Hey RECXJAKE, whats up with this? Is Armageddon near?
 

From the Wash Post:

...Jim Press, Toyota's U.S. chief executive, echoing company officials in Japan, said Toyota is following its own path and did not have GM in its crosshairs. He said Toyota would continue to expand manufacturing, research and design operations in United States.

He said Toyota's sales were powered in the U.S. by growing consumer demand for small cars and hybrid-powered sedans and sport-utility vehicles.

"We had the foresight to start hybrid development earlier than other companies," Press said. "This year we will sell more hybrids than Cadillac will sell cars."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2200020_2.html

and isn't this the year that Toyota enters nascar?

oooh this is gonna get ugly

I wonder if GM/Ford will be around in 10 or 20 years. I guess the government would bail them out, but otherwise, seems like they are circling the drain.

My bet is they won't be... at least not in their present forms. Both of these companies made money, but only recently on the finance side. They were basically money changers that tried to build automobiles. GM sold off GMAC (which included Ditech), so I'm not sure how they're going to be profitable in the future.

A funny Ford story. The great automotive writer, Peter Egan, was going to Ford HQ to do an interview. He drove up to the gate, beyond which was parking for management (he had those privileges because of who he was). Anyway, he was driving a Jaguar and the gatekeeper told him he couldn't park there. Egan asked why. The guy told him it's because only cars manufactured by Ford were allowed. Egan about died laughing (Ford owns/builds Jaguars). He pointed out that if an employee of Ford (at any level) is so ignorant about what his company does then there's a problem.

Toyota is about to be the largest manufacturer and you're telling me their recalls are sky-high? Chevrolet by itself has 4x more recalls than Toyota. Here's the latest update:

AUTO RECALLS - SCOREBOARDS ALL MANUFACTURERS: 1990-2007 model cars
QTY CAR MANUFACTURER QTY CAR MANUFACTURER
158 ACURA Recalls 22 AM GENERAL Recalls
179 AUDI Recalls 397 BMW Recalls
202 BUICK Recalls 175 CADILLAC Recalls
1387 CHEVROLET Recalls 414 CHRYSLER Recalls
54 DAEWOO Recalls 2 DAIHATSU Recalls
887 DODGE Recalls 67 EAGLE Recalls
10 FERRARI Recalls 1454 FORD Recalls
40 GEO Recalls 875 GMC Recalls
488 HONDA Recalls 24 HUMMER Recalls
137 HYUNDAI Recalls 96 INFINITI Recalls
116 ISUZU Recalls 98 JAGUAR Recalls
292 JEEP Recalls 71 KIA Recalls
1 LAMBORGHINI Recalls 96 LAND ROVER Recalls
62 LEXUS Recalls 142 LINCOLN Recalls
225 MAZDA Recalls 180 MERCEDES-BENZ Recalls
289 MERCURY Recalls 6 MINI Recalls
320 MITSUBISHI Recalls 344 NISSAN Recalls
220 OLDSMOBILE Recalls 8 PEUGEOT Recalls
392 PLYMOUTH Recalls 248 PONTIAC Recalls
83 PORSCHE Recalls 7 ROLLS ROYCE Recalls
86 SAAB Recalls 139 SATURN Recalls
117 SUBARU Recalls 78 SUZUKI Recalls
319 TOYOTA Recalls 218 VOLKSWAGEN Recalls
190 VOLVO Recalls

Are you drinking the kool-aid on a regular basis now? I had to read no further than this to see just how jaded and brain-washed you truly are...

mmaddog
*******

I bet Huard drives a Toyota...

Yep, nothing like selling off one of the long-term most profitable parts of your company for a little boost in the short term. Why plan beyond the next fiscal quarter or two? ROFL LMAO

As for "cheap money".... TANSTAAFL.

GM will be acquired, split up before it goes under.

Were these numbers from www.stuffoutofmyass.com ?

According to Saturn's own website here are their 2007 numbers:

Vue= 20 city 28 hwy/ "Green Line" = 27 city, 32 hwy

Aura= 20 city 30 hwy/ 08 "Green Line" 28 City/ 35 hwy

Asta? That's not even a car.

http://www.saturn.com/saturn/vehicle...dels/index.jsp

That's not Toyota's issue, it's how the EPA calculates MPG. It is misguiding consumers that hybrids will return huge MPG when in fact it doesn't, no matter who manufactures the car.

Another point about hybrids, especially "plug in" models. A hybrid engine is relatively efficient UNTIL you plug it in to an outlet in your house. The loss over transmission lines is about 50%, so we're burning twice as much coal, oil, nukes to get the electricity to recharge the battery. And battery recharging isn't close to 100% efficient.

We don't have lots of uranium lying around....

Until the new Tundra comes out. Our General Manager says the best thing for GM is that the Tundra will have an availability issue! That is a sad statement.