wahoonc

I have always purchased what made the most sense for me at the time. Unfortunately Detroit never really learned how to build a proper small car. They excelled at trucks and other full frame vehicles. I have owned many of Detroit's small and medium cars of the years and for the most part they fell far short of their European/Pacific competitors. AFAIK there is currently no US car company offering a small/medium sized wagon. Ford axed the Focus wagon in 2007, our family purchased two of them, but we are SOL if we want one now.

Aaron

BarracksSi

FYI, on Monday, the Supreme Court was delaying the sale of Chrysler to Fiat:
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/bu..._r=1&th&emc=th

Basically, Chrysler says it needs to be sold, and quickly, or else it could go out of business entirely and be forced to liquidate. Most of its investors agree, although there are a few investment funds (notably three based in Indiana) who are contending that the sale is illegal and filed an appeal with the Court.

However, the Court decided yesterday that the previous court decisions were correct and that the deal could go through. Fiat could own part of Chrysler as early as today.
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/bu...html?th&emc=th

Silverexpress

Done Deal.

BarracksSi

Yuppers. We might actually see some Alfas and Fiats, whether wearing their original badging or relabeled as Dodge or Chrysler cars.

(I'm posting these in LCF because, since people are still going to be driving cars, it would be nicer if more of them were like these)

I kinda like the Grande Punto, just from looking at it (no knowledge of its reliability record):
https://www.fiat.com/cgi-bin/pbrand.d...D=1074063125#;


Or the Alfa Romeo Brera (possibly the sexiest hatch on the planet... it looks damn good in person, too):
https://www.brera.alfaromeo.com/

gemini

I have never owned a car and know remarkably little about them, but even I know that neither Fiat nor Alfa Romeo are exactly known for reliability. Alfa Romeos are in fact rather legendary for falling apart.

I remember seeing statistics showing that the cars in the UK consume on average about half of the fuel of compared to the average in the US, so the proportion of income spent on fuel is not necessarily all that different from the US, despite the price per gallon (the cars are much smaller, though). London also has a massive public transportation system that is mostly not at all integrated with bicycling.

That said, I've spent some time in London in 97/98 and again recently, and the difference in bicycling is very noticeable. I hardly saw anyone on a bike ten years ago, but now cyclists are a constant, if small, part of the traffic. The city seems to be putting a real effort to increase cycling and the trend looks pretty good.

Cyclist0383

Many of you would just love the minimalist Fiat Panda. It didn't even have door handles.....

Artkansas 

Who says Chrysler can't build small cars... Not long till we see these babies on the street.



The 300 gets upgraded to a 500. A convertible AND a moonroof!

gwd

When I was in London in a hot sunny summer in the mid '90s, maybe '94 I'm not sure, I was impressed with the cyclists but some still wore masks. What impressed me was that they expected their rights to be respected. The image that sticks in my mind is of this old guy on one of those 3 speeds getting cut off by a car. He rode up beside the car and started banging on it yelling at the driver. This happened around the tower with big ben. Maybe that's not really London but it is close. The traffic was pretty thick.
A friend who lived there said when she arrived and they gave her an orientation briefing they told her something like "It doesn't matter what the highway code says- don't hit a cyclists or pedestrian." The company thought that American drivers had to be told not to run over non-motorists.

Roody

All these pictures of car are making me very...bored... can't stay... awake.... need... bike pictures... YAWN!

gemini

Yes, Brits have never built many bike lanes, but expect bikes to be ridden among the traffic and be considered vehicles. Most drivers are pretty good about this, at least compared to some other countries.

?

You mean the Houses of Parliament in Westminster? I'd say that ought to qualify .

I was recently very impressed with people cycling in the Piccadilly Circus among the car traffic. It's pretty much as thick as it gets, narrow lanes, no bike lanes, lots of double-decker buses, and the sidewalks are actually fenced off with iron railing to keep the masses of tourists etc. from stepping into the traffic. If you get squeezed by the cars there is nowhere to go, yet there were cyclists riding inbetween the buses all the time. Not just young men either, but all kinds of folks.


Edit: Google Streetview has got at least one cyclist on Piccadilly, even if he seems to be a spandex case:

https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...319.33,,0,5.95

Drag the image around with mouse to see the railing and buses.

Honeybee

The American car inventory is too huge. They offer way to many options and way too many versions of the same car. There was always a larger supply than demand. The cost saving would be easy if they simply stopped making so many models. Also, entire cities should never have been so dependent upon a corporation for sustainability (Detroit). It never made much sense economically was a disaster waiting to happen.
My advice would be to slim the model line especially Chevrolet, GM and Chrysler. Why do you need a Malibu and an Impala. Dump the Malibu. And the MSRP game they have played for years is old news.

I can go on and on about what a waste Buick and Pontiac have been. I mean why bother?
Thats what I dont like about American car manufacturers they dont understand the principles of simplicity and making one product very very good. Toyota and Honda have built reputations on two models: Camry and Accord.

What part of this is difficult to understand?

So in the end, they get what they get. If they go bankrupt oh well...their business model was stupid from the beginning.

Silverexpress

"Our focus in recent weeks has been on creating a new company from the strongest parts of the old GM, and on doing it with transparency and speed. This has been an especially challenging period, and we've had to make very difficult decisions to address some of the issues that have plagued our business for decades," Henderson said. "We have, in effect, been fixing our bike while we ride it. Now the repair work is almost done, and we're steering the company back onto a path to viability and success. We're ready for the challenge, and prepared to ride as fast as we can." --- Fritz Henderson - CEO GM co.

More here....

https://m.detnews.com/news.jsp?key=487438&rc=an

cerewa

I find it kind of puzzling that so many people are willing to use the brand name as an indicator of what is or isn't a foreign car.

Many Toyotas sold in the USA are made in the USA, while many General Motors vehicles are built elsewhere.

And the brand certainly doesn't always tell you who designed the vehicle - the Chevy Prizm is one of quite a few models that were built according to another company's design (Prizm is a version of the Toyota Corolla) but they stuck a plastic badge on it and called it a Chevy.