Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragoneye
IWould you mind explaining your reasoning against supporting our own?
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I may be in the minority on this site but I'll give you a great example....QUALITY. My first car was a GMC Sonoma that I bought brand new off the lot in 1992. This was during all the animosity against foreign car makers and I wanted to support the U.S. It was a good deal on "special" at $9588 +TTL had a 2.8L V6 and was an XLT model with all the dress up goodies.
Unfortuneately the truck was just so so quality wise. It rattled, squeeked etc. I eventually traded it in for a Toyota 4x4 PU which was built so tight that you had to slam the doors or they wouldn't shut. That Toyota really opened my eyes. I've since owned 4 other Toyota trucks and all have been flawless. Built tight and last FOREVER with no problems. They hold their values better because EVERYONE knows these facts.
American car companies relied on the "more powerful" and "bigger" concepts to sell their products. Japanese auto makers relied on "reliable" and "efficient" to sell theirs. Once gas hit the roof in the U.S. like it did in the rest of the world some time ago, "efficient" and "reliable" became much more important than "more powerful".
Some Americans just don't take pride in their work. About half of my Japanese cars were made in Japan and half were made in the U.S, to some degree Canada and Mexico as well. It's amazing what a difference there is in the fit and finish between the two. The Japanese built cars are MUCH better. Japanese employees will practically kill themselves (literally) if they think their job isn't being done properly. There's even a famous cliff where a lot of them jump to their deaths. Most Americans just want to get a paycheck and get the heck out. We're just more spoiled in this country and that rolls down hill in to the products we produce.
I'm all for some nice powerful offerings in the market (i.e. Camaro) however GM will need to also have SEVERAL efficient models to chose from that build a reputation of lasting forever and needing very little maintenance to be competive as that will be their bread and butter.
Camaros, Corvettes, and big trucks are going to become novelty items as few will be able to afford the gas these vehicles will require to be daily drivers. Farmers will still drive trucks when needed, but I bet you see more also move to owning an around town car that is a small efficient model. Folks like us who appreciate big power are a VERY small minority in the grand scheme of things and GM can't survive on one model alone.
If GM can build smaller more efficient cars that last forever this will work out great of us, as GM will have it's profits come back in line which will in turn allow them to put more development into the novelty cars this forum caters to.
Just my .02 cents.