Daimler Chrysler offered late last week a new incentive that would help buyers of their vehicles out at the pumps. The offer is that Chrysler would cap the price of fuel to new buyers at 2.99/gal for the next 3 years. There is a 12000 mile limit on this, but no matter how high the cost goes on fuel, Chrysler will flip the difference that the customer isn't paying.
Question, with a company that is more then 12 Billion dollars in debt, how can they afford to make the cars they do, hold up reliability standards (whatever they have in that respect) and make a profit? Business is about making the customer happy, but it wont be a business for long if they cannot turn a profit.
My question is, what are North American car companies doing wrong. The import companies such as Honda and Toyota have no problem selling vast amounts of cars, that are reliable and fuel efficient, and they dont have incentives at all. I own a 2006 Civic Si, my interest rate is around 6%, yet its still cheaper to own then any car GM or Chrysler could sell me. When you factor in actual fuel economy, reliability over the life of the vehicle and cost of ownership itself, you still cant beat an import.
There is no question NA companies try and offer incentives. Gas cards, upgrades, low low finance rates, and even engines that use technology such as Flex Fuel. (It doesn't even work anyways) With all these incentives, why do imports out sell almost every class of vehicle? Even if it is more expensive to own?
I put it down to bad management, false promises and the final product being rubbish. I know a guy who bought a Cobalt SS, the performance model similar to my Civic. The thing is trash, been in the shop 8 times in a year and a half. My car has been in once for a recall.
For Chrysler and GM, they need to start sinking their money into a more reliable product. It cant be impossible, their Asian and European counterparts seem to be able to do it with ease. Instead of fuel incentives such as gas cards, build an engine that is efficient. Instead of 40 year warranties, build a vehicle that will last 10 years with no major problems.
Until they stop throwing Hemi's and coolers into cars, it wont happen. But then again, this is why these companies have no pot to piss in.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
EPL end of season rant
Congratulations to the scum, once again they rode the Portuguese band wagon for the second straight year to win another title, without him they lose X amount of games and lose 33 premier league goals. Fantastic. Man Yoo then is just weak American coffee in comparison to the triple shot espresso that is Chelski. The rich scum decided that they would use some of there multi million dollar investment to good use this year, instead of whining about officiating and all sorts of other things, they showed that they don't need the special one to do something special. They were in the two pronged dog fight that was the Premier League, and somehow managed to finally beat a team with a 1/4 of the payroll of theirs to get into the CL Final. (a commendable effort) I will contest that Abromivich paid off those officials though, how could he explain his team not playing in his own backyard in that final.
Once again the best team in the premier league finished 4th, of course most will say the best team finishes first, and i guess that makes sense. Somehow they get in mixed up in the premier league and award it to the the team who gets into the pants quickest of the ref officiating their game that week. Fair enough. Sir Alex has a certain charm to him.
Liverpool made the best signing of the summer, and probably the best of the past few years. Torres scored 33 goals in his first year in the England. How many did Sheva, ballack and all the rest of that trash pile score in their first year. My calculations estimate Torres score more combined and then some. He also cost less then one of those players and had over a goal per million spent on him. Sheva has something like 1 goal for every 7 million spent on him. Pathetic.
Gerrard again had another solid year, with many goals, and inspiring performances against Inter Milan and the trumping we gave the Gunners. Pepe Reina again won the Golden Glove award, 3 years on the trot.
Im still not sure what the problem is then, we clearly have the best in all areas of the pitch. Heck, we still even dominated while we were having back room difficulties because of the two rednecks who couldn't determine who owned the crappier North American sports teams.
Other stories that made headlines: Tottenham Suck
In other news, Sven solidified his removal from his post at Man City after the gross performance his team gave against Middlesborough. The thing with Sven is he turned that team into a european contender. (They even beat Man Yoo twice in one season, which hasnt happened since before the time of Moses.) Of course, what can you expect from an owner of a team with this kind of track record:
What other stories made good headlines this year...
Well, Derby county did what everyone expected them to do, SUCK.
How did Reading get relegated? Even more so, how did Bolton and Fulham not?
Overall I guess it was a decent year, as a fan of Liverpool, we improved, and if the Premier league was capped, we would have won a championship, and probably would have last year too. But crap happens in life.
Numbers for cocky Man Gay fans to remember. 18, 5,#8 and #9.
Those are the standards, start working on them.
Next year, i will predict Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U and Arsenal Finish. We are one player shy of winning a title, and we wont have to ride the one trick pony that is Ronaldo. Anyone can be player of the year when your whole team backs off and he doesnt pass and all balls are passed to him and so on a so forth. Did i mention Ronaldo Likes Balls? Anyone can score 40 times when they have that many balls coming his way. Also Tevez wouldn't be half the player he was if defenders could look at him straight. He rolls like a Medusa, stopping people in their tracks with his exceptional looks.
In all seriousness though, this year had a good title race, and showed the strength and class of the premier league sides. 3 in the last 4 of the Champions league, and both pretty much dead locked when it came to playing each other. Lets just hope the best team wins this time
!
Once again the best team in the premier league finished 4th, of course most will say the best team finishes first, and i guess that makes sense. Somehow they get in mixed up in the premier league and award it to the the team who gets into the pants quickest of the ref officiating their game that week. Fair enough. Sir Alex has a certain charm to him.
Liverpool made the best signing of the summer, and probably the best of the past few years. Torres scored 33 goals in his first year in the England. How many did Sheva, ballack and all the rest of that trash pile score in their first year. My calculations estimate Torres score more combined and then some. He also cost less then one of those players and had over a goal per million spent on him. Sheva has something like 1 goal for every 7 million spent on him. Pathetic.
Gerrard again had another solid year, with many goals, and inspiring performances against Inter Milan and the trumping we gave the Gunners. Pepe Reina again won the Golden Glove award, 3 years on the trot.
Im still not sure what the problem is then, we clearly have the best in all areas of the pitch. Heck, we still even dominated while we were having back room difficulties because of the two rednecks who couldn't determine who owned the crappier North American sports teams.
Other stories that made headlines: Tottenham Suck
In other news, Sven solidified his removal from his post at Man City after the gross performance his team gave against Middlesborough. The thing with Sven is he turned that team into a european contender. (They even beat Man Yoo twice in one season, which hasnt happened since before the time of Moses.) Of course, what can you expect from an owner of a team with this kind of track record:
- his government was frequently challenged with allegations of corruption, dictatorship, demagogy, treason, conflicts of interest, acting undiplomatically, tax evasion, the use of legal loopholes and hostility towards a free press. He was accused of lèse-majesté, selling domestic assets to international investors, and religious desecration. Independent bodies, including Amnesty International, also expressed concern at Thaksin's human rights record. Human Rights Watch described Thaksin as "a human rights abuser of the worst kind", alleging that he participated in media suppression and presided over extrajudicial killings.
What other stories made good headlines this year...
Well, Derby county did what everyone expected them to do, SUCK.
How did Reading get relegated? Even more so, how did Bolton and Fulham not?
Overall I guess it was a decent year, as a fan of Liverpool, we improved, and if the Premier league was capped, we would have won a championship, and probably would have last year too. But crap happens in life.
Numbers for cocky Man Gay fans to remember. 18, 5,#8 and #9.
Those are the standards, start working on them.
Next year, i will predict Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U and Arsenal Finish. We are one player shy of winning a title, and we wont have to ride the one trick pony that is Ronaldo. Anyone can be player of the year when your whole team backs off and he doesnt pass and all balls are passed to him and so on a so forth. Did i mention Ronaldo Likes Balls? Anyone can score 40 times when they have that many balls coming his way. Also Tevez wouldn't be half the player he was if defenders could look at him straight. He rolls like a Medusa, stopping people in their tracks with his exceptional looks.
In all seriousness though, this year had a good title race, and showed the strength and class of the premier league sides. 3 in the last 4 of the Champions league, and both pretty much dead locked when it came to playing each other. Lets just hope the best team wins this time
!
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