Ford isn't doing that bad, they said they can manage to run on what they have for another year or more without any help, on the other hand GM is out of cash and is in trouble before the next year even starts

+1 on the mazda comment, is it considered domestic?

 

I love how people say "i'll only buy american made cars" and then they go get an chevrolet aveo or something like that. Shit im sure my mustang's wiring harness has "made in mexico" all over it. If you want american go buy a bmw that's made in South Carolina.

(beating a dead horse) UAW is killing gm. I hope they don't give them the money (again), gm needs to give it up and be purchased privately so that they can get the union workers the hell out (i.e. chrysler)

Ford is doing horrible and is relying on ford Europe and Australia for support at this time. What do they make that you would purchase?? The mustang and maybe some of their trucks??



All the specialty stuff like the srt4, civic si, cobalt ss is neat. But the U.S. auto manufacturers are not thriving off these cars. sub compact and mid size entry level cars are what profits a company, not limited edition and specialty cars.

Medicmatt-Ford just cut it's stake to 13% in mazda, basically giving up their control of mazda. And i think it was last year that they sold jaguar and land rover to tata motors.

 

Your Mustang is made of 60% american parts, and assembled in the USA. This technically makes it an IMPORT according to the US Government.

My Camry is made of 80% american parts, and assembled in the USA.
This makes it a domestic.

Who would have guessed?

Charles

 

Ford is doing better than most. In fact ford turned down the bailout money. Though ford was just asking for the money just incase they needed it, ford has enough money for quite a while. No one is doing good right now, everyone is down 30-40% in sales, including everyones beloved Honda and Toyota.

 

In the 1990's Nissan was suffering. On the brink of collapse. Even Nissan's Japanese CEO admitted failure on his part. Stating that they just didn't build the kind of cars that people can be passionate about. When Ghosen took over, he formed an alliance (not a merger) with Renualt, consulted Nissan's younger engineers and brought new ideas to the table. They put forth a new effort on a clean slate and in record time righted Nissan's sinking ship.
What you are seeing is history repeating itself. GM is doing what Nissan did. In order to move forward it must wipe the slate clean.

In the 90's Nissan's line up was pretty bleak. Dominated by 4 door ho-hum cars. They had a couple of bright spots with the 300Z and the ill-selling 240sx. But mostly, they mass produced sentras and altimas, and base model maximas. Its not that the cars were bad, they just weren't enticing enough to get people into the showrooms.

GM and the big three failed to see their mistakes. Concentrating efforts of SUVs and trucks. They are guilty not of making bad vehicles, but not making the right vehicles. They just have failed to listen to the broad customer base.

The other reason they are hurting is a complete lack of consumer faith. For too many years the completely unfair notion that domestics exhibit lesser quality has finally caught up. I hear it all the time, "American cars are crappy." from some dumbass that knows shit about cars. This gets spread around enough until it penetrates the consumes psyche.

 

My mom and dad owned nothing but American made cars for 99% of their lives. The only thing to survive my father was his 78 Honda Wagon and now his Hyundai. His Dodge Ram has been to the shop more times since he bought it new off the lot than either of his import cars have. And the only reason he bought his first Honda was because of me recognizing the quality of the car when I was only 8 years old.

Our Ford Elite back in the 70s was a total shamble. My mom's Taurus wasn't all that bad but even the ECU failed on that car. My dad's Chevette ... my 78 Honda ran circles around that thing performance and maintenance wise.

So for our family its a matter of history.

I met a girl from Australia a few days ago at one of our offices and was like man my boyfriend would really like to have some of the cars you have over there that are by Holden (GM Australia I believe). And she was like now I know why, I thought American cars would be better than ours but you guys have the watered down version of everything. Looks and performance wise.

I really hope the B3 make a come back and a good one and start showing what Americans can do when they build a car. After all Honda, BMW and Toyota know because look what is coming out of their factories here in the US.

As far as Mazda the hatches are really nice, handle well and are a fun drive. Not to mention they come in MANUAL. They give sportiness a good name.

 

The way i look at it is they let the little guy get too big.Toyota has perfected cars and GM/Ford are playing catchup.They made thier money in SUV's and didnt reinvest in the future and its finally burning them.Gm has multiple cars with the same chassis just different fascia which is stupid and a waste of money/resources.I wanna say thier "Gmt360" and"Lambda" SUV platform's are thier most overused currently.Sorry that multiple car/different fascia shit worked in the past but now with better competition they are done.People arent stupid forever....

 

they should have to file for bankruptcy and start all over again fuck them and the others time to tuff it out even if many lose there jobs i know it will hit my job hard do to us being in a large contract with gm and delco and OnStar but owell,times change

 

exactly. i dont see any commercials for the Avenger,Caliber,Charger,Challenger or anything else but the New RAM. same thing goes with Ford,its not just a new truck,its a new F-150. Gm i barely see any commercials but the ones i do see are for the Malibu which does have a decent interior.