euro trouble

Every large company goes through quality or just plain sloppy design practices. One case in point is Toyota now.

They have all had years when its bad to purchase their products because of known issues. I wouldn't buy a Toyota now unless they knocked about 50% off the sticker. Not that they are any worse then any of the other manufactures, but I guarantee when you try to sell that Toyota 5 years down the road you will get peanuts because of all the publicity.

The same could be said for Johnson a lot of people swear by them and they are known for quality outboards but I wouldn't buy one made during 2000- 05 or so. This was when they were bouncing around between ownerships and the quality of their outboards suffered. My boat came with a Johnson (purchased new off a dealer) after two years of problems I sold the outboard and bought a Mercury no more problems.Fires up first crank every year.

I should add to make my point about resale value being affected by known issues and negative publicity for model years. When I went to dealers they all knew of the problems Johnson was having with their outboards and offered me peanuts for a two year old 90hp because of it.

Even through private resale I eat a couple grand on that;-)

Toyota owners can expect the same.

The United states of America has a similar system - each of the 51 states share a common currency, the US dollar.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

Come on! AMC/JEEP had on a long slide down for years. The merger with Renault and then the purchase by Chrysler wasn't because they were out-selling GM. They were the walking dead.

I really don't care much about resale value. I'm going to drive the thing until it has little value anyway.

Same thing could be said of Harley. JEEP, OTOH, still makes crap. Chrysler hasn't done them any good at all. Well, I guess they're still in business, sorta, so that's "good" (for somebody).

Good time to buy one, then.

That's going to have to happen in any case. FWIG, they make our teacher's unions and school boards look like absolute pikers.

-b8a7-

Some $50 billion at last count.

BDP... what's that? The GSP is something like $2 trillion... can that be right? Seems kind of high...

And Germany doesn't mind?

Michael

GM is hardly an example of a prosperous financially shrewd company how much tax dollars did they just get?AMC is makeing the hummer now; did they get a bailout package?

I don't know what you've been reading but Jeeps have always been in the top if not the top when it comes to off road vehicles for a reasonable price as far back as I started paying attention to this; mid 90's.

So the problem is financial management and may not have been with the product but marketing as far as AMC goes but AMC had there day to. What goes up must eventually come down.

Chrysler kept the original design basically until a major model redesign dumping the Cherokee for the liberator. The Cherokee was always a top seller and winner of several off road awards.

One of the reasons dealers like Toyota and others use to justify the premium for their vehicles is that they retain their value. So you should care even if you plan on driving into the ground its contributing to the price your paying for it.

...and still has done better over the past fifty years than AMC=>Renault=>Chrysler=>Daihlmer=>Chrysler.

They're shit, like every other AMC=>Chrysler product.

Maybe when Willeys was around. AMC has been crap since I've been on the planet.

Whoopie! "Road awards". With $100 you can buy all the J.D. Powers you want.

One reason I don't drive Toyotas. For the right price...

That's the budget deficit, this year. The unfunded debt is much higher.

CA is something like 15% of the GDP, so that's about right. Their unfunded obligations closer to $500B to $700B, or so it's reported.

I wrote a couple weeks ago that Bernanke swears he absolutely will not monetize (print money to pay) the debt.

I met a BLS economist. He says that, in fact, is what Bernanke's doing.

Me? Dunno. That sure would be ugly.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

Well, somebody sure will.

John

Good point--the Mint's under Treasury, so Geithner will print it.

James

Sorry, I wanted to write GDP, or GSP as you called it. I'm searching the net and it turns out California has a sizeable debt, but still far from Greece's.

Not surprisingly the public sector in Greece is so big it plays a major role in elections. Add strong syndicates and you get socialistic paradise with daily strikes until some day creditors knock on the doors.

Another socialistic paradise Spain just posted >20% unemployment rate today.

bought

Your joking,right? GM wouldn't even be in business now if it wasn't for my tax dollars and that of other Canadian and US tax dollars. Working for GM is nothing more then high paid welfare.

Manufacturing cars isn't a sign of success unless your actually selling them. If they just take up warehouse space it cost money and shows poor business sense if you don't reduce your factories output to reflect demand.

I'll put my little jeep and have put my jeep up against anything comparable GM or Chevy offers anyday. I pass them on trails all the time. Their on the side unloading their four wheelers because the trail gets to rough.

The hummer is crap? Its a gas guzzler and way to wide for practical off road use, unless you don't mind body damage or manual labor widening the road. It is however a decent desert vehicle.

Read a four wheeler mag they are almost all exclusively jeeps.

I also have a 01 Camry and it's been completely problem free. Other then fluid changes,tires, brakes pads and rotors hasn't cost me a dime. It still looks brand new body wise.

My brother in law cant say the same thing about his GM truck or the piece of shit Hyundai he's got; both are forever having mechanical and electrical problems. The amount of money he spends on repairs he could have bought a Mercedes 500sl.

snipped-for-privacy@j36g2000prj.googlegroups.com...

ay.

So you want to revive General Franco and restore the Spanish economy to the state is was in under his fascist administration?

In case you hadn't noticed, Spain's current problems come from it being a tourist destination.

After the US banking system wrecked the world economy, the tourists opted for cheaper holidays closer to home, and the Spanish service industry didn't have anything like the number of tourists to look after.

The ash cloud from the volcano in Iceland hasn't helped the much over the last few week either.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

I'd say it was mostly construction/housebuilding. Big crash there. It was the main source of their growth for years. Of course having Euro is preventing these troubled countries from doing what the US does, print money.