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Once again, Tom Purcell proves himself to be a "useful idiot".

Withing the global automotive cartel, Hyundai is financially allied with Daimler-Chrysler and Mitsubishi. This faction routinely conducts business with avowed marxists such as Kim Jong-il, Lula da Silva, and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Chrysler, Hyundai, Mitsubishi choose Michigan for engine plant
Hyundai Exec Confirms Paying $500 Million to North Korea
Hyundai to Build First Brazilian Factory in $205 Million Project

But, in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade.
~Karl Marx, "On the Question of Free Trade" - January 9, 1848

If you don't believe in free trade whom do you believe is qualified to tell me I can't do business with a willing partner? Freedom of contract is basic. If the GM's of the world cannot compete, I should not be forced to subsidize managements capitulations to greedy unions. If the people of So Korea wish to make a gift of their reduced cost labor to the car buying public in the US, I believe as Milton Friedman said, we should accept their gift freely and graciously.

Once again, Tom Purcell proves himself to be a "useful idiot".

Once again Willie Green proves himself to be a one hit wonder. An Economic Isolationist, Green would shackle the A American Consumer to over priced, shoddy goods in order to feed his paranoid delusions about Foreigners making stuff. Green, who apparently never attended a single econ class, seems to have embraced the 17th Century ideals or mechantilism. A failed economic model that defined Economic Strength in terms of self sufficiency. Green, who failure to comprehend even the most basic of economic facts about trade can be counted on to post dozens of hysterical uninformed posts on Free Republic weekly exposing his views that Americans should be forced by Dictatorial Government action to become the Economic Slaves of inefficient American companies making shoddy goods JUST because they claim to "be American." The fact that this would bankrupt American society by eliminating our BEST performing company's from being able to compete on the global market AND eliminate any competition for failing American Businesses to evolve or DIE troubles Mr Green's emotionally hysteric intellect not at all.

Imagine the unemployment numbers if foreign companies decided not 'outsource' to this country because of trade barriers.

My sisters and I became ashamed when we got the news. My mother and father bought a Hyundai.

What's to be ashamed of? That Hyundai was most likely built in America rather than built in Canada and Mexico and assembled in America (as is the case with a lot of so-called "American" Detroit automakers).

I don't have any problem buying foreign cars 'cause I'm sick and tired of supporting Leftist Democrat-endorsing unions that game Detroit automakers at every turn.

Sorry, I guess I'm a marxist, because I vote for free trade as well.
People often say, but what about those farm subsidies? That's counter to free trade.
Simple. They are a countermeasure to European farm subsidies, which are among the worlds highest subsidies.
The goal is to get Europe to drop it's farm subsidies, and equalize the playing field. Until then, we have to equalize the playing field with subsidies, although ours are much lower than theirs. The Europeon subsidies will eventually bankrupt them,

Having spent one year in Korea in 1990-91, I became very familiar with Hyundai and Kia. They were all over the highways. Despite the fact that traffic in Korea was generally a traffic jam, every now and then cars get to open it up and show what they've got. Kias and Hyundais worked very well in Korea over a decade ago, and they'd been around Korea for a long while before that.

It was easy to buy my first Kia -- a minivan -- at $10,000 less than any other minivan on the market. It was easy to sign without having the salesman hit me up for some kind of extended warranty policy because the Sedona came with a 100,000 mile warranty at no extra cost.

This isn't a "new brand" of car. It's just we've not had them here in America. It's working like a charm. I have no complaints.

An old army officer told me once that there are 2 ways to be financially well off....(1) Make a lot of money, or (2) Pay far less for what you buy.

Gee, our Hyundai was assembled here in America by American labor using something like 80% American or Canadian manufactured parts.

It came with a 100,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty even though we are the second owners of the car.

It's started every day but one, it was 15 below that morning, gets well over 25 miles to the gallon and when you turn off the overdrive it goes from 0 to 60 quite smartly.

The car had 9K miles on it when we bought it and we paid less than 10 grand for it.

Nothing GM offers even comes close in terms of price, performance, or warranty.

Oh, the guy we bought it from was an American.

He was mighty happy to take our money from us. In fact we bought two vehicles that very day. One the Hyundai and the other a bigass Dodge Durango.

So does that make me only half Marxist?

L

The vast creativity and technological prowess of the big three is coming onstreat.

Chevy Malibu is based on German Opel Vectra/Saab 9-3 chasis. Their new GTO is from Australia.

Ford 500 is based on Volvo S80.

Further evidence of the American (dead) car industry-Ford delivers old generation Focus to Americans, while the rest get new generation. So if you want Ford's latest technology buy Volvo V40 or Mazda 3.

The merger of Daimler with Chrysler has elevated the American brand, with excellent German drivetrains. (This merger has put too much of old Chrysler's LACK of quality into the Mercedes line).

All the major car companies worldwide have design studios in Southern California. Old Detroit is fading, fading, fading.

I must be missing something here. South Korea was, last I knew, a democratic republic, friendly to the US, a high-wage nation, and otherwise a perfectly appropriate place for US companies to do business. Contrast them with China.
Hyundai, so far as I know, provides excellent products at reasonable prices. Even with shipping costs between there and here, they are still nipping at the heels of industry giants (dinosaurs?) like Caterpillar and GM. I even read an article the other day that folks in South Korea are developing refinements to the steelmaking process, making now-pricey steel less expensive and their products more competitive. (searched- couldn't find the article online- anybody else have any luck?)
The American auto industry of the 1970s is ample evidence of why protectionism doesn't work. Bloated, inefficent, unresponsive, it failed to innovate or make use of improved techonlogy. The result was that "Japanese Junk" cars would run between 100,000 and 250,000 miles without a major powertrain failure (if properly maintained.)
Case in point: 1981 Ford Escort vs. 1981 Toyota Corolla.
I owned one of each. The Escort was a sad joke- unreliable, hard to drive, expensive to repair. At 80,000 miles, with a perfect body, I junked it. The 1981 Corolla I bought to replace it had been sitting in a field for two years. It started! It had had 125,000 miles on it when the odometer quit, and had been driven two years beyond that. Having paid only $400 for it, I proceeded to abuse it for two years- and failed to break it. I finally gave it to a friend so he could put the motor in his identical wagon. Best car I ever owned.
A few years later, I bought a 1993 Ford Tempo- the second best car I ever owned. It's quality and reliability met or exceeded my 1981 Toyota.
In short, competition saved the US auto industry. Quality is up, innovation is everywhere, and every company is being forced to give the customers what they want- or the customers go elsewhere. This has even given us the "crossover vehicle"- the blending of sedan, station wagon and SUV- safe, fairly fuel efficient, low polluting and incredibly versatile.
Free markets = good
Command & Control economy = bad

After reading glowing reviews on Epinions I bought a 2002 Elantra GT. It took some convincing, but I am glad I bought this car. Mucho bang for the buck compared to its rivals (in 2002, at least).

Yeah, let me see, instead we should never have let the Japanese and later the Koreans import their crummy cars here, and then make their cars better, and we should still accept cars that were like my old Pontiac with the leaky windows, or my Dad's LTD wagon where the passenger seat was crooked -- fifteen degrees off plumb -- from the factory, or for that matter the Lincoln Town Car that made him an import buyer ten years ago when they gave up after three attempts to fix a windshield-gasket air leak that sounded like a tin whistle at highway speeds. "You're just going to have to live with it," the dealer finally said, and that same day he traded it for an Infiniti Q45, turning his back on that Lincoln dealer's nice every-two-years relationship with him.

He backslid and bought Mom a new T-Bird this year. The top doesn't line up right and so it takes two strong men to manhandle it on and off, and you gotta have a third fat boy get on top and put a little English on it so your first two brutes can start the two bolts. It's a forty-something-thousand-dollar car and the freaking top doesn't fit. This is mechanical engineering, not voodoo, and you know the Japs wouldn't let that car into customer hands like that. You know what the dealer says? "They're all like that."

The only reason American cars improved enough to be remotely competitive in quality is that foreign competition shamed, or scared, or dang-near-bankrupted them into it. The reason cars today are so much better than the "classic" cars of my youth, is because the Japanese grabbed Detroit by the stacking swivel and gave it a good shaking.

If you think the old classics were better, try maintaining one. And Purcell's Hyundai, a cheap sedan, will blow the doors off many of your performance "legends" of the fifties and sixties. Performance, too, would still be stagnant wiithout foreign stimulus.

You're a chump to buy an American car without looking at the alternatives. All you are doing is feeding the far-left leadership of the UAW and their no-neck goons who are going around trashing rival politicians' offices and beating up three-year-olds (although that goon might have been an IBEW goon... who cares, unions are unions). If they would back off the politics and take some pride in their work I might be willing to replace my pickup or sports car this year. But hostility to the brutes of the UAW -- the real Marxists -- is keeping that money in the bank.

The last four people I've advised on cars I all pointed to foreign machines: A Toyota pickup, two Camrys (which are not entirely foreign, although all the intellectual content is), and a Civic. Even though my own vehicles are all American (a Ranger pickup, a classic Mustang, and a Corvette). I've had good dealer service on the Ranger and extremely bad dealer service on the Vette... but both had initial quality problems. I only know of one instance of bad service on a Toyota and the dealer replaced the entire engine to make good on damage his mechanic caused. You would never get that from an American-brand dealer, never. And I likewise have never heard of a significant initial quality problem on a Toyota.

Patriotism is fine, but it's no excuse to pay more for lower quality, and finance those (UAW) who would destroy you into the bargain.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F