A.) NFS4: Nice to see that you now know who TG is. I'm psyched to be working with both him and his son in the future (already done a lot of work with his son).
B.)
<< Ford and GM are just out there, gobbling up companies like Volvo and Saab, respectively, and are ruining them with their cheap parts in the process. >>
I don't mean to put down the poster of this quote, but rather use it as an example of the typical ignorance displayed by those who talk about things of which they know very little to nothing. The FACT is, automakers worldwide share most of the same suppliers, be it for interiors (BMW and GM source their interiors from the same supplier for example ...), glass, headlights, whatever. In fact, there are now consortiums through which automakers can jointly make purchases from suppliers, and share in the decreased costs realized by buying en masse. Covisint is one example of this at work.
C.)
<< I strongly believe American automakers are on a path to demise.
They are getting their butt kicked by higher quality and better engineered cars from Japan. So they place their bets on SUV's and even there Japanese are attacking them. Look at Tahoma vs. F150 crash tests.
The point is, when consumers are given a choice, they will pick the better product. The Japanese are acting, and Americans are reacting. When everyone stops buying Fords, then Ford will take the quality problems seriously. But it will be too late. >>
Yet another example of erroneous bias and lack of facts. First off, there is no evidence to prove Japanese cars are better - in fact, in most areas thy are sub-par compared to their counterparts. But the #1 reason that American automakers are facing difficulty has nothing to do with design or quality - it is that foreign markets are essentially closed to them. Yes, they can sell cars abroad, but at great penalty because of the attrocious markups that foreign countries place on US-built cars, as well as cars built "in-country" by U.S. automakers. Bottomline, it is unfair competition practices. The U.S. market is totally open to any foreign automaker, and has been flooded by them, yet if GM or Ford ships a car to Japan, tariffs raise its price from 50 to 200%. Nearly every foreign country does this to us. The most recent slap in the face has come from India. GM and its offspin Delphi have invested billions to bring good jobs to a country when few others were willing to do so. In fact, India's burgeoning tech industry is not mainly from investment by Silicon Valley, but rather companies like GM and esp. Delphi. Delphi employs more people in India's tech industry than anybody else, and pays the highest wages by far, to workers (such as EE's and CE's). So what does India turn around and do? First they proposed an 80% tariff on foreign cars and cars built in country but by a foreign-based company. But some in govt. thought that wasn't enough and increased it to a 120% tariff. Some gratitude huh?
To top it all off, many foreign automakers are now "dumping" cars in the U.S. You've heard the term before, when it happened first with the steel industry, and then in the computer memory biz. Companies "dump" their product at far less than cost, just for the sake of making some sales. This practice has all but wiped out the U.S. steel industry, and has left Micron as the only major U.S. memory producer (Micron is always suing over these "dumping" practices, you may have seen it in the news in the past). Historically, the Koreans have been the worst offenders when it comes to dumping. First steel, then memory. Now it's Korean cars. Does anyone really believe that Hyundai can build an equivalent car for $13-14,000 U.S. that costs even Toyota at least $22-24,000 themselves to build? If so, I got some Fla. swampland for sale ...
Bottomline all we want is a level playing field. And all you N. Americans, esp. the young ones, had better take notice of this impropriety and help overturn it by way of your wallets (note: most foreign countries already discourage their citizens to not buy foreign products) as well as contacting your govt. reps. Because we are losing our manufacturing base here, and that is what built this country in to what is it today. Not to mention, it was our manufacturing base that allowed us to win WWII. The mass production of tanks, planes, etc., were mostly built by Ford, GM, and Chrysler, because there were no other industries (incl. aviation) who could accomplish such feats of large scale production.. Heaven forbid there ever be such a war again, but if there is, we are in deep sh!t !!!