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Quote: cookie4me, LJ: “I believe the SYNC system is going to drive sales for Ford.” Not in and of itself, but because of what it represents. The focus would be one of the three I would drive if I were buying a compact. Much cooler than most any other Gen-Y car.
Play artist Jimi Hendrix
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It’s a combination of things…like you said.
SYNC is on item, and improvements made on the vehicles is another.
Combined… it’s really cool.
I like it.
For a 4 door compact.. it’s hard to beat.

Have a good one.

5451: “Close Pontiac, Saturn, and Buick.” No, just give them dedicated models.

SwerveEarly: “Who will rule the world: Toyota or GM?” We all know that Goldman Sachs will rule the world.

Fletch, mazdaman: Jill Wagner is a biscuit, but she ain’t selling me a car.

Get Real: Grand Marquis is a good car to be in when you crash. I also love big V8s and can appreciate a smooth, quiet, ride.

cookie4me, LJ: “I believe the SYNC system is going to drive sales for Ford.” Not in and of itself, but because of what it represents. The focus would be one of the three I would drive if I were buying a compact. Much cooler than most any other Gen-Y car.
Play artist Jimi Hendrix!

RicardoHead: Tundra: You’ve got a better choice.

hbcbob3: Yeah, your average guy will have to spend dough on gas, and won’t have any left to buy a hummer.

jonmiles: The new accord looks good (I’ll drive it next week.)
“In reality it’s a POS that won’t be worth 45% of its original MSRP after two years.” To whom? I think the theoretical resale value will be higher than you say, but who knows about the actual retail value.

Brand loyalty is a joke to me.

We got a Focus, not because of SYNC…but, to our surprise, it is better than the car it replaced( yeah, it still the same car, modified to look, handle, ride and sound better ,than the 07…and is reliable, and 31-33MPG so far in 1000 miles/10 days of ownership).

We test drove a ton of cars, and went to look @ the Fusion(nice looking, dreadful interior/noisey I-4..Ughh)…and we saw the 08 Focus. Looked decent enough.
Now, it’s not as nice as our 05 tC…but the tC is around 18K, vs 17K, now..and we got a deal on the Focus… so $1,500(plus taxes and financing Saved…on this…= about 2,2oo saved over tC. Plus, we wanted a 4 door, for when we go places with the elderly relatives, and the 09 Corolla with the tC engine is not here yet…and the current Corolla is a snooze-fest, so we got the more fun to drive Focus..and look up reliability in the past 3-4 years… it’s above avg. So why not? Plus, instead of driving 40 miles one way to Scion for, say, possible warranty issues… if Foucs has an issue, it is 8 miles away).
The SYNC is a nice touch, BTW.

Can talk over the cellphone w.o looking away from the road, etc(if you gotta talk while driving).
Same for UBS thumb/flash drives….plug one in(no MP3 player needed, really)… and it works fine…. call out what you want to hear, no need to mess with anything else.

Anyhow, here’s hoping the Focus lasts longer than the Sonata( I see people getting excited over Genesis..Don’t.
I would rather get a new Malibu!).

take it easy.
PS: Where’S Suzuki figures?
Just curious.

i could have bet my firstborn child on the decline of hummer sales with the increase of crude oil prices.

another thing that drives me to drink (besides the rising fuel prices) is the fact that vehicles sell because of the little gagets that come with them such as SYNC or OnStar. why in the name of all that is holy would you choose a vehicle because you can talk to it?! i choose a vehicle because it looks good, how powerful it is and/or what it can do for me, besides being my new therapist…

Other thing I noted was across the brand board, almost all trucks or suvs were way down below recent trend (not necessarily YoY). No surprise given gas, but this was true whether a Sequoia, F150, Element, Ridgeline, Silverado, Tundra, Titan, Pathfinder – all the gas-hogs. Again no surprise, but it was clear it wasn’t due to a brand shift amongst these from domestic to import or vice versa.

Don’t give me this “Toyota is just humbly moving along and surprising us all by selling so well…” They have the business leaders in place to plan and forecast, and they have taken on a growth strategy that is the most agressive I’ve seen (except maybe Suzuki). In the U.S. they have been discounting heavily. While their consumer rebates are still relatively small, their dealer incentives are massive now. You can buy a Corolla for thousands below MSRP (and invoice) and it’s not because the dealer is making as little money as possible.

But now, as you mention, Toyota’s challenge is quality. Their stunning growth has led to some bruising hits. Their sales to rental fleets is up significantly in the U.S. Their quest for #1 in sales and profit, much as GM and Ford’s constant battle for top nameplate, has led to penny-pinching, launches of vehicles with defects, launches of vehicles that have met the ire of environmentalists that used to love them and a drop in customer service overall.

All of this indicates that they stopped growing organically, which may have seen them #1 in 2009 or 2010 or even 2011, and started growing forcefully – which tells me they didn’t just happen to be near the top in 2007; they were gunning for it.

MR LUTZ !!!!

Those hasty, pushed through redesigned trucks were not supposed to do this. OUCH !!!!

That Malibu should have come in sub $18K to save your butt. A lot of people don’t care about all the standard options you’re filling the car with. Price is what sells cars, not useless options some people splurge on.

Toyota is heading downhill, yes!!!