22:58
19:08.
The logic is simple. These numbers represent only a fraction of owners. If we look at actual monthly sales figures for these vehicles, we will see that most domestic models you listed do not rank in the top five for sales. Someone must be satisfied when a model sells upwards of 300K vehicles per year.
26th Aug 2009, 14:49
I think we should indicate all overseas car mfrs, European and Japan as that's an excellent view. There are a lot of people out of work and it's time to quit throwing jobs away. I would like to see more Americans prosper instead of sending profits to Europe and Japan.