While Detroit Slept

Here's a great solution: ditch our completely broken and unwieldy Federal income tax system. Why have a system that actually discourages savings and investment because of taxes on savings account interest income, corporate income, dividend income and capital gains when we should have something the other way around? It'll actually encourage more saving, which means a big reduction in the debt load.

 

Like I said earlier, the way we get around is not going to change anytime soon and the way those automobiles are manufactured is not going to change anytime soon. For him to compare the automobile(2nd largest purchase) to the ipod is crazy. How many of you would be downloading music if it cost you $25,000+ to do so? How about if you had some old music worth $10-15,000? There will be near-term changes in the way autos are powered and the manufacturing process will continue to become more efficient.
My problem with Freidman is that more than half of what he says are lies about Detroit, the facts he cites, the market share, the global reach all of it. So when I know how much of what he says on autos are lies I wonder if he his that misinformed on his other opinions.
He is a hypocrite of the first order. We need an industrial and energy policy now that will restore the wealth building in the United States and eventually make us free of foreign energy sources. Wait I guess we have an industrial policy and energy policy for the last 25 years: "The US will let any country dump any amount of product here at any price no matter what the ramifications and we will continue to import more and more oil as long as Wall Street is happy and the bankers can continue to develop more and greater ways to trick Americans into thinking that they are far wealthier than they really are."

 

Yet again, Malorn is blowing smoke up our collective you know where. The only hypocrite here is you. You write as if you actually know something when you actually know very little about anything. The analogy Mr Friedman uses could smack you in the face and you still wouldn't understand. We will have to do eveything differently if we as a country are going to survive. If we stick with the status quo we will be run over like and old wheezing gas guzzler manufactured by one of the once "Big Three. GM's global reach is failing because they have rested on their laurel producing junk for the last 25 years and sticking with the gas guzzling SUVs rather than developing a really good economical small car that could actually rival Honda and Toyota. The thought we will ever be free from foreign energy sources as long as we use oil is a total and complete fantasy promulgated by the politicians in Washington. I think that you should be banned again for you lack of incite, lack of knowledge and general unpleastness.

 

First of all I only comment on PC on topics I am well-informed. Second of all GM's global reaching is growing, the problems are in the US with folks like yourself being led by ignorant and/or misleading talking heads like Friedman. If Friedman is as poorly educated on other issues he comments, his books and columns are not worth the paper they are printed on.

Do you know that GM outsells Toyota in 9 out of the top 10 markets in the world and the only one they don't outsell toyota they can't compete in?

GM and Ford do produce economical cars that rival all Toyota's and Hybrids minus the Prius(less than 8% of Toyota's US sales)

Do you know that Toyota's newest Us plant only builds large pickups and large SUV's?

We already have been run over econmically by China and Japan we are only now feeling the pain. It is not just autos, its electronics, toola and die, steel, rubber, furniture, paper, the list is almost endless.

I am sure you thought I was just as uniformed last winter when I said the US was in a recession and that gas would be $2.00 gallon before it was $5.00/gallon.

Anytime you want to debate about the economy and/or auto industry I will be most glad to make you look foolish.

 

From the list of cars you own, I am so glad you support the U.S. auto manufacturer with such blind abandon. I hope you love driving the rebadged Toyota Matrix "Pontiac Vibe" which in your fleet is the only one that gets reasonable gas mileage and you just might be driving past the warrantee period.
According to MSNBC
"Toyota Motor Corp. sold 2.35 million vehicles worldwide in the January-March period, surpassing the 2.26 million vehicles GM sold in the quarter, according to preliminary figures.In 2006, Toyota’s global output rose 10 percent to 9.018 million vehicles, while GM and its affiliates produced 9.18 million vehicles worldwide — a gap of about 162,000. In the first quarter, Toyota made 2.37 million vehicles worldwide, while GM has only given a planned production number of 2.34 million vehicles."


There is also GM's blind numbers game where Toyota still believes that numbers are not everything.

Again from the MSNC article:

Modesty is also a Toyota trademark, and executives have repeatedly played down the prospects of beating GM as the world’s top producer of cars and light trucks.
Asked that question last week in Detroit, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said: “You will never know until all the numbers are in.”
Instead, he said Toyota must continue to improve its quality from the top down to remain a leader in the auto industry.


I would love to know where you fabricate your number from. So GM ties Toyota not out sells Toyota. If the "Big Three" make such fabulous cars in other countries why do they insist on selling us the, their home country, the junk?

 

Take Japan out of the numbers and GM outsells toyota by a very healthy margin. I am sure mr Watanabe's public statements have nothing to do with positioning Toyota in eyes such as yours. Geesh some of you are so gullible. We will see this coming year when Toyota starts to lose money how they react. By the way the article you are citing is at least a year old.

PS I am a GM and Ford dealer, so yes of course I am biased but I cite numbers in my posts which are credible.

 

The MSNBC article is December 2, 2008. Are you a car dealer like Joe "the Plumber" was plumber trying to buy his bosses 250K company?

 

Unlike GM though, Toyota has already anounced they will NOT make trucks there, so this smoke & mirrror (more of the same ol same ol ... not a fix for GM) doesn't wash either. Toyota, unlike GM tools their plants so if the market goes another way, it can make other vehicles in their place, and that's what they're doing.

 

US Prius plant is halted. By the way what does toyota make in San antonio?

 

If this is true, if GM is outselling Toyota in 9 out of 10 markets, why isn't Toyota asking for a taxpayer funded bailout?

And I'm also curious to know how a huge company like GM, which has been selling overpriced and high profit-margin vehicles like hotcakes since the mid-80s can, after less than a year of decreased sales, be crying the end of the world all of a sudden? What happened to all that money they made for the past couple of decades? Corporate dividends?

I realize that this is getting a bit off topic. I agree with Malorn's disgust with hypocritical Lear-Jet environmentalists who live in 20K square foot homes and lecture the rest of us on how we need to restrain our consumptive ways. AlGore ring any bells? I think that some of these guys sincerely believe that they are special and an exception to their own propaganda.

 

I see Malorn, just like the Fixed News pundits, has chosen to ignore the last information imparted and challenge offered. Are you really a car dealer or just a legend in your own mind!

 

Both!

 

What number do you say I am fabricating?