What Is Going On With Auto Makers?

Off Topic
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[quote]Petedacook wrote:
Bujo wrote:

Most Dodge dealerships can boost a Viper to 850hp the same day you buy it.

Rice Burners pffft…

LOL

You do realize you are comparing a V12, to a V6, the V6 is older and the V12 is brand new, and the V12 is STILL not putting out the same HP? That is V12 vs V6 my friend, 100% bigger.

How does this equate to an equal comparison in your mind?

I love America cars, but you can’t go slapping 20+ pounds of boost of a factory American car. You going to pull the heads and O-ring them? Reduce the compression ratio? You got some work to do to get 20+ pounds of boost on the car.

And what Viper do you of that has engineered carpet to be extra light and sound deadening, like the engineered fiber in the carpet in 1995 Supra? And, how much is a Viper? Last I check a vette was about $100,000.

Do you think this is apples to apples? [/quote]

Whoops…I meant…
Boost – increase, raise

Not as in adding guage pressure to the intake system…

Anyways, sounds like you’ve got a bad case of cylinder envy. Yeah, mine’s bigger than yours. Get over it.

Not sure what you mean by the V6 is older…engines never really get ‘old’. If that were the case I would order a lot more crate engines instead of rebuilding the old ones. I just rebuilt an engine that was cast in 1987 for my '81 Chevy Pickup. She’s now sporting about 375 horses.

Carpet? Really? What did they do? Make it out of plastic? Did they re-invent Nylon? Or did they give it a fancy name like Co-Polymer Weave? Of course if they had 2 more cylinders they probably would’nt have given a rat’s ass about the carpet. Carpet? We don’t need no STINKIN’ Carpet.

Fruit? I thought we were talking Jap Traps vs American Muscle. Besides V-6s are for high school girls and tree huggers. Other than the odd Bike or lawn mower I have no interest in buying anything with less than 8 cylinders.

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[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
A Japanese company (Toyota ) and an American company (General Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River . Both teams practiced
long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the
reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior
management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person
steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person
rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a
Consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while
not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent
another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team’s management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents
and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager. They also implemented a new
performance system that would give the one person rowing the boat greater
incentive to work harder. It was called the “Rowing Team Quality First
Program”, with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower. There
was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra
vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor
performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and
cancelled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was
distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year’s
racing team was out-sourced to India.

The End.
[/quote]

Brilliant.

Add to this the current buyout policy, and things aren’t looking good at Ford.

Anyone with half a brain is taking the buyout, leaving just the foam at the top.

We have Ford engineers coming to work for us as test technicians. The higher ups want to how they are going to get their work done now, and the engineers tell them send it to us.

BTW, I have owned 2 foreign made vehicles, both were a pos. I drove my last GMC truck 10 years then gave it to my nephew (who totaled it). My current GMC truck is a 2001 with 90,000 miles. Besides the ABS sensor recall it has been a great vehicle.

My wife drives a Dodge Magnum with the V6. Plenty of power, lots of room, decent gas mileage (27/20) and drives like a dream. She has only had the car for 6 months, so I don’t yet know about reliability.

65

I have a huge family and we have owned German, Japanese and American cars.

Over the last 15 plus years the American car quality has been good. The Sunfire/Cavalier platform is a piece of shit but all the others have done very well.

All the Japanese cars have been good but have had issues just like the American cars. They are not perfect.

The VW’s (4 of them) have been a step below the American and Japanese (but way above the Sunfire/Cavalier) and the Mercedes and Porsche have been flawless.

My dad just bought a Volvo wagon about a year and a half ago and besides being hideous it is a very nice vehicle.

66

It’s just the Market in action:

It’s more efficient for American companies to produce cars in other countries.

Also, overseas car companies seem to be making higher quality vehicles for a lower price.

Either stop making cars and find something else to produce, or find a more efficient way to produce higher-quality cars.

In the mean time, the countries and companies that deserve to be the seat of automobile production will be hard at work, efficiently making motor vehicles. :wink:

– ElbowStrike

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Toyota is forecast to surpass GM as the world’s largest carmaker as early as this year. It may even surpass GM in total vehicle sales. But Toyota’s growth has come at a cost as recalls have increased.

The company that made its reputation on well-made, dependable products has had to answer some tough questions about its quality control. In 2006, it recalled more than 800,000 vehicles in North America. It recalled 2.2 million in 2005. In 2004, Toyota recalled fewer than half a million globally.

Already this year, Toyota has issued a recall of more than half a million Tundra pickups, not any made in San Antonio, and Sequoia SUVs.

GM on Wednesday announced its own recall of 98,000 Chevy Cobalts.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/stories/MYSA012507.1E.general.motors.130fa01.html

US car makers are paying costs most foreign competitors aren’t paying. Every vehicle sold, GM pays between $1500 and $2000 to employee health care costs.

http://www.wilx.com/news/headlines/5814076.html

The Japanese government is reportedly subsidizing between $4000 and $7500 of every car imported into the US, engaging in currency manipulation.

This weaker yen policy bolsters Japanese imports at the expense of US manufacturers. It doesn’t allow the yen to respond to global market conditions.

http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/ElFinanciero/Portal/cfpages/contentmgr.cfm?docId=42425&docTipo=1&orderby=docid&sortby=ASC

Toyota reported a 7.3% rise in net income for fiscal Q3 2007. Exports have bolstered the auto maker’s profits because the weak yen means fatter profits from dollar-paying customers.

There have been concerns in Congress about the yen, and Toyota executives have expressed concern over political backlash as it usurps market share from GM, Ford and Chrysler. Toyota says it is working to increase the number of vehicles it makes in North America, but in 2006 imported cars and trucks sold by Toyota in the U.S. rose 37% to 1.2 million vehicles (out of total sales of 2.5m), while sales from North American production were for the most part unchanged.

Analysts estimate the yen decline from January 2005 adds about $3,000 in profit to each vehicle exported from Japan.

http://transport.seekingalpha.com/article/26324

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So while the US pays exuberant health care costs making every vehicle higher in price, their competitors (in Asia) subsidize each vehicle entering the market, flooding the market (the yen) and making each vehicle lower in price.

Sounds fair eh?

69

[quote]SUPERUNKNOWN wrote:
So while the US pays exuberant health care costs making every vehicle higher in price, their competitors (in Asia) subsidize each vehicle entering the market, flooding the market (the yen) and making each vehicle lower in price.

Sounds fair eh?[/quote]

That doesn’t mean we should be rid of health care, or unions. What it means is that the government needs to step up to the plate with this, just like China, and give incentives for having manufacturing in this country, help businesses with health care costs, impose fees on imports in certain industries and take a hard look at currency manipulation.

I think it’s possible now that the Democrats are in control. I’m rarely a fan of Democrats, but it was pretty clear that the previous rulers of the majority were ineffectual and completely dominated by corporations. Bush being so pro-globalized trade could be a problem, but hopefully he’ll be willing to compromise.