And, ‘Gundy’, don’t worry about the extra text … it’s LLN and their failure to run a properly working web site … they are clueless about doing things right … just look at the spelling and grammar in their articles.

Maybe you can stand blindfolded behind on of the really big wheels.

sj
When you lose 25% in 25 years that means you suck!
Only you would pat a domestic on the back as they rocket to the grave!
And only those that can’t get a prime loan from an import maker (roaches)will buy you.
Nobody puts money on the hood, and desperation in their voice, like a domestic
I’ll miss those shills
DrFill

That chimp ‘1115′ is reincarnated and there are still people wanting to have a tete-a-tete over the same SHIAT?

Ignore the biatch … she likes effeminate design to go with her purse.

You would have to be completely braindead to suggest that entities that control 40% of ANY given market are not making anything consumers want. Would you say the same for the computer industry? Cell phone industry? retail? if Target and Sears have 40% of the department store market would you argue they are irrelevant retail options for consumers? Of course not. Toyota and Hona have about 25-30% of the US market but according to you they dominate US auto sales and are the primary companies giving people what they want. I would hardly call 30% of the market a referendum on their desirability. I would argue that means 75% of the populace doesn’t want a Toyota or Honda product.

1. People in metro areas buy domestic. Trust me. My metro area had 5mil and I see Malibus, Enclaves and CTS’ ALL THE TIME. Get a clue

2. Toyota has projected profits to fall to about $6B for the year. That is a major decline from last year and they are losing money in the US market.

3. GM still sells more vehicles that Toyota in the US so logic dicatates they know what consumers want more than Toyota.

4. Ford’s quality is on par with the Japanese according to CR which calls in to doubt you claims that “they do it better”. Wrong again.

5. Share was 60% 20 years ago because Hyundai was barely on the map, the Japanese didnt make many trucks, vans or SUVS and the German brands only dealt in high end vehicles that were very expensive and inaccessible to most Americans. All that has changed and that has led to more marketshare for the foreign automakers. There was a time when Sears and Kmart had a lot of marketshare to but a juggernaut called Walmart have consumers more choices and diverted those Kmart dollars into their coffers. Increased competition leads to fragmentation of the market. Without foreign competion VW and MB and BMW would have far greater share in Europe. You keep presenting facts in a vacuum. If the foreign automakers had the exact same lineups as 20 years ago your point would be valid.

6. You have completely ignored Toyota’s troubles in the US since you seem to worship them. Lexus and Scion are stumbling big time. The Tundra is a flop and plants have been idled. They have delayed construction of a plant in Missippi due to lack of demand for the highlander. Prius sales are down. The only reason they look OK is because the BIg 3 are doing far worse in 2008.

“Does Toyota know the US market better than the domestics? You bet your ass they do! People don’t buy Camrys and Accords and Civics because they want to buy them. They buy them because they are the best.”

This is one of the dumbest things you posted. The Accord has been outsold by the Impala for two straight months and sales are down big time. The camry is selling with massive discounts. Civic sales have crashed since spring when the civic was the #1 vehicle for a month. The Camry is a mediocre car and reviews support that. The car sells on reputation alone right now but the public will catch on eventually.

For years we have been reeading fawning press coverage of Toyota and their infallable business plan. The pundits said “see, Toyota predicted the gas price increase and is making billions”. WRONG. They were making many b illions when the US economy was strong and their profitable trucks were selling. Now Toyota is using 0% to move metal (something all the critics have beat up on Detroit about) and ther operating profit forecasts have plummeted. I read that they likely lost money in the US and Europe in teh last quarter. If Toyota decison making is so genius how is this happening? Why are sales of virtually every Toyota and Lexus model down for the year? Why is Toyota talking about making production and labor cuts?

Turns out the pundits are no sharper than you or I.
A bad year for Toyota is making $25 Billion.
A good year for the domestics is making $4-5 Billion
Does Toyota know the US market better than the domestics? You bet your ass they do! People don’t buy Camrys and Accords and Civics because they want to buy them. They buy them because they are the best.

You pound your chest like GM and Ford having 40% of the market is some type of referendum on their desirability.

20 years ago it was almost 70%!

You know who buys the domestics now? People who don’t like within 50 miles of an import dealership, out in the sticks, and businesses who can buy in bulk on the cheap.

The normal retail customer has left the domestics, in the last generation. 30% of the market. In a generation. Believe it. Why?

Why make the mistakes my parents made? I lived through it once. Live and learn. Other companies do it better. It’s too far gone to bring them back now. You have to wait for the other guy to drop the ball. We had our chance, and we blew it.

I don’t like it. You don’t like it. But it’s the truth. We are a service society now. Deal with it.

Obama and the government can hand them money, but that won’t solve the problem. Americans don’t want to go back to American cars. Find out why before you blame the consumer.

DrFill

As for SUVs and trucks we should note that EVERYONE got on board with the SUV craze, even Toyota. IN the early 2000s all of the import manufacturers were racing to catch up on the SUV/pickup front in order to cash in on the big profits. If SUVS and pickups were so dumb why was Toyota investing billions into such programs? And dont say “but they never stopped investing in cars”. I cannot stand when people make that ridiculous statement. The CTS, C6 vette, Fusion, Aura, Solstice, 300, Mustang, Taurus/500, Cobalt, G8, G6, etc. are trucks? Do they look like trucks to you people? The Big 3 may have over invested in large vehicles (which made sense when they were profitable) but they never stopped investing in cars. Unlike Toyota these companies are beholden to stockholders and profits. When large vehicles were selling it made perfect sense to invest in them because they were profitable. If they hadnt capitalized the same critics would have been saying they were late to the party and allowed the Japanese to beat them to the punch on SUVs. No one knew gas was going to jump to $4 and if Toyota knew they surely were stupid for investing $1billion in a new plant for the 14mpg Tundra.

But here’s a guarantee … buy gold Monday and make $500 when it hits about $1250 within eight months, maybe far sooner.

One last thing, I never said buy a bar … there are many avenues in gold investing.

Anyway, enough blowing smoke up everyone’s *ss. On October 31st I made a flippant remark (I know, there’s a first) about dressing up as Kerkorian and handing out Ford shares on Halloween night. I think it was Payton Byrd who basically implied he’d take them because should they survive where do they have to go but up? Well, that got the ol’ hamster wheel in Johnny’s noggin turning. I’ve never been a player in the markets other than through my employer, but this week I submitted all the necessary paperwork to my outstanding Canadian financial institution to start trading online. I’m going to put my money where my passion is and buy shares in Ford for sure and maybe GM as well. There’s nothing scientific here, just a gut feeling, but when you drink as much beer as I do that’s pretty hard to ignore.

Did you know that GM & Ford top the list of in terms of spending on research & development in America, spending $12 billioion annually? 3rd place – Microsoft.

GM & Ford combined have nearly 100 major plants in the US. (Toyota, Nissan & Honda have 8 combined!)

GM either directly or indirectly supports the employment of 900,000 americans.

Beginning in 2009, Toyota will no longer make the Sequoia & Tundra.

Didn’t Nissan (a japanese company) almost go bankrupt in the 1990’s? Yes, they did. What saved them you ask? The american economy did.

No company deserves to go bankrupt. We the people of this country lose their jobs, lose their homes to hurricanes, get struck with an illness that keeps them from working the US government steps in to help. If we don’t help the Big 3 there will be alot of people that will need unemployment, WIC, food stamps, free health insurance. I guess it’s just a question of would we rather “loan” some $ to help the economy or just wait until no one has a job or home & help them. I do have a better solution – Give a $5000 tax credit to people who purchase a NEW AMERICAN vehicle. When people buy cars, they borrow $, they pay taxes on the purchase, they stimulate the economy! Then we don’t have to give away any $!

And the UK would be a great example of what’s happening in the U.S…. but not if your blaming it on management. Not to say they didn’t have piss poor management. They lost millions on millions to labor disputes and… unions. Protesting and skipping work for weeks on end. The only resolution they would accept was one that would go their way. That crippled their ability to change and come out with new products. The result was 1960’s and 70’s products built on immediate post war products. And even in some cases pre-war engineering. They spent their last few pennies coming out with a few innovative vehicles, that could have sold well… if there were any workers left at the plant. All of them were gone drinking a beer, “protesting” what they considered poor management and pay. Fact was, they were trying to live off of the industry they worked for. They all ended up collapsing.

I wouldn’t say it’s as bad in the U.S. yet, but some of the rates that these union workers get paid are that ridiculous. Health care and a whole different set of variables that neither the union or automakers have control of also are in play. Fortunately, no major strikes have happened on a huge scale… I thought there would be last year, but fortunately GM came to a pretty good agreement. Also, healthcare will be off of GM’s back by 2010, since the unions are going to be managing that. That’ll save GM somewhere around 50 billion dollars, although their going to have to cash out about 30 billion before 2010. Surely a price to pay, with money that GM is struggling to manage.