Let's hope the UAW doesn't get any ideas

If your customers don't want to buy your cars, try clubbing them.

That's pretty much the only way I'd buy a Ford.

I can see old Jackoff layton now,rubbing his hands togeather wanting to implement this into his coalalition as soon as he can concour the goverment.

Funny, until about a couple of years ago, I was pretty "pro-big three", and subscribed to the whole "buy from North Am manufacturers". That's how I was raised.

Then I was more or less coerced into buying a couple of Japanese cars for the family. They were slicker than the US autos I'd been used to, but far from perfect, and did have to be taken into the shop more than once. So I became neutral on the whole issue.

But the disgraceful display by the unions and by the politicians in the past few weeks has made me positively hateful towards our auto industry. I know it's not rational, but seriously I just want to see them gone. It's like a boil on the butt of our nation. It needs to be lanced, and we need to move on to more important things.

I can't see any conceivable way I would ever buy an American car any more.

I wonder how many people feel as I do as they watch our tax dollars being flushed down the crapper to prop up a failed business model and a failed product.

Back to the dark ages for Russia. When they get there I wonder which country will be the first to be forced under their sphere of repression again?

Euro ninnies? Which one?

I don't know why people chop on American cars. I love the Ford Mustang GT Cobra 500, the Cadillac Escalade and the Dodge Ram with a V8 Hemi. Those three are amazing!!!

I've been a loyal Detroit customer my whole life. I've owned 26 American made vehicles, not a single "foreign" vehicle. I've had good and bad. Most of the good ones were Fords, but I have nothing against the other guys.

Now that the Auto Pact is history, I'm beginning to question the value of all that loyalty. If the big three start closing Canadian plants, we'd be better off trying to attract Japanese investment in plants here.

I've debated this subject to no avail on many occasions. It's obvious that I'm in the minority in this debate. If Toyota wants to invest in Canada and create jobs, who am I to tell someone he's disloyal to buy one?

The imports would not want to buy those plants that are going to close in Canada for they know they are going to get crappy old cry baby union employees that brought down the "Big three"anyway

The whole loyalty to Detroit issue is a canundrum to me. I'm surrounded by UAW, my inlaws are all brainwashed old people who retired from the big three. I work for a 'foreign' car manufacturer and they treat me well, and the product they make is good, although its not all made onshore, and every day we look over our shoulder to see what they might move offshore next. There is one argument that makes me giggle. Thats the one where we should support the American manufacturers because it keeps the profits in the US.

What we need to remember keeping this all in perspective is that the UAW did actually take a bit of a kicking in their last contract negotiation in 2007. New workers have crappy benefits and the pay is not what it once was for those people. The old fatcats get to retire old fatcats however.

As far as the Big Three being bad business models, though there is historical truth to that idea it isn't what brought on this crisis. What brought on the crisis is the failure of the credit industry. The assumption is that its only the American three that are hurting, but in fact the whole industry is taking a kicking right now. Honda can't make a profit, Toyota is revising its sales figures. When thats happening, it isn't the business models that aren't working its the economy thats challenging the existance of industry. One thing that ticks me off a little bit is that the American companies are getting to rely on a bailout, while my company will get no such handout, which may result in me being without work at some point if the state of the auto market doesn't change soon. Its an unfair subsidy. On the other hand, if the big three collapse totally, that won't do any good for the industry either. No good can come from ANY of this.

So far as the quality of the product that American carmakers put out, I don't see a difference between their cars and the foreign product, in fact some of the US cars are very good deals comparatively. They come with many extra features for a lower price. On the other hand some of the styling is still a little bit bland on many models.

Why not? Its the progressive way to do most things.

The truth hurts does it ulianov

ulianov,

Perhaps you need some help with your reading comprehension. Its the police beating civilians who were protesting tariffs on foreign vehicles. Idea being maybe this is how the UAW would like things to work, tariffs on imports to secure their market. Then have the police beat anyone who disagrees. Nothing to twist.

Sigh ... ulianov ... typical leftard who completely misses the point.

I don't have a personal issue with the auto worker for the big three, nice money if you could get it, but I draw the line when the "Three Wise Men" from Detroit say that their poor managing of their companies should be bailed out because they are more important than the rest of us smucks.

I'm sure that little restaurant down the street that closed thought they were important to the economy, but with little business, because people aren't spending as much they had to close their doors. How many of those employees will be getting severence packages as a Christmas bonus? The owner of the restaurant probably has most if not all of his money in this failed enterprise.

While the economy is twisting in the wind globally, a lot of people are holding on to what money they have left, looking for stability before venturing out to buy a new car, house, stereo or whatever. Of course just when Canadians need stability and strong leadership, the Three Amigos come along with visions of power dancing in their sugarplum heads. Like that was going to make me want to spend more and get into debt.

I know it was kind of hard to miss but the "PM is not taking the crisis seriously" to "PM is sounding too glum" backflip was truly olympic class.

Almost all cars made in Russia are made by foreign car companies including Japanese car companies (Toyota just opened a new Camry plant in St. Petersburg - which means Russia is getting into higher value car manufacturing, btw). Almost all Opel (read GM) Astra's for the Euro market are made in Russia - almost all low end cars by any French, German, Italian automaker comes from Russia (and/or Turkey).

Russians are complaining because they are not used to seeing a real recession and the real possibility of losing their jobs.

Japanese car companies are hurting bad too. I have no doubt that Honda, Toyota, Nissan, etc. will be getting some big support from their government. (For example I just heard that Toyota's car exports to the US, Europe, and China have dropped over 30%.)

A post at "Daimnation!":

"Buzz Hargrove (gasp!) gets one important thing right"

Mark
Ottawa

Mark, some things are so blisteringly obvious that even a career union hack can't miss them. Or lie about them convincingly.

Making ulianov/Iberia a very, very special kind of...person. He/she/it can continue to lie about even this, the most obvious thing in the world next to a sunrise.

Quoth the Leftist genius: "I just love it how you stupid bastards twist things around: it's the police beating civilians, not the other way around. But why should the truth get in the way of a little anti-unionism, eh?"

Yes, the twisting of the Right, the pretzel-like logic of the Neocons. Fascist Right Wingers, who have the audacity to say that cops beating up protesters against a protectionist tariff on foreign cars is just a few steps down the same road as our government bailing out the massively unprofitable "domestic" car industry in Canada. Massively unprofitable due almost entirely to health care and retirement benefits granted to union workers. American union workers at that.

Beating up people who protest government policies is a favorite Leftist pastime, Iberia. Policies which protect buddies of the government at the expense of The People. The beating part usually comes just before the mass shootings, and then there's the killing of the millions by starvation to follow.

Historically anyway. Putin may skip the shooting part and go right to the starving, bullets being expensive and all.

Begone, foul troll!

Back when Reagan was president, the Harley-Davidson motorcycle company was going through a tough time that was similar (on a much smaller scale of course) to the big 3 right now. Imports, particularly from Japan, were destroying the company's bottom line. H-D had just been rescued from ownership by AMF that had tried to make a few bucks by capitalizing on the name and doing no R&D. As well, H-D itself was determined to play on its legacy of 'traditional' V-Twin, push-rod OHV twins. They mostly just shook and/or leaked themselves into oblivion.

A 50 to 100% (I think the latter but can't honestly remember so don't quote me) tarrif was placed on all imported Japanese motorcycles. In the meantime, H-D enlisted Japanese engineers to help them develop the Evolution engine.

Bottom line was, it worked. But mainly, IMHO because the older folks who could finally afford a Harley wanted something reliable that didn't blur their vision and shake their dentures out. The boomers, not the bikers, became the biggest customers.

But I'll take a rice-rocket anyday....

Just a followup on my earlier comment. I've since realized that the Russians (especially in the eastern parts of Russia) do import a lot of used cars from Japan and Korea because they are fairly cheap and still very reliable. The tariffs apply mostly to these cars because the eastern Russians are not that rich and so this was the main reason for the troubles. However, most Russian auto plants in the western part of Russia are experiencing big layoffs.