GM is the number the #1 selling brand in the US and the world.
Ford is #2 in the US and the world, what's the problem?  The vast
majority of their vehicles sold in the US carry a '1' as the
first digit of the VIN, meaning they are made in the US of over
70% American parts.  The Camry carries a 'J' made in Japan or a
'5,' meaning they are only assembled in the US and of less than
40% American parts. The only Toyota with a '1' is the Tacoma made
in the GM/Toyota plant in California. Toyota is building a plant
in Mexico to make Tacoma trucks for the US market and a plant in
China to make Camrys for the US. Chrysler is no longer made by an
American corporation.
MB is a German corporation and Chrysler is only a holding company
but least they pay federal corporate taxes to the US. Japanese
corporation do not pay a penny in US federal corporate taxes.
Buy American, as the say, YOUR job depends on it.

mike hunt

I don't know what Ford's problem is, but from 1st hand experience I can tell
you that GM apparently refuses to listen to their customers...even on simple
matters with extremely simple solutions.  They just blow you off as some sort
of annoyance instead of the place their livelihood comes from.  A company can't
treat customers that way for very long before they move elsewhere.  I've not
experienced anywhere near that same level of disregard for the customer for
other brand cars I've owned.  I wrote two letters to Tom Lutz at GM a couple
years ago on a matter relating to this subject.  And as I eventually discovered
to be typical GM culture (apparently), the letters were ignored completely.
Not even a "thanks for writing" letter back for either one.  Customers won't
put up with that sort of foolishness when they drop $20K-$40K (or more) on a
product.

"Hugo Drax" <hugodrax@nsa.gov> wrote in message news:

Troll.

One big difference is that the old GM/Ford plants had strong unions to
contend with. Wages/benefits were high.

Newer plants making Toyota's, etc., do not have that problem. Wages
are OK, but not nearly as high as the old US automaker's wages.

It isn't a matter of knowing or not. It's a matter of executing what
you do know.

Take Ford, for instance. They were found to be cheating on their
emissions testing, so they had to either do a massive recall and fix
for their 7.3L diesels, or stop making the 7.3L.

So it hurried up the development of their new 6.0L diesel, and wound
up releasing it almost a full year before they had it working right.
Thousands of complaints, many total returns under lemon laws. Lots of
unhappy Ford customers, and $$$ down the drain.

Mitsubishi had something similar recently. Needed to do a large recall
for a problem in their cars, and tried to hide it under the rug. Big
scandal. Again, lots of customers lost faith in Mitsu after that, and
now they're hurting badly for cash, swimming in red ink.

The car business is very demanding. You have to not only get it right,
with thousands of little decisions for every model you bring to
market, but you have to do that year after year.

If your name or product isn't trusted, incentives won't help much. Too
big a purchase.

Dave
Go Metric!