Buying these cars means that the profits go outside the country and we have to rely on them to reinvest in the NA economy, sadly they may decide to invest more in the third world. In fifty years when NA has a third world economy they may decide to come back here and we can repeat the cycle. When all the products are mostly made overseas we will have to take what we are are given, by then who says it will even be as good as what we make now? Having less money to spend we will have to settle for cr*p.
You are correct labour costs are killing the NA car manufacturers, their fault and they are paying for it now but so are we.

 

You are correct.

LETS GO CHRYSLER, SHOW ME THOSE TAX DOLLARS WERE WORTH IT!

 

You are right, but the American manufacturers have to compete on quality, ride and resale value. It's not rocket science to become a leader in these areas. The bean counters in Detroit seem to always find way to cut costs and quality.

I work for a German company and in 2005 we came out with our 2012 plan. We are not concerned with quarterly results and only focused on tracking against the 2012 plan which is global leadership in our industry. I work in financial services and all my competitors are American companies receiving bailouts. American companies will sell out their future for a little better quarter, but my company is making huge gains in market share and is delivering a great profit to our shareholders.

 

PM me, I could use a good tip these days.

 

You could not have said it better. That was the kind of response you get from Libs. That is why the tea party protests were peacefull and Lib protests get violent.

 

Isn't there a politics section for that kind of crap?

 

"Libs" ha ha. You've been so well trained. What would happen if you couldn't neatly divide the population into camps? How would you process an argument?

BTW -

Oklahoma Man Arrested for Twittering Tea Party Death Threats http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/04/twitterraid

 

lol, like 2 days ago i saw a sign that sai chrysler mueseum and i was like wow cool and i went there (in the xfire) and it was not the car company... i was like FFUUUUUUUUUUUU (its is Norfolk VA)

 

The libs are the ones that caused the segregation of camps in the first place. They are the ones that went too far to the left away from true American beliefs (the same beliefs that created America). Libs, Libs, Libs..... Libs! You gotta love them because they are all the same

 

Sorry for bringing this thread back, just now catching up on my email. I guess the point I should have made is that without factory rebates and other incentives, most of the cars Chrysler was producing would never have sold. Most of the cars and minivans were sold at very little, if any profit. This was done to maintain CAFE standards so the company would not be penalized for selling too many gas guzzling trucks and SUVs (that people REALLY WANTED to buy), which they make an obscene profit on. I don't recall seeing many rebates and other specials on the trucks and SUVs, yet they out-sold passenger cars by far. Notice how that now they are selling at about half what they used to cost. Must be a supply and demand thing. Yes, last summer's gas prices probably have a lot to do with it also. If Chrysler would have produced passenger cars that weren't such cookie cutter, boring, rental car duds, they wouldn't be looking at certain doom right now. They were riding high on the wave of truck and SUV sales that other manufacturers were on also, and everybody wanted to make as much money as possible as fast as possible (kind of like all the people who contributed to the collapse of the real estate market) . They didn't care much about the passenger cars except for their value as an offset with the CAFE stuff. So they had crank out as many of them as possible and do whatever it took to get them sold. As for the crossfire, yes, a car nobody wanted to buy- because nobody ever heard about it. Complete marketing disaster on Chrysler's part. I don't recall ever seeing an advertisement for the crossfire. In fact, the first crossfire I ever saw was in 2006 when my neighbor bought a new, left-over '04 coupe. Just think, if the crossfire had been advertised better, or I should say advertised period, it might still be in production today, and receiving design updates- exterior, interior, maybe even bigger engine, more power etc..

 

Chrysler only produces 2 cars. One of them being the Sebring, which is arguably a "cookie-cutter" car that is meant to compete with the Camry's Accord's, etc.

The other car is the 300C, which I would hardly call "cookie-cutter".

 

Chrysler has been to the wall before (remember Lee and his Caravan keeping the Chrysler boat afloat back in 1984). Now we're all driving basically a Mercedes engineered set of wheels with the Crossfire, which didn't catch the mass market interest. (Neither did Pontiac's Fiero find a solid market)
Chrysler needs to pull another rabbit outta the tophat and maybe FIAT might have some fresh ideas that cranks up the North American market share for Chrysler. Don't knock it until you've seen it.
Volkswagen did it with the Beetle many moons ago, Renault did it more recently for Nissan and Infiniti with the 350ZX, the G35 Sports Coupe.

When was the last time any of the "Big 3" actually tried and polled consumers on what they would like in their next vehicle? Simple things like 4, 6 or 8 cyl., 2 or 4 door, rate priorities like mileage or performance, etc., etc. I'm getting pretty tired personally of these "retro" vehicles. I've been there, done that..don't wanna do it again.

 

Agreed, I absolutely love the 300, had a chance to drive the SRT-8 version. Almost had thoughts of getting rid of the crossfire for it! I like the magnum too. Don't really see too many 300s or magnums around here. I guess the magnum has since been killed off, too bad. Lots of chargers around town though. I wonder if Chrysler would have been better off now if they had introduced the rear wheel drive "big cars" a year or two sooner? Also, as I said in an earlier post, the charger should never have been brought back to life as a 4-door. That would be like Chevy bringing back the camaro as a 4-door, I could just imagine the horrific screams from the die hard bow tie guys. Yes, I know, mechanically and performance wise, the charger is top notch. Why didn't they make it a 2-door? Is it because it's essentially a shorter 300 with different sheet metal hung on it?

 

libs libs libs libs libs!!!!! LOL! I hope you jump up and down when you say that!

 

I'm with you. The 300 and the Magnum are sweet. I like the Charger a lot, too. My brother has a 300. It feels so huge inside coming from an Xfire!

 

Actually, I say "Libs, Libs, Libs" as I am loading my handguns. I only jump up and down when I blast one away!

 

While I share similar feelings with BlackCrossfire07, for the love of god can we let this thread die and get back to talking about our cars instead of this stuff?

 

What a man! You must be some lucky gal's pride & joy!