Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomash
They require repairs.
Even if these are small and non-critical, nowadays car owners are lazy and just want to drive after pouring and changing all the necessary fluids.
BS detected, at least about the "Germany" part.
They have no protection of their car market. It's just they don't want to buy cars with mediocre steering and braking capabilities (Chrysler Seebring, for ****'s sake).
But germans are perfectly fine with buying cars that are japanese, french, romanian (Dacia), korean (Kia, Hyundai, korean Chevy), provided they have any advantages over the german cars. And, to be honest, it's hard to get advantage over german cars, at least in europe. Japanese cars sell due to their reliability, korean ones due to their great quality/price ratio (at least here in Europe).
At the moment, at least until american Ford, GM and Chrysler work seriously on quality and reliability (at least the parts are cheap, but they have to be imported over the Atlantic), steering (rear axle in Mustang -- oh please) and braking (there are still some american cars sold with brake drums, WTF?), american cars are only for the passionate.
As a funny fact (and to troll you guys a bit with your belief in american GM's awesomeness   ) some time ago GM was selling rebranded american cars in europe with a bit of redesigned exterior. Nowadays it's the other way around -- many popular GM models sold in the US (C and D-segment) are rebranded Opels with some visual redesigns.
Aveo and Cruze (already mentioned here) are mostly korean in origin (with platform for Cruze coming from Opel).
I'm not saying it's bad, just don't get overhyped about the state US automotive industry. At the moment it's in a really bad shape, sorry. The sooner and more people realize it, the better it will be for the automakers to push necessary change. One single (even serious, but still) f***up by Toyota doesn't automatically make The Big Three awesome again. |
No BS on Germany. You have misinterpretted my point. Germany has strong, very strong cultural bias to buy German. If you read any of my previous posts when we get to discussing this you would remember on my trip there to discover the closing of a Walmart. I was told that the German people don't Wang cheap Chinese made goods like we do. Further, in Germany, shops and department stores close earlier in the day, preventing shopping for price hence helping to support more expensive German products.
You should know better than to call BS on one of my posts LOL. I only bring real data to the table.........
But you are also correct, Germany is not as protectionist as Asia.
Oh and one more interesting story about the Germans. Apparently it is cheaper to buy a plane ticket to the U.S., go to an Audi dealer and buy your car, have the car shipped back to Germany, fly home to meet your car, have your car Federalized to German specifications than it is to buy the Audi in Germany.
Audi apparently threatened U.S. dealers to stop enabling this practice. You see they are such a captive market they can charge ridiculous amounts for their cars in Germany. To support this, if you take the German cars you refer to that are sold here under other GM Brands and compare prices you would be shocked. An Opel Astras that was sold here as a Saturn is the direct comparison.
Take off the 19% VAT and the Astra in Germany is still $19,000 plus...............for manual windows and locks, and no A/C.
As a Saturn, this same Astra had an upgraded engine, Power windows and locks, A/C and many upgrades and stickered for around $16,000.
Captive market!!