23rd Nov 2009, 15:05
"Plus Ford loses $1.2 BILLION"
Oops, GM lost that money... sorry.. I knew it was one of the domestics though!
23rd Nov 2009, 16:11
Good for you. We replaced an unreliable Honda with a Ford years ago and will never buy another Japanese car again. None of our domestics has had even ONE repair, let alone the DOZENS our Honda required before 60,000 miles. Personally I'm happy to see more people waking up and helping our OWN country instead of giving our hard-earned money to Japan.
24th Nov 2009, 11:51
It's amazing how figures get twisted around on this site. Helping 10% of our people beats helping NINETY PERCENT?? Odd math indeed. And to set the record straight, Ford EARNED a billion in profits last year, not lost.
25th Nov 2009, 09:24
You are missing the point... Bailing out poor businesses no matter what percentage of workers they are benefiting is not a good plan in the long run. Do you really think they won't go down the same road again when they have nothing to lose with free money handed to them every time they fail?
C'mon now... This is about change in the U.S. and businesses doing the right thing and EARNING their way. We keep bailing companies out and it doesn't teach anyone anything about how to be better.
You can sit here and complain about losing your job, and this, that and the other thing, but it is NOT going to make a difference in the long run if you help out these companies today. It will only delay the inevitable, and with the dollar's value shrinking every day, we need to act now to make the hard changes we need to get back on top.
If you want to act like none of this is really happening, and go out and blindly support a failing business plan, then good luck to you. Not sure when we decided that failure should be rewarded in this country, but that really makes us weak. Weakness is not looking good to the rest of the world, and the U.S. is a joke right now BECAUSE we are scrambling around trying to bail ourselves out of a mess with more money, that we don't have, instead of taking the hard stance and letting things run their course.
If we are truly the country we all want to pretend we are, then we will survive it and come out greater for it in the end. Being weak and afraid is not the solution here though, and it really isn't going to help. Yeah, you may have to give up that big screen TV and Ipod for awhile and get back to basics, but the change will definitely help our kids and grandkids. Maybe losing millions of jobs would be the best thing to happen to us, as it would force all of us to band together and help each other out instead of being in it only for ourselves. Don't be so negative about such a positive change for future generations.
26th Nov 2009, 08:37
Positive change to me is each person not buying high ticket import cars starting today. If you keep your job, you are not on welfare. To me it's selfish and I cannot do it. I am paying to educate 2 children in college. If I am unemployed as I am paid in America, they will not be able to make it alone. My company paid for college and I went 8 years at night. I do not know if tuition reimbursement will remain. I am proud my domestic employer offered it and a good heath plan. Working low pay with no benefits is not a lesson.
27th Nov 2009, 13:39
THANK YOU 08:37!! You are so correct. I'm aghast that import owners on here are cheering for the DESTRUCTION of 14,000,000 U.S. jobs and claiming it will HELP our economy!! That skewed thinking is a direct result of the false image created by Japanese companies through lies and subliminal advertising techniques. Thankfully reality is a very different story. I visited with a friend of mine who sells Fords yesterday. He has now been able to quit a second job he had had to take due to the destruction of U.S. jobs by Japan. It seems that there really ARE patriotic Americans left. The Ford Fusion is now selling literally as fast as they are unloaded from the trucks. They haven't had a 2009 in months now, and if 10 new Fusions are unloaded at 10 AM, they are all gone by 6 PM. Thankfully Americans DO care about helping each other by saving our companies and jobs.
27th Nov 2009, 14:33
"even though their import was built in Kentucky and your "domestic" was built in Mexico"
People seem to confuse these issues a lot. A foreign company with a tiny facility in the U.S. that employs less than 0.5 % of the U.S. auto workers does absolutely NOTHING to help the U.S. economy compared to a U.S. based company that employs over 30% of U.S. auto workers even if it does maintain a tiny operation outside the U.S. People really need to give some hard thought to this before sending all our money out of the U.S. and wrecking our OWN economy. Also, current U.S. auto makers are building more reliable and safer cars than the Japanese (need I mention Toyota's ongoing safety recall saga?)
27th Nov 2009, 15:09
13:39
In my opinion, your idea of "patriotism" is scary, very scary.
I do not cheer for the destruction of our economy, I drive a domestic car, but you are way off base scapegoating import owners.
27th Nov 2009, 15:52
Yeah, the patriots are out buying Mexican built Fusions that help absolutely NO U.S. assembly line workers..
I can find a slew of Fusions at any given time. I just drove by a Ford dealer yesterday on the way home and there was a whole line of 2010 Fusions out front.
27th Nov 2009, 16:11
13:03 a request is a request, not telling.
If anything, if everyone would try to focus more on retention of employment, local purchases not overseas, it may benefit you and your neighbor as well.
I also drive 3-4 cars, most are new or nearly new. I like cars and I also like being able to afford them. I also paid my home off. I also like educating my children 2 in college, who may be able to obtain a nice position vs. barely scraping by. Just because jobs are available, does not mean they are at least equitable to before. I would hate to work extremely hard to barely afford a small grocery getter. Maybe I have had higher aspirations and hopefully instilled the same for my family. Working 2-3 jobs to barely make ends meet and hopefully scrape up enough money for a $1000 month plus apt and a small car is a shame for many.
Buying imports and sending money overseas to parent corporations to reinvest and grow seems senseless. At least let our designers and engineers make a decent income.
My one son is studying engineering, maybe help him instead of Japan. Maybe that's being selfish. I could buy a new Honda and maybe give one of their graduates the same opportunity. The problem is I pull a paycheck here... my job goes, I guess someone here can foot the bill for me.
27th Nov 2009, 19:40
I seriously doubt any claims of the Ford Fusion selling so quickly. It's DEAD LAST in the 2009 10 Best Sellers list, with only 134,600 units sold. The Toyota Camry nearly doubles that at 264,357 units sold.
28th Nov 2009, 21:58
We drove to 3 Ford dealerships today looking for a Fusion. None had any. We are told they sell within 24 hours of reaching the lots. Someone must be buying them.
30th Nov 2009, 08:07
You should come over here to NY then. I passed by a Ford dealer the other day and they had a whole row of 2010 Fusions out front. I only noticed because I like that new look they have. You can get any color you want too. I hardly think ANY car is selling faster than they can unload them off the truck these days. These claims are pretty steep in this economy. Maybe your dealer is small and doesn't order that many cars.
30th Nov 2009, 11:49
I would get on the Internet, do a radius search and find a dealer that has one. I have been on waiting lists and had deposits down on cars in the past. I would not just take anything just to drive around in. Try the Internet with dealers. I do.
23rd Nov 2009, 08:12
GM sales are booming in China. Right now. I have one Honda left and it's being replaced. What happened with quality?