[jimdgoulding]

Hate to rain on your parade here but you, like me, need to start keeping our money within these borders.  Lots of people within these borders depend on it.  I'm serious.  It's serious.  We do.  My daughter is buyin a Saturn Vue.  She brought a test drive by our house.  Seems like a good vehicle to me.

[doug s.]

Hate to rain on your parade here but you, like me, need to start keeping our money within these borders.  Lots of people within these borders depend on it.  I'm serious.  It's serious.  We do.

it will be a cold day in hell before i would ever consider paying money for a new car made by an american owned corporation.  (well, i guess if i were uber-rich, maybe i'd consider a callaway or a saleen, or something along those lines.)  even if the quality were up to the level of foreign owned car companies.  which they aren't.  now, i would have no problem buying something made in the usa, as long as the company who owns it is off-shore.   

maybe when american-owned automakers concern themselves more w/workers & product & being responsible corporate citizens, than with stockholders & how much money their ceo's make, i will change my tune.  the average ceo salary of american owned automakers is about twenty times the average salary of ceo's of off-shore owned automakers.

i could say more, but then this topic might get religious/political, & i have awreddy had issues going there, w/the folks who run this website, even if i was responding to someone else - like now...   

doug s.

[satfrat]

Hate to rain on your parade here but you, like me, need to start keeping our money within these borders.  Lots of people within these borders depend on it.  I'm serious.  It's serious.  We do.

it will be a cold day in hell before i would ever consider paying money for a new car made by an american owned corporation.  (well, i guess if i were uber-rich, maybe i'd consider a callaway or a saleen, or something along those lines.)  even if the quality were up to the level of foreign owned car companies.  which they aren't.  now, i would have no problem buying something made in the usa, as long as the company who owns it is off-shore.   

maybe when american-owned automakers concern themselves more w/workers & product & being responsible corporate citizens, than with stockholders & how much money their ceo's make, i will change my tune.  the average ceo salary of american owned automakers is about twenty times the average salary of off-shore owned automakers.

i could say more, but then this topic might get religious/political, & i have awreddy had issues going there, w/the folks who run this website, even if i was responding to someone else - like now...   

doug s.

What's a matter Doug, wouldn't you rather have an american made car that'll need major motor work before 150,000 instead of a reliable 250,000+mile  foreign car at 1/3 the pricetag that gets 1/3 better gas mileage? 


Cheers,
Robin

[doug s.]

What's a matter Doug, wouldn't you rather have an american made car that'll need major motor work before 150,000 instead of a reliable 250,000+mile  foreign car at 1/3 the pricetag that gets 1/3 better gas mileage? 


Cheers,
Robin

ya, something like that!   

doug s.

[satfrat]

Well not me, I'll die owning my gas guzzlin' 340 Dodge Magnum.

But I don't fault anyone for going foreign, it's not their fault that american cars are built to rust/burn out quicker than a candle so the consumer will have to replace it sooner than later..


Cheers,
robin

[doug s.]

Well not me, I'll die owning my gas guzzlin' 340 Dodge Magnum.

But I don't fault anyone for going foreign, it's not their fault that american cars are built to rust/burn out quicker than a candle so the consumer will have to replace it sooner than later..


Cheers,
robin

that's ok satfrat, your car was mfr'd by a german-owned company.     tho, i dunno who owns the company now, it was sold recently.  priwate inwestors?  i hear they're now talking w/gm - merger?

doug s.

[jimdgoulding]

There is so much I don't know.  Heck, I thought it might benefit the guys who assemble them.  Those guys mostly just turn their money over.  That I can relate to.  Maybe the dot com'ers will take over the car industry. 

[sbrtoy]

Being in the auto industry by day, I can tell you there is a lot of shakeup coming...

Chrysler- Cerberus has been in talks with Daimler about buying its remaining stake, this only means one thing- break up the company and sell it off as the pieces are worth much more than the whole.

GM- bleeding around 1 billion a month, their cash is sure to run out soon.  They will be looking for government help or perhaps go into bankruptcy which would allow them to restructure and eliminate costly union contracts.  They have sold off much of their interest in GMAC so they are no longer providing the loans needed, believe it or not they are offering cash to their dealers to finance with SOMEONE ELSE!  Things are not looking good, but thank goodness Rick Wagoner is still going to make millions this year after his $16M+ in 2007!

Ford- The Ford family desperately wants to keep this thing afloat but they are also bleeding cash.  They are in better shape than GM, and the good news is they have some new products coming.  They might be the only one of the traditional domestic makers to survive intact, but there will be changes for them as well including more downsizing, but they have taken their medicine over the past two years and are making progress.

There are many Chinese companies looking to get into the US market, and the quickest way for them to do this is to buy a brand like Saturn, Hummer, or Buick which already has a dealer network and transition their product line over.  It is very possible these "domestic" brands will not be homegrown much longer.

Gas prices are expected to rise again soon, the auto industry is going through its biggest transition ever, hang on for the ride.

[mcullinan]

You dont reward a company for building crap. I dont care if its an American company. I care about quality + design. Im Irish but you wont catch me drinkin green beer. Or molesting a Leprachaun.. w/e or however that pertains. And it does!
Mike

[doug s.]

You dont reward a company for building crap. I dont care if its an American company. I care about quality + design. Im Irish but you wont catch me drinkin green beer. Or molesting a Leprachaun.. w/e or however that pertains. And it does!
Mike

what you said.     but, i will take it one step further - i will also try, if possible, to withhold support from a company whose corporate philosophy I find repugnant...   

Doug s.

[mfsoa]

I went for a ride in a new Dodge Charger the other day.
That company is toast.

[satfrat]

Im Irish but you wont catch me drinkin green beer. Or molesting a Leprachaun.. w/e or however that pertains. And it does!
Mike

Sorry Mike but I believe you'd drink any colored beer and molest anything you could get your hands on, w/o spilling your multicolored beer of course.

Cheers,
Robin

[satfrat]

I went for a ride in a new Dodge Charger the other day.
That company is toast.

Well they stopped making my Dodge Magnum after only 4 years so I now own a collectors item,,, if only it won't rust out this winter.


Cheers,
Robin

[mcullinan]

Im Irish but you wont catch me drinkin green beer. Or molesting a Leprachaun.. w/e or however that pertains. And it does!
Mike

Sorry Mike but I believe you'd drink any colored beer and molest anything you could get your hands on, w/o spilling your multicolored beer of course.

Cheers,
Robin

heheeeeeee 

[bprice2]

Nice station wagon!  Did you say you spent $40k on that little beauty? 

BTW...you can apologize for calling me an asshole anytime now.

[mcullinan]

Its NOT a station wagon.  Its a station wagon with a dog. 

Deja Vous?

[satfrat]

Nice station wagon!  Did you say you spent $40k on that little beauty? 

BTW...you can apologize for calling me an asshole anytime now.

Just the post, not the person,,, OK? I apologise to the person but I'll stand behind what you did to my thread

Thanks, yea, $40k for the Magnum but that was fully loaded, even a remote started. I've done a ton of work on it tho, like the black LED taillights, an all carbon hood w/scoop(painted the hood to match the car but left the scoop carbon), put the front spoiler on w/ glued on marine vinyl that has MAGNUM embroidered, replaced the 4 front grilles with powder coated alumium w/ R/T decal.
Under the engine I have professionally painted engine cover & radiator cover, numerous anodized billet covers and what not under the engine, billet catch can, billet fuse box cover that was anodized gloss black and was engraved with the album cover from Dio's "Master of The Moon".
On the inside, all knobs are billeted, billet rings around the front speakers 7 door handle, repaddled leather console cover to replace an unpaddled vinyl one, replaced all the door pulls & shifter knob & center radio trim with ST Charger's(much nicer), had an engraved black shifter bezel made up and replaced the chrome plastic bezel rim with a leather covered one w/red stitching to match the console & leather shifter know w/red stitching, had engraved billet tags made up that cover them damn ugly seat belt warnings on the visors, had the head rests engraved with a Ram's Head, had the pull out trunk cover engraved with MAGNUM R/T.
For performance, I have an K&N Air induction system, Gibson headers, Magnaflow high flow catalytic converters and it's finished with a Borla Catback exhaust. The engine has been retuned using a Supertuner reprogrammer.
And to top it off, I replaced the block lettered Magnum decal on the back with custom made lettering using my own chosen fonts from a gentleman in Canada.

It's all paid up and then I got discharged from my job of 35 years. I've been unemployed for over a year now and listen to my system a lot!



(Dio's Master of The Moon)

Cheer's
Robin

[doug s.]

robin, sounds nice.  if only i knew how to drive an automatic...   

doug s.

[satfrat]

robin, sounds nice.  if only i knew how to drive an automatic...   

doug s.

It's a 6 speed (acts like a standard ) all wheel drive 340hp that'll plow thru snow w/all season Goodyears but it'll also do 140mph, gets 22mpg and yea,,,,, it's a station wagon.

Oh yeah, it came with a 280watt? 8 speaker Boston Acoustics system.

Cheer's,
Robin

[doug s.]

finally, tomorrow, after a 2 year wait, my new (to me) 1985.5 alfa gtv6 will be tagged and street legal.     my prewious '86 gtv6, after being beaten on regularly for ten years and 250k miles, finally succumbed to abuse, numerous niggling little issues and tin-worm.  so, i found a nice clean rust-free donor car to accept all the hi-po goodies from my old car - 3.0 engine w/hot cams & ecu, hedders, suspension, transmission, exhaust, etc.  my old car, may it rest in peace, looked like this; the new one is red:



having the alfa registered as my daily driver means i can, once again afford to re-register my toy with classic car insurance - yay!     (you need to have a primary wehicle registered and insured to qualify for this extremely affordable insurance, and i have been w/o a car for almost 18 months.)  my toy, as shown below:




doug s.

ps - no radios in either - no need, w/the beautiful music emanating from their engine bays...