I've hung in there with you guys for all these years. I've owned four Chevys and two Fords throughout my life. In fact, my current vehicles are a 1994 Chevy K1500 and a fully loaded 1994 Ford Taurus. Both are ugly mother fuckers with a combined 300,000 miles but are bought and paid for, and I know how to keep them running (haven't visited a mechanic in over a decade). Next year I plan to purchase "new" vehicles, either used over the Internet or brand spanking new off the lot. And my new vehicles won't have much of anything to do with Michigan.
See, when you loser CEOs flew to DC in your corporate jets asking for my money, you sold your soul to the devil. Instead of actually earning your obscene over-the-top salaries by driving your respective companies into the future, you chose to drive them into the ground. All you have been doing is focusing on short-term profits, completely ignoring long-term business planning and proper risk management. Where are those short-term profits now? Oops. Meanwhile, the Japanese tooled up, have been building products that people actually want (wow! what a concept!) and are kicking your butts up and down Auto Row. So, naturally, smart people like me are infuriated over this potential bail-out, but we're not surprised. Because losers are all too predictable: when the shit hits the fan, the losers hit up the taxpayers.Toyota, Honda, and Nissan have been rubbing your faces deep in shit since the 1980s. When you cut off major funding for your electric car and other advanced programs (e.g., EV1), the Japanese were just getting started. They diversified while you placed your entire bet into one market; trucks and SUVs. And even though the Prius is a big fucking scam, there are lots of customers who want it anyway. The Prius makes them feel good. Toyota is exploiting that. You know what that's called? Really good business!! Do you realize that your short-term SUV greed has put you 10 years in the hole behind Japanese technology? Their hybrids and compacts are way better than the garbage you're trying to pump out. And it was only a matter of time before the Japanese would capture a significant share of the US truck market. You couldn't even fend that off!! Ha! You've now lost over 25% market share in the one market you hedged your entire bet on!! Losers!! And look at you now. Sold your punk asses to the devil.
You should use some of that bail-out money to buy land. You're gonna need a lot of it to store all your worthless crap nobody wants to buy. Chevrolet Volt!! Please!! I can't hold back the laughter!!!
Well, I love my country, but I aint' buying American simply for the sake of buying American. I buy from those companies that actually deserve and earn my patronage. I hear my brothers and sisters down in the South build a pretty mean Japanese machine!! Well, you got my business. And you earned the profit, Japan.
Behold, my purchases next year will include a full-size Acura sedan and the Toyota Tundra. I've been planning for a long time, and I can't wait!!! I choose not to participate in this recession, and that includes propping up companies that don't deserve it.
9 comments:
Can't go wrong with a Toyota Paul. I've owned two Tacoma's in the last 10 years, and they're nothing but reliable trucks. I beat the shit out of my first one and that thing treated me like a king. I sold it about three years ago to a buddy and he's still driving it around. I think it's up to around 240k miles by now too! That 22R motor is a beauty.
I've only owned my newest one ('99) for three years, but I've beat the shit out of this one and it still purrs. I'm expecting this one to take me a long ways as well!
My solution was to just go back and buy the years where they were producing something decent. Therefore, I have at least 2 Camaros that get 30+ mpg...at 85+ mph..fully loaded with people and stuff. No lie. One is a 91 and another a 92. One has 280,000 miles on it...
Mechanics are gonna make a KILLING in this economy.
my 3rd car was an 89 tercel. totaled it. flipped it and the top didn't come crushing down. my point= they're safer than you might think. also a friend of mine had one too. she was a spoiled rich kid whose daddy bought her everything...she wanted a new car so she drained the oil out of the tercel and drove and drove and drove. finally she gave up and put oil back in it. :D
I just turned 170,000 on the Trooper and the only thing that I have had to do to it is replace the starter and clean the throttle body. Other than that it has been a great big,gas guzzlin SUV gotta love it.
Kelly! Holy crap. What kind of engine is in those Camaros? Surely not the V8.
labcat, my grandpa did that to an old Datsun. It never broke down.
After years of declining Detroit quality, I finally gave in to lease me an American car that one of my best friends in high school used to borrow from his Dad for our weekend cruises: a Lincoln Continental. It was a luxurious Givenchy series model and had a lot of cool features that only came in high-end cars. It even came with a really cool instant MPG gauge that told me how efficiently I was using fuel as I was driving - cool! The year? 1983!
A month or two after getting the car, the real walnut veneer detailing on the dashboard and armrests started to bubble and crack, likely as a result of the heat in Southwest Florida. But you'd think in one of Ford's highest-end cars, this would never have been a problem. After making 3 40-mile round trips over a couple of months to the closest dealership that could handle the veneer replacement (to their credit, I was given a decent loaner car each time but what a waste of my time!), I finally gave up on getting that problem resolved successfully, no matter how many calls and letters to Ford management in Detroit. I returned the car when the lease finally expired 3 years after I got it. With the veneer work still bubbled and cracked. Then 6 months after I turned the car in, Ford sent me a notice advising me that they had been informed of the nasty veneer problem and - as such - they were sending out a recall advising every owner to bring their cars back for replacement of their veneer with a vinyl substitute!
I decided then and there that if the quality of my car was no longer a priority from the American auto worker to me, then my loyalty to them would also no longer a priority.
I hadn't driven a Detroit vehicle since then until a couple of years ago when I had the opportunity to purchase a Windstar minivan with high miles that had come off a corporate 2-year lease. Well maintained and all highway miles but terrible for book value. So it turned out to be an incredible bargain that no one else seemed to want. As it turned out, this van has been a fantastic all-round vehicle with virtually no problems at all. Easy to maintain and perfect as a general utility vehicle.
I'm not sure if I can say the same for GM or Chrysler products however. I appears that Ford may have an edge on their counterparts which may explain why they're in better shape. So I think Ford may have better chances for survival.
That said, if the bailout does somehow miraculously go through to GM and Chrysler, I think the unintended consequence will be fallout in damage to Ford. If we're to truly fix GM and Chrysler, we need to keep the playing field level by following true market practices and let the strong survive. In letting the other two file for Chapter 11 reorganization while Ford continues to move forward without interference, the American consumer might finally get a fair shake at a decent car at a decent price. (Gee, didn't Henry Ford say something like that about a century ago?)
And maybe - just maybe - if the reorg finally brings the UAW back down to earth, it might give Ford a better shot at restructuring its relationship with its unionized workers.
Sorry Robert. You gotta torch the Windstar, dude!
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