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An American Car Revolution
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2009 Oct 22, 2:50pm 10,339 views 65 comments
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Peter P
2009 Oct 29, 8:55am
Undoubtedly, America has the best engineers and the best environment for innovation. There is no reason why our car companies cannot prosper without the baggage of union and pension.
Peter P
2009 Oct 29, 9:38am
I like the Buick Lacrosse very much but the price approaches $38K with 3.5L engine, xenon headlights, and navigation. Hmm... I am not even sure what the depreciation curve is going to look like.
Perhaps I just do not like buying new cars. There are fully loaded 2008 Infiniti G35's for less than $28K on the market. And it is RWD. :-)
I am not a brand conscious person but I think GM will have a better chance competing with a new brand. Perhaps something like "Zeus" to go against Lexus. Somehow brand names with X or Z are very sexy. Besides, who can beat the god of gods?
@bob,
true, they were fun and scary. The worst torque-steer car I ever ever ever drove. And a wheel bolt pattern as rare as the Volvo 3 lug.
You never drove a dodge colt glh then. I don't worry about torque steer, that's what the steering wheel is there for. Between kicking the front end loose with torque steer and hard braking into trailing throttle oversteer you can really have a blast. The body was really stiff so it didn't squirm around on you. Donuts in reverse are lots of fun also. Didn't consider it scary at all. Scary was pushing my 86 5.0 coupe with goodyear gatorbacks really hard in a bumpy corner. I believe more 5.0's went off the road backwards than any other car ever made. Really scary was any type of corner at all going more than 5mph on my old kawasaki 750 two stroke bike. I'm not convinced the front and rear wheels were actually connected together. But what a rocket in a straight line. Fiesta's had a standard sized 4 bolt pattern, you must be thinking of another car.
Also, when tax rates around the world were near zero, humanity moved along just fine.
When do you believe this magical time existed? Taxes have existed as long as we've had governments.
Of course, there were long periods of such extreme disparity between wealth and poverty that most people didn't pay taxes (like the middle ages). If you want to go back to that time, you're welcome to it. You won't be one of the rich people in that system, though.
Peter P
2009 Oct 29, 12:56pm
I thought even after the Civil War federal tax rate was only at 3-5%. That was near zero, right?
Only after the reign of an evil president, Woodrow Wilson, tax got out of hand. Seriously, I don't think he was much better than FDR.
4X
2009 Oct 29, 2:11pm
@Peter
Watch it Peter...you almost mentioned my hero...Teddy Roosevelt. LOL
Bap33
2009 Oct 30, 12:27am
Night at the Museum was a darn good flick for me and the kiddies. The first one was much better in my opinion, but the second one had location shots that my 13yr old daughter enjoyed since she went to DC for a week on a National Leader's thingy a few years ago. Bedtime Stories with Sandler is good too.
Peter P
2009 Oct 30, 1:54am
Smithsonian museums are some of the best in the world.
I have yet to watch the second one. Perhaps I should put it on the Netflix queue.
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A friend of mine proudly told me he bought a Lexus for his wife not knowing that I was an American plant worker. I explained to him that it was un-American to buy foreign vehicles and that American car companies were producing the same top quality vehicles. He refuted this, stating that Lexus, Toyota, Honda, Nissan were the safest, most sturdy built vehicles, which is not true. Starting in 2007, Ford received more initial quality survey awards from J. D. Power and Associates than any other automaker. Five of Ford's vehicles ranked at the top of their categories and fourteen vehicles ranked in the top three.
Toyota employs 7,000 Americans at 5 plants while GM recently was forced to downsize from 68,000 Americans at 47 plants to 30,000 Americans at 34 plants. Yes, this is a direct result of the unconscious stupidity of the board of directors that ran these corporations into the ground with Hummer, Escalade and Expedition brands. In order to control its skyrocketing labor costs (the most expensive in the world), Ford Motor company and the United Auto Workers, representing approximately 46,000 hourly workers in North America, agreed to a historic contract settlement in November 2007 giving the company a substantial break in terms of its ongoing retiree health care costs and other economic issues. When compared to Toyota whom employs 70,000 Japanese nationals and only 7000 American Workers I will continue to support American Worker with a purchase of a FORD or GM product.
So, if Ford and GM employ 140,000 American Workers at their plants and hold stake in numerous companies within their supply chains which could potentially support 250,000 Americans with jobs...Why are Americans not supporting those American Workers by buying the below cars made here in the USA?
2010 Lincoln MKS
2010 Buick Lacrosse
2010 Cadillac CTS
2010 Cadillac SRX
