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Old 12-20-2006, 11:32 AM   #1
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Interesting read on American cars and trucks......

By Roger Simmermaker (Commentary)
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Dec. 19, 2006

Ford and General Motors have taken turns besting the Toyota Camry in quality surveys for the past two years, but if you talk to many Americans – especially the ones who would never consider supporting home-based auto companies – you'd never know it.

Last year, the Chevrolet Impala beat the Camry in initial quality, according to J.D. Power & Associates. And Consumer Reports just announced that both the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan scored higher than both the Camry and the Honda Accord this year.

Even as GM and Ford have accumulated award after award on vehicle quality, you'd almost never know about such quality gains made by American companies.

There's also the mythical perception that foreign automakers produce the most fuel efficient cars and that Detroit only makes gas-guzzlers when the truth is that all automakers – including Toyota, Honda and Hyundai-Kia alike – have allowed fuel economy to slide in the past 20 years since they all now sell bigger trucks and more SUVs.

Perhaps the biggest perception problem is that American automobile companies GM and Ford – Chrysler is now German-owned – squander all their money on plants overseas and foreign automakers build their factories in the United States. Foreign car lovers will surely point to Kia's plans to build its first-ever U.S. plant in Georgia, but they probably won't mention that they received $400 million in tax giveaways to do it, which translates into $160,000 per job.

Among the many benefits for the foreign-owned company, your tax dollars are going to be used for road improvements surrounding the complex, complete with flower beds and other beautification features. Hey, as long as we're going to allow states to bid for private jobs with our public tax dollars, we might as well make it look good, right?

And the foreign car lovers will probably also not tell you (or maybe they just don't know or don't want you to know) that GM and Ford pour more money into existing American facilities than foreign automakers spend on new plants, usually with little or no tax breaks. GM has already spent more than $500 million upgrading two transmission plants this year, and has spent nearly a billion dollars over the last decade, for example, for facility upgrades in Texas.

And what do GM and Ford get for making their existing plants more efficient? It isn't tax breaks. Instead, they get accusations of not being "competitive" enough! Maybe here I should also mention that the average domestic parts content for Kia is 3 percent, while the average domestic parts content of Ford and GM is 78 percent and 74 percent, respectively. This means that buying a U.S.-assembled (or even foreign-assembled, for that matter) GM or Ford supports more American jobs than a U.S.-assembled car or truck with a foreign nameplate.

Fortunately for our benefit, the United States remains the overall global leader in research and development, and a big reason for that is that American automakers. According to the Level Field Institute, U.S. car companies invest $16 billion in research and development annually, outpacing any other industry one could name.

Admittedly, the Level Field Institute counts German-owned DaimlerChrysler as an American automaker, so Ford and GM's combined R&D contribution to America is closer to around $12 billion. But who's counting, right? Certainly not the American auto-bashing media.

Japanese companies do employ 3,600 American workers in R&D, but that still leaves the foreign competition behind in the dust staring at American rear bumpers – 3,600 sounds like a big number until you realize that 65,000 Americans work in R&D facilities in the state of Michigan alone. In fact, two of the top four R&D spending companies in America as reported by the Wall Street Journal are – you guessed it – Ford and GM. The other two are also American companies: Pfizer and Microsoft.

Ford has recently made headlines as the American automaker with the most challenges to its future, but these challenges certainly are not because they "aren't making cars people want to buy." Toyota did outsell Ford in July, but since then, Ford has reclaimed the No. 2 spot.

GM has the highest market share, increasing over 2 percentage points from a year ago, so it apparently can't be accused of not making cars people want to buy either. Ford sales also are up in Europe, and Ford doubled its sales in China, where GM has the highest market share of any automaker.

GM also reported a 3.9 percent rise in August vehicle sales despite high gas prices and a supposedly slowing economy. And even though Toyota reported record sales that month, it couldn't match the non-record setting sales volume of Ford. GM's sales rose 17 percent in October from the year-ago month and Ford sales rose 8 percent the same period.

And for all the talk about the lack of fuel efficiency of American automakers, it seems three-fourths of all automakers failed to meet Europe's improved fuel-efficiency standards intended to cut carbon-dioxide emissions. Japanese and German automakers topped the list of the study's worst performers, but according to an environmental group's study, GM's Opel division and Ford both "come out well."

In closing, I'll leave some encouraging numbers for those of us who actually like to root for and support the home team. The J.D. Power 2006 Vehicle Dependability Survey reports that Mercury, Buick and Cadillac (in that order) grabbed the No. 2, 3 and 4 spots to beat Toyota, Honda, Nissan, BMW and everyone else (except Lexus) in having the least number of problems per 100 vehicles.

Perhaps someday the American media will give GM and Ford the credit they deserve. And once they do, perception among the majority of the American public will rightfully change. GM and Ford aren't only doing what they should to make gains in the American market to deserve American consumer loyalty; they're also doing what they should to make gains in the markets of China, Europe and across most of the rest of the globe.
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Old 12-20-2006, 12:08 PM   #2
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Good read - thanks for posting that Scott...
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Old 12-20-2006, 03:32 PM   #3
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To GM!

The media really needs to get it's head out of it's @$$ and start giving the American car manufacturers some credit!

And one of the biggest culprits are the car "rags". I admit to being a subscriber to several of them, but that may change if things keep going the way they are.

A few examples:

The latest 'Motor Trend' might as well be called 'Toyota Trend' for all the coverage 'Toyota' receives in it. The cover, 'Car of the Year', The Toyota Camry.

Then there's the nice review of GM's new full size pickups. Great! But. They (Motor Trend) can't leave it at that and give GM credit. No. They have a story of the GM v. the upcoming Tundra, and how the Tundra may well be the best pick up coming.

Finally, they run a huge story on Toyota and it's moving into Nextel Cup, along with what a wonderful thing this will be.

Next. 'Road & Track'. The editor calls the Honda Remix concept "the way concepts should be done", while calling the concept Camaro and Challenger "unimiginative"!

(That prompted a letter to the editor from me. We'll see if they have the b@lls to print it in 'Ampersand'.)

OK. Sorry for my babbling rant. Im going to go cancel my subscriptions now.
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Old 12-20-2006, 06:04 PM   #4
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that's what I said a while back when my friend was raving about her scion xB. I told her that think looked like a shoe box and that since she had the lime green it was even worse. then she mentioned something about my car breaking down and blah blah blah. and I told her to do her research. next thing I know she wasn't talkin to me anymore. lol.
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Old 12-20-2006, 08:33 PM   #5
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I cancelled my subscriptions to Motor Trend, Road & Track and Autoweek back in the early nineties when that BS started. It never ended...
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Old 12-21-2006, 01:34 AM   #6
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That's pretty pathetic. My biggest concern is the tax breaks these foriegn companies are getting. I mean c'mon! A $400 million tax break?!?!?! Just imagine what that could do for OUR AMERICAN companies. How's about a tax break for GM? Hell, how about one for Ford, too? Why not??? We're talking about our brothers and sisters we're supporting here! It's OUR economy. Then, the mags aren't doing anything whatsoever to help out. They are just supporting "the other" automakers. Here's a "Thanks a lot" to you........

Yeah...you guys know I bought a Kia Sorento for my wife. Why? The only vehicle Ford had which interested me (not my wife) was the Escape. You must understand my wife. She doesn't want a BIG SUV. She wants a mid size SUV. Moving along...GM had the Tahoe (exactly what I wanted.. ...not what the wife wanted...too big) :( . The only other SUV GM had? The Trailblazer. She didn't like that one either. If there were any others, she didn't like them and after all, it was going to be her car . She wanted something with style and the Sorento caught her eye. The fact that it looks like her parents Acura also had some play in the buy.

I have only purchased 4 brand new vehicles....all made by GM. I will continue to buy GM vehicles....the 5th being a brand new 5th Gen Camaro. And, I will be happy knowing I will be supporting our economy in doing so. Here's to you GM. Thank you for making the Camaro and keeping the AMERICAN musclecar alive.
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Old 12-21-2006, 11:06 AM   #7
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Tag I can't agree w/you more, thank god for GM.
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Old 12-21-2006, 02:54 PM   #8
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amen tag.
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Old 12-22-2006, 08:47 PM   #9
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I for one took the commentary and pasted it into an email and sent it to everyone in my address book. I asked everyone who received it to do the same. It might be a good idea for you guys and gals (I think there is at least one here) to do the same. Maybe we can get some people to change their minds and buy an American car. Our economy is our country's future. Like I've heard in the past...Buy American, the job you save may be your own!
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