Stay away from anything made by the big 3. Because they refuse to file for bankruptcy and are still bleeding cash, it's a safe bet that within a couple years they won't exist as they do today. If you buy a car from them you may find yourself needing warranty repair that no longer exists or warranty parts that are on back order for a long time. The UAW has effectively killed the American made automobile industry. I will never buy another UAW product if I can help it. Do a search on how the UAW has decimated these 3 companies and see what kind of **** they have done to artificially inflate their wages and compensation. Who pays for it all? You do when you buy one of their products. Then they go begging for MY tax dollars? NEVER again.
Ya know, this started out with a guy asking for input about a couple of cars. Now it's turning into a union bashing issue. I wonder how many guys here are union members...UAW for that matter.
The diatribe about the UAW sinking the Big 3 is pure bunk. The unions didn't design the **** that came out of Detroit. They didn't come up with the concept of "planned obsolescence." Management did. The UAW didn't ask for the loan...yep, loan...not a grant...the Big 3 did.
Everyone is wailing about cost. The fact is that those union guys who have retired and paid into a plan for health insurance and retirements paid for it out of their pockets and with sweat equity. The money they paid out of their pockets has vaporized like so many other worker retirements and health plans...what about justice for them? The foreign car factories in the US are not that old that they have retirees in the numbers of the Big 3. They refuse to negotiate retirements or long term health insurance, so when those folks retire, it's Social Security and Medicare...paid out of your pocket and mine. Just like WalMart does it. They wanted to build a distribution center on the Shore and wanted tax breaks and everything else. While they paid substandard wages and told applicants to apply for State funded insurance... paid by each of us. Don't notice any of their executives living cheap, do you?
Better yet, ask someone who gets hurt on the job at a foreign car plant in the US how things are. Odds are you'll find them shoved out the door for filing a claim while "new meat" comes in. So they can sell a car cheap. I've seen it with some of my friends. 90% disability, no support from the company.
While you're at it; do you have days off? overtime? insurance benefits? a 401k? You think you'd have them if your employer didn't have to come close to what union folks have bargained for to get people to work for them?
Can unions screw up? You betcha. So can managements. So fix that problem, don't broad brush American workers and their families. Making lousy business decisions on what to produce and what level of quality they want to build? That's not the UAW's fault. There are plenty of "experts" who can prove it's all labors fault...funded by managements and conservative think tanks. Fact is, the whole move to bash the UAW was a last ditch effort by conservative Southern congressmen to break the UAW as a political favor to the non union manufacturers who ponied up big $$ campaign contributions in their states and want to keep from paying competitive wages.
I'm a pilot...and a proud union member. And I've been a non union pilot and just as proud of some of those companies. Unions come about when management does not repect the rights of the people who work for them.
I'd gladly pay more for a car knowing that it means less people on the public rolls for health care and other things that cost more in the long run.
As to this thread...maybe we can get back to the issue at hand. The quality of the cars. Nice to hear the Malibu is getting good marks. While the recent models were ugly, I'll take a early model with the Ourisman girl anyday!!!!!:yes:
We will now return to regular scheduled programming...your mileage may vary
). For now, I'm just interested in the cars, pretending for the moment that both are made under ideal Hamilton-like principles.:yes:
