What in the HELL is going on with Toyota? Over the past 20 years, Toyota has acquired a rep for making quality vehicles. In fact, most surveys indicate that Toyota practically owns the “mindshare” outright for “quality” with the buying public, when it comes to automobile quality. But reputations are difficult to acquire – and easy to destroy. All it takes is one little P.R. disaster, and your carefully-crafted image as the King of Quality can be a thing of the past.
When it comes to corporate disasters, the problems with Toyota’s gas pedals is a doozy. From a PR perspective, this one ranks right up there with Union Carbide (Bhopal), Johnson and Johnson (Tylenol), and of course Ford/Firestone (Explorer). Which makes it all the more curious as to how Toyota seems to be dragging their feet in their response to the problem. Read the rest of this entry »
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Like cars? I do. Enjoy them while you can, because today we’ve taken one step closer to making them all obsolete. You see, the ObamaNation today sent out a decree from Barack Agustus that all the world’s automobiles shall be taxed, to the tune of $1,300, in order to force the big, bad automobile manufacturers to build vehicles that will deliver 34MPG by 2011.
Pause with me for a nanosecond while we consider this latest bit of lunacy.
First Obama becomes Marketer-in-Chief for Chrysler, cutting their advertising budget in half. Today, he set nationwide fuel economy standards for cars and trucks sold in the USA.
If Obamanomics dictates that it’s in the country’s best interest to get the Federal Government out of the car business, they’ve got a funny way of going about it. The absolute last thing the auto industry needs right now is the government telling them to improve fuel standards. Nice idea, higher mileage cars. Bad idea to put the government in charge, and worse idea to do it right now.
Not much more to say about this – for now, other than to wonder just what else the ObamaNation has planned for us.
They sure are good at campaigning, though. Pity the election is over.
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Like American cars? I do. (Well…at least Jeeps.) Like American car makers? Me neither. To find a bigger bunch of clowns in charge, you’d have to look at…at…Congress. Of course, the question on everybody’s lips should be, why do American automobile makers make so many models that nobody wants, models that they couldn’t make money on, even if they DID sell well?
There’s a reason, a believe it or not, it’s not “executive incompetence.”
It’s Congress. Read the rest of this entry »
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I am a sucker. Or at least I have been. And may be sometime again in the future. You probably have been, too. Let me explain…
Let’s say you’re in the market for a car. You lust after a new one. Doesn’t matter what brand or what model. You buy it. As you drive it off the lot, it automagically loses about 20% of it’s value, simply by moving from the “new” to “currently owned/technically used” column. Say your new vehicle costs $30K, not an unusual amount for a new whip. You’ve put down 20% of the cost of the vehicle, either by trade in, down payment, or both. You plan to finance $24K. Fair enough, but when you drove it off the lot, it lost 20% of it’s value. At this point, you’ve paid $6K for the privilege of driving some new wheels. Hope you’re happy. If you’re not, let me acquaint you with a new term to add to your lexicon: under water. This is the phrase lenders use when you owe more than the item you financed is worth. If you go to trade it in on something you like better, you’ll pay for that mistake for, oh, let’s say the next ten years or so. Read the rest of this entry »
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