Yeah, because them buying two or three new American cars will solve it all. Bright post, Mr. Niklaus.

As I’ve said before, if you want to save the American auto industry, it’s time for their executives and engineers to put out a good product. Likewise, they need to hire marketers who can adequately market their product and talk America into buying their cars.

As it is now, unless you’re union and MADE to buy American, people are much happier with their appropriately priced, foreign-based cars that won’t break down or rust-out in two years.

These people purchased these vehicles because, I imagine, they were good values for the money, are reliable, and have good styling, handling, interior design, economy, and other qualities. I own a 2007 VW myself (Audi is part of VW AG) and the GTI is a solid, well-designed, reliable (VW reliability has improved quite a bit over the last decade) and efficient vehicle — 30+ mpg highway, excellent 25-27mpg for a non-hybrid during my daily commute. My family has owned Hondas and Toyotas as well (Lexus is part of Toyota) and they have been nothing less than solid, dependable vehicles. The Taurus, depending on exactly how old it is, also has a reputation for being dependable; I know someone whose mother has one and it hasn’t given her trouble for years. I don’t have any personal experience with Mazda but people do seem to like those as well.

It takes time to build up a reputation for quality, reliability, and efficiency. What do you expect to happen when you let your customers down repeatedly over the years? My family did have an American-made (GM, specifically) vehicle at one point and it went through several engines before we got rid of it, and we don’t abuse our vehicles. We turned to Honda, and never regretted it and recommended Hondas and Toyotas to our family and friends as well.

They’re just reaping what they sowed and imports are reaping the rewards of making good products. I suppose it’s now un-American to do the logical thing and buy something that you know you won’t have to repeatedly sink money into and that will be serviceable for many years to come and that you’ll actually be glad to own.

As for those Hondas, they were built in the US by Americans who then spent their paychecks right here in the US and supported US businesses and workers! Be mindful of where your vehicle was built (the info is on the window sticker and on the manufacturer’s plate) — a US-made vehicle won’t necessarily be actually built here. That Honda that you’ve been eyeing for its safety and reliability and efficiency may well be coming to you from the Midwest — and that “domestic” vehicle might have been built elsewhere (for example, the Chevrolet Aveo is a rebadged Daewoo Kalos, built in Korea).

There is more to “Foreign” and “Domestic” than the nameplate.

With a background in engineering and economics, I’m generally pretty objective about buying products that provide good value. Given a choice between equal products that are American made or foreign made, I will generally buy the American made product. But a major exception is automobiles made by the UAW, because I hate dealing with people who think that society owes them more than the market value of their services.

The last car that I had made by the UAW was a 2000 Mercury Sable station wagon (much like a Ford Taurus). It was not loaded with luxury gimmicks, but was a very reliable vehicle for the money, and actually had more passenger and freight capacity than SUVs costing much more and having much worse gas mileage. Neither GM or Chrysler had a similar station wagon, and Ford dropped it soone after that because SUVs and minivans were more profitable.

The moral is that I’ll hold my nose and buy a UAW made vehicle if they produce one that is really a good buy — but that is almost beyond comprehension when the primary purpose of the UAW (as with other unions) is to maximize labor costs.

Let’s not blame Dave here. He’s simply relaying a previous story published elsewhere. He pointed to the problem in the first line when he said Big 3 don’t make cars people want to buy. I’ll add they sometimes don’t stand behind them either.

I have one American truck and one German sedan, a 1996 and a 2008 respectively. Last year we had some electrical issues with the German car to the point where it was in the shop more than six times in six months. The dealer could not seem to figure it out and supplied us with a loaner car each time. The car actually left us stranded on the interstate twice requiring a tow back to St. Louis each time. Late last year the problem was found, the was car fixed and is now running fine.

The dealer offered to make a couple of months of car payments to reward us for being so patient with them but when they consulted the manufacturer they were told to get an identical 2009 model car on order for us. They would swap the 09 for the 09 on the loan and we would pay nothing out of pocket. We will pick up the 09 next month.

What I describe here is true customer service. We didn’t have to go thru the Lemon laws of this state or file a claim. The manufacturer recognized a problem and wanted to keep a loyal customer. Because of this, we will probably buy another car from them. Do American car companies do this? I don’t know. I do know that when I took my truck in for service I had to rent a loaner car. I know when the clutch went out a thousand miles out of warranty they would not cover the repair.

Give the customer what they want, when they want it and for a price they want and the Big 3 wont have any problems.

I’m not suprised.

After all, we’re funding the stimulus with foreign money. Some of the stimulus money will go to GM and Chrysler afloat. That makes the UAW “Buy American” crowd happy.

Yep, the average UAW worker’s job security will be insured by foreign money buying treasury bonds to fund the stimulus.

Bring back the Yugo.

Then what,?
Park them in a farmer’s field somewhere other than where they are sitting now and keep building products no one is buying? Come on.

Shut the plants down until your inventory levels are under control.
No wonder they need billions of dollars, they are stealing the money.