Glenn? Is that you? What have you been up to since Fox gave you the pink slip?

The only jean store with pants large enough to fit ALL (fat) Americans!

Chinas economy is going to crash, and crash hard. Their impending real estate bubble will make ours look like a blip.

Sony, Samsung, and LG probably have more employees than Vizio in the US. Think about sales staff, regional managers, service network, etc. Vizio is garbage. I would just sell him a good TV.

I understand your point, but if you took two identical items, one from the US and one from the pacific rim priced a few dollars differently and told the consumer to pick one, 9 out of 10 will grab the cheapest/import. Save money now without any thought to the long term consequences.

American consumers have been trained/conditioned to not think long term on much of anything and to satisfy the desire to purchase unneccesary bullshit right this instant.

The consumer shares some culpability in this mess.

Much like the real estate fiasco. I don't have much sympathy for someone crying about lenders taking advantage of them when they signed up to buy a $350,000 house on $60K income... Or recent college grads whining about how they have $80K in student loans and can't find a decent job with their liberal arts degree in clownology or underwater basket weaving.

I could go on for hours about how Chrysler products were steaming piles of crap before Daimler showed up and put a few nails in the coffin (Cerbrus finished them off). Chrysler's sales were largely based on the the fact that the typical American consumer is price driven and not very discerning. They cranked out poorly designed, poorly assembled vehicles, loaded with antiquated technology for years.

BTW -the majority of Chryslers big sellers are based on Mercedes platforms. They got something out of the deal.

I disagree with you 100%. And I think Sam Runco, Ferdinand Porche, and Luis Vitton would too. Manufacturers of luxury goods exist solely because of people who will pay more. Fixing prices on luxury items is one thing. Trying it with commodities would be extremely difficult and ultimately cost prohibitive.

Walmart did not create the market for cheap goods. It just got better at selling them faster than anyone else. The simple fact is that the typical American consumer is going to gravitate towards cheap or cheaper most of the time.

Take someone to a porsche dealer and show them a boxter with a sticker price of $60k. Then show them the same boxter with a sticker price of $35k. Which one do you think that luxury "i want to pay more" client will buy?

Sam Runco, Ferdinand Porche, and Luis Vitton have luxury brands and command luxury pricing because they control what their products sell for. They dont have a boxter with a $35k sticker on it. If Sony and Samsung and JVC did the same thing people wouldn't expect to pay cost for everything. But.. the CE product manufacturers sell their warez to big box, to amazon, to crazie eddies etc. They set an MSRP and then let everyone sell things for whatever they want. This is how greedy morons decide to start shaving points until their is no profit or reason to sell the product.

No one walks into a porsche dealer expecting to save 50% or 40% or 20% etc. They may want to save 50% but they may also want it to rain gold coins over their back yard. Doesnt mean its going to happen.

I was all set to spend $90 on headphones at best buy last year when i decided to google for reviews. Amazon link popped up with the same head phones for $45.

I wanted the head phones. Best Buy said they were $90 so as far as i knew they were $90. I had my keys in my hand ready to head over to best buy and spend $90. But then amazon (and sony) told me that i should only pay $45 for those head phones. Guess what happened next? I ordered the headphones from Amazon. Why should i pay $90 for $45 headphones? Guess what else happened? I learned (taught by amazon and sony) that i am a fool if i pay more than 50% of msrp for any CE products. Thanks Amazon and Sony!

Amazon and Sony made it possible for those headphones to be purchased @ $45. I had nothing to do with it. Same thing with walmart. If there were no $5 jeans people would spend whatever the jeans cost. This is old school race to the bottom business running where a few morons put a couple of bucks in their pockets and participate in the fleecing/whoring of a company and its products.

Does anyone remember when Sony = Style, Top of the line, Current technology? I do... but its getting more difficult to remember these days.

Chrysler did get something out of the deal. f'd.

Chrysler was making as much or more profit per vehicle then any other mass car manufacturer in the world prior to Daimler coming in. Chrysler never turned a profit from the first day Daimler set foot in the door.

Which of Chryslers big sellers are based on Mercedes platforms? The majority of "shared" platform technology from Daimler was in the form of steering columns, seat rails, suspension components ect. The "merger of equals" was supposed to have full platform sharing and process design to reduce R&D costs across both companies but in reality was limited to the sharing of minor components.

Chryslers "Biggest Sellers" in no particular order
T&C/Caravan (Chrysler NS and then RS platforms)
Ram P/U (Chrysler BR and then DR platforms)
Journey (Shares platform with Avengerwich is an adaptation of a Mitsubishi platform)
Charger (Chrysler LX platform adapated from previous LH platform)
Grand Cherokee

Not saying Chryslers products were world beaters or anything prior to DCX (my wifes 03' Liberty Renegade has been a great vehicle though) but they took supplier parts from at least marginal quality down to absolute crap as part of their cost saving efforts.

I think this is urban mythage at its finest. I watched a news special once where they took a random family and went thru their home and found that most of their furniture was made in China. They then went out and purchased american made furniture that was similarly priced/styled and found that neither was cheaper more expensive. The minor fluctuation in pricing for specific items was a wash.

The common misconception is that if its made in china its cheaply made and therefor less expensive. The reality is that it is cheaply made but those savings do not get passed on to the consumer. That saved money goes into the pockets of the ceo and investors. For the record... i have no problem with this whatsoever. Its capitalism and we should be able to run our companies however we want. What i have an issue with is that the companies who ship jobs to china enjoy the same rights (and tax breaks) as companies who keep jobs here in the United States. The phrase "if you don't like it you can leave" comes to mind. Maybe these companies should be forced to move their entire operation to china? Have Chinas economy and military in control of their business?


Who trained them? The manufacturers.


No they don't. Its like blaming a group of 5 year olds for spilling a can of paint and making a huge mess. Who gave them the paint? Like it or not...99% of the population is barely more intelligent than a gold fish. Think "jersey shore". Think "seat belt law". Seriously? We need a freaking law before everyone wears their seat belt?


Again... a bunch of children. There were rules in place to keep morons from getting loans they could not afford. Complex formulas were created to weed out those who should be living in trailer parks vs those who should be having a house built. Someone in our government (fella with a country accent and an inability to get a sentence out on the first try) relaxed those rules to 'give every american a home of their own'. So what happened? All the morons lined up and all the banks did their best to squeeze as many bullshit loans out as they possible could and boom. The housing market collapsed.

Not a single home owner could have made that happen. Not 100 million could have made that happen. Only the banks. Why were the banks allowed to hand out those loans? Someone in government allowed them to.

I don't feel sorry for anyone who lost their house. Boo hoo. I don't have a bentley in the driveway and it makes me sad but i have to suck it up. I lived in apartments in Chicago for 27 years of my life and there is nothing wrong with them or renting in general. I don't experience any sorrow over people living where they can afford to live.

IMO they should never have gotten a loan in the first place. But... i don't blame them. They had nothing to do with the collapse. Had the banks followed the rules they would never have gotten a loan and the bubble would never have been created or been there to burst. The banks allowed morons to get the loan and then default on loans and then collapse the market ruining things for those who actually put in the work to get a loan and buy a home the right way. Many Americans now have houses worth less than they originally paid for them because of the hillbilly that had the oval office for 8 years, the natural embedded greed of all bankers and the mindless morons who watch jersey shore and dream of ultimate fighting and dropping their mix tape some day, getting approved for loans.

You don't blame people for being morons. I do.

I absolutely blame them for being morons. Its why i keep sharp things out of reach and why i have those little plastic outlet covers everywhere. Imagine if the banks were as careful as i am.

If you suddenly disappear I'll know its because the VF guys found out about this post and had you taken care of. :)

Finally there's somebody who lives outside of Detroit who actually knows something about cars.  I'll take it one step further.  If the OP is talking about the almighty German "double wishbone suspension".  We were making that in Detroit in the 30's.  So technically, Mercedes is based on a Packard Suspension.  
I really didn't want to get into this debate, and clearly stated it in my original post.  But here we are.  Some of you guys spewing what you think is gospel about the American Car Companies is ridiculous.  

The things you say make me scratch my head and wonder where you get your information.  

I'm with you so far.....


I take issue with that very last. It wasn't "someone in government allowed them to, but rather was someone in government REQUIRED them to make the loans. The banks just took those new rules and ran with them....


Here again I take issue. I do blame the morons for taking out loans that they couldn't possibly cover. Any simple minded dipstick knows that you cannot pay a $3,000.00 a month mortgage when you are making minimum wage at Mickey D's....

Just because some Texan says you can, and the bank under his control says you can, don't make it so...