About those bags, @Triedaq, I have come to the conclusion that the tamperproof packaging used these days often costs more than the products inside. And about that hay, I wish I had a photograph of one of my more majestic loads of hay. It might be on a par with the wagons of farm goods being hauled in India.
The gas crisis of the 70âs almost bankrupt GM, Ford and Chrysler. It did bankrupt AMC. If something like the 70âs happen againâŠToyota, Nissan, Subaru, Honda, Kia are in much better position to completely take over the US market. Funny how Toyota and Nissan have no problem making large Trucks AND sedans.
Toyota and Nissan sell way more cars and small suvâs than full size trucks or suvâs. The domestics are the polar opposite. For whatever reason. But the manufacturers generally supply the vehicles that consumers demand, right? If there was a greater demand for Ford Focuses, Iâm sure Ford would be manufacturing more Focuses than F150âs. But I just donât think the demand is there. You have to make what people are buying.
Fordâs efforts to offer entry level priced vehicles has long been laughable @Scrapyard_John. They said they were losing money on every Escort they sold despite it being cheap from the drawing board to the floor mats. And that cheapness has become a tradition in their low price lineup of vehicles. Itâs as though they build a few and park them on the lots to get buyers in with an intense purpose to up sell to the profitable models. The Corollas and Civics have always been relatively stylish with upholstery and trim somewhat comparable to the more costly Toyota and Honda models but not so with the Ford entry level vs costlier models.
And about those Pintos and Vegas from 50 years ago. A committee of high school gear heads and home ec students could have out done Detroit designing affordable economical cars. Just putting a better engine and transmission in a 64 Mercury Comet would have been light years ahead of what they offered. A stripped down 2 door Pinto with a 2.0L 4 speed would get 22 mpg on a good day and it looked like a product from behind the Iron Curtain.
Letâs look at the reasons WHY thatâs true. Could it be because Toyota, Honda and Nissan sedans are considerably more reliable then the Focus. Youâre rightâŠthe consumers drive the market. Me as a consumer wonât buy an extremely unreliable vehicle. I like to buy reliable vehicles. My wifeâs last 3 sedans are extremely reliable. (87 Accord - Over 300k miles, 96 Accord - Over 300k miles, current Lexus ES 350 - Over 200k miles).
Then why on earth are you griping about the big 3 selling trucks and not sedans? It makes no sense to criticize the manufacturers for making larger profits selling trucks (that people are buying) instead of manufacturing cars that you (and apparently the majority of the rest of the public) wouldnât buy anyway.
Iâve gotta say, I love my Ford Focus, but itâs a 2009 (2nd gen). When they did the redesign for the 3rd generation (starting with model year 2011), reliability went way downâŠThere is still demand for the Focuses, but itâs for the used ones
Iâm not griping about it. Iâm just pointing out that their short-sightedness could cost them dearly - AGAIN. The big-3 are still focused on short term profits instead of long-term gain. Itâs been their Achilles heel for decades.
I use to have about 15 relatives working for in GM or Chryco factories. The plants and their jobs are long gone. Personally I want to see GM and Ford and Chryco get stronger. But to do that they need to stop making crap cars.
Iâd like to see them get stronger as well. Although they should be doing ok considering the price of the trucks theyâre selling. If they canât make a decent profit on those overpriced monsters, theyâre doomed already!
⊠which raises the question of WHY more people donât want to buy certain American-made sedans.
My best guess has to do with quality issuesâeither real or perceivedâwith those American sedans.
Theyâre nice trucks, but I canât see paying that kind of money. Thatâs almost as much as my first house. I just think by dropping sedans theyâre going to regret in years to come.
Sure. I bought my wife a Toyota mid sized suv based on hopefully better reliability. Although my sisterâs equinox was retired with 256k miles (still driveable and kept as a spare). Itâll be difficult to know if / when the quality has improved as long as we (myself included) opt for the supposed known reliability of a Toyota or Honda. In other words, now that people buy Camryâs, it may be difficult to get them back in a comparable big 3 sedan. Why come back? Unless the big 3 sell for substantially cheaperâŠ
Same here. We discuss and I give her my opinion (since Iâm the one doing all the maintenance). I wanted her to get the Acura TL instead of the LexusâŠBut either is fine. She just liked the Lexus better.
I guess I just donât know. I do know there are a lot of people out there with money now and they buy expensive stuff. Not all are pay check to pay check. So maybe there is a market. Of course there are still a lot of people that canât afford it. Does the market push the designs or do the designs push the market? I think both. I can only buy what they provide and I am a little unhappy with the choices. But I still have to buy something. Iâm not convinced market research yields the designs. Sure profits and EPA have an impact.
And if people didnât buy unreliable cars, why do they buy BMW and Mercedes? I think choices made are not necessarily logical but we try to make them logical. And I think its not just the domestic auto makers that miss the mark and drive the companies into hard times. How many businesses were or are in peril as the current breed of executives drive them into the ground? Not to mention Takata or General Electric or Johnson and Johnson or Heinz or . . . Well at any rate Iâm not going to buy one. I donât think it would fit in the garage. I do like the new Blazers though with a V6 and 4500# towing.
There is a reason⊠customers did not buy these vehicles in enough volumes to make them profitable. R&D continued but at a slower pace in the direction of EVâs and hybrids. GM, Ford and Chrysler cannot force people to buy high mileage cars nor can the government force people to buy them.
CAFE was created to force car makers to build higher mileage cars. The buying public rejected many of those cars and bought trucks instead.The car makers saw this trend and expanded their lines of SUVs of all sizes. Customers decided they LIKED trucks and manufacturers added 2 more doors to trucks and luxury features. The customers came in droves so they built MORE of these types of vehicles.They built truck-like smaller SUVs on mini-van and car chassis to fool those buyers who werenât buying cars.
The rush to high mpg cars was only a temporary respite in '08. Once prices dropped back down, sales of trucks and SUVs shot right back to the top. Whatâs a car maker to do? There will likely be higher gas prices in the future. When? I donât know. Maybe that is why both Ford and GM have small turbo engines in their trucks and Chrysler has cylinder de-activation for the Hemi.
Proving once again, you can lead a horse to water but you canât make 'em drink.
Donât you think that a very large percentage of those vehicles are leased, rather than purchased?
That way, the âownersâ donât have to dread the extremely high maintenance and repair bills for those marques after the free maintenance and the warranty both expire.
Car leasing⊠how people live above their means in order to impress othersâŠ
So people would lease an unreliable car but not buy one? Same warranty on a lease as a new car. Naw, I think they like the style, feel, etc. and maybe still have this idea of 50 years ago. Still in Europe, thatâs what a lot of people buy, probably because thatâs whatâs available-just like Chevy here.
