WOODHAVEN, Mich.–

Woodhaven police said four cars on Friday, all produced by foreign car makers, had two tires slashed and “Buy USA” written on them.

Does this mean we should slash tires and write “Make better cars” on all domestics?

Police said three of the cars were parked in a strip mall in Woodhaven that sits next to a Ford stamping plant.

 Kim Lebecki’s 2009 Toyota Camry was one of the four targeted by the vandal.

 “I work very hard to make the payment to drive the car of my choice in the United States and someone else has the audacity to destroy these vehicles,” Lebecki said. “It saddens me to think, ‘Is this a UAW member who did this?’”

 One of incidents was caught on a security tape. A red Ford Escape is seen pulling into a parking space, a middle-aged man can be seen approaching a red foreign car and slashing both tires. The man can also be seen writing a message on the car before leaving.

Good news, since it’s a ford we figure he can only keep up this spree for another 2 years/50,000 miles till the warranty expires.

 “We don’t have any positive evidence to link a Ford employee with this incident,” said Lt. Robert Harabedian, of the Woodhaven Police Department.

admin Activism, Domestic, Economics & The economy Activism, auto makers

If you haven’t heard yet, GM released an open letter to the American public.  I’ll link the actual GM apology letter below, but first, here’s a SLATE.com report on the apology:

“From time to time, companies find it necessary to apologize. They may not do it in so many words, but in the wake of a crisis or a scandal or a huge, news-making problem, they will mount an advertising campaign to assure you, the consumer, that efforts are underway to “win back your trust.” During the Ford/Firestone fiasco a couple of years ago, for instance, both of those firms launched forgiveness campaigns.

Like all ad campaigns, the bottom line is that GM, right now, is a fine, high-quality company, whose products you should buy immediately. It’s the journey to this obvious destination that’s interesting. “Thirty years ago, GM quality was the best in the world,” the print ad starts. “Twenty years ago, it wasn’t.”

And apparently the company muddled along in a sub-par manner for 10 years before deciding to change. “The hard part [was] breaking out of our own bureaucratic gridlock,” the ad copy continues, and “learning some humbling lessons from our competitors.” After a “painful” decade of effort, they’re now back up to snuff, putting out great cars, etc., etc. The ad cites positive consumer-satisfaction research and recent automotive awards, presumably the hook for the campaign. “The road to redemption has no finish line,” the copy concludes. “But it does have a corner. And it’s fair to say we’ve turned it.”

GM says that campaign is aimed at the apparently large segment of the car-buying public that simply won’t consider its models. The company’s North American president calls it “a unique effort to reach those consumers whose perceptions of GM are out of step with today’s reality.” I suppose that’s reasonable, but let’s say you’re one of the thousands who did buy a GM car in the 1980s and 1990s. You, apparently, were a sucker. Your vehicle was not put together by a company with “a true culture of quality in every division.” That’s not what I’m saying—it’s what GM is saying.”

Had enough?

Well guess what….

That article is about GM’s apology in 2003!

Yup, you read that right - it’s from five years ago.
Here’s the 2008 version that’s now asking for taxpayer money to continue, but it really begs, no DEMANDS the question:  What’s going to change this time?

Super Props to Michelle Malkin for this one

admin Domestic, Economics & The economy, General auto makers, bailout, Economics & The economy, lame excuses

from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081207/ap_on_bi_ge/congress_autos

[snip]
Capitol Hill leaders prepared to sell yet another bailout to a skeptical Congress. It is an uphill battle: The anger is fresh over how the Bush administration used the $700 billion Wall Street rescue fund and lawmakers are questioning whether the once-mighty auto giants can survive.

How the Bush administration used? What about Congress?  What about the media that pounded on our skulls about how the world would end if we didn’t act right away? nah, let’s just pin this all on Bush…much easier that way.  Not that he doesn’t deserve his share, lets just keep to to what he does deserve.

Yeah, the “once mighty”…lets just remind everyone what a tragic american tale this is where the once mighty buffalo are now all but.. oh, I mean the once great automakers bla bla bla.

The emerging measure would speed short-term help to General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC, while empowering the government to order a wholesale restructuring of the industry and imposing tight restrictions on the Big Three, according to congressional officials and others close to the talks. They described the developing plan on condition of anonymity because the details were not final.

Tighter restrictions.  Of course!  Why didn’t I think of that.  What these companies need is MORE REGULATION, that’s sure to create flexiblility and help streamline production.

It is designed to tide over the companies — particularly GM and Chrysler, which have warned that they are just weeks from going bust — through March, when Barack Obama is president and a new Congress could consider a longer-term solution.

Ya know, if we could just get Obama in there a bit sooner, just everything would be better.  It almost makes me want a “conditional” bailout now thinking that it will be more $ and less or unconditinal once Anno Domini Part 2 begins.

admin Domestic, Economics & The economy auto makers, bailout, obama