Comments on: German automakers ready for U.S. downturn

By: jackjimturkey

jackjimturkey — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:35:25 +0000

Audi’s commercial was the best at the game.

By: cfishgo

cfishgo — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:57:26 +0000

Z06ified.. that’s not what my dealers are telling me; I work with a lot of high end dealerships. Sales are up. Hell, the Audi dealership I was in last week was prepping 7 RS4’s for pickup. Bentley has a 3 year waiting list. Ferrari’s are 7 years out. Mercedes has been churning them out as well. Much different story coming out of my Chevy dealership and Honda contacts; their sales are down. I can see why the Euro brands aren’t worried… their clients are the rich who are staying rich. The poor are getting foreclosed on and getting their 0% interest cars towed away.

By: trooper1

trooper1 — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:25:41 +0000

Deanster you say average young proffesional wage in Canada is $26,000? what are you whacked? I have several friends who live and work in Canada. One of them is a junior account exec making $65k, another is an assistant manager for a retail store making more than $50k, and another is an ad space purchaser who didn’t even finish university and is making $55k plus commision. $25k a year is what teachers make here, and I know for a fact teachers in Canada earn much more than that.

By: Z06ified

Z06ified — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:01:29 +0000

Those luxury automakers such as Porsche who are saying they won’t be affected because their clientele are 100% wealthy are in for a rude awakening. Just ask nearly all luxury goods retailers in the U.S. how their holiday sales were last December. Not good. There are plenty of people who buy high end goods they really can’t afford, on credit, of course. One the economy turns south, these people are the first to fall off and stop buying high end luxury goods when their credit gets turned off.

There were thousands of people who could not really afford a Porsche, but kept taking home equity loans out, borrowing against the rising property values, using their house as an ATM machine, and buying 911’s and Cayennes. Those idiots are not doing that anymore.

I agree that the core Porsche buyer is generally well off, and won’t be on the food stamp line in a recession. But Porsche has plenty of wannabe poser wealthy people trying to create the illusion that they are wealthy by buying a Porsche on home equity credit. Same goes for BMW, Audi, and nearly all the luxury brands.

By: C6Racer

C6Racer — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:13:19 +0000

SS4LIFE, I totally agree with your 2nd paragraph. You even described LP640(Ironhide) perfectly in the 2nd half of the first sentence of that paragraph. Haha.

By: SS4LIFE

SS4LIFE — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:05:34 +0000

Wait a second? LP640 is dead? No! As much as an annoyance his comments were some of his comments actually made sense. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I sorta miss LP640… LP640 unlike someone else mentioned above who I won’t even mention actually made some legitimate comments. Hmm that’s sad to hear about LP640.

I’m all for free speech, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion but when you plainly criticize and resort to being immature and calling names then you have no business leaving comments on LLN. Because it’s for people that are enthusiastic about cars, all cars. If you don’t like the car or company being mentioned then simply don’t respond to the posts rather than attacking the people commenting about it. It should be for all people that love talking about cars.

By: RicardoHead

RicardoHead — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:01:12 +0000

Ironhide is such an angry little guinea.

By: SS4LIFE

SS4LIFE — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:58:48 +0000

haha well for those of you that follow the commodities trade, gold prices are at a 5 year high! Time to re-consolidate those portfolios!

By: RicardoHead

RicardoHead — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:35:59 +0000

LLN is back to deleting posts – this time one that had no insults at all. It’s worse here than at the UN with the BS.

By: C6Racer

C6Racer — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:23:17 +0000

jandrews, you haven’t been reading in this forum for very long have you? Haha

By: F451

F451 — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:00:04 +0000

Keep convincing yourselves that change isn’t happening, as I make money off your attitudes from believing all the propaganda. Thanks!
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The US has the best tactile nukes in the world, the issue is that the human race does not take kindly to any country using such a weapon, and the backlash will be severe. Therefor, actually using said weaponry is not without great pause and cause. Also, remember that we attacked Iraq, which the top military brass was against as America—for the first time—became the aggressor; Iraq had not declared war on the US. This was a fundamental change that has and does not bode well in the history books.
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America’s brain trust has been diminishing while other countries have been heavily investing in education.
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For those who travel elsewhere in the world, you know what I reference. The sub-prime mess is one that America is trying to sell to others in an effort to bail themselves out. Fortunately, my London contact warned me months in advance of the sub-prime mess, and I shifted away from the entire train wreck.
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The Wall Street Journal? What a joke. Everyone who is heavily into investing knows it is simply for the masses, and has heard the news the WSJ prints long in advance.

By: 441Zuke

441Zuke — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:51:57 +0000

north Korea has nuclear weapons but doesn’t have a platform to deploy it with against the US also can tell Korea to shut up when it is forced. Korea has no way of a deploying an army to America and has no significant air force to speak of.

By: 441Zuke

441Zuke — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:21:08 +0000

more people should build crap on Mexico. really the only reason America builds crap in china is labor is cheap and will continue to be for a long time china is the worlds factory. sooner or later the Chinese will want more money and then we will build crap somewhere else i say Mexico it would solve the problem of mass migration and keep the money on the north American continent.
Also compare the Chinease army to the American is even close not to mention for the last four years practically all active and national guard units have had combat service in Iraq or Afghanistan

By: DeansterTJ

DeansterTJ — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:55:21 +0000

For all of you who think the world markets are doing fine while the US market is tanking, explain then why the Asian and European markets are getting jittery and experiencing record one-day devaluations on the basis of American credit crunch and worthless bonds sold to buoy the subprime mess?

All major markets are interconnected. They all hold hands and rise/fall together.

By: SS4LIFE

SS4LIFE — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:49:44 +0000

LoL and let’s not forget that China is now the biggest market for GM… Ha

By: SS4LIFE

SS4LIFE — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:48:46 +0000

Yeah, F451 I did forget about China, They are building up their military, they have the largest population and they still are a communist government, so they could be a serious threat if all of a sudden they wanted to threaten the U.S

But I personally don’t see this ever happening. As much as people may not want to admit China holds hundreds of millions if not maybe even in the billions of U.S bonds, and with all of the manufacturing that is being sent over there from the U.S, a (small) part of China’s economic is being contributed by companies in the U.S.

Also not to play the U.S saved everyone’s asses in WWII but China hasn’t been very hostile towards the U.S, if anything China’s government is keeping the whole country in isolation but there’s just to much at stake economically for China to want to be hostile towards the U.S unless you’re a conspriacy theorist believing that they are just good with us so they can build up their military.

With all the corruption going on in Russia since the fall of the USSR while Russia may be building up its military they are in no state to be considered a threat. But yeah it did make me think twice, but even if they may become threats they are still small to be considered major threats. As of now.

By: F451

F451 — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:19:04 +0000

SS4LIFE, China has been consistently building its military, and Russia is back in the game. But don’t take my word for it checkout what the people who follow this have to say. Also, this is a recurring issue politically (the two are intertwined). But don’t kid yourself—it’s all changing.

By: SS4LIFE

SS4LIFE — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:56:56 +0000

If I may but in on this little charade, while yeah the U.S economy certainly isn’t as strong, and emerging markets and stronger economies like in China are threatening the the U.S Economy, but also holding it up at the same time. But c’mon guys militarily??? What Iran threatened a convoy of U.S frigates and destroyers with a few speed boats? yeah cause that convoy would have blown it out of the water in seconds, and what let me guess N Korea too right? I’m sorry but HAHA the U.S hasn’t had a real threat besides terrorism since the end of the cold war before the almighty Soviet Union crumbled. But yeah economy wise U.S isn’t depended on by other countries.

By: SS4LIFE

SS4LIFE — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:49:37 +0000

Holy heck DeansterTJ, a fully loaded GTI runs for about 40k CDN? That sucks. I was just in Windsor this past Sat and right now I don’t have to exchange for CDN $ because it’s pretty much on par. But man I was going to say here in the States or in certain parts you can get a loaded GTI MKV for like under 29k U.S.

By: Veda

Veda — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:26:41 +0000

^^ Would it be more politically correct to say hypocrite Jews are what’s supporting their auto business? Just every damn lawyer and doctor owns a Merc…

By: DeansterTJ

DeansterTJ — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:26:03 +0000

In Montreal, where the average NET salary of a young professional is $26,000 and a loaded GTi runs about $40,000, a VW is somewhat of a moderate luxury item. Expect them to fare decently if the adage that the wealthy easily weather recessions is true.

By: Veda

Veda — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:05:25 +0000

That’s correct Gary. People will continue to buy Mercs and Bimmers though it seems Audi has its way with CA buyers nowadays.

By: Gary

Gary — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:54:15 +0000

The only people really affected for the long term in these times are the middle class. The poor and upper class although affected, are not hit for nearly as long of a time, mainly because of their financial status. Which means I will not be able to hit that upper class segment for at least another 3 years. Damb, I wanted to by a ZR1 too.

By: corvette

corvette — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:48:11 +0000

seems like VW is going to be the only one hurting this year.