November auto sales.... getting uglier each month

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Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
Originally Posted By: Pablo
Newsflash - people aren't buying big ticket items!


Pabs,

I'm waiting for 42 inch tv I've been eyeing to come down to $300. Last year, it was $1499, this year it's $799. next year maybe.
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Intelligent bottom feeding is good. Just be sure you read reviews and check how the brand you buy works it's warranty service before you buy.

Sometimes it's better to feed near the bottom and not right on the bottom where all the whale excrement has settled. Some of the cheap big screen brands require you to ship the TV to them for warranty service.
 
Giving credit where credit is due....the Japanese really are dropping the ball in the paint department. Both my Mazdas' paint scratches and chips when you look at it wrong, while my roommate's dark-blue Sport Trac and my brother-in-law's white Silverado are damage-free and lustrous after years of service. That GM truck white, in particular is tough paint. Everyone should be using what GM uses.
 
Originally Posted By: XS650
Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
Originally Posted By: Pablo
Newsflash - people aren't buying big ticket items!


Pabs,

I'm waiting for 42 inch tv I've been eyeing to come down to $300. Last year, it was $1499, this year it's $799. next year maybe.
grin2.gif



Intelligent bottom feeding is good. Just be sure you read reviews and check how the brand you buy works it's warranty service before you buy.

Sometimes it's better to feed near the bottom and not right on the bottom where all the whale excrement has settled. Some of the cheap big screen brands require you to ship the TV to them for warranty service.
Or they have ONLY a 90 DAY warranty!

Originally Posted By: ViragoBry
Giving credit where credit is due....the Japanese really are dropping the ball in the paint department. Both my Mazdas' paint scratches and chips when you look at it wrong, while my roommate's dark-blue Sport Trac and my brother-in-law's white Silverado are damage-free and lustrous after years of service. That GM truck white, in particular is tough paint. Everyone should be using what GM uses.


Yep, My white 1996 C1500 and white 2000 Silverado look as good as the day they we bought.

My 2005 white Corolla looks like it is 20 years old on the front of the car. Esp on the hood and just on top of the roof from all the rock chips. (hundreds of them) (REALLY)

My 2000 Silverado had 1 chip on it when I sold it last year.

Bill
 
Originally Posted By: ViragoBry
Giving credit where credit is due....the Japanese really are dropping the ball in the paint department. Both my Mazdas' paint scratches and chips when you look at it wrong, while my roommate's dark-blue Sport Trac and my brother-in-law's white Silverado are damage-free and lustrous after years of service. That GM truck white, in particular is tough paint. Everyone should be using what GM uses.


They're just now beginning to drop the ball? They've never had the ball to begin with! Import paint has always been inferior in my view, it's just now that people are starting to notice it. Who else is using decades out of date single stage paint other than Toyota and Mitsubishi? Some of the Lexus models still come with the factory "Peach/Maaco" cheapo enamel, fer crying out loud!

GM are no angels in this department, nor are Chrysler. If you look back in eighties/early nineties, there were several Cadillacs that and Chevrolets that had bad factory paint that died within a few years, and lets not get started on Mopar. Have you seen a mid nineties model Neon that didn't have an oxidized trunk, roof, or hood?

I'd have to say that Ford licked its paint problems at a time when everyone else was having issues, GM shortly after. The imports, I don't think, will ever get up to par with most domestics, IMHO.

BTW, the GM white paints are the most durable whites I've ever been privy too. They withstand a lot of abuse and come back good as new with a good detail.
 
Originally Posted By: kingrob

BTW, the GM white paints are the most durable whites I've ever been privy too. They withstand a lot of abuse and come back good as new with a good detail.


Wow they've come a long way from the 93 corsica... Wife had a "rental special" in fleet white, IIRC the only color that wasn't a basecoat/clearcoat... Nasty cheap paint, flaked off and rusted on the hood where it was 1/2 inch from the top of the (3.1) engine... Always distrusted white since then because they can make it in fewer, cheaper layers and have it look ok.

Incidentally white spray paint will come close to but rarely perfectly match other whites.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: kingrob

BTW, the GM white paints are the most durable whites I've ever been privy too. They withstand a lot of abuse and come back good as new with a good detail.


Wow they've come a long way from the 93 corsica... Wife had a "rental special" in fleet white, IIRC the only color that wasn't a basecoat/clearcoat... Nasty cheap paint, flaked off and rusted on the hood where it was 1/2 inch from the top of the (3.1) engine... Always distrusted white since then because they can make it in fewer, cheaper layers and have it look ok.

Incidentally white spray paint will come close to but rarely perfectly match other whites.


Sounds like it was just a cheap job. As I pointed out in my previous post a lot of the Chevy's and Caddy's of the late eighties and early nineties had bad paint. I had three 94-96 Olds and three 93-96 Buicks in white. They fared much better than any other white paint I've had from any other carmaker. The only Chevy I've had made in the last two decades was a 1990 Caprice in black, and the paint was dead in two years. The other Caprices, Celebrities and Lumina's that I used as taxi cabs were repaints when I bought them, so I can't comment on what the original paint was like on them.
 
My 94 Ford Probe had turned pinkish by about 60k miles.

I had a classmate in college who was driving her 90ish Dodge Spirit down the highway and had the paint off the hood peal off in one giant sheet and block her windshield, causing her to swerve off the road.

Regarding gas, oil was predicted by Merrel Lynch to drop to $25 a barrel. The CEO of Gulf said he thinks gas is going to reach $1.

Still, given the choice between Prius and a bigger car, I'd go Prius.
 
The paint problem is caused by EPA mandated VOCs reduction. The newer paints just cannot bond as well nor remain as fade resistance as when they made them in the past. In the future, all cars in the scrap yard will look like they belong there, which isn't neccessarly the case now..
 
Quote:
My 94 Ford Probe had turned pinkish by about 60k miles.


Didn't Mazda supply the paint for the Probes?
 
If I have my way, my next new car will have a 3M clear bra installed before it's driven off the lot. The level of chipping on the front of my current car is rediculous for only 8300 miles.
 
Don't tailgate so much.
LOL.gif


Nah I know, if you drive a lot you end up with that stuff. I replaced a windshield in August only to have the new one severely cracked within a month's time.... I always seem to end up behind a flatbed hauling a dozer or something....
 
I heard that companies where going to powder coating some parts to get good results and not have to deal with the voc stuff.
 
The paint on my 1995 Corvette was white, adn it was pretty thick and durable. After a detail job, in the evening twilight that car would almost glow. Now, the 2007 HHR I had, the paint looked good and had a high shine but then again what new car doesn't... however it was very thin and very prone to chips, as well as pretty easily scratched.

Too early to tell about the paint on my new Subaru, it shines well now, too new to have accumulated many front end chips or lack of.

Paint on my wife's diesel VW Beetle is [censored]. The horozontal surfaces are water spot etched pretty bad, and I am religious about removing any tap water or municipal water from it immediately, but not rain water as I have no control over it when she has it out. Part of the problem is a truck came by and sprayed poo al over it she would not clean it off-- she doesn't wash cars, she doesn't maintain them, she just drives them (she has other talents I highly appreciate, however, ;~) ) Fortunately for her car, it has me. I take care of it.

Paint is my 1994 Dakota is tough. Still looks great. Son put front end through a greed painted chain link fence this apst summer after losing control trying to do a burn-out (V8 magnum, posi-trac, short bed sport model, teenage kid... go figure) Whole front leading edge of hood had extreme chatter and chafe makrs in green paint from fence. It all buffed out!
 
That'd be fine with me. If the paint on my hood was as tough as the paint on my wheels, I'd have no chips. But powdercoating a urethane bumper probably isn't possible, unfortunately.
 
I've very happy with the paint on my 02 CR-V. With a wash it looks brand new. The black plastic parts are a bit harder to keep nice, though. Truthfully the only thing I have found after trying all the countless black-restoring compounds is to just spray some sort of Armor-All on it every time I wash. I would say the nice paint is just b/c it's silver but my 97 SAAB 900 was silver and had a bit more dull look. Still nice bit not as brilliant as the V.

My 01 9-5's paint is starting to really show imperfections. The rear bumper is actually starting to oxidize a bit. The rest, though, is probably just more obvious since it's a dark blue colored vehicle.
 
Originally Posted By: ViragoBry
That'd be fine with me. If the paint on my hood was as tough as the paint on my wheels, I'd have no chips. But powdercoating a urethane bumper probably isn't possible, unfortunately.



That's what roll-on bed liner was designed for.
grin2.gif
 
I've recently had the front bumper of my Buick repainted. The hood and fenders were fine, just a tiny chip here and there I could touch up. But the bumper looked like it had acne; maybe the previous owner drove a lot at night in the country and then didn't clean dead bugs off the bumper as often as he should.

The bumper looks great now, and I've carefully waxed it and will keep up on the waxing on it.

The rest of the car, after I clayed, polished, and waxed it last spring, and clayed and waxed this fall, gleams.
 
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