Toyota raising prices -- japanese business

[Kidlicious]

I wasn't talking to you people anyway.

[Dinner]

http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_id=33&article_id=8914

To compare industry journalists greatly disagree with you. Car & Driver's top 10 has 4 American, 4 Japanese, & 2 German. It's even more one sided when you realize several Japanese & European makes are American owned.

http://www.autosite.com/content/shared/articles/templates/index.cfm/article_id_int/314

Austosite.com gives a similiar mix in their top cars & trucks for 2005.

http://motortrend.com/features/news/112_news041117_coty/

Motor Trend just names one car per year as the best car on the market for the year. This year it's the Chrysler 300M which beat out every make and model the rest of the world had to offer.

http://www.roadandtravel.com/awards/2005/awardsbg_caroftheyear.htm

Road & Track has 10 catagories whcih it names the best car or truck for each catagory. 6 Americans, 1 Japanese 3 Euros. Two of the Euros were American owned.

Face it the press loves American cars and the journalist industry keeps close tabs on quality. They know American & Japanese cars have quality while Euro cars are mostly facy but fragil things.

[Colonâ„¢]

http://motortrend.com/features/news...ews041117_coty/

Motor Trend just names one car per year as the best car on the market for the year. This year it's the Chrysler 300M which beat out every make and model the rest of the world had to offer.

Chrysler is European nowadays.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Face it the press loves American cars and the journalist industry keeps close tabs on quality. They know American & Japanese cars have quality while Euro cars are mostly facy but fragil things.

How many times can you miss the point?

BTW, saw a Cadillac Escalade with not one, but TWO burnt out tail lights on my way to Waterloo today.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Asher

How many times can you miss the point?

BTW, saw a Cadillac Escalade with not one, but TWO burnt out tail lights on my way to Waterloo today.

When did I ever say a good think about the Escalade? I don't have to defend the Escalade any more then you have to defend the Daihatsu Charade or the crap Mitsubishi shovels.

The comparison with Euro cars were for a certain Swiss poster who kept claiming US cars were the worst ever.

[:) Smiley]

GM going bankrupt

These guys killed just about every mass transit system back in the 50's - it's about time they get their due.

[Dinner]

They won't go bankrupt. The government wouldn't let Chrysler go bankrupt in the early 1980's and GM is several times Chryslers size.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Colon

Chrysler is European nowadays.

Half American, Half German officially but thanks to some recent stock purchases the majority of shares are owned by Americans. Blame it on the poor German economy but Americans are the majority share holders.

[Colonâ„¢]

Originally posted by Oerdin


Half American, Half German officially but thanks to some recent stock purchases the majority of shares are owned by Americans. Blame it on the poor German economy but Americans are the majority share holders.

I'm blaming Chrysler's turnaround on the Europeans.

[Dinner]

To bad the Germans can't turn around Mercedes-Benz. Besides Chrysler was profitable and in fine shape when the companies merged and it didn't start having problems until Germans started monkeying around. Finally a German who promised to do what the Americans told him came in and suddenly the company is profitable again. Massively so.

Mercedes continues to be a dog though.

[Ted Striker]

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[Ted Striker]

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[Colonâ„¢]

Originally posted by Oerdin
To bad the Germans can't turn around Mercedes-Benz. Besides Chrysler was profitable and in fine shape when the companies merged and it didn't start having problems until Germans started monkeying around.

Not really, Chrysler rose out of the dolldrums in a similar manner to Ford and GM with their SUV's: they had a couple of succesfull models that hid the company's fundamental flaws in quality and manufacturing technology. Hence, when Daimler-Benz bought the company they didn't bother to replace the management, which turned out to be a big mistake once the effect of the previous wore off. It's only once the Germans realised giving their Americans counterparts a free hand wasn't such a great idea that Chrysler was getting fixed.

And regarding the quality deteriorating at Mercedes, I blame Anglo-saxon business practices pervading German work-ethic.

[Dinner]

Quality was always questionable as several Mercedes owners can testify. Profits are what I'm refering to; Chrysler has them will Mercedes has been deep in the red for several years now. I can't believe how bumbling the Germans are sometimes, Plymouth sold 200k cars per year but the krauts closed it claiming it was to small but their pet project Smart costs hundreds of millions but sells a few tens of thousands per year and they say its great? The smart is garbage which will never earn a penny and rebadging it as an A-Class just devalues the Mercedes name.

Mercedes needs to follow Audi's lead and not follow BMW's failed excersize with Rover. Mercedes needs to increase it's volume by sharing platforms and components with Chrysler the way Lexus/Toyota, Audi/VW, Chevrolet/Caddilliac, and Ford/Lincoln/Jaguar do. That will help them cut costs while increasing their model line up thus putting them back into profitability. BMW was to stuffy to share with Rover so that merger failed. Why even merge if you aren't going to try to cut costs by combining purchasing?

Further more Mercedes needs new design talent because compared to Lexus, Jag, Infinity, Audi, and the new Caddilliacs their cars are either boring or ugly. Mercedes is an also ran and has been one for the last 10 years.

[Ted Striker]

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