I do have to laugh at this. A Subaru Baja may be a great vehicle but in no way can it be compared to a real pick up truck.
Ones choice of a vehicle is none of my buisness.... Drive whatever it is you like. I am not "mad" at anyone for their choice. I am however "mad" that we are in the situation that we are from so many people buying imported goods. We are pumping billions of "profit / net" dollars every year into Japan's economy instead of ours. You will hear that Honda and Toyota employ XXX amount of workers here in the US.... That same amount of workers would still be employed here building the same number of cars even with out Honda and Toyota.... The demand for vehicles would not decrease if we did not have imports, it would increase our domestic work load. The difference would be, all that "net" cash would stay in our economy rather than Japan Korea and China etc..
I have not owned a single American car that has been as dependable as my Toyotas, Subarus and Nissans. And I have owned ALOT of vehicles. When I am looking for my next vehicle I am looking for something I won't be nickel and dimed to death. I would love to support our own but I can't when it costs me alot more. Toyota 0% financing need I say more? My Subaru has 250,000 miles and goes through the snow better than any truck I have rode in. I even had a few big bucks in the back with the seats laid down. And it gets 25+ miles to the gallon. I seriously change the oil and air filter until the brakes get bad. I voluntarily changed the timing belt on my Subaru at 100,000 miles but thats it. My highlander is as quiet and smooth as the day I bought it back in 06. My Rav4 done nothing but change the oil for 140,000 miles. Just now thinking about getting routine maintenance done. Sorry but I don't plan on switching anytime soon.
Sure be quick to blame the Union worker thats doing the actual work trying to feed his family and not the Executives that are trying to feed their wallets by giving themselves raises. I thought the Automakers were looking for a Loan, not a bail out????
We are morons if we think that they will not get the cash they ask for, and I think we should give it to them. For the following reasons. 1. Employment - the "big three" employ nearly 300,000 people directly, with over a million indirectly. And in this economy, we can not afford to have the cyclical unemployment rise any more than it has. There were over 500,000 job losses in Nov. More than in any month since 1974. 2. Consumer and Manufacturing confidence - this economy we have is based on consumer confidence, and what message would we be sending the the consumer if three of the largest and well known manufacturing companies failed? The DOW has dropped 33.6% this year and is on track to be the worst year since 1937. 3. National Security - during WWI all three of these companies re-tooled their manufacturing facilities to produce jeeps, trucks and tanks. We can not lose this capital. Should we ever need that where would we turn for the facilities to manufacture those items. 4. Identity - all three of these companies is part of our "national identity". We are Americans, and the cars we drive, and produce are part of that identity. I see that there is a bunch of talk of unions and the pay. I agree it is way out of control, the average UAW worker earns $28 per hr, and the rest of the manufacturing employees in this country earn slightly less than $18 per hour. I could go on for hours about the waste that unions have created, bu this is about the automakers. What we do have here is an opportunity, to improve the whole nation on more than one front. First, we have them in a position to change. I would stipulate the money given. Part is a loan to keep them above water, and more to re-tool and produce a electric car that gets 250 mi range that PEOPLE WILL BUY! I also would continue the work on getting the unions to back down. Yeah, you could argue the amount of money that CEO's get paid, but it is a drop in the bucket to the enormous amount of cash that gets spent on UAW benefits, which have destroyed the three companies. Working with Ford, Chrysler and GM is the right thing to do, not only for the company, but for the worker and America, (and the world since even Cananda has talked about helping out) By the way, UNIONS are the devil:evil: Just thought I'd give that debate my 2pennies
i can't complain, i've had pretty good luck with american cars... i had a subaru back in the mid 80's, it was a pos, owned it for a year and got rid of it... traded it for a used 82 buick regal, motor cooked at 65k (3.8L v6, the rear driver one)... only cost me about 800 bucks to drop a 5.0L pontiac motor in and it ran perfect for another 3 yrs... everything since then i've had perfect luck with... even the mustang i turned into a twin turbo 10sec street car/daily driver... sold it off with nearly 200k on it and it was a HARD 200k, much of it at the drag strip...
Only in the way that union workers (generally) act as if they are somehow entitled to the crap they demand while they are on strike. Yeah they are PART of the problem. So are the union reps, and the manufacturers. I come originally from Seattle so I have been around this type of mentality for most of my life. Then working in the trades for the better part of 20 years, I have seen union carpenters, they act the same way. Unions have not made the "big three" any better, because if they had, how would you explain the fact that Nissan, Toyota, Hyundai etc... have managed to be profitable and produce cars in the US without union intervention? But worse than the way they act is the damage the unions have done to the mentality of the American worker. I can only thank God that the percentage of union employees is shrinking each year.
So your saying Unions go on strike just because..... or do you think that Unions strike because the employer has broken the contract they agreed on??
They go on strike when their contract has or is nearing the end. Or in some cases before it has ended to gain more in benefits and/or pay. THEY GO ON STRIKE FOR GREED.......
Our construction Unions command outrageous prices in the Chicago area. The end result is many are out of work and many builders have switched to non-union labor. I live in a modest 2400 square foot house with a basement and virtually no upgrades that was built by Union Construction. My house was a steal at 258k as it was an inventory home with minimal upgrades. The quality of work in this house has been appalling to say the least. The painters should have been shot, a plumbing snafu went unseen and the roofers had no idea how to set their nail guns to set the nails properly. I drive to work every day past two neighborhoods with Union Members holding signs and trying to make the builders look bad, funny thing is that they are still selling houses fine without using Union labor. A neighbor has a family business that delivers Brick. The company had the drivers go on strike because they weren't making enough, even though they are some of the highest paid drivers in Chicago. The family was so appalled they decided to put the family in the trucks since most had CDL's and they went two months withhout drivers and the drivers ended up coming back to a $4.00 and hour pay cut since they needed jobs and the family could survive in the slow economy using family members instead of crying babies. Do I disagree with Unions? No, not if the industry needs regulation and contracts due to bad businesses not valuing their employees. The sad thing is that Union workers get greedy in a lot of cases and in the end price themselves out of having a job and then get stuck trying to find work. My company has been under Union attack for several years and I have seen both sides. My company pays higher than any of the Unionized Call Center's our competitors have. Our Call Centers get much higher customer satisfaction rating than the Union companies. Our Company has better benefits than any of the Unionized workers of the other companies. I have seen the shady acts of the Unions trying to get in, I have seen them lie about what we are offering to our employees thinking they are dumb enough to believe the lies. I worked in the trades about 9 years ago and got screwed by the Plumbers Union, I watched members in the Union get fired and rehired even though they showed up drunk to work, it pays having an Uncle at the Union I also worked in the Grocery store unions and a printing union years prior and can't say a single one cared more about my security than they did the dues I paid them. Toyota and Honda are doing great and they are building better products cheaper without Unions! Are all Unions bad??? Not all but the Auto and many Construction Unions have gotten out of control with their demands and we are now seeing the aftermath of it. For those in here that are Union Workers please don't be pissed at my post, I have been a Union Brother and I am talking to the Unions I know to be destructive.
You guys are so over my head with all of this Union talk it's not even funny. I work for a Union based company, but I dont believe its the same kind of Union that my buddy lays Pipe line for close to $30hr. IDK all I know is, Ive got a lot of learning to do....lol
There is a reason that the number of union jobs has been on steady decline, We do not need the unions like we did in the later thirties and into the forties. Due to government regulation there is now laws regulating the treatment of employees. I believe that they began for the right reasons, however as time progressed, their usefulness has declined to the point that they are degregating the American worker. There was a time when the American manufacturing worker was the hardest worker in the world. Then came unions, telling their workers, "you don't have to do that" or "you can get by with the minimum". Then as more time passed we have diminished to the point that watching a union worker is like watching a communist worker. Only do the minimum, when the bell rings, stop everything, or my favorite thing they say "what are you trying to do, kill this job?" WOW. Only two places in the world you get paid strictly on seniority, Communism and unions..... I had (prior to going back to college) worked as a finish carpenter for nearly 20 years and had the chance to be on sites where there were plenty of union carpenters. As a supervisor, I personally NEVER hired a carpenter that was or had been a union carpenter, they are like cancer in a non-union shop. I would not work in a union shop either. I always wanted to get paid for the work that I did or could do, I did very well as far as finish carpenters go, and that was because I was they guy that my boss could turn to when he needed the job done, and done right. To each their one though. Raceway, I like your input too...
Thats a VERY FUNNY statement right there, well maybe funny isn't there right term but if I didn't do my Job 110% and I would starve because I wouldn't be working for my Union! I also think your confused a bit with the statement you said by "getting away with the minimum" thats what non-union venues in my experience do to save a buck or two. Sounds like someone's got a chip on their shoulder!:d
