Detroit and the Swedes

I like that black SPG….

The more I get into Saabs, the more I want an even older one… 2 stroke… v4. Innovative!

Franxou:
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Actually, you’re preaching to the choir.
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I agree about the simplicity aspect for sure. Detroit, and to be fair most other auto makers worldwide choose complication over simplicity, always.
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As I’ve said before, Hybrids as they are today are ridiculous. Instead of getting simpler (for example the ugly and stupidly-proportioned Toyota Echo which gets something like 40 MPG), they pour additional weight and parts into Hybrids. Instead of finally designing and producing (God forbid) electric cars they took the electric car and just had to combine it with an internal combustion car with drivetrains that involve both.
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If it were up to me, I’d send them back to their desks and tell them if they came back with such Rube Goldberg nonsense again they’d be at the unemployment office in short order.
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Hopefully this will be corrected without whetever they produce costing 40 or 50 grand. The technology exists, it’s just a matter of them USING it.

Many good points here. I’d love a Ka or Fiesta, but I can’t have them, apparently I won’t pay that much for a small car.
I can’t help but think it is all greed driven. All the bad decisions, having to get their hands in everyone else’s cookie jars. Now that the well is running dry we are supposed to be all nostalgic about possible losing the iconic American Auto Industry.
Don’t get me wrong, I will be sad, but only because I could quite possible loose my job and my house value will probable go down even more. So I say please find a way to salvage at least one or two of our American Auto Makers, we need our sanity here in Detroit.

GTwildfire, while i think that the fürer made this car to be able to build factories that would then be easily converted to build war vehicles, the fact is that it was the car of a whole generation. If ford was to find a way to create a new kind of modelT and that everyone was like “good golly, I need one plus another for my wife, plus they are cheap!”, they’d be saved.
I can’t help but think about Ford UK that is building great cars that fit well in europe… Why can’t they understand our market like they do in europe, and good golly i’d like a ford fiesta of a ford ka instead of an echo

Sorry, had a little chuckle at the “people’s car” comment, which immediately brought me back to Hitler and the VW Bug…

What saddens me is that the general way of life now is to try to pack as much you can in your own pockets while it lasts and get out just before the ship sink. I agree with Gary Faules too although I don’t know about technology and improvement in japanese factories nor american factories, but what he says sound right. In america I’ll bet everyone involved in the big three tried to make instant money “for themselves”, not for the company. I’ll bet they distributed profit to the shareholder before even thinking about asking what americans want in their cars.

They claim americans like big cars and trucks and SUVs, but if japanese big-three can unload this much mazda3/corolla/civic out here, it may be because a bunch of american want that kind of car… And not a small bunch of people that is. But they spent what money they had to update SUVs claiming “it’s what american buyers want” while offering the same old compacts without any changes. There are a couple of new/updated SUVs every years but the focus is back for it’s ninth year, except with less bodies and less engines. The cobalt is still the same car that people avoid to get a mazda3/corolla/civic. The caliber is nice since it have somewhat of a niche market. Why ford cut the hatchbacks and station focuses? Because people don’t like hatchbacks? Is’t the matrix in the top-ten sellers in north america? Isn’t it a station?

They spend money developping cars like challenger and camaro, which are really nice cars for enthousiasts, but those are not the car the medium guy for who a car is an appliance would rather buy over their japanese counterpart. Sadly they created these cars at the wrong time, they now have some exciting new coupes but don’t offer any real people-mover. What the big-three need is a real “people’s car” like the model T was, like the vw beetle was, like the taurus have been, like the caravan/voyager were, like the mazda3 and the civic are.

Why did Detroit mess with the Swedes in the first place?
speaking of swede, not swede. A relative bought a v8 bimmer (nicer than a teenage car dream)..not much of swaying what a bimmer is, that I can remember. Detroit is a problem n other words.

Gary: Amen.

I agree with Gary Faules. If they had concentrated on making their own cars better, things could have been different. Buying small luxury car manufacturers like Volvo, Saab, or Jaguar and then trying to mainstream it by making models for everyman just destroys the brand. Jag X type anyone? Puhhhleeease. The mere fact that I know who owns these brands turns me off to them. I drive American cars exclusively, but I don’t want buy a domestically owned import, or an import brand manufactured here. If GM wanted Saab, or if Ford wanted Volvo, why didn’t they take the money they spent purchasing them and build cars like them to compete with them.

Nothing wrong with Volvo’s, Saabs or a hundred other brands but if you want a Swedish car by it from the Swedes. What’s wrong American cars being built with American workers in America? Had the big three stayed focused on upgrading American auto factory’s the way Japanese auto makers do with their profits and kept up with the latest technology the way they did years ago instead of buying other auto manufactures to obtain it they wouldn’t be were they are today. A good cook knows his place is in the kitchen meaning the big three didn’t stay involved where they should have. None of what is happening right now is new. Most of our fathers talked about it and saw it coming years ago.

It started out with a few imports. Then it grew and grew. Now not only are they outselling our very own domestic brands but in fact they are building many of them here right in our country and even some American manufactures have gone into business with them. This didn’t happen over night so why all the surprise? In my opinion the government shouldn’t give one damn dime of American money to any company that helps build foreign based products. By Americans For Americans or take a hike. Tell them to get a loan from the Swedes.

sorry, a matter of personal taste. I don’t know what people saw in the awkward shapes of the 900 and 9000’s back then.