5th Dec 2008, 16:10
It would be also a good ideal to eliminate all tax concessions and real estate tax exemptions that were given to attract foreign manufacturing. Maybe no warranty meaning past 36-50,000 imports may be equivalent to 100,001 miles domestics.
Laughing at the state of the current economy may come back at haunt you as far as future costs of everything you buy, including your precious new next import. Why has banking, the stock market drop, mortgage defaults and extreme high fuel costs been overlooked in your equation on what has influenced new vehicle purchases this year? What about consumeraffairs.com when you discuss import infallibility? Not buying your comments as 100% quality driven or lack of it. It's people cutting back in my opinion, yet still wanting to keep their homes, pay higher utilities, groceries, jobs and be able to drive. We are in an overall recession my friend.
5th Dec 2008, 20:34
Oh, yes, by all means, all patriotic Americans should instantly go out and start throwing our country into a depression by buying foreign vehicles. Nothing like destroying the livelihoods of 13 million MORE Americans and causing a depression that will literally be world-wide. This would effect EVERYONE adversely, including import owners. Why people can't grasp this very obvious issue is beyond me. If the auto industry in the U.S. fails, our government will then have to bail out 13,000,000 FAMILIES with food stamps, unemployment compensation, medical care and assistance with housing. With a trillion+ defecit (thanks to W) we are already almost bankrupt as a country (and YES, countries go bankrupt too). If China (who has been financing our disastrous political decisions for 8 years) decided we were a bad credit risk we'd become a "third world country" overnight and owning ANY car would become nearly impossible for any but the very rich.
The scare tactics being used to try and make people believe domestic auto makers won't honor their warranties is not true or not applicable for 2 very good reasons:
1. BY LAW companies in bankruptcy HAVE to provide for honoring their product's warranties and service needs. If you buy a 2009 GM car with a 100,000 mile warranty (higher than ANY Japanese car) your warranty WILL be honored for 100,000 miles. That's the law. There are NO exceptions.
2. How many people can you HONESTLY say you know who have EVER had a major mechanical issue with a domestic vehicle in the first 100,000 miles? Out of a couple of dozen domestics we've bought new, NOT ONE has ever had a mechanical problem in a mere 100,000 miles...EVER. That includes examples from all 3 of the Big Three.
As for Honda or (ESPECIALLY) Toyota being a "superior" vehicle, there have been literally HUNDREDS of challenges on here for PROOF (NOT opinion) of this... and we're STILL waiting.
Finally, it will be a great case of "payback" if the Big Three DO go out of business, because the price of a Corolla or Civic will jump to $40,000 overnight, with no discounts, high interest rates and no incentives of ANY kind. When that happens I will laugh myself silly at all the import fans and just keep driving my domestics for the rest of my life. My dad bought a GM car in 1956. He died in 2004 and the car is still in the family and still runs as good as new (and is still 100% original). My brother died in 1992 and his son only recently sold his 1977 Buick (which never had had a single mechanical problem).
6th Dec 2008, 07:46
To all of you who have decided to turn this site into a forum for arguing the domestic vs. import question over and over and over again, - I have one question:
Since the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry & Corolla are built in the USA, while the Chevrolet Impala & Chrysler 300's are built in Canada. The PT Cruiser is built in Mexico. What is YOUR definition of a domestic car?
Now can we get back to using this site for reporting on cars & trucks?
6th Dec 2008, 08:53
Ford has cash and makes good products. They'll be fine and may emerge as the new dominant American manufacturer. Ford is not even asking for a loan, just a reserve "if they need it" to absorb the shock of suppliers shutting down if GM goes down.
I don't care about a warranty, because my experience has shown that American cars are reliable. If Chrysler were to go insolvent and dealers were selling cars at 20% of MSRP to unload them, heck, I'd buy two Calibers and drive them the rest of my life!
6th Dec 2008, 17:25
Since this review is specific to full size trucks, and Ford F Series full size trucks alone has sold over 7 times more than Tundra annually, and the number one selling vehicle in America has been the Ford F Series for over 20 years... let's still not lose sight this is a review on full size trucks. It's not Camry time here.
Anyone that has bought a new full size truck this year has bought one over function and utility as fuel costs have risen dramatically... small cars and trucks are for totally different applications. They are cheap to buy and run but they cannot meet the applications that large trucks are designed to perform. Maybe it might sink in... sigh...
4th Dec 2008, 22:38
Something I rarely do is watch TV, but today I watched CNN for nearly three hours. What I saw was the 3 CEO's of GM, Ford, and Chrysler beg for money in front of a Congressional committee, who basically ridiculed them and tore them to pieces. Which is just exactly what they should have done.
The big question that reoccurred was: why should we give you guys money when there is no guarantee that you will do anything useful with it? Why give 38 billion dollars to three companies that will probably just use it to survive just a LITTLE longer and continue to build the same unappealing, outdated, low quality vehicles?
An interesting fact I learned today is that GM has FOUR times as many plants in the U.S. as Toyota, yet Toyota still has the best selling, best rated (in terms of quality and reliability) vehicles on the market. Not only that, but Toyota is worth about 143 billion and GM, the biggest of the "big" 3 (laughable) is worth about 110 billion dollars less than that.
So.. here's what I want you domestic fans that comment here to understand: the Big 3 make scrap. Plain and simple. And even if they DID make good automobiles, a person would have to be seriously confused to even consider buying one again. To roughly quote Rick Wagoner (CEO of GM)..."General Motors WILL declare bankruptcy before the new year (January 2009) unless we receive money from the taxpayers". Same goes for Ford and Chrysler. In fact, Chrysler is so far beyond hope that they are expected to go out of business even if they DO get this money. The company that OWNS 80% of Chrysler refuses to give them another nickel, because they know it would be wasting money on something doomed to fail.
So, domestic fans...let's hear ALL that talk about GM's precious 100,000 mile warranty again... (I'm laughing to myself). I don't care if they offer a bumper to bumper 500,000 mile warranty, it'd just be another scam. They most likely won't be there in about a month to back up ANY warranty. To anyone reading out there - do yourself a favor (and this is obvious to most people) - buy a Toyota or a Honda. Not only is it a clearly superior vehicle, but they will be in existence after January to back up their warranty.