Do you think the Big 3 Automakers are going to fold?

[mugs]

Originally posted by: glutenberg

Originally posted by: Goo
No, I dont' think they will fold, and yes I own their product.

And to OP, big three's product are getting better the last few years. And I don't want them to emulate what Toyota is doing, Toyota made very boring car and I don't want that.

What American car has been that exciting to you?

Pontiac Solstice
Chrysler Imperial looks pretty sweet
New Mustang

 

[BCYL]

No way they will fold, US government will not allow it to happen... These companies folding will seriously hurt the US economy as a whole...

 

[JulesMaximus]

Well, they fvcked themselves hard by relying almost soley on the profits from their fullsize SUVs and trucks. When fuel prices almost doubled after hurricane Katrina people stopped buying them or took a real hard look at whether or not they really needed a fullsize SUV vs just wanting one.

 

[nakedfrog]

My newest car is a Chrysler. I'm thinking about replacing it with a Ford Freestyle once I'm through with it. Or maybe a Dodge Magnum.

 

[DainBramaged]

My next car will be a Cadillac DTS.

 

[imported_Goo]

Originally posted by: glutenberg

Originally posted by: Goo
No, I dont' think they will fold, and yes I own their product.

And to OP, big three's product are getting better the last few years. And I don't want them to emulate what Toyota is doing, Toyota made very boring car and I don't want that.

What American car has been that exciting to you?

By boring I mean they drive like a boat, feel very disconnect. e.g focus > corolla, fusion > camry...etc.

 

[0roo0roo]

maybe one needs to die so the other two can live,or simply cut down on the different brands under gm and them have, too many. dump stuff like buick, waste of resources to develop for.

they've been catering to the truck/suv crowd for too long, alienated the other customers who don't like the hick thing and well now they are pretty much stuck with those customers.

 

[Aimster]

why do people still call it the big three?

Dodge/Chrysler are German now

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Aimster
Dodge/Chrysler are German now

The jeep is German.... ironic

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: glutenberg

Originally posted by: Goo
No, I dont' think they will fold, and yes I own their product.

And to OP, big three's product are getting better the last few years. And I don't want them to emulate what Toyota is doing, Toyota made very boring car and I don't want that.

What American car has been that exciting to you?

Pontiac Solstice
Chrysler Imperial looks pretty sweet
New Mustang

only the ford gt and mustang have impressed me.

Toyota Motor Corp. is bracing for possible political and consumer backlash caused by its rapid U.S. growth, according to an internal report obtained by the Free Press.

err
i don't think so, the only backlash is from the domestic buyers that wouldn't buy toyota in the first place. everyone else sees toyota pushing through hybrid technology while the domestics sit on their hands, theres no backlash, hybrid sales just keep going.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Well, they fvcked themselves hard by relying almost soley on the profits from their fullsize SUVs and trucks. When fuel prices almost doubled after hurricane Katrina people stopped buying them or took a real hard look at whether or not they really needed a fullsize SUV vs just wanting one.

hard not to rely solely on the profit of the only thing you can make profitably.

 

[Squisher]

Originally posted by: PricklyPete
I buy their products from time to time. I'm not one of those people who buy them just to buy American...but if they put out a product that is at least as competent or nearly as competent as the foreign product...I generally lean toward the Big 3 product.

Examples of products I would have no problem buying:
- Corvette
- GM Large SUV's
- GM Full Size Pickup Trucks
- Ford F150
- Saturn Aura
- Pontiac Solstice/Saturn Sky
- Ford Fusion
- Dodge Viper

I'm eagerly awaiting the reviews on the Pontiac G8. It is very likely that if it lives up to the hype, that will be my next car purchase.

Nice list
I'll add the Buick Lacrosse
And, that Cadillac CTS (especially the AWD that's coming out)

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Well, they fvcked themselves hard by relying almost soley on the profits from their fullsize SUVs and trucks. When fuel prices almost doubled after hurricane Katrina people stopped buying them or took a real hard look at whether or not they really needed a fullsize SUV vs just wanting one.

Yep, which is why Toyota is getting its ass handed to them because half of its model line-up are SUVs and trucks, and it's facing impending disaster because it's just invested billions developing a new full-size truck model.

Oh wait... no, it's not.

And gas prices doubled after Katrina (which made landfall on 8/29/05). Oops, that's not true either. While prices did spike briefly after Katrina, they had already gone in the summer of 03, of 04, and in 05 (beginning in March of that year). Here's a 3 year chart of gas prices in your area showing gas prices climbing well before Katrina Text.

 

[Kadarin]

I bought a 2005 GTO, and love it. I can't imagine any European or Japanese car being remotely like it.

 

[MetalMat]

Lately I have been finding that lots of imports are just getting boring to me.

Civic? yawn
Accord? yawn
Camry? yawn

I dont know, over the past year I have begun liking american cars again. I still own both a honda and a ford, and while I think the honda is made great I find that I still like american cars.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: Aimster
why do people still call it the big three?

Dodge/Chrysler are German now

And Daimler is considering spinning off Chrylser (saw on CNBC today), not to mention that Chrylser has now slipped behind Toyota making it #4!

To the OP...No and I would (own two Chrysler products now).

 

[Tab]

Too be honest I can't really see a single domestic car I want to own, ever. I can't find a whole lot I like about America cars when it comes to interiors and exteriors.

I mean even the damn "Ford" logo is ugly...

 

[Svnla]

Originally posted by: NuAlphaMan
Why not emulate what Toyota and Honda are doing?

I don't think they will copy Honda/Toyota/imports. They won't....or maybe when they are in bankruptcy or nearly fold. They don't have the structure or the mindset to do it.

Ford is losing over 20 grands <one new Mustang> an hour <I think, could be 1 minute>. GM and Chrysler are losing money too. You can't survive very long if you keep losing money left and right.

FYI, the big 3 or 2 1/2 are cutting over 100K jobs this year. Toyota/Honda/Imports are openning new plants and hiring.

 

[MetalMat]

Originally posted by: Svnla

Originally posted by: NuAlphaMan
Why not emulate what Toyota and Honda are doing?

I don't think they will copy Honda/Toyota/imports. They won't....or maybe when they are in bankruptcy or nearly fold. They don't have the structure or the mindset to do it.

Ford is losing over 20 grands <one new Mustang> an hour <I think, could be 1 minute>. GM and Chrysler are losing money too. You can't survive very long if you keep losing money left and right.

FYI, the big 3 or 2 1/2 are cutting over 100K jobs this year. Toyota/Honda/Imports are openning new plants and hiring.

But isnt most of Toyota's plant automated? I have been to the GM plant where they make Hummers multiple times and they have TONS of people on the assembly line.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: Svnla

Originally posted by: NuAlphaMan
Why not emulate what Toyota and Honda are doing?

I don't think they will copy Honda/Toyota/imports. They won't....or maybe when they are in bankruptcy or nearly fold. They don't have the structure or the mindset to do it.

Ford is losing over 20 grands <one new Mustang> an hour <I think, could be 1 minute>. GM and Chrysler are losing money too. You can't survive very long if you keep losing money left and right.

FYI, the big 3 or 2 1/2 are cutting over 100K jobs this year. Toyota/Honda/Imports are openning new plants and hiring.

A big part of the losses right now are the restructuring costs (buyouts, closing plants, etc). I'm not saying that they were not losing money before, I'm just saying that the current huge loses right now are partially "by choice". Chrysler thinks it can possibly return to profit by 2008. Not sure of the other two.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Svnla

Originally posted by: NuAlphaMan
Why not emulate what Toyota and Honda are doing?

I don't think they will copy Honda/Toyota/imports. They won't....or maybe when they are in bankruptcy or nearly fold. They don't have the structure or the mindset to do it.

Ford is losing over 20 grands <one new Mustang> an hour <I think, could be 1 minute>. GM and Chrysler are losing money too. You can't survive very long if you keep losing money left and right.

FYI, the big 3 or 2 1/2 are cutting over 100K jobs this year. Toyota/Honda/Imports are openning new plants and hiring.

it's per minute

and i'm pretty sure the 2.5 will still employ more americans (even as factory workers) than all foreign marques combined after the next round of layoffs (which kinda shows you how labor heavy they are, considering their market share)

 

[IronWing]

Move to a single payer national health insurance system and American auto makers will do just fine. The foreign car makers building cars in the US have much younger workers and far fewer retirees to support. A national health insurance system would level the playing field. That being said, the only new car I ever bought was made in Japan.

 

[Aftermath]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
maybe one needs to die so the other two can live,or simply cut down on the different brands under gm and them have, too many. dump stuff like buick, waste of resources to develop for.

they've been catering to the truck/suv crowd for too long, alienated the other customers who don't like the hick thing and well now they are pretty much stuck with those customers.

I don't think cutting anything is smart to do. Where are all of the Buick fans going to go? Don't they generally cater to middle-agers and older folks who just want pseudo-luxury, smooth ride, V6, and an auto? If their Buick dries up and goes away, where are they going to go? Chevrolet? Saturn? Maybe... to a Camry?

Yeah, that sounds smart.

I agree that it seems logical to cut down the company, cut expenses, cut waste--including wasteful brands--but it's not that simple. It's like the people who think Ford should kill off Mercury. Yeah, it makes sense in a way. But why? If they can take a Ford vehicle, tart it up for a couple of bucks, and sell it to a separate demographic for a pretty decent profit overall, why kill that off? It's not like all of those Mercury drivers are just going to shrug it off and make their next purchase a Ford instead. Many of them will just take their business somewhere else. Not to mention that bitterness of feeling dropped by your company.

Though I would think Pontiac should be the brand to be dropped, if any. Though the Solstice and the G8 are finally putting giving them some traction, they've just been a brand of GM rebadges--some being outright terrible, like a Pontiac minivan, FWD SUV, and FWD hatchback, all they needed was a rebadged pickup--but they're supposed to be the "sporty" and/or "passionate" division.

Oooh, but that Equinox has red gauges. Hawt.

I don't really get the point about the Hybrids, either. It's just my opinion, but it certainly doesn't seem like hybrids have really been taking off. But then again, I can't even remember the last time I saw a Prius here in Virginia, besides the two that have been collecting dust at the local Toyota dealership. I can't say anything about the Camry hybrids. I don't tend to notice many new Camry's either, and I'm rarely in a position to see one up close to see if it's a hybrid or not. Obviously they're not as distinct as the Prius. GM has them coming, Ford--I think--has more coming. It'll just get people to stop complaining that they don't have them. Then we'll just get to hear everybody ranting and raving about how the new Toyota gets an EPA figure of 100mpg (60mpg real world) while the domestic hybrids only get 60 (40 real world.)*

But as for the truck/SUV sales argument that I saw, I don't see why that's so bad either. They sell more pickups and SUV's than they do anything else. That's their last solid foothold. The domestics lost subcompacts, compacts, midsized, fullsized, minivans, and crossovers. They can still move an Explorer/Tahoe or Silverado/F150, so why yell at them for it? Do people actually think they should cut budgets there? Transfer the savings into the budget for the Malibu or Taurus/500? Cars which nobody is buying, nobody is interested in, and they probably couldn't sell in decent numbers if it were in fact the greatest pair of sedans of all time? That's good. Then we can can watch them tumble and die in the car segment, then watch their trucks and SUV's get overwhelmed by the competition, who are already so hot on their heels there that they really just need time more than anything else to pump up their sales and deflate the domestics.

* Hypothetical, imaginary numbers.

 

[0roo0roo]

I don't really get the point about the Hybrids, either. It's just my opinion, but it certainly doesn't seem like hybrids have really been taking off. But then again, I can't even remember the last time I saw a Prius here in Virginia, besides the two that have been collecting dust at the local Toyota dealership.

heh thats what you get for living in virginia

in cali prius is basically everywhere


as for buick, perhaps its a red state thing. here in cali i bet most of the buick owners are on their last car if u know what i mean. and yea pontiac...another worthless pointless brand they should ditch.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Vic

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Well, they fvcked themselves hard by relying almost soley on the profits from their fullsize SUVs and trucks. When fuel prices almost doubled after hurricane Katrina people stopped buying them or took a real hard look at whether or not they really needed a fullsize SUV vs just wanting one.

Yep, which is why Toyota is getting its ass handed to them because half of its model line-up are SUVs and trucks, and it's facing impending disaster because it's just invested billions developing a new full-size truck model.

Oh wait... no, it's not.

And gas prices doubled after Katrina (which made landfall on 8/29/05). Oops, that's not true either. While prices did spike briefly after Katrina, they had already gone in the summer of 03, of 04, and in 05 (beginning in March of that year). Here's a 3 year chart of gas prices in your area showing gas prices climbing well before Katrina Text.

ugh....
toyota is attacking the suv/truck market because it already beats the domestics in the car market. i dunno wtf ur talking about. toyota is kicking out the last leg from the domestics understand?