How can I help America?

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Depends how they calculate it. If they just average it out across the entire sales of VW and Audi combined, then it may be right. VW accounts for the majority of sales and very few VWs are sold with torsen/4motion.

Pete, you're right, of course. Don't forget the tires! At least my A4 came with Goodyear rubber.
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Great points, many 'enlightened' people on here regarding the origins of cars.

Add American high ranking executives(BMW's Chris Bangle) USA design studios (Lexus in Southern California), the picture becomes very cloudy indeed.

I remember recently pointing out to a friend that her brand new Corolla was built right here in Freemont, California. She appeared completely disappointed....
 
That is shortsighted economics. It probably enabled the former owners to go out and buy a new Lexus, Mazda, Toyota. (Volvo is Ford)
 
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Originally posted by Kestas:
That is shortsighted economics. It probably enabled the former owners to go out and buy a new Lexus, Mazda, Toyota. (Volvo is Ford)

It's the counterpart to the "Buy American" mantra from people who don't buy new American cars.
 
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Originally posted by CBDFrontier06:
Chevy Colorado - 3.7 I5 242 / 242 Was bestowed with the feature that has ruined their entire truck lineup...the nose. Until they get all their trucks cosmetically in line with the Tahoe, their sales will continue to be in the toilet. Why did GM feel it necessary to create a unique engine for this truck? Is the I5 used in ANYTHING else? Not a smart economic move.

That engine is also used in the GMC Canyon and Hummer H3. I feel it was a very smart move, BTW. That engine is based on the 4.2 I6 from the Trailblazer/Envoy. Most of the development costs had already been incurred and they got a smaller engine with very respectable power numbers that's a better fit for the small truck platform.

As pro-GM as I am, though, I'm very disappointed in the Colorado too, but not because of the powertrain. I think the exterior styling is mediocre at best and the interior appalling. The thing is that's a market segment where they don't make much profit and probably don't see any point in spending the extra money on a strongly competitive vehicle. Full size trucks have a much larger market share and are more profitable, so that's where they spend the money. Even so, I really hope they at least redesign the interior on that truck soon. If they could make it look remotely close to some of their other interiors, especially the Tahoe or Yukon, it would be a much better choice.
 
http://www.levelfieldinstitute.org/ This is a pretty good source for buy-American info. A car is considered domestic if it has at least a 75% domestic parts content. I prefer GM because they give the consumer the most for the $$$ and I had very good service from them in the past. I just bought a new Cobalt for 12G w/auto and cruise cntrl. No import could do that except maybe Hundai or Kia. A GM drivetrain is proven (Ecotec 2.2 4 speed auto) to be reliable and I don't have the guilt of sending good-paying jobs overseas. Domestic content for the Cobalt for 2007 model yr. is 82%. Plus assembled by union workers in Lordstown, OH. I'm assuming the design and tooling is American too.
 
Are the manual transmissions for those made in Germany, or is that the Ford manual transmissions for their FWD cars.

I think both GM and Ford use a Getrag transaxle in their FWD vehicles.
 
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Originally posted by cousincletus:
http://www.levelfieldinstitute.org/ This is a pretty good source for buy-American info. A car is considered domestic if it has at least a 75% domestic parts content. I prefer GM because they give the consumer the most for the $$$ and I had very good service from them in the past. I just bought a new Cobalt for 12G w/auto and cruise cntrl. No import could do that except maybe Hundai or Kia. A GM drivetrain is proven (Ecotec 2.2 4 speed auto) to be reliable and I don't have the guilt of sending good-paying jobs overseas. Domestic content for the Cobalt for 2007 model yr. is 82%. Plus assembled by union workers in Lordstown, OH. I'm assuming the design and tooling is American too.

Now that we have the car models listed with US content, we can come up with a Buy American rating.

Purchase price x % US content = Buy American points.

I.E. a 25,000 dollar car with 0.78% US content gets 0.78x25000 = 19500 points.

Remember, new cars only.

It will be interesting to see how the buy American folks that have been using language like rice and *** do.

Let's pick a reasonably recent timeframe, like the last 5 years.

This is the rubber meets the road test, not just cheap talk from people telling others how to spend their money. Who's going to go first?
 
I still don't like the term "American". I'm of Native American "Indian" (another bad term, Columbus thought he landed in India...thus the name "Indian") descent, so, the vast majority of you are foreigners to the land you call "America".

Look around and try to grasp the concept of Global Economy. It's real. It's here. And, it's here to stay...even if it is burning up resources with too little regard to the future. Using up resources too fast, with the concomitant destruction that goes along with that style of living, is much more important than whether some Union worker in Detroit makes more money than a Nurse in an orphanage. Not that the car manufacturers in Japan, Korea, Mexico, Germany, etc., are without similar blood on their hands.

Autos are a dirty business. It's just a question of degrees of dirt, as to whether you prefer to support one company over another...or, if you decide not to support any of them...it actually has little to do with nationalism.

If everyone can understand we are on a spaceship together, and fouling the spaceship's systems too much hurts everyone, we'd be looking at the more important issues...and these issues are NOT nationalism. Oh, the spaceship is called Earth, in case the analogy wasn't clicking...

Peace. Out.
 
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Originally posted by javacontour:
Are the manual transmissions for those made in Germany, or is that the Ford manual transmissions for their FWD cars.

I think both GM and Ford use a Getrag transaxle in their FWD vehicles.


Don't know about the new manual trans, but the auto in mine says it's American made. Same w/the engine.
 
If what I heard on the radio was correct, GM just came out with a 5 year 100k drive train warranty. I believe that would be at least as good as or maybe better than anything else. It looks like they have confidence in their vehicles. If competitively priced and I were in the market for a vehicle right now I would certainly put GM on my priority list.
 
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Originally posted by Quattro Pete:

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If what I heard on the radio was correct, GM just came out with a 5 year 100k drive train warranty.

http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=42;t=004461

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It looks like they have confidence in their vehicles.

More likely, they're just trying to increase sales with deferred financial consequences. But whatever the cause, the customer benefits.


It also includes roadside assistance and tranportation according to the article I read.
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It adds some real value to the car. In the long run it will be better for them than spending the same amount of money cutting prices.
 
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Originally posted by JavaMan:
If what I heard on the radio was correct, GM just came out with a 5 year 100k drive train warranty. I believe that would be at least as good as or maybe better than anything else. It looks like they have confidence in their vehicles.

It's called desperation, not confidence.
The competition is killing them.
If you don't realize this by now, nothing will change your favorable view of GM.
 
Nissan VQ35 - Used in Altima, Maxima, Murano, Z, Quest, Infiniti G35, FX35, M35. It's larger-displacement dirivitive (VQ40) used in Frontier, Pathfinder, Xterra.

So why did 3 GM vehicles get their own unique derivitive engine, covering 5 total vehicles if you include the original I6? Nissan uses the VQ in 12 vehicles.

The H3, Colorado and Canyon could have just as easily used the Silverado V6, saving them all the development of the I5. Again I'll say...not smart.
 
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