2000Hawk

iTrader: (5)

^ OMG LMFAO!!! If it wasn't so damn long i would say that **** right there is sig worthy. But i agree with you guys, i know a ton of people who sware that Japanese cars are gods compared to ours. For a while it would seem GM and even Fords designs "were" straight garbage. And the key word is "were", some of their new designs lately are just amazing to what we had a few years back. I think some people should just open up and take a ride in a GM or Ford vehicle again, im sure they will be suprised.
-Joel

TT632

iTrader: (3)

Well, i was going to buy one just to be cool! But now that you brought up all of those features I'm ready to go NOPI racing

Yeh, I kind of felt the same thing about Fords. Having tested them in to past, I was never impressed. The Escorts were very poor compared to everything except the Neon. I was never expecting them to step it up a notch, but the wifes leased Explorer had no faults and a very good ride. I borrowed a friends 07 1/2 ton for towing duties and it performed fine on a trip to Ca and back. Mustang still feels kind of cheesy though.
"Were" is right!

chuckie311

iTrader: (1)

never have never will buy a toyota..Gm all the way..

Rawr256

Damn this is like Dejavu reading this thing all over again. Everyone talking about Toyota overtaking GM in ONE 1/4 of the year. Since when has one 1/4 of the year impacted what would happen the other 3/4???

Out of curiosity... how many vehicles has Toyota'd recalled this year alone? I know they just did a recall for the Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix... Somehow the Vibe made front page news with 150k or so recalls... but the Matrix dodged it with 570k or something like that.

Hell I want to say it was a couple million in # of recalls accross the board for Toyota, GM and Ford were in the low 100,000 range. Oh I get it now... the more recalls must = the great amount of quality and thourogh testing right!? These guys pull their Nascar trailer with their own truck yet or they still using that unreliable GM truck?

2000Hawk

iTrader: (5)

My first car was a 1996 Toyota Celica , used to be my moms. But my second car is my current car, the T/A . Then she went from that to a 2001 convertible mustang, then got an 06 mustang because she loves how they look. My dad had a 350Z liked it, then got the car hes always...a corvette. And my brother a few months back traded in his dumdumdumdum for an 07 JK Jeep Wrangler. I understand we must be open we can't tell the import owners they are selling out America by buying Japanese, if most of us are saying we will only buy american. It just makes us as bad as them, i just wish alot of the Japanese loving owners would just get off their cloud and take a look at the recent production of vehicles the General and Ford have come out with.
-Joel

NemeSS

iTrader: (127)

i hate toyota, if i had to go ricer i would go gtr r34 skyline, but since they are not available anymore i guess its not gonna happen

OSUBraden

Eh, even if I went 'ricer' I'd still go Chevrolet:

unit213

Can you please educate us about Toyota and their manufacturing
process vs the American auto makers mfg process? In your response,
please define your role and expertise in the auto industry so that
we fully understand and appreciate your valued input. Also note how
many assembly plants you've physically been in...both Toyota and
American OEMs. That's clearly a requirement if you're going to provide
first-hand knowledge of Toyota's outstanding mfg process.

Please spare us what you've read, heard, seen on the internet, etc.
Give us some FACTS based upon personal experience please so we
can really understand what you're referring to.

Once you're done, I'll compare my first hand experience as a high level
employee of a billion plus dollar (annually) Tier 1 supplier to all automakers
from a Quality, Delivery, Technology, and a Pricing standpoint. I'm curious
to see how my thoughts align to yours.

Thanks.

The Manalishi

iTrader: (3)

Ouch that is going to leave a mark.

TT632

iTrader: (3)

I can understand where you are coming from but this does not take into account that the Japanese are protectionist and have always protected thier Auto industry. Apparently our import buying public does not take this into consideration when they make their car buying choice. When Japanese cars were a novelty they were no threat to our jobs. Now that Toyota has passed Ford and what now looks like GM it will only have a negative affect on our economy and jobs. The Import supporters will always try to put a spin on it and say look at Toyota's truck plant in Texas and how many people they employ! A couple of following tid bits tell the real story.

GM US assembly plants 2007: 19
Toyota US assembly plants 2007: 3
Honda US assembly plants 2007: 5
Total Foreign US assembly plants: 11

A better mark of the damage the foreign automakers make on our economy is the domestic content, which takes into account our American suppliers. Highest Domestic content of the Foreign companies is Honda followed by Nissan, followed by Toyota.

LS1LT1

iTrader: (16)

Oh that's a COMMON practice...I almost take it for granted now that the general media will GO OUT OF IT'S WAY to ignore recalls/quality defects among import namplate carmakers while plastering HUGE headlines when the same thing happens among the domestic nameplates.

LS1LT1

iTrader: (16)

I always point that out to people too.
Some people are always crying the "global economy/there's no harm in buying an import" credo when I state that American citizens should be and should WANT TO BE buying a GM/Ford (and once again, Chrysler) vehicle but it's ironic that the very vehicles those same people often choose come from a nation of people that will ONLY buy their own!
So it's wrong for me to even hint at a protectionist type policy but it's perfectly logical to buy a vehicle from a manufacturer homebased in a PURELY PROTECTIONIST nation?
As I've said before...German people living in Germany buy only German nameplate vehicles.
Japanese people living in Japan buy ONLY Japanese nameplate vehicles.
I'm an American living in America and I choose to buy only American nameplate vehicles...if there's something wrong with that please be sure to let Germany and Japan know about it as well.






Just to add to that a little bit...if these Japanese owned plants located in the U.S. are as productive, efficient and profitable as everyone says that they are then wouldn't it ALSO hold true that each one can operate with FAR FEWER employees/auto workers?
Hmm, I'm all for better efficiency and strong productivity and all but umm, where exactly are all those jobs (and U.S. TAX BASE) that were lost to more efficient manufacturing processes going?

chuckie311

iTrader: (1)

and you qutoed me for what??? that i wont buy a toyota.. i have owned a couple Japanese car`s i had a 350z before i bought my truck and before that a nissan maxima. i just said i will never buy a toyota..

2000Hawk

iTrader: (5)

Just saying how i didn't really have a choice in my first car thats the reason i posted the head banging. If i would have had a choice it would have definetly been a GM vehicle.
-Joel

turbo

iTrader: (10)

This thread just proves how many stupid people there are.....

LS1LT1

iTrader: (16)

....and your post just proves how many pompous, dismissive, smug and arrogant people there are as well.

turbo

iTrader: (10)

Hey you know what, I am sorry for what I said. I was just venting out loud and all I did was contribute to this mess.