02-10-2007, 09:41 PM | #43 | |
Auto Pilot
Drives: Gunmetal Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: L.A.
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IROC'em also makes a good point about the number of parts produced in foreign countries by foreign suppliers. Let's not forget that we live in a globalized economy where everyone from everywhere has their foot in something. GM is actually a global company (BIG time), something to remember as well. |
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02-10-2007, 10:30 PM | #44 | |
Drives: Chevy Silverado Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Indianapolis
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You mean like the new '09 Camaro will be made in Canada? Just food for thought. |
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02-11-2007, 12:22 AM | #45 |
Muscle Car Prodigy
Drives: 1973 Chevy Nova Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Ohio
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the toyota yaris is something like 8000 and gets geed gas mileage from wat i hear
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02-11-2007, 12:52 AM | #46 |
Camaro for life
Drives: 2002 Hot Rod Magazine Ltd. Ed. Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Wyoming, MI
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Here is an interesting article, posted by Scott Settlemire, from GM on the Chirpthird.com website. Please take time to read this. I think it pertains to this discussion quite nicely.
#1 12-20-2006, 01:26 PM Fbodfather 2nd Gear Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Grosse Pointe Farms, MI Posts: 888 Interesting read on American cars......... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Roger Simmermaker (Commentary) PITTSBURGH POST GAZETTE...... Dec. 19, 2006 Ford and General Motors have taken turns besting the Toyota Camry in quality surveys for the past two years, but if you talk to many Americans – especially the ones who would never consider supporting home-based auto companies – you'd never know it. Last year, the Chevrolet Impala beat the Camry in initial quality, according to J.D. Power & Associates. And Consumer Reports just announced that both the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan scored higher than both the Camry and the Honda Accord this year. Even as GM and Ford have accumulated award after award on vehicle quality, you'd almost never know about such quality gains made by American companies. There's also the mythical perception that foreign automakers produce the most fuel efficient cars and that Detroit only makes gas-guzzlers when the truth is that all automakers – including Toyota, Honda and Hyundai-Kia alike – have allowed fuel economy to slide in the past 20 years since they all now sell bigger trucks and more SUVs. Perhaps the biggest perception problem is that American automobile companies GM and Ford – Chrysler is now German-owned – squander all their money on plants overseas and foreign automakers build their factories in the United States. Foreign car lovers will surely point to Kia's plans to build its first-ever U.S. plant in Georgia, but they probably won't mention that they received $400 million in tax giveaways to do it, which translates into $160,000 per job. Among the many benefits for the foreign-owned company, your tax dollars are going to be used for road improvements surrounding the complex, complete with flower beds and other beautification features. Hey, as long as we're going to allow states to bid for private jobs with our public tax dollars, we might as well make it look good, right? And the foreign car lovers will probably also not tell you (or maybe they just don't know or don't want you to know) that GM and Ford pour more money into existing American facilities than foreign automakers spend on new plants, usually with little or no tax breaks. GM has already spent more than $500 million upgrading two transmission plants this year, and has spent nearly a billion dollars over the last decade, for example, for facility upgrades in Texas. And what do GM and Ford get for making their existing plants more efficient? It isn't tax breaks. Instead, they get accusations of not being "competitive" enough! Maybe here I should also mention that the average domestic parts content for Kia is 3 percent, while the average domestic parts content of Ford and GM is 78 percent and 74 percent, respectively. This means that buying a U.S.-assembled (or even foreign-assembled, for that matter) GM or Ford supports more American jobs than a U.S.-assembled car or truck with a foreign nameplate. Fortunately for our benefit, the United States remains the overall global leader in research and development, and a big reason for that is that American automakers. According to the Level Field Institute, U.S. car companies invest $16 billion in research and development annually, outpacing any other industry one could name. Admittedly, the Level Field Institute counts German-owned DaimlerChrysler as an American automaker, so Ford and GM's combined R&D contribution to America is closer to around $12 billion. But who's counting, right? Certainly not the American auto-bashing media. Japanese companies do employ 3,600 American workers in R&D, but that still leaves the foreign competition behind in the dust staring at American rear bumpers – 3,600 sounds like a big number until you realize that 65,000 Americans work in R&D facilities in the state of Michigan alone. In fact, two of the top four R&D spending companies in America as reported by the Wall Street Journal are – you guessed it – Ford and GM. The other two are also American companies: Pfizer and Microsoft. Ford has recently made headlines as the American automaker with the most challenges to its future, but these challenges certainly are not because they "aren't making cars people want to buy." Toyota did outsell Ford in July, but since then, Ford has reclaimed the No. 2 spot. GM has the highest market share, increasing over 2 percentage points from a year ago, so it apparently can't be accused of not making cars people want to buy either. Ford sales also are up in Europe, and Ford doubled its sales in China, where GM has the highest market share of any automaker. GM also reported a 3.9 percent rise in August vehicle sales despite high gas prices and a supposedly slowing economy. And even though Toyota reported record sales that month, it couldn't match the non-record setting sales volume of Ford. GM's sales rose 17 percent in October from the year-ago month and Ford sales rose 8 percent the same period. And for all the talk about the lack of fuel efficiency of American automakers, it seems three-fourths of all automakers failed to meet Europe's improved fuel-efficiency standards intended to cut carbon-dioxide emissions. Japanese and German automakers topped the list of the study's worst performers, but according to an environmental group's study, GM's Opel division and Ford both "come out well." In closing, I'll leave some encouraging numbers for those of us who actually like to root for and support the home team. The J.D. Power 2006 Vehicle Dependability Survey reports that Mercury, Buick and Cadillac (in that order) grabbed the No. 2, 3 and 4 spots to beat Toyota, Honda, Nissan, BMW and everyone else (except Lexus) in having the least number of problems per 100 vehicles. Perhaps someday the American media will give GM and Ford the credit they deserve. And once they do, perception among the majority of the American public will rightfully change. GM and Ford aren't only doing what they should to make gains in the American market to deserve American consumer loyalty; they're also doing what they should to make gains in the markets of China, Europe and across most of the rest of the globe. __________________ for the 15,286,439th time........HAVE FAITH!!! update: welp....I think I can now safely say that I've passed the 20 millionth mark in saying "keep the faith."
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02-11-2007, 02:46 AM | #47 |
www.Camaro5store.com
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http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showth...=3997#post3997
Doug, Scott had posted that up here too back on the 20th of Dec. I wish I would have thought about it at the time but it slipped my mind. Thank you for remembering and for posting that excellent information. That says it all. Fellas, don't get me wrong. I don't take offense to anyones post here nor meant to offend anyone as well. It's just that I feel strongly that we need to support our county as best as we can. I'm not trying to beat anyone over the head about it (although I feel like I might just be doing that). If you want to buy a Toyota or VW, go ahead and knock yourself out! Cool by me! But, if I can sway someone into buying american made, I did good for us. Yep, I know that I will be buying a Canadian made Camaro...or at least that it will be assembled there. From what I understand, parts for the 5th Gen will be made in several countries. I imagine a great number of those parts will be made in the USA. This means there are hundreds of companies who depend on building or crafting parts for an american car. If you don't buy it, then they don't make it. Then, the factory that builds the door handles, fabricates dash parts, makes the brake pads, makes the seats, etc doesn't get business and closes down. I'm not just talking about auto factories, but many more factories and suppliers as well. Money that is put in the hands of US automakers tends to stay in american hands. You want to support your family because they work in a Toyota plant. Cool. But what if truck owners bought Ford F-150's and Silverados instead of Tundras? Ford wouldn't have closed that factory and your neighbor wouldn't have just lost his job, pension, and health benefits. How many american jobs did Ford just cut to keep it afloat? Wasn't it something like 10 thousand jobs? Those were american jobs which could have been saved if someone bought american made. I hear Ford lost something like 2.7 Billion. That's a lot of families that could have been supported. I'm looking long term here. If we stop buying american, money goes to foriegn companies which then goes back to their countries. It doesn't go to the american family to spend on more american products. Our economy as a whole begins to slip.... |
02-11-2007, 11:35 AM | #48 |
I used to be Dragoneye...
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Awesome ride, but I'll take my Camaro thank you very much!
I like to poke it in peoples faces that one of the greatest pony cars of all time is not going to put the biggest hole in my wallet of all time, Both at the Dealer and at the pump |
02-11-2007, 07:38 PM | #49 |
Drives: Chevy Silverado Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Indianapolis
Posts: 754
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That was a great post by Scott. Getting away from the previous argument, I think there is a lot that goes into the general public's perception of American Autos. Unfortunately, the American auto makers are having to overcome this 'low quality' stigma that they developed through the early and mid 80's becasue of their low quality autos compared to what was then the new Asian market.
Unfortunately, actually increasing the quality of vehicles has not been enough to alter people's perceived quality. I think one of the biggest problems was American auto manufacturer's reluctance to back their products with a substantial warranty for such a long time. However, with Diamler-Chrystler and now GM stepping out on a limb and offering elongated warranties, I think a lot will be done to change the misperception, but as the saying goes... American Autos made their bed, and now they have to sleep in it. This is also why I think the Camaro is going to be so iconic for GM. I think it is going to really represent a new era in America automobiles and show consumers GMs renewed interest in developing stylish, attractive and quality automobiles. I think people confuse simple and plain with high quality these days. When you look inside the majority of foreign automobiles they all have very simple and plain features. I really believe that people began associating the Asian quality improvement movement of the 80's with these qualities in their autos, and now today people still associate it that way. Someone said it earlier that you can get much more car for your buck with a GM economy vehicle than you can with most imports. The next few years will certainly be interesting ones. |
02-11-2007, 11:48 PM | #50 |
Camaro for life
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I totally agree with you, Casull, THE problem is the PERCEPTION of quality, versus the reality of quality. Toyota has recently had many more quality recalls than GM. Sadly, the publics perceptions are going to take a while to change.
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02-12-2007, 12:58 AM | #51 | |
Mustang Muncher
Drives: 1967 Camaro & 2001 Camaro Z28 Join Date: Jan 2007
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02-12-2007, 08:18 AM | #52 | |
Camaro Addict
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02-12-2007, 08:43 AM | #53 |
juggernaut
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does anyone remember the nova II and the toyotal corolla of the same years? wasn't the corolla just a rebaged nova II or vise versa? but yet the corolla killed the nova II in quality awards. . .go look it up. lol. I'm sure it's true. if not I will look it up in a few.
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02-12-2007, 08:48 AM | #54 |
juggernaut
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In 1985, the Nova name was applied to a rebadged Toyota Corolla (with trim options from the Toyota Sprinter line) that replaced the Citation and was produced at the NUMMI plant in Fremont, California, as an historic first joint venture between General Motors and Toyota. 1988 was the last year for the Nova nameplate on any platform; its replacement arrived in Geo-Chevrolet showrooms as the Geo Prizm the following year.
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02-12-2007, 10:25 AM | #55 | |
Camaro for life
Drives: 2002 Hot Rod Magazine Ltd. Ed. Join Date: Jan 2007
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What happened 22 years ago has absolutely nothihg to do with TODAY's quality numbers from GM. You need to look up JD Power stats from the last 3 to 5 years. You'll find GM has surpassed many imports in first time quality.
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02-12-2007, 04:41 PM | #56 |
juggernaut
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I understand this my point was to show that the media is extremely biased against american. it was back then and it still is today.
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