The Australian car industry went thru similar issues 25 years ago. At that time we made relatively poor-quality cars that rusted and broke down and had poor build quality. We reduced tariff protection and forced the local industry to compete on price/quality. It was painful but the result was that our cars are now world-class (we even export to USA). I drive a Ford Performance Vehicles GT. It compares performance wise with European performance cars with similar build quality that cost 2-3times as much. American mass-produced cars have an exceptionally bad reputation for build quality. Importers of iconic American muscle cars advertise that they 'rebuild' them to fix the manufacturing flaws. Your car industry has massive problems but a large part of it is that imported vehicles are of vastly superior quality. We know what that is like.
That said my dream car is an American Ford GT which would cost in excess of $A600,000 with right-hand drive conversion over here. Cant see that happening! -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of MB Software Solutions General Account Sent: Friday, 5 December 2008 7:13 AM To: ProFox Email List Subject: Re: [OT] Leland! Drive this! Leland Jackson wrote: > The crisis in the financial and housing sectors of the US economy has > put many projects on hold or out of business. Even the big three US > Automotive companies and struggling to survive, and they know plenty > about making cars. Also, T-bone (eg T boone) Pickens was forced to put > his wind energy project with a switch to natural gas transportation on > hold. He couldn't raise the capital needed to go forward with his plans > at this time. > > I'm perfectly happy with my TDI VW Jetta Wagon, even with the price of > gasoline way down. It would probably be best to get GM, Ford, and > Chrysler back on the path to building clean, efficient, reliable > transportation; before, all their auto worker end up making Toyota, > Hondas and VWs, LOL which could present a security problem almost a > great as US dependence on foreign pretroleum. I see the logic and think of Rick Wagoner (GM) saying "It's very important for the U.S. to have a home team in this global auto industry." in an article online today. Still, I can't help but feel this is bullshit. Japan is a key, strategic ally. Their cars run better, cost less often, and even have a lower TCO when you add up all the repair costs because they're a zillion times more reliable than the US cars. To support the US auto-industry might sound like the right thing to do using Wagoner's logic, but unless they change, it's merely a welfare handout for substandard quality, imo. [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
