Posted on 07/29/2008 7:14:54 PM PDT by Kaslin
Auto-industry insiders over the years have often blamed Detroit's mounting problems on mediocre management, poor technological leadership and a lack of vision for the future.
While the successful foreign firms relied on technological innovation, a thorough study of the market, clever marketing and high quality, Detroit's Big Three automakers relied on massive economies of scale, price discounting, zero-percent financing, rebates and volume fleet sales, all of which led to erosion of vehicle resale values.
What were customers to do? Buy highly rated "foreign" cars with high resale values or steeply discounted American vehicles with lower resale values?
The answer is in the numbers. From 1992 to 2007, the number of imported passenger vehicles more than doubled, and Toyota Motor Co. is now the world's largest automaker. According to a new joint study by TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence and Auto Futures Group, the No. 1 brand Americans will consider buying is Toyota.
Our study also shows that when it comes to brand power among customers, Toyota and Honda owners are — on average — four times more likely to promote their brands to friends than Ford owners are, and three times more likely to promote their brands than GM or Chrysler owners.
This does not bode well for Detroit, where the Big Three are at crossroads. Already bleeding from declining sales, increasing incentives and heavy lease losses, they must at the same time find the resources to retool their lineups, remake their images and shore up their market values.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
And in other news, non-union hourly employees of US based Nissan, Honda, Toyota, etc make about half of what UAW workers make and they are more productive, too.
LOL, a my car is great thread....
‘93 Dodge Ram 250, Cummins Diesel, 265,000 miles, 21 MPH without a trailer, still the best vehicle of my life.
Have a nice day.
I buy American most of the time because they fit me and my needs better than imports. From my experiences I would say the problem isn’t so much with the newer American cars as much as it is a problem with the dealers. They still treat you like they are the only game in town, especially when it comes to warranty work. Even when the same dealer sells both American at one location and imports at another you get treated better at the import dealership. If I ever switch to an import that will probably be the reason.
I’ve driven the Lada, its OK, but the Skoda is a much better car!
The people here hate unions. That's fine.
But allowing ever-increasing relations with foreign countries and foreign companies, for the purpose of screwing the unions, is short-sighted because it facilitates other, undesirable, foreign connections.
Yes, the UAW are bastards.
But they're OUR bastards.
Best car I've owned in 30 years of driving.
Yes I had one, worse car I ever owned though my used Pinto was a close second, but that was almost 40 years ago, times have changed. Ask people about the first Hyundais and Kias not to mention any British or Italian car. You need to let it go and move into the 21th century. American cars are not AMC Gremlins anymore.
That would kill Detroit if it couldn't import its engines from China any longer!
Then again, maybe that's a good idea. At least we'd still be building Honda's, KIA's, and Mercedes here in Alabama.
I HATE Consumers Report, and yes, they definitely do have an anti-American bias.
As for me, I’ve owned nothing but GM cars my whole life, with very few problems. I happen, for example, to love my Saturns. Are they luxury vehicles? Well... no, but man are they reliable. NONE of them have ever been to the shop for anything but regular service and the only reason I traded in the last 3 of them was to move up to bigger models to accommodate my growing family. (I still really miss the last two; they were nice cars, but Consumers trashes everything Saturn makes.)
Regards,
PS: BTW, I also happen to think that Saturn Sky is a danged pretty car. Wish I had the $$$ to have a “frivolous” car. Alas, I need to move the kids and the dog and all the stuff, and the DMV and PDs frown on strapping the little tykes to the hood. Oh well...college approaches!
Who cost me a ton of wasted money until I wised up about 12 years ago.
Never again.
I have a friend who is a mechanical engineering intern at one of the Big 3. From what I have heard, their spending habits don’t reflect the reality of their financial situation.
For instance, my friend and one of his coworkers wanted to go to an auto show in Detroit, and they work between Cleveland and Columbus in Ohio, somewhere in that neighborhood. The show was in the middle of the week, so they just planned on calling out “sick” so they could go. However they told some middle-management type from Detroit they were going to go, and he told them to just say they were coming up for a meeting with him, and he would have the company pay for it all. Heck they didn’t even have to go visit this guy while they were there.
They got a company car (an SUV none the less) for the 2 of them, recommendations on 4 star hotels, food and the works paid for, all to go see a car show. They stayed at a cheaper hotel, but the reality is that any company that spends money on useless stuff like that is going to end up in trouble sooner or later.
I have 4 vehicles. 3 Chevys and one Honda.
Chevy 1 has 523,000 miles on it, still driven several times a week.
Chevy 2 has 265,000 miles on it. Runs great and is very reliable.
Chevy 3 has 145,000 miles, daily driver and everything works on it including ice cold AC.
The Honda is ok for local jaunts, but not a great road car. Reliability lacking in AC system and drive shafts. On its 3rd set of drive shafts and it has 70,000 miles. It is a total nightmare to work on this vehicle due to all major components being inacessable. Chasing parts can be a full time job on it as well.
I pass a junkyard often, and there are a lot of late model foreign jobs in it. They appear to outnumber the late model Big 3 cars...............
Have a 94 Honda Accord with 200,000 miles and an 04 Element with 30,000, both bought new. Take them both for regular care and have had no major problems. Honda shop tells me they are working on 94’s with 350,000 miles on them.
I have my own mechanic who picks the car up at work and delivers before the end of the day. The last time was an oil change, trans fluid change, and new rotors and calipers on the back. He once changed the right trans axle while I was at lunch. I buy the parts and he charges 40 bucks an hour. He’s an expert and self-employed obviously. :^)
Nice mechanic. We never have used the dealer for our Hondas. Lucky to have a mechanic here that is limited to Honda, Mazda, Nissan and Toyota. He is super and people come from distances because they know those cars. I live in walking distance.
To heck with the car - I want your mechanic!
Seriously, I grew up working on cars until they got too complex. Now I farm out the maintenance on my daily driver and only work on my hot rods.
Excellent points. I guess it comes down to profit margins. With those expensive UAW contracts cuts must be made somewhere. But to what end? GM and Ford may both go bankrupt anyway. But you’re quite right; it’s certainly not beyond us to make the very best.
Labor costs are by far the biggest expense most companies have. If the US automakers' labor costs were at fair market level instead, they could invest much more in better engineering and research.
He was a Nissan mechanic who ventured on his own. Many people here where I work use him exclusively for their maintenence. One guy has a 1996 Accord racer and another has a Nismo 350Z and a Honda Integra. The guy is good. I lucked out.
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