I was thinking the Miller Meteor Ambulance/Hearse. Just to annoy Al Gore :yeah:

Woo hooo ! :woot:

Grand prize for the greatest derailment evah ! :yeah:

Do I feel safe in a car made in china?
HELL NO!!! I dont even trust toys for kids made there mutch less a car. Those cars wouldnt last long, constantly breaking down, not to safty standards.

Seeing how China isn't filled to the brim with car crashes (Although there are obcene amounts of traffic, naturally) I don't think reliability should be an absolute issue. The factories themselves, however, are not up to safety standards. Also natural, seeing how cheap products is the whole point of having factories in China. Consumers who complain about China having unsafe products should be criticizing themselves for driving industry there in the first place. With the emphasis on profit, the factory owners may excuse lax management, as long as they make more moolah. Everybody's fault, but only one leads to another.

And this would differ from the crap GM has been making in what way???

Remember, if GM could make cares that would last long, not constantly break down, and not have to recall more 1.5 cars because they can catch on fire*, GM would not be in the position they are in now.

* http://www.reuters.com/article/domes...53D31P20090414

We are seasoned professionals! Did you expect anything less? :yeah:

my local GM dealer (well one of them) has contacted me repeatedly because he knows im in the market for a car.

i have explained to him that...

1. Because GM has received bailout money (a subject i feel VERY strongly about)

2. Because GM has shed Pontiac and 21,000 American Jobs (if not more)

3. Because GM's business model has failed so miserably and they have essentially destroyed themselves from within...

UNLESS he can sell me a brand new 2009 model vehicle for $8,000 or less... i will not be purchasing a GM product, not now... nor in the foreseeable future.

GM's company slogan "You didnt want to buy a GM... so we will be taking your money anyway."

burn in hell GM and kiss my ass

Yeah, but how do you really feel about GM? I am getting mixed signals here.
:D

You know the funny thing is that unless the Chinese bring in some super cool, fast, roomy, fuel efficent car well as previously said "we aint gonna buy em".

Now that to me is a sound buisness model :rotfl:

I gave up on GM back in 88. :03:

the only thing thats going to come out of china motors wise is going to be some hunk of crap that is made out of depleted uranium and painted with lead based paints.

i cant begin to imagine.

the only way to reverse the problems in this nation - including the auto industry - is for Americans to wake up and realize that their once great nation has been for sale - one piece at a time - for decades. :stare:

You might have given up on them a bit early. I had a '91 Buick Century that went 360,000 miles before I sold it. Not once did it ever fail to get me home.

While that is great :yeah:, what does that prove?

The problem is that any extreme

1) A specific GM product was the greatest car
2) A specific GM product was a lemon

does not really influence the quality of the average GM product.

I am sure that there are people who bought a Yugo and had no problems with it and people who have bought Mercedes and have had nothing but problems.

Does the occurrence of these two extreme cases indicate that Yugo is a great car and the Mercedes is a POS? Of course not.

A random Yugo is probably a POS and random Mercedes is probably a good car. It is all a matter of probabilities.

I think the same logic can be applied to GM products. You may have gotten a great GM car (and I am very happy you did). But if a random GM car were to be selected, what would be the probability that is would be a good car or a lemon?

How consumers perceive the answer to that question is what GM needs to be concerned with. This preception is a matter of trust in the car manufacturer.

My viewpoint? I can't afford to "take a chance" on an American car. I am not rich nor can I afford to have a "hanger queen" as a car.

Any car I buy has a chance of being a great car or a lemon. But what is the probability of either of these occurring?

This is often a subjective decision. Subjectively, I feel my chances of getting a "good" car improves if I buy a foreign model. My history seems to support this.

Domestic cars I have owned and my friends have owned have not been satisfactory. Foreign cars I have owned and my friends have owned have been satisfactory.

When I buy my next car, I could take a chance on a Domestic car and I might get a good car. I could take a chance on a Foreign car and I might get a lemon. But which is more likely?

Buying a domestic car and getting a lemon
Buying a domestic car and getting a good car
Buying a foreign car and getting a lemon
Buying a foreign car and getting a good car

Where does the smart money bet on?

As they say in the Ads "your mileage may vary" :D

Hrm... I did a lil searching and found this.

A very good article with an excellent video attached (the bomb drops at @ 4:00 in the vid).

What is most fascinating is the date tag on this article :shifty:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/au...w/18CHINA.html

Been reading Akerlof, Platapus? :p2:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons