Car prices have gone up!!

[Silver Ecstasy]

I can't say i'm surprised. We went to visit my salesperson for a friend of mine who is interested in a MZ3 hatchback. We compared two MZ3 GT's with equal options and the newer delivery 09 was $300 more than the older delivery 09!

Wait, it gets better!

January 2007, I picked up a Trailblazer SS lease. The MSRP on the truck (base, bose+sunroof) was $32,980. I paid $31k OTD with GM employee and tax.

Fast forward to the end of 2008, and the Trailblazer SS MSRP STARTS AT $37K+!!!

My friend was a little nervous about the price on the MZ3 hatch so we looked on Chevy's website again for HHR's, to compare price and features. The HHR LS BASE starts at $19K!!! It used to start at $15K!!! The Mazda will end up smoking the HHR in features, amenities and quality by a huge margin.

If this isn't a sign of troubled times, I don't know what is. Be thankful for driving the cars you do, with the payments you have. Because for people who are in situations like my friends, it's going to get a hell of a lot harder to get a quality vehicle at an affordable price!

 

[GoFast]

and they wonder why sales are down...

 

[stockms3]

It sux that GM, Ford, make fast muscle cars but when it comes to economy cars they're terrible. They use technologies from like 70's and are so behind other auto makers.

 

[Silver Ecstasy]

Its definitely unfortunate. And I think that's why the country is so distasteful with them right now. But this money has to come before our state takes a devastating hit. They will be able to restructure if they are around to do so. I would call MI a "state of emergency" right now..

 

[stockms3]

We need a new automaker, seriosuly Ford and GM are in deep s***, no one is going to buy cars from them they ARE GOING out of business. It's all because of the poor car design, and not really improving anything over the years. I mean I remember my first car which was a 94 Pontiac Bonneville I loved it but interior was s***, everything squeaked and was making noises, and it was a boat.

Compare Base cobalt to base mazda 3 lol................or a focus......I honestly hate the fkin interior in those cars, I drove a cobalt before from enterprise and was thinking "FCK I gotta hit that wall with this POS"

Dont forget about the PT cruiser lol.............designer should get um life time for that.

 

[Silver Ecstasy]

Know your financial facts though: GM and Chrsyler are the ones in trouble. Ford is far better off and is in the best automotive structure. Their actions from here are simply pro-active instead of reactive like the latter. They are poised to make it out alive, and adding shifts to some of their plants!

 

[stockms3]

Know your financial facts though: GM and Chrsyler are the ones in trouble. Ford is far better off and is in the best automotive structure. Their actions from here are simply pro-active instead of reactive like the latter. They are poised to make it out alive, and adding shifts to some of their plants!

I actually didn't know that

 

[Silver Ecstasy]

Yeah Ford has made much better investments with Volvo and Mazda. They gain their ingenuity and ideas from Mazda and their safety and chassis design from Volvo. Selling Volvo is probably just for speculation sake. They'll probably hold onto both brands.

They definitely could afford to ditch Mercury and just have Ford/Lincoln.

Sync has been a hit and has been being offered as an automatic option on a majority of the Ford vehicles, and their quality has improved quite much over the years.

GM is in a world of hurt. They've got too many plants making too many of the same vehicle with the same brand. Nothing stands out and they're definitely not competitors at all in terms of technology or design. They just have the Vette and their motorsports doing good.

Chrysler could be the bottom of the barrell. After Daimler opted out of the merger, it put them up for grabs. And a private firm (Cerebrus) took over. For all we know, they have zero car experience. But they figured it would be a good investment considering almost all the vehicles Chrysler were making had Daimler electrical/engine wiring and mapping. Chrysler's overall reputation had increased even though they're just as "cookie cutter" as GM is.

GM doesn't want to fire their upper management because they're unwilling to admit that their bean-counters did too much bean-counting and not enough logic-based thinking. They kept counting the $ in their wallet, not the $ invested towards future technology. Everytime the market has cried for help in the past 10 years, GM has turned around and announced something completely and utterly useless. They have ALWAYS been a day late and a massive dollar short.

Example: When gas was increasing, GM decides it's time for a Camaro/G8/ZR1 show down. When the economy started to fail, GM announced it wanted to introduce "blind spot monitors" for Buick. Fantastic..When the market still was empty, GM announced it wanted to test heads up displays on their windshields for all vehicles. Fabulous..when the market was STILL suffering, they wanted to announce new fandango key remotes that would display car information and remote start information.

They have failed every single time to come out with something the public wants or needs. And they don't have a clue over at Cadillac either. Caddy's arn't what they used to be, they don't stand a chance towards Mercedes Benz or BMW. And their only fancy feature (heated windshield washer spray) was under a heavy recall where the heated sprayer company went out of business.

And if all else fails....discount the s*** out of your entire line up and home the "McDonalds method" works. $1 Big Macs for all! Here, take an Avalanche while you're at it! I know gas is $4 but **** it!!

And Chrysler...don't get me started.

If you can afford to give away a $32k Grand Cherokee Laredo for $5500 cash + $1500 bonus cash and offer employee price ontop of all that? That spells utter desperation.

 

[79_Limited]

Ford has a few decent vehicles but nothing I would really buy. The Edge is Ok but still not on par with my Murano. There is a BIG reason American autos depreciate more rapidly than the competition...no one really wants them.

Besides the Vette GM has nothing...maybe the G8 but it is still a Pontiac.

The big 3 have a lot of digging to do to turn it around I am not so sure if it is going to happen. They can start by clearing out the redneck mentality. I was at a Ford dealership a few years back to get a tire fixed for a new Ford I had bought (my one and only mistake).

The rednecks behind the service counter were too busy watching Nascar to help their only customer in line. To make matters worse when I got home they still had not fixed the new tire I had been in to get fixed.....grrr was I mad. I swore off any treatment like that again and was actually happy to see that they same dealership had closed down.

 

[stockms3]

Ford has a few decent vehicles but nothing I would really buy. The Edge is Ok but still not on par with my Murano. There is a BIG reason American autos depreciate more rapidly than the competition...no one really wants them.

Besides the Vette GM has nothing...maybe the G8 but it is still a Pontiac.

The big 3 have a lot of digging to do to turn it around I am not so sure if it is going to happen. They can start by clearing out the redneck mentality. I was at a Ford dealership a few years back to get a tire fixed for a new Ford I had bought (my one and only mistake).

The rednecks behind the service counter were too busy watching Nascar to help their only customer in line. To make matters worse when I got home they still had not fixed the new tire I had been in to get fixed.....grrr was I mad. I swore off any treatment like that again and was actually happy to see that they same dealership had closed down.

i hate rednecks at service desks fkin useless morons

 

[Silver Ecstasy]

Service has nothing to do with the auto co. That's the dealerships giving the company a bad name. But when you have so many owners representing your company, experience is hard to control. That's why I think GM, Ford, and Chrysler should own their dealers. Their product, their stores. Watch the quality increase overall. Actual Ford techs at Ford stores, that would be great!

 

[CrazyT]

It's a very unfortunate situation for all the workers. Yeah, they had it good when the company was doing well (as in not losing THAT much money every month), but it's hard to plan for something like this. Hopefully when they do go under, that foreign car companies will move in and use the facilities. Doubt it, though. VW is building a new plant here in Chattanooga. Time to start packing!

 

[CrazyT]

Example: When gas was increasing, GM decides it's time for a Camaro/G8/ZR1 show down. When the economy started to fail, GM announced it wanted to introduce "blind spot monitors" for Buick. Fantastic..When the market still was empty, GM announced it wanted to test heads up displays on their windshields for all vehicles. Fabulous..when the market was STILL suffering, they wanted to announce new fandango key remotes that would display car information and remote start information.

And Ford has microsoft developed voice recognition software to play MP3s! Big whoppty do. (beer) (beer) (beer)

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

Ahh the irony of the rice burning hatred by our greedy unionized auto industry being turned into hope that the rice burning companies come to town so the workers can have jobs in a familiar industry all due to the previously mentioned reasons above. The richness is just so turd loosening. And whatever you do guys, keep ignoring the warning signs & they'll just go away. Auto industry lobbyists + oil company lobbyists + goverment = FAIL! Consumers/economy/useful product rule! Try to grasp that concept moving forward.....if any of the tiny 3 actually have a forward.

 

[Silver Ecstasy]

And Ford has microsoft developed voice recognition software to play MP3s! Big whoppty do. (beer) (beer) (beer)

You're right in your observation that it may not hold much "value" to the brand, but it strengthens their connection to the public by offering a technologically competitive feature that not many vehicles offer. That's the entire point!

And it seems to be getting interesting here in MI..people are targeting foreign vehicles.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/18272208/detail.html/
Foreign Cars Targeted By Vandals

POSTED: Saturday, December 13, 2008
UPDATED: 5:49 pm EST December 13, 2008

WOODHAVEN, Mich. -- It seems the economic conditions and the auto industry crisis is turning some Americans against Americans.

Woodhaven police said four cars on Friday, all produced by foreign carmakers, had two tires slashed and "Buy USA" written on them.

Police said three of the cars were parked in a strip mall in Woodhaven that sits next to a Ford stamping plant.

Kim Lebecki's 2009 Toyota Camry was one of the four targeted by the vandal.

"I work very hard to make the payment to drive the car of my choice in the United States and someone else has the audacity to destroy these vehicles," Lebecki said. "It saddens me to think, 'Is this a UAW member who did this?'"

One of incidents was caught on a security tape. A red Ford Escape is seen pulling into a parking space, a middle-aged man can be seen approaching a red foreign car and slashing both tires. The man can also be seen writing a message on the car before leaving.

"We don't have any positive evidence to link a Ford employee with this incident," said Lt. Robert Harabedian, of the Woodhaven Police Department.


Copyright 2008 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

[Circle9]

I think GM hurt themselves more by apologizing to the American people about their "poor quality and lackluster designs". They basicly just admitted to selling Americans inferior cars. I believe Chrysler is the most at fault, then GM, then Ford.