Drive American

^^^ that’s true. I went back to Ohio, Mansfield and it’s the same there. Everyone drives American. It’s so odd to see. Out here there are a lot of foreign cars.
 
I'm sure the employee pricing does a lot too....when a new Ford or anything american comes out, the next week you see 20 of them on the road.
 
My company provides me a car and every day I drive it, it reminds me of why Chrysler went bankrupt. It's a 2010 Sebring and honestly, it is the worst car I have ever had. It was given to me brand new and w/ only 6 months and 8k mi. on it, it already has rattles and the windshield wipers need replacing. On top of that, at idle, the engine stumbles like it's misfiring, apparently that is normal. All of the control stalks feel like they're one more click away from falling off and I can't figure out if there is a transmission computer directing shifts, or if there's just an egg timer in there because there is no rhyme nor reason for the shifting.

The suspension is softer than the '79 Cutlass Supreme my dad had when I was a kid; it makes the FX feel like a go-kart. The engine sounds like it's going to throw a rod every time I floor it. With regards to the paint, I'm pretty sure I could give my 3 year old a spray gun and it would look better. And the list goes on. I'm actually amazed that a car company would put out a product this bad and more amazed that they sell these to people other than fleets and rental cars.

With all of that being said, I can't place why to me American cars are my last choice if I was looking for a car. There are some very nice ones, I rented a Focus and that was decent. I almost bought a CTS-V; and I actually think the Chrysler minivans are ok. It just seems so hit and miss. It's not like Americans can't build a good cars given that so many foreign brands are actually built here. And obviously there are quite a few nicely engineered domestics. But it seems that for every Focus, CTS, Fusion, Cruze (which is pretty nice), they build 3 Sebrings, Cavaliers (2nd worst car I've experienced), or Ford 500's (borderline dangerous to drive). I get that not everything the Japanese or Europeans put out is awesome, but there seems to be more of a minimum standard. Here it seems they'll do anything to knock another nickel out of the build cost even if that compromises the final product.
 
I personalyly am not happy with the performance of american cars,many have yet to work on security and above all the line is far away on the back of world markets.

---------- Post added at 01:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:08 PM ----------

As if American cars were so great it would bankrupt factory and see how much rides on the streets of Japanese cars and German car just next reigns on American roads
 
they spent so much money and focus on gargantuan suvs and hummers and trucks in the first few years of last decade that they totally ignored that small market for money saving, more mpg preferring customers who were being fed by Japanese automakers with their little corollas and civics and so on. so when $hit hit the fan and gas went up $4/gal, the Big Three fell on the floor so hard their only option was to declare bankruptcy. now they are so far behind, the can only play catch up. hopefully they will build reliable vehicles in the not so distant future.
 
Last weekend I took home a F-150 Limited on a two day test drive. I think it is an EXCELLENT vehicle. Some of the materials could be improved but the build quality was very solid and the 6.2L V8 hauls ass. Braking felt more "controlled" than the FX. No comparison to a Tundra or Titan.

American manufacturers know how to build a good car, they just have a hard time doing it because all they can worry about is squeezing out the last penny in costs. I partly blame the friggin' unions for it. The unions are so greedy that the manufacturers have to compromise in design and quality just to survive. And of course they became too greedy with trucks and SUVs during the late 90s and early 2000s.
 
American manufacturers know how to build a good car
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u mean trucks? :wink (2): I have heard good things about Ford trucks and lately their sedans. but overall they all have a lot of work to do in terms of quality and reliability. hard hit by union agreements, no wonder they try to squeeze out every single penny they think they can.
 
The euro-spec Focus is bad ass too.

Alan Mulally is no joke, and is on track to getting Ford's shit together. The other two of the "Big Three" however are in bad shape. It's going to be a loooong time before either of them are even close to competitive with the foreign makers. Luckily for them, Americans by and large are stupid, and will continue to "drive Amurican", regardless of where their purchase dollars really go, just because the companies were founded here 100+ years ago. Brand loyalty FT.....W?
 
The funny thing is when asked about foreign brands that are built in the U.S. versus American brands built in Canada or Mexico, these idiots' infamous response is, "Well, the profits STAY in the United States." Funny, the profits stay in the U.S. to line the pockets of a few, while the foreign manufacturers invest more and more into U.S. resources, plants, and labor?

"Can't fix stupid!"
 
GetLuckiFX said:
I bet that sticker was made in China, so yeah buy foreign LOL
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I just got back from a business trip in Hong Kong and visited factories in China. We passed by a Ford parts factory in China. We also passed the Enkei factory. Note from trip = EVERYTHING is made in china, literally. Stuff you think is made elsewhere (swiss,france, italy) it's made in china. Then assembled in the country it is "made" from.
 
myl168 said:
I just got back from a business trip in Hong Kong and visited factories in China. We passed by a Ford parts factory in China. We also passed the Enkei factory. Note from trip = EVERYTHING is made in china, literally. Stuff you think is made elsewhere (swiss,france, italy) it's made in china. Then assembled in the country it is "made" from.
Click to expand...

Not too much longer....In the past decade, real wages for manufacturing workers in China have grown nearly 12% per year. The hourly cost advantage, while still significant [comparing to the West], is shrinking rapidly. The changing economics of Made in China will benefit both the rich and poor world. Countries like Cambodia, Laos, India and Vietnam are picking up some of the cheapest labor manufacturing left by the Chinese. And there is already evidence of at least the beginning of a shift in manufacturing operations returning to the US. Perhaps we will soon stop picking at 'Made in China' but instead complaining 'Made in Vietnam/Cambodia,' while serving the flood of Chinese tourists stocking up on brand-name merchandises on US tours and Chinese students paying high tuitions to our cash-strapped universities.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2078121,00.html
 
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