I read the other day that the Jetta's replacement (yes, they're discontinuing the name) will be built in Mexico.

 

One of the other things that is killing the US companies is the gouging on their prices. Sorry, but $65k for an Escalade with one or two features that are different from a $45k Tahoe is ridiculous. Obviously it's working since they're selling the Escalades, but I remember reading how the big SUVs were putting $10-15k pure profit PER TRUCK into the pockets of the manufacturers. If you're making that much profit, you're screwing people on the vehicle. Now with the economy in the toilet, people are wising up to that and being typically short-sighted, the US manufacturers didn't catch on (or turned a blind eye to it) and just kept shoveling more and more SUVs and trucks into the market, convinced that they'd be fine. Like that famous statement out of GM years ago that GM "is too big to fail", they were naive then and they're naive now, and a thorough top-to-bottom overhaul, starting with executives and product lines, is needed. Hell, Bill Ford cares only about making enough money so that he and his family members in the business can continue to live lavishly. The guy has no marketing or business sense (case in point - look at the other entity he runs/owns/manages, the Detroit Lions - they're in the ******* as deep as the car companies). I don't want to see the fallout of a Detroit failure, but face reality - everywhere else in business, when you build ****, you fail and go under (anyone remember Daewoo?).

 

^or the "back to the future car"!

I read in the paper that retired GM employees still get a percentage of the car sales
Like every GM car sold ruffly $2000 goes into an account and divide up to the retirees
I mean its good that GM is taking care of them like that but come on...
There were a few othere things that money went to people who had nothing to do with GM

 

With all the crappy planning (or incredible lack of planning) over the years in those companies, plus putting out sub-par cars, f*ck 'em honestly. Their cars are sad. Hell, it wasn't long ago when GM was still putting "ABS" badges on the back of their sedans and on the centercaps, so the world would know they had antilock brakes - WOW, world-class technical breakthrough there. Amazing that they actually had to advertise that fact as late as 99 or 2000. That's a pretty sorry testament to them.

 

One of the things the Big 3 don't learn is history.

Back during the 70's and the Opec oil embargo to the US forced the Big 3 to go small instead of the big gas guzzlers (funny during that time the price of fuel doubled and didn't really go back down...).

Company's like Honda. Toyota, Nissan (Datsun), Mazda and VW were racking it in selling smaller affordable and fuel efficient cars.

Chrysler almost went under until Lee Ioccoca convinced Pres Reagan that they needed a $100 million (not exactly sure on the loan amount) to retool and they would pay back in ten years wiith interest. He got it - paid the loan back in 4 yrs (with interest) and saved Chrysler.

10 yrs ago the Japanese were already tinkering with Hybris technology. Obviously someone looked up the term "Finite Resource" and decided to do something about it.

The German's simply eeked out as much power and mileage with existing engines with fair success.

GM scrambled and met a CA mandated "zero emissions" law passed in 01 that claimed that 10% of a car manufactures fleet must emit 0% exhaust to even sell in California. They produced the EV1 and it worked. Then when the law was repealed in CA they immediately removed all the EV1's - they were on lease only.

But Toyota continued to produce hybrid Prius's and later Camry's. Nissan, Mazda and Honda followed suit.

A few years ago Ford got on the bandwagon with the Escape - thanks mostly to Mazda (which Ford owns 30% of it's shares). They have another vehicle in the works with Volvo which shows promise.

Just now GM is finally going hybrid - with what? It's Tahoe/Suburban lines. And finally plan to roll out the new Volt which could be a hybrid killer.

Chrysler has a whole lineup coming out but not soon enough.

Simply enough - they are running too late on the fumes of the fossil fuels and look to either retool to survive or perish with the dinosaur.

 

The Escape is Toyota technology
GM was busy trying to convince the world that E85 was the savior.The volt will tank.The range is not there.They can't perfect things they've been making for years and yet we're suppose to believe the batteries they are working on now will be perfect in a year.
Like the 70's they need to go to diesels.

 

E85 is a great thing for tuners, just wish more stations had it. Its a big difference in power for us turbo cars. Im hoping on running it daily when i finally go BT, have both 93 and E85 file

 

104 octane is great for tuning ,just not practicle.For everyday it's no good

 

Where do you get your information? The Ford hybrid design is similar to Toyota's only because when Ford designed it, they realized that it was very similar to the existing system Toyota used. As a token of good faith, they set up a patent sharing agreement and exchanged technologies, however, they were two independently designed systems.

 

Where do you get your info?
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...50C0A9629C8B63