68 Replies to “Canadian Auto Wreckers”

  1. Buy north American blah blah no one calls it for what it is “an American company”. The truth is, American company’s only care about America, as it should be.
    Stop giving them my money and start supporting the Canadian company’s.
    Like for instance the Canadian auto makers “What no such thing”?
    Cars like the Zen that are going to move production to Europe because all the politicians only care about is the big three. They pass laws that stifle the Canadian products, forcing them to relocate or go bankrupt and why? Well thats because the big three payoff the politicians with our own money.
    I’m glad I didn’t vote for Harper.
    Peter

  3. Peter: “Stop giving them my money and start supporting the Canadian company’s.”
    Do you mean supporting Cdn. companies by individuals spending their own money on goods/services or by the government tossing taxpayers’ money at them? The first I agree with; the second not at all.
    Nitpicking alert – the plural of company is companies; company’s shows ownership.

  4. Kathryn
    Support for companies is not always financial
    The big three only survive through government legislation. If they had their way, the autos would be manufactured in china.

  5. Peter, there are no Canadian car companies because historically the infrastructure was just too expensive for our domestic market to support. You needed gigantic foundries to cast the engine blocks and other cast parts, gigantic presses to stamp out the body panels, hundreds of engineers to figure out all the manufacturing steps for all the little doodads that make up a car, all this just to sell a few thousand cars in Canada every year. Oh, and compete with the Big Three plus all the Japanese too.
    Plus the government regulations regarding new cars were designed to make it impossible for a less-than-gigantic company to even sell a car. G.E. might have been big enough to break in, Stelco no way. Not a good business to be in.
    Stephen Harper did not make it that way. It just was that way.
    HOWEVER. The times they are a changing. Present technology allows quite small outfits to manufacture complex castings, stampings, machine parts and all the stuff to make a car. One man can quite literally assemble a brand new 1969 Camaro in his garage from brand new parts. It will be faster, lighter and in all respects better than the origional.
    Sand rails and rock buggies are even easier. MIG welder and a tubing bender, couple of fiberglass molds, add elbow grease and you’ve got a damn fine automobile. Not a BMW but it’ll get the groceries and handle any weather. I know because I built one.
    So, if the CAW and assorted other leftist whiners wanted to pull their thumbs out and do a little actual -work-, it would be quite possible to start up a whole horde of little car companies right here on Ontariostan.
    I won’t hold my breath.

  6. government controlled auto industry. it has been for years. the gov and the unions. result. self evident.

  8. Peter, I meant something more like this:
    http://www.superiorsandcars.com/
    http://www.funco-motorsports.com/
    http://www.jimcorace.com/index.shtml
    http://www.sandlimo.com/
    http://www.suspensionsunlimited.net/
    http://www.avalancheengineering.com/buggies.html
    http://www.worldcastings.com/
    http://www.mendeolatransaxles.com/
    There’s lots more. Dozens.
    Each one of those companies sells a buttload more units than the Zenncar guy, and they don’t get any buddy buddy special deals from the government for ecofriendliness. There’s no reason on earth why we can’t be doing that here, more of it and better too.
    Should a depression do sufficient damage to the Big Three that they all go bust, these kinds of little companies are what is going to step in and pick up the slack. There will be hundreds of manufacturers to chose from, not three.
    Something else to illustrate my point. Ever notice how Bombardier makes aircraft, boats, Skidoos, motorcycles, quads, trains, street cars, subway cars but not automobiles? Ever wonder why that is?
    Same reason you can’t buy a Citroen, Fiat, Skoda Triumph, Tata etc. in this country. Its just too much trouble for the wee bit of money involved.

  9. The Phantom
    The zenn car does not get any eco friendly breaks, but quite the opposite. The government is doing everything it can to put them out of business. You can’t buy a ZENN car outside of Quebec and I don’t know what would happen if you bought one and then drove it to your home outside of Quebec.
    Transport Canada is sitting on this thing, not approving the ZENN car for road travel. Yet in spite of
    of this; the company is doing fine, most of the sales are in Europe, and the US.
    My point was that we give billions of our tax dollars to a foreign auto companies (the big three) and at the same time try to push the Canadian ones out of business. Yes I do blame harper and the conservative government.

  10. Sorry Peter, didn’t mean to dis your company there. I have a deep seated dislike of anything eco-friendly. Gives me hives. Shame the goofs at Transport Canada are behaving true to form though, it would be nice to see some local guys make a buck.
    At any rate, it appears we agree on all points except the Harper part. I particularly agree that propping up the Big Three in this country is a bad thing. They suck, they should go under.
    The current racket/regime/regulatory environment has been put in place gradually since the 1940’s, mostly by the Liberals. The CPC inherited this, they didn’t create it and they can’t remove it in an afternoon. Can you imagine the media response to repealing even one auto “safety” regulation? They’d riot.
    I could wish the CPC would be more aggressive at dismantling the car racket, but then I say that about everything.

  11. A pullout by GM would be too sweet. Yeah, it might hurt the Ontario economy a bit in the short term and it would suck for the families of laid off employees, but I’m sick and tired of unions kneecapping the organizations that feed them. Buzz Hargrove and his greedy Commies can die a slow painful death as far as I’m concerned (figuratively, not literally, lest any leftards get their nuts in a vice).

  12. The Phantom
    Just a little side note,Transport Canada said the only way they can approve this car, is to have a Governor on it, set to 50km an hour max. Even though its capable of traveling 125km. they want it banned from most roads and streets They are claiming its for safety reasons because testing showed it unsafe at higher speeds.
    The testing done in Europe, US, Quebec and the independent ones, has shown this car to be as safe, as most cars on the road today at any speed, this is why its sold there.
    Do you honestly believe, if ford wanted to put one on the road they would have this trouble?
    The truth is big corporations feed the political machine with bribes and donations
    “Government is the problem not the solution.”
    Why would you think the CPC is any different?.

  13. “The truth is big corporations feed the political machine with bribes and donations…”
    If that were true, Elections Canada would be all over the CPC like a fat boy on a twinkie -> for vioationg party finance laws. As it is, the “big Elections Canada raid on CPC headquarters” last year resulted in all those documents being quietly returned to the CPC anyway, and no charges laid.

  14. Peter, you ever drive a Ford Explorer? Talk about unstable at speed, oh baby.
    Why would I think the CPC is any different? Because I’m -in- the CPC and I -make- it different. Me and a bunch more like me, just regular grass root members who put up lawn signs and keep an eye on what the candiates/MPs are doing. You have to join these parties and keep people honest by getting in their face when they do things you don’t like. They aren’t perfect by a loooong shot, but they are 100% better than the sleazeball Liberals or the friggin’ wackadoo NDPee. Talk about fruitbats, omg.
    These things take work, you know. Nobody is going to hand it to you on a silver platter.
    You want a Zenn car, you start kicking over some rocks and shining light on the slugs you find under there. Think of it as a public service only you can perform.

  15. We’ll have to see. One of GM’s failing has always been the desire to protect its workers across North America. I remember reading some gossip about the Quebec facility that made the F bodies. The workers were a lot of trouble and the quality of their work had tumbled but still GM looked for ways to keep the lines going. Remember that idiot Moore’s movie vilifying GM for closing down a 40 year old plant when GM had the largest collection of U. S. domestic auto factories of any manufacturer and had for decades. At the same time Wall Street is hammering them for not doing more off shore.

  16. One of the other commenters reminded me of something my better half told me yesterday. They had lost one of their co-workers to an industrial accident and had gathered for his funeral. Across the room were the union reps sitting with the plaintiff’s attorneys. There’s something not only sickening but unethical and immoral in that picture.

  17. Peter, you’re coming across as a delusional conspiracy theorist.
    While the idea of suppression of an eco-solution by the big three and their gov’t cronies fits the meme of the birkenstock crowd it just ain’t so. (Say, whatever DID happen to that 300mpg. carburetor?)
    Under capitalism, if there is a way to invent or design a better product and make a buck, it will be done. The two keys however, are that it be cost-effective and appeal to the consumer. Without either feature, it’s a dead duck.
    And that’s the problem with the current ZENN. It may have potential for the future, but right now, when compared with cars like the Honda Fit, why would I want one?
    For $15 – $20 thousand, I can buy a car that gives me 40+ mpg that I can comfortably drive from Nanaimo to St. Johns. And it will be covered by a full 5 year warranty, honoured Coast to coast.
    I’ve looked all over the ‘net for a price for the ZENN and right now it looks a lot like ‘etherware’ – lot’s of hype, but not much substance. No dealers saying we’ve got’em and this is the price.
    So let’s assume it’s in the vicinity of $12K. I get a tiny vehicle with a governed speed of 25mph and a range of 40km. With a ‘one year warranty’ that may or may not be honoured somewhere. Sure they’re claiming that 2009 will bring a model that goes 80kmh and 250 km, but they’re also claiming that their new technology battery system is still under development with a Texas based company.
    As a consumer item, it’s just not attractive enough when compared to the Honda or other manufacturers products.
    It’s purely a ‘feel good’ item aimed at the snob-superior-holier than thou market: “The ZENN customers are smart, popular, energetic, responsible, and generally ‘with it’.”
    If you ‘smart, popular and enegetic’ folks want to part with your cash for an emblem, fill your boots. As for the rest of us, well, we’ll just keep doing what we determine is in our own best interests and ignore the sneers.
    “ZENN not only looks like a car; it performs like one, too. The ZENN is equipped with front-wheel drive, brisk acceleration and capable of achieving a regulated maximum speed of 25 mph. ZENN’s battery efficiency gives you the freedom to cover a lot of ground: 30-40 miles per charge.’

  18. I have a question. Please forgive my ignorance, or whatever it is that you wish to call it. If there is 1.3 Billion people in China ( correct me on the number – but lets use 1.3 for this questions’ sake ), how many of that 1.3 Billion are consumers, and, how many of that 1.3 Billion can even afford to participate in what you are pleased to call “the world economy”, like for arguments sake, even can afford to buy a bottle of Coke? My question is this, if you would even dare to dignify my question with a response, “Does China need us, or, do we need China?” Is that a fair question to ask? Am I asking the question too early in this economic armageddon? ( did I spell that right? ) At what point in time will the world realise that exploiting slave labour is suicide – economic suicide? …

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