I love it! :-)
Posted on 01/26/2006 11:13:00 AM PST by Dan Nunn
With all the bad news coming out of Detroit these days, many have a disarmingly simple suggestion: Ford and General Motors should simply build better cars.
"I read that Ford plans to cut about 30 000 jobs in North America alone," one CNNMoney.com reader wrote. "How about building better cars instead?'
How about that?
A perception of poor quality certainly isn't the only reason Ford and GM cars can have trouble in today's market. But it's a factor.
We looked at J.D. Power and Associates Long-term Dependability Surveys to get a sense of where American cars rank in terms of reliability and how much they've improved. That survey measures the number of problems vehicle owners have after 3 years of ownership.
We also checked with Consumer Reports to see what they thought about GM and Ford's performance in terms of reliability.
The answer is that, overall, GM and Ford cars are not that bad. In fact, depending on which survey you believe, they may even have become pretty good.
The problem is that "pretty good" has become "not quite good enough" in a world where quality standards have been raised so high and which many consumers still have bad memories of General Motors and Ford cars that have failed them in the past.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
I'll never forget UAW treatment of returning Iraq War vets during the 2004 Presidential election campaign. And the coast to coast union thug behavior of the last two Presidential elections. If I can make a point of buying non-union now, I do.
The best thing that could happen to the American auto industry would be for the big three to file bankruptcy protection, reorganize and tell the unions to pound sand.
Everybody in Ohio had Chevrolets, there is a trace of snow on hard-packed graveled soil and the"cinder block" garage next door would look right at home there.
Don't mind me, I passed up or traded away all the really classic cars I ever had a chance to keep.
The mileage doesn't matter much. I want a largish, comfy car. Anyway, my 4 cyl Accord doesn't do much better than that. What'd you trade your TL in for?
"I am completely in love with the way the Chrysler 300 looks, but when I drove it it felt like a toy compared to my Lexus, like it just had too much plastic in it and not enough steel."
I really hate to hear that. I, too love the look of that car, and had thought Chrylser might be bringing something back to American cars. The Magnum wagon is cool, the new Charger (except that its a 4 door), Crossfire, they definitly have the look.
I am really getting moist over the (Ack!)Cadillac XLR except for the huge tail lights, but with GM on the skids, forget it!
Hmmm, GM... well the G6 sedan and especially the coupe are attractive in a faintly generic but contempary style. As a driver's machine it probably suffers a bit from having some of the same old GM platform under it. The engines, while an old design at heart, are updated with variable valve timing, and as I'm sure just about anyone who has driven a late model V6 GM car can attest, are quite effective and reasonably fuel efficient. Doesn't seem to me like it's selling too hot, though.
Other than that, yeah the Solstice looks pretty good. The rest of the Pontiac lineup is virtually anonymous - do they still make the Grand Am and Grand Prix? Actually the Grand Prix is not a bad looking car.
But yeah, they need good cars with exciting designs to get people in the seat. People will overlook a certain amount of uncertainty about a car if it looks good, in and out. But they'll have to deliver, and people used to recent Japanese cars have pretty high standards.
True and well said. I well remember when only one union, the machinists union, refused to sign the agreement with Eastern Airlines and it put them out of business.
I agree with you that the unions and the industries they are still in are in a death dance. The unions started as Communists organizations and their tactics are the same still. Class struggle, labor against management, is at the heart of who they are. No organization can survive with their two main components at war.
Of course, Communists don't intend for private enterprise to last. They intend for the state to own everything.
Too many forget that car sales have three facets, not one.
1. Reliability
2. Quality
3. Car dealer experience
and lest we fall into the trap that so many before us have encountered... Reliability IS NOT QUALITY and quality IS NOT RELIABILITY!
Reliability - that is finding that your car works the way it's supposed to without breaking. American car makers are now on par with the best of Japanese in this respect.
Quality - that is the fit and finish of the car, the gloss of the paint, the interior design, ergonomics, styling, richness of the materials used in making the car. American car makers are dead last compared to Japanese, Korean, and European car makers.
Dealership experience - just as it implies, the experience a buyer find at the dealer. I've found that European car dealers have the best salespeople. They're not rude, pushy, or aggressive. If you want to just look, that's fine. Whereas American, Japanese, and Korean dealerships are a mixed bag, some good, some bad.
And if you graph a chart with these properties...
..................................Reliability..Quality..Dealership experience
American car makers.........+...........-..........0
European car makers.........-...........+..........+
Japanese car makers.........+...........+..........0
You can see that:
Japanese cars get: 2 pluses and 1 neutral
European cars get: 2 pluses and 1 negative
American cars get: 1 plus, 1 negative and 1 neutral
Which mirrors current opinions. That Japanese cars are the best, European cars are almost as good, and American cars are in last place.
So the upshot is that if US car makers want to improve sales... they need to maintain reliability in comparison to Japanese cars AND significantly improve their quality.
its the same car, the Acura just has more interior amenities.
We have a 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan that's just about to roll its 200,00th mile. In that time, all we've had to do is replace the head gaskets at about 170,000 and fuel pump at 190,000, one of the electric door locks, plus the usual brakes etc. While the heads were off, we had a valve job done. The mechanic judged that a ring job was unnecessary. I cursed the factory radio/cassette player when it stopped working, until I discovered that our kids had filled the thing with coins via the tape door. It uses about a quart of oil between changes. The tranny has never been opened...I finally had to add a quart of fluid yesterday.
We also have a 2004 Honda Odyssey which is quite a sweet ride, as minivans go. Yes, we own two white minivans!
The Honda is nicer, but cost/benefit wise, I have no complaints with the Dodge.
union wages. notsure whatever contract rate is these days...
-union dues taken to liberal unions and given to liberal candidates...
Yeah, I'm in Canada so I've seen the ads for the new CSX, which replaces the EL, right? I just can't go back to driving a car that small unless they've made some serious improvements to leg room, which didn't seem to be the case in the new Civic I sat in at the dealer. I drove for years with inadequate leg room and now that I've got a car with enough I'm not going back.
I think you're thinking of the TSX, which is essentially a european model Accord with an upgraded 4 cyl engine. The TL is a model up from it.
I have a 1998 Concorde that hasn't had an issue outside of the normal wear issues (brakes needed new pads, etc.)...
It has 120,000 miles on it exactly.
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