Where's the Love? I never knew Detroit was a dirty word

[Bruce Nunnally]

It is not true that Detroit's quality across the board remains miserably low. It is not true that Detroit builds only gas guzzlers. It is not true that Toyota Motor Corp., as one woman on television seemed to suggest, does not build big trucks. Anyone besides Sarah Palin ever hear of the Tundra?

Other Detroit-area friends have watched policy wonks discussing the auto industry -- and those experts can't seem to name one model from Ford or GM or Chrysler.

One host, according to a friend, seemed to think that a Chevy Volt was a Ford product.

Ted Turner went on CNN and trashed the U.S. carmakers big time.

We're watching one huge disconnect here.

Detroit Free Press

[MrEldo97]

One point is that the young have 35 years of anti-American car bias in the press to deal with; they've never known any other point of view.

IMO, the corrupt left wing American press is responsible for this - every other country makes top notch autos whereas Detroit only makes junk - I don't buy it. If more Americans didn't buy the crap that we can't make cars (and other products for that matter) we wouldn't be in the mess we are in now to a large degree.

"Consumer Reports" is a good example; I've never read a good review of an American made auto in that rag.

Sure Detroit was building a lot of large junk in the '70s and '80s, but, the Europeans and Japanese were building a lot of small junk during the same period.

[Texas Jim]

"Consumer Reports" is a good example; I've never read a good review of an American made auto in that rag.

Sure Detroit was building a lot of large junk in the '70s and '80s, but, the Europeans and Japanese were building a lot of small junk during the same period.

I agree about Consumer Reports. They are biased toward small imports.

In the fall of 1973, I bought a new 1974 Chevy pickup. I had it several years and in almost 100,000 miles it was never in the shop... not even ONE TIME.

I bought a new Chevy Caprice in in 1976. Two years and 50,000 miles later I sold it to a friend. It also was never in the shop.

Bought a new 1978 Malibu with V8 and four speed and P-Trac.

The only time it was ever in the shop was when I tore up the rear end doing a full throttle power shift from first to second. That wasn't the cars fault... it was MY fault.

Bought a new Sedan de Ville in 1980. Had it almost 20 years and almost a quarter million miles. One time in the shop. The power antenna quit working.

Probably the lowest maintainence car I have ever had.

Two years ago my 1999 Chevy Astro Van burned in my garage fire. It had well over 200,000 miles on it. In the shop one time at about 150,000 to replace a vacuum line for the AC unit.

Currently have a 2006 Chevy van with over 50,000 on it. Never been in the shop for ANYTHING. Yet.

[MrEldo97]

To be sure, Detroit made some good vehicles then. I had an '82 Cevy C-10 p/u, with the inline six. Great truck,never had a problem with. My best bud bought one just like mine and had nothing but trouble with it. Go figure...

To my point that the corrupt left wing press in this country has a lot to do with the current situation of our automakers. If they weren't constantly ranting about "poor quality" American made cars more Americans would buy them. And then we have the idiotic trade policy our govertment has pushed these past 25 odd years or so...

[Logan]

Go figure...a rare positive story about a couple of GM plants:

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20081116...ESS01/811160419

[Texas Jim]

To be sure, Detroit made some good vehicles then. I had an '82 Cevy C-10 p/u, with the inline six. Great truck,never had a problem with. My best bud bought one just like mine and had nothing but trouble with it. Go figure...

To my point that the corrupt left wing press in this country has a lot to do with the current situation of our automakers. If they weren't constantly ranting about "poor quality" American made cars more Americans would buy them. And then we have the idiotic trade policy our govertment has pushed these past 25 odd years or so...

Agree 100%.

You very seldom see ANY story with a good word about Detroit and the auto industry.

In my opinion, the left wing press is one of the primary causes for a HUGE percentage of the other troubles we are having also.

[adallak]

To be sure, Detroit made some good vehicles then. I had an '82 Cevy C-10 p/u, with the inline six. Great truck,never had a problem with. My best bud bought one just like mine and had nothing but trouble with it. Go figure...

To my point that the corrupt left wing press in this country has a lot to do with the current situation of our automakers. If they weren't constantly ranting about "poor quality" American made cars more Americans would buy them. And then we have the idiotic trade policy our govertment has pushed these past 25 odd years or so...

Sure, CNN screwed GM up, who else could do that? Just curious what cars do the talking heads of FOX News drive?

[95SevilleSLS]

The press may have something to do with it, but you can't blame everything on other people. The big three are just as much or more at fault than anybody else. They had plenty of opportunities to make higher mileage cars/hybrids, but didn't take them. In 1998, Clinton introduced a policy that gave money to the big three to research hybrids. They sat back and did nothing about it. When Bush got into office he destroyed the policy and the big three never looked back. However, it scared Honda and Toyota enough to start researching hybrids a bit more and that is why they have so many more hybrids than the big three.

And what about the EV1? GM had a perfect vehicle for the American public, but it wouldn't make them as much money as the Hummer so they abonded it (not only abonded it, but destroyed it completely). There were a lot of scams with oil companies, government, and the auto makers at the turn of the century and now they are paying for it and big time.

Watch "Who Killed the Electric Car?" you'll see what I'm talking about.

On a second note...I really don't understand why all these foreign car drivers say that American automobiles are junk. I believe they are made a lot better than those tin cans. And if you need real muscle or power, I can bet you aren't going to look at something foreign. People like that though have something like a belt go out on their American car and call it a piece of junk and will never go back.

Oh and another thing that irritates me about the foreign auto makers...they keep saying their vehicles are made here. NO THEY AREN'T! They are just ASSEMBLED here. Very little or no parts are American. Everything is shipped over here for them to make it here. Now they have people believing that their piece of crap Toyota is a American made car.

[MrEldo97]

To be sure, Detroit made some good vehicles then. I had an '82 Cevy C-10 p/u, with the inline six. Great truck,never had a problem with. My best bud bought one just like mine and had nothing but trouble with it. Go figure...

To my point that the corrupt left wing press in this country has a lot to do with the current situation of our automakers. If they weren't constantly ranting about "poor quality" American made cars more Americans would buy them. And then we have the idiotic trade policy our govertment has pushed these past 25 odd years or so...

Sure, CNN screwed GM up, who else could do that? Just curious what cars do the talking heads of FOX News drive?

adallak, you really should put down your Kool-Aid.

[BodybyFisher]

To be sure, Detroit made some good vehicles then. I had an '82 Cevy C-10 p/u, with the inline six. Great truck,never had a problem with. My best bud bought one just like mine and had nothing but trouble with it. Go figure...

To my point that the corrupt left wing press in this country has a lot to do with the current situation of our automakers. If they weren't constantly ranting about "poor quality" American made cars more Americans would buy them. And then we have the idiotic trade policy our govertment has pushed these past 25 odd years or so...

Sure, CNN screwed GM up, who else could do that? Just curious what cars do the talking heads of FOX News drive?

Hannity drives a hybrid Escalade.

Its the Motor Trend, Consumer Reports, type of publications that have written poorly about the US car industry not necessarily CNN

[Logan]

I have a October 2008 Motor Trend Cover right here that claims the Corvette ZR1 'Best Ever.'

"It's good enough the frighten Ferrari"

But yeah, there is some Kool Aid involved.

In the past. People wanted Full Size SUVs. Gas was a little over a buck. Safety is a issue. It's proven most GM SUV's 'win' any accident event. Family 'protection' unit. Think Mad Max or Terminator. In a GM Yukon you won the accident event. GM couldn't make enough of them.

Duh. Cheap to run, safer then anything. Look around. Most driveways in my area have a Tahoe or Suburban sitting in the driveway. White seems to be the color of choice.

Give the people what they want.

EV1 was only offered in California. Yes, all the EV1's ended up being crushed. I have seen movie about the electric cars. Left based CNN angle all the way. But they were there first before Toyota.

But products like: Pontiac Aztec. Good Lord. Can no one raise their hand at GM and question the design of that vehicle during design. I fell that Bob Lutz is pulling us out of that design think.

This summer...gas goes $4 bucks..subprime loans catch up...wall street crash. GM hurting.. Need help.

Not really a crash. I expect these upsets in my long term investments. Now, is actually the time to throw more money into the market.

Do you really want GM to go down? 1 in 10 jobs are tied to GM. Maybe more. It would result in a substantial depression. 3 million jobs.

On to other math.

You can do the $50B to GM, Ford, Chrysler loans. Not bailout. To stay running..or you can do..

$200 billion in unemployment to all the auto related workers (not just GM) payout.

Your Congress leaders decide is this week.

[95SevilleSLS]

I never once said I wanted them to down. Why would I? That's all I ever buy and will always buy. I'm just saying that they could have planned ahead. Yes, give people what they want, but look into the future a little. It's as if they thought fuel was going to stay cheap forever. They put all their time and money into developing the perfect SUV, but missed the notion that fuel might someday go up. I also don't believe that movie was swung either way. Yes, some of the people had their own opinions, but if you look at the facts, it seems as if there was a conspiracy.

Think about it: An oil company buys out the nickel metal hydride battery technology no one can use it, the government offers a $100,000 tax break to people who buy a 6000lb+ vehicle, and GM quits their EV1 program 1 month after buying Hummer. Seems a little fishy to me. My theory is that the oil companies paid big bonuses to GM and the government to start marketing the Hummer and to give the tax break, respectivley. I don't believe in this right wing, left wing crap. I just look at the facts and make my own decisions.

[MrEldo97]

American companies only think 12 weeks out into the future.

Another part of the problem...

If you grew up in the '60s you'd see the right-wing left-wing thing right off.

The Vietnam War is still being fought...

[95SevilleSLS]

I do believe, however, that this garbage that these consumer reports are putting out about American cars being crap needs to stop. If you're going call it consumer reports, then interview consumers of all sorts. I wanted to make a bumper sticker one time that said this "How can you call yourself American if you buy foreign?"

The American automakers just missed the boat a little bit. They got caught up in the wonderful world of trucks and SUVs and just forgot about hybrids and super high mileage cars. I'd probably do the same thing. I tend to be a little blind when money is a factor too.

There is a few reasons that people should realize before they buy their "Higher" quality foreign vehicle:

1. Parts are very expensive since very few are made here.

2. Your local mechanic usually can't work on foreign vehicles and rural areas usually don't have dealerships to service foreign brands.

3. When you buy foreign, you're indirectly laying off American workers and handing money overseas and pretty much saying "screw you America!"

4. They don't last as long (most of the time). I have seen numerous old caddys, old chevys, lots of old buicks and oldsmobiles, but rarely do I see an old toyota or honda or Nissan. It's because American made cars seem to hold up better. On my GMs I have 170,000 miles, 150,000 miles, 92,000 miles, 451,000 miles and 156,000 miles and none of them have had any serious problems. I test drove a Fleetwood the other day that had 350,000 miles on it and ran like a dream. It's because they were (are) built to last.

5. Foreign vehicles usually do not ride as nice. It is very rare to find a nice riding toyota or honda. They feel like you are riding your bycycle with a wider seat. I have road in countless hondas and toyotas and they all ride like crap.

6. It takes real iron to haul a camper, boat, do farm work or construction work. When was the last time you saw a toyota hauling a camper? When was the last time you saw a toyota running around the contruction site? In my past few years of camping I have only seen 1 toyota and he was having troubles. They are 75% GM and the rest split between Ford and Dodge. These foregin auto makers are making their frames so light that they can't hold up to the work load that we put on them.

There are many other reasons, but these are just off the top of my head. How come something like that can't be posted in the media? Why not tell the truth from both sides from time to time?

[adallak]

To be sure, Detroit made some good vehicles then. I had an '82 Cevy C-10 p/u, with the inline six. Great truck,never had a problem with. My best bud bought one just like mine and had nothing but trouble with it. Go figure...

To my point that the corrupt left wing press in this country has a lot to do with the current situation of our automakers. If they weren't constantly ranting about "poor quality" American made cars more Americans would buy them. And then we have the idiotic trade policy our govertment has pushed these past 25 odd years or so...

Sure, CNN screwed GM up, who else could do that? Just curious what cars do the talking heads of FOX News drive?

adallak, you really should put down your Kool-Aid.

I do not drink alcohol-free beverages, but thank you for the advice.

[BodybyFisher]

One thing we glossed over was Ted Turner. Known as, "The mouth from the South". Who said, I know what I'm having 'em put on my tombstone: 'I have nothing more to say' and also said, "If I had any humility I would be perfect", and who was married to Jane Fonda, need I say more?

[howex]

2008 Cadillac CTS Motortrend Car of the Year