sailorman

I'm just as guilty as anyone of wondering why doesn't everyone think like I do about politics, music and the car I drive. Although what we spend does impact the choices we make, you can make a strong case that there are lots of great cars in almost every class of cars...some are just better or better suited for our own needs.
My wife laughed at me on how I agonized over the purchase of my new RL...I don't like thinking that if I had only looked a littler longer...maybe there was a better car...or anything...that I would have bought instead. But the reality is that with changing technology and innovation...whatever you buy is going to be eclipsed sooner or later.
I've been drawn into these RLvsGSvs535vxA6...yeh I know I made the right decision to get the RL...but if I had gone for any of these cars I would have made the right decision. All of these cars are so advanced compared to most anything else on the road...and compared to what I was driving even a few years ago...all of us should have a smile on our face.
Thanks to these car manufacturers for taking us to a new level of driving fun, comfort and safety. I'm just a little pissed off that I still have to buy foreign to get what I want...and it's not about price...it's about product. There are more of these cars sold here in the USA than anywhere in the world...why can't US car manufacturers take the lead or even stay even?

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

It's quite simple really. US manufacturers are saddled with the UAW, which contributes to a level of inefficiency and loss of quality that is unseen in other parts of the world. Also, the average American in general seems to believe that he is entitled to a job as opposed to needing to work to earn and maintain one so he doesn't necessarily try very hard at the job.

Pile on the fact the average US consumer has a taste for large SUVs and a soft cushy ride and you end up with some crappy cars. Then on top of that, US consumers are more interested in status symbols than truly engaging drives so you can make a car as good or as bad as you want, but if you stick the right badge on the front, then people will still buy it.

Also, many Americans are very nationalistic and will buy American cars regardless of how poorly manufactured or poorly designed they are. This leads to continued sales which makes the American manufacturers fail to see that they are not really being competitive at all in the marketplace.

Recently though, Ford, GM and DaimlerChrysler have all received a serious beating with their "Employee Pricing" schemes that showed just what it took for them to get people in to buy the cars. They are starting to realize that their products are subpar and that they will need to really step up an improve if they are to remain competitive.

Rob L

Exactly. Many Yanks seem to not care what the quality of the product they buy is as long as it is American and of course the companies wont put much effort into makign the ebst quality product as possible knowignt hey have easy sales. I find this retarded but then again I am not a patriotic person and look at the world as a whole rather than just where I was born.

The funny thing I find about patriotism is that most who are like that simply act that way because they were born in that specific country...something THEY HAD NO CONTROL OF. If Joe Smoe living in Wisconsin preaching on how great the U.S is and "buys American" was born in like Italy he'd be preaching on about how great Italy is and would buy European.

So I could go on about how great canada is but the fact is I have never lived anywhere else so I have no clue what other countries are like. Also, humans are humans and doesnt matter where they live. There's many douchebag Canucks so not like I care that they live in the same country as me and will put more value in them than good people living in other countries.

hehe sorry for my rant....

vp911

I agree 100% with CGTSX. Everything he said is right on target.

I live in suberbs of detroit - and many of my friends parents work for GM and Ford (a couple for chrysler - but I will leave them out). My friend's uncle is the VP of GM powertrain - and they all know their quality is subpar compared to the competition.

I was talking to an engineer for ford who asked me when I was going to buy my next ford product (he always jokes about it when he sees me - with the number of japanese cars I have had he finds humor in it). He also knows I was looking at the mountaineer as a replacement for our 02' RX300 - just a 24 month lease. I basically told him - go spend a month driving around the RX330 and then drive around the mountaineer around for a month. Once you have driven a jap. car for a extended period of time you will notice even the finer details they work on with their cars. IMO the people working on the assembly line in foreign countries are much more careful with their jobs - they spend more time and care more. I would be willing to be that if you go to the location where the RL is built and watch them - if a clip breaks off a part during assembly - they will probably replace the part. If you do the same here in a cadillac plant - they will put it on with a broken clip which will cause rattles. there are a lot of factors which go into why the americans are subpar - and the materials they use compared to the import cars are much worse.

Personally - I believe CGTSX is right - the UAW is the root cause of the entire problem.

tl2rl

Actually, Cadilac makes the STS and Chrysler makes the 300C. Many of the specs are very comparable. I don't think many of us considered these cars, but they are intended to be competitors in this category.

American car companies do realize this is an area for growth, but don't have the foothold to sustain or build sales.

I also feel like somewhat of a hypocrite... I think MB/BMW zealots are silly for their devotion to their vehicles despite very high costs, yet I never seriously looked at the american options for the same reasons.

Just some of my thoughts on the subject.

static808

My only concern with the MB/BMW/Audi is that you really aren't buying anything in the reliability category when you pay the premium. I made this mistake twice. Both cars I bought were very good but needed too much service attention. Hopefuly my RL is regular maintenance.