Pretty sad that American companies are losing to foreign competitors as it means a loss of American jobs.

Published August 5, 2006

FORD MUSTANG GT »

Automaker flexes its muscle

Design sports details from original car Ford hopes retro look of the new Mustang will win over drivers.

Didi Tang
News-Leader

The bright orange retro-looking Mustang turns heads in traffic, and its creator is hoping it will turn profits.
Ford was outsold by Toyota for the first time in July and reported $254 million loss for the second quarter.

Models reminiscent of the muscle-car era, Ford officials believe, can be a solution to take back American roads.

"The Asian automakers don't have what we have," said Greg Pawlowski, a Ford product specialist who came to Springfield on Friday with an orange 2007 Mustang convertible.

His visit to the Ozarks is part of Ford's 68-city tour promoting the Mustang with designs from the late 1960s, along with F150 pickup trucks powered by ethanol, and Edge, a crossover model that blends versatility with fuel economy.

Ford isn't alone.

GM and Chrysler are also bringing to the market retro-looking models. GM may bring back the Camaro in 2008, and Chrysler is planning to reintroduce the Dodge Challenger in the same year.

Some consumers appear ready to buy.

Robert Snook of Ozark, who has seven Mustangs, is pondering another one — this time a 2007 model.

"It has the details from the original car (in the 1960s)," said Snook, who was a teenager then. "The headlight feature, the hood, the long-front-short-back appearance."

Such car designs are as much part of Americana as downtown squares, said Snook, president of the Greater Ozarks Mustang Club as well as the director for the Ozark Main Street program.

"It's part of the American heritage," said Snook. "It's the same as the square is important to restore."

Snook is pleased that Ford has been faithful to the original model in redesigning the Mustang.

And technology has made some improvements to it.

This model gets 17 to 25 miles per gallon, compared with 12 to 14 miles in the 1960s, said Pawlowski.

The new model also has the bells and whistles of the new century — it can be equipped with heated seats, satellite radio and MP3 plug-in.

Since the 1964 debut, Ford has sold more than eight million Mustangs, said Pawlowski.

Phil Wiland, president of Direct Retailing Inc. in Ozark, is another enthusiast of antique cars and considering buying a retro vehicle, possibly a Dodge Challenger.

Comparing Mustang with Ford's Thunderbird, which was reintroduced in 2002 but did not regain the popularity, Wiland said being loyal to the original design is a key for success.

"I think what they need to do is to build a car that is appealing not only for comfort but also true to the original design, very reminiscent," said Wiland.

Pawlowski agreed. "(The consumers) want the car the way they remember," he said.

Ford is targeting baby boomers and the young generation for the retro vehicles, said Pawlowski.

While Ford officials believe this line of products will help get the company out of the red, Wiland said he is not sure.

"They're relatively high-price cars," said Wiland. "... I doubt they would recap what (the auto makers have) lost."

 

Not true. Toyota employs more american people than the big 3. They have a plant in Kentucky. And are opening one in Missouri(I belive this is the state or Indiana). And with those plants, other businesses have opened up, as in fab shops for parts near by so they can get parts quickly. We sell to Toyota and our stuff is made by a U.S. company.

This doesn't surprise me either, because of the gas prices that climbed rapidly. Face it, Toyota does have a good rep with product quality and that gets better MPG's.

 

It's still a loss of American jobs in Michigan. And those profits from those Toyota plants go to the coffers in Japan.... they don't stay here. Of course, we live in such a global economy, it's becoming difficult to separate one from the other anymore. Heck, even the company we are fans of here is nothing more than the American subsidiary of a German conglomerate.

 

Yes and what is interesting is the trademark "Jeep" (which fought the Germans in WWII) went from Willy's to Kaiser to AMC to Chrysler to DaimerChrysler which
is a German company. Go figure!

Such is global economy.

 

Don't you just love capitalism?

Take some time and read the facts about the American auto industry and you will see they did it to themselves. Greedy executives, even worst unions and the fact that they thought Americans would buy American no matter what the quality or price of the product was. WRONG!!!!

 

You can say, about the profits going to the japanese companies, the same for american companies. They manufacture and sell over seas, and the profits come back to teh american company. So while the american companies manufacture overseas, causing loss of jobs here, the japanese, and other country manufacturers are opening plants here giving jobs back to the americans.

 

Just for clarification, I am not an economist but for sure a patriotic American.

This is more than just about jobs and profits. This is about financial, technological, and military stability for our country.

The first fundamental problem is our countries higher education for our kids to get technlology/engineering degrees. Our country
has such a major shortage that we have to get engineers from other countries to work for American technology companies in all industries.

Among such recent attention-getting statistics are 600,000, 350,000 and 70,000. These are, allegedly, the number of engineers produced in
2004 in China, India and the United States, respectively. That is horrible and very sad. We need to encourage our youth to get a higher education in these fields.

He who has the technology also has the keys to military superiority.

Will the US wind up in 30 years being a weakling services oriented country. Gosh, I hope not but our country has to make some global and domestic policy changes.

We have already lost the steel industry and cell phones which were dominated by Motorola 10 years ago are now dominated by Nokia.

What else will we lose besides the car industry..........Apple,IBM (remember they already sold the PC to Lenovo in China),HP,Dell,Walmart,Intel,AMD,Microsoft,GE,Boei ng,3M,
Cisco,Goodyear,Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer,Caterpillar,Deere,Fluor,American Airlilnes,Lockheed Martin.

Anyway those are my thoughts and I do not like seeing American companies disappearing.

 

I honestly have mixed feelings. The good part of the Japanese manufactures is that they are building their cars here; however, the executive jobs are in Japan. I personally would prefer all jobs stay right here. One of the problems we are facing in general is that our country is following Europe in the process of self destruction. The people living in Europe are not reproducing enough to replace themselves and we are in the process of the same mistake. That is part of the reason why some jobs are leaving. One of the things that made America so wealthy was having the labor force to cover the manufacturing.

I don't agree with the theory that Japanese vehicles sell better because Toyota's are not always more fuel efficient. GM takes the cake for being the most fuel efficient pretty often. Let's put aside the death traps (I mean HYBRIDS) for a second. Yes in compacts the Corolla does get better fuel mileage than the Cobalt or anything else GM has but the department where Toyota makes most of their sales is in the mid-sized car market. The Camry is their best seller yet it gets equal fuel mileage to the Pontiac G6 in I4 applications, and in V6 versions the 3.0L Camry gets only 20/28 city/highway vs. the 3.5L G6 gets 22/32 city/highway. The Grand Prix supercharged version of the 3800 series III matches the 3.0L Camry's mileage. I realize the 2007 version of the Camry gets 22/31 city/highway; however, Toyota has been getting smoked in the category of fuel mileage for years and they keep gaining and the Prius is not the reason why they are gaining.

Now lets look back to 1997 when the Camry defeated the Taurus in sales. In 1997, the 2.2L got 23/30 mpg city/highway auto and 23/32 manua. The Stratus/Cirrus/Breeze 2.4L got 1 mpg lower in the city rating, the Grand Am got 2 mpg better on the highway, the Breeze got 3 better with the 2.0L automatic and Stratus/Breeze manual version got 4/5 better city/highway. Any year you look up the Camry is never the leader in I4 fuel mileage.

Now lets look at the V6 Camry back in 1997. The 3.0 V6 Camry got 19/26. Every version of the GM W-Body got better mileage than that other than the 3.4L 24valve DOHC models -2/0 city/highway difference. All versions of the Regal/Century, Grand Prix, Stratus/Cirrus/Breeze/Sebring/Avenger, LeSabre, Park Avenue, Riviera, 88, Bonneville, Sable, 3.1L versions of the Lumina/Monte Carlo and Cutlass Supreme, 3.3L verisons of the Intrepid/Vision/Concorde, non-SHO models of the Taurus, etc.

The problem is Toyota has a perception of better quality because when they screw up they don't get the focus of having quality problems due to the bias in the automotive press. Both the 2.2L and 3.0L offered in the Camry were known to have some issues with sludging, but did that affect Consumer Report's opinion about the reliability of the Camry engines for the effected years? No. According to them, those engines with that flaw are more reliable than the Chrysler 3.3/3.8 which has a bullet proof reputation, the GM 3800 which has a mostly bulletproof reputation, and just about every other domestic manufacturer engine which has a bullet proof reputation.

Another problem is some domestic cars have very cheap interior. My aunt had a 1999 Solara (which she had sludge problems with) and in comparison to loaded versions of the Grand Prix, Lumina, Taurus, Bonneville, LeSabre, and countless other domestic cars, they are no match. Even Chrysler Sebrings are inferior in terms of the interior. The Grand Prix has "leather" so stiff I would consider making a rope out of it as does the Lumina, both ride like a log wagon. The Taurus interior feels very cheap and shows wear in no time, not to mention the seats have no support and the car also rides like a log wagon. The Bonneville for whatever reason is soft but feels very thin and easy to puncher. The LeSabre's leather feels more like plastic than leather and needs to be a lot more firm. Toy