http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061113/japan...yota.html?.v=5

 

Reading that makes them sound like the automotive version of the "Empire" all they need is Darth Vader and it would be complete!

 

I've seen it before; any company mesmerized by numbers and forgets its promise of quality will crash hard.

 

Zeta and Gamma cars should keep GM #1 and profitable. That is my prediction.

 

Toyota is leaning towards this happening.
Though the media wouldn't have you know it.

 

Sounds like Toyota using the press to 'leak' information... but also sound rather modest about its intentions.

 

hmmm...Well GM already is selling very well in China, and in South America. And the middle east is not doing to bad. I think besides here at home were beating them at their own game abroad.

 

Nothing wrong with striving to be the biggest and best, but I'd sure rather see GM in that position rather than Toyota.

 

We should be beating them at home as well.....i find i funny that Americans don't buy American products anymore It really pisses me off.

 

That's the problem. The North American market IS the best there is and the likes of Toyota get it.

If only the big 3 would get that and put their best foot, er, products forward on their home soil.

P.S. I don't find it odd that most nothing outside of trucks/suvs are selling well...all they usually are is euro-designed soap bars on wheels.

I don't find that very patriotic that cars sold here are designed elsewhere....

 

As an industry, there simply is no such animal as “American products” anymore when it comes to auto manufacturing…most transplants sold in the US are designed here by US designers for the US market and then made here in US factories employing US workers using virtually the same domestic parts content as your typical Chevy or Dodge or Ford.

The only REAL difference between the transplants and Detroit’s big 2.5 is that the UAW doesn’t control the transplant’s manufacturing facilities.

 

Really? Trying to justify this again with the same mantra. Here are a few facts from the Level Field Insitute for 2005 sales figures: Parts sourced in the USA(Made in the USA) from the various manufactuers:

Chrysler-78%
Ford-74%
GM-74% ( ALthough the data I had from the CCI(I think that is the name, can't remember but if you want I will post and find the data) stated that Gm has an 80% parts content)
Honda-59%
Toyota-47%
BMW-10%
Audi-4%

To quote them: " Parts suppliers employ somewhere between 80% and 170% more US workers than the automakers themselves, so DOMESTIC content has a BIG impact on our ECONOMY."

 

Yes, really.

I would suggest you look at the parts content sticker posted on actual vehicles and I would submit, you'll see a bit more realistic and a more complete story. That aside, ALL manufactuers (including GM, Ford and DCX) are sourcing more and more of their parts from outside the US and/or offshore (which is one of the reasons so many suppliers [can anyone say Dana] are filing for bankruptcy).

That is part of my point wich was and is that if you look at the automotive industry without an axe to grind, the differences between the "Domestics" and the "Imports" are becoming so few that there is effectively no signifiance to the differences that do exist...all the manufactueres are pretty much heading down the same road; some are a bit further ahead than are others but it's the same road nevertheless.

 

Wherever there is a post about the virtues of buying a Big 2.5 vehicle, Robert will be there to attempt to debunk it.

I'd suggest letting it go.

 

Bobsep84 and Alfredb18

I hope you were just using my quote to make your statement and not the other way around. I hope you know where I stand..The problem is many diffrent things and were trying to right the wrongs of over 20 years ago with one had tied behind our back. Public perception and a few other things make it hard to turn the page.

and you know Im sick of the.."ohh well parts this car that built this and that nothing is really american anymore.."

you know what.word it and mix it any way but , the case is after all is said and done where does the profit go? to an American car company or foreign company. Does that one thousand, one dollar, or one cent go to a company founded here and has more economic responsibility here than a country abroad that has no such responsibilities. And I can see the argument "hey GM already outsources jobs to other countries there as much to blame."
Wrong, GM is like the others in the big 2.5 trying to make ends meet when the feild is not level. If you think it is then I'm sorry but we will never see eye to eye. But back to the point. If an american company is selling a product made from global materials, fine just goes back to the point of where does that profit money go the U.S. or to the car companies home territory off our shores.
So yea keep buying and toughting your import cars, are they great cars sure but the money your spending is going to help some other countries/company bottom line. See the auto industry might be the last and greatest place where a product can be "American" and not "made in China" We lost those other peices of our way of life a long time ago to simple and cheap and now only way you can get such things is through imported products. IF this is the last great peice of Americana then by damn I will not be giving my money to a company that does not have its roots on our soil.!