Classic, iconic American products no longer made in America

[ballvalve]

"uneducated, unskilled americans"? wow, you might consider therapy if you think that of your country, and worse, if you think they had anything to do with the POS japanese throttle control. And steering control. And exploding engines. And un-repairable Prius's.

Toyota started the electric throttle control to save a buck, and if the ignorant [in your words] americans made it, they made it entirely to some jap engineers specs sitting at a desk in tokyo. Even though our engineers taught them to build cars in the first place.

Then they made up a story [lied] about "floor mats" - fine bunch of carmakers!

Sacred, genius, glorious, infallible, toyota is just a fantasy. They have had hundreds of recalls, but fewer than the Americans - why? because their culture and love of the profit line wont allow them to admit to a mistake. Its called dishonesty.

I'll give an American auto worker 20 bucks an hour + $15 an hour in benefits long before I give a flunky plumber 85 or 90 dollars an hour to screw up my plumbing. An average American plumber in Japan would be flogged in public for incompetence.

Your 15$ an hour Toyota slaves cant afford a plumber anyway. YOU now get to pay for their government health care in YOUR taxes. Toyota is laughing at America's stupidity while shipping container loads of dollars home to pay for free health care for the Japanese.

The Japanese buy Japanese cars because they know it makes the country stronger. Americans like you forgot about that a generation ago.

You sound like the kind of guy that thinks Airbus makes a better plane than Boeing.

You'll be laughing YFAO when you are standing in a free soup line with all your incompetent out of work ignorant Americans that lowered sacred Toyotas quality control.

You won't laugh when the Chinese move you and the family to a uranium mine in Utah. Guess what though? Free cup of rice a day and housing! Straw mat to sleep on. Electricity every third saturday. Free health care - the gallows. And no more OSHA or those silly respirators and hard hats! Hurray!

[ballvalve]

The bottom line is Toyotas are good, but only the Japanese made ones.

Like I said before, Americans cannot make a decent car.

So new, American-made Toyotas are awful.

I drive an old Toyota, that arrived on a boat from Japan.

And it's a cracker.

Case in point:

Your cracker jack Prius's arrive from Japan, and after 5 years not even toyota can repair them.

And where is the PLUG for the Prius? They could have done it years ago, but it would reduce maintenance and thus profits.

At least you buy Apollo. Be sure to get the BRONZE valves, still made here.

[Ian Gills]

Of course I would not buy a Prius. Hybrids are false economy. A decent diesel engine will get you better mileage if Americans had the common sense to lift their diesel restrictions (which date back to the smog era when diesels were dirty...not any more).

But I would buy an electric vehicle. Like the Rav 4 EV for instance which came out a decade ago to fulfill California regulations making car producers produce a zero emission model.

It was a great car, made in Japan and one that I would gladly own.

But it disappeared. As usual, Americans started running scared of big Government like a bunch of little girls. So Toyota discontinued the RAV4 EV program one day after the passing of new air-quality requirements by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). CARB eliminated most of the Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) requirement, substituting a greater number of Partial Zero-Emissions Vehicles (PZEVs) to meet the requirement.

Man up America.

[Dunbar Plumbing]

Yes. Unskilled, uneducated americans.


See how easy it is to piss off a chrysler owner? Tell em you own a toyota, just like the rest of the smart educated consumers buy. Statistics don't lie, they don't have a history of failure like the small 3 have.

Most that can't afford Toyota or Honda settle for less... much less.

It's okay.

Drink some milk and get strong. It'll happen.

[ballvalve]

[QUOTE]

Of course I would not buy a Prius. Hybrids are false economy. A decent diesel engine will get you better mileage if Americans had the common sense to lift their diesel restrictions (which date back to the smog era when diesels were dirty...not any more).

But I would buy an electric vehicle. Like the Rav 4 EV for instance which came out a decade ago to fulfill California regulations making car producers produce a zero emission model.

It was a great car, made in Japan and one that I would gladly own.

But it disappeared. As usual, Americans started running scared of big Government like a bunch of little girls. So Toyota discontinued the RAV4 EV program one day after the passing of new air-quality requirements by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). CARB eliminated most of the Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) requirement, substituting a greater number of Partial Zero-Emissions Vehicles (PZEVs) to meet the requirement.

Man up America.

Honda and Ford made a great electric vehicle, Honda CRUSHED all of theirs and got no bad press.

Ford was going to crush theirs, and stopped due to PR pressure.

Ford should be your choice to thank them for that.

Sacred Toyota also destroyed their prototypes.

Man up America and buy American.

[jimbo]

You can't put ALL the blame on the moguls. Featherbedding destroyed the railroads, and the unions added so much overhead to the cost of a car that t\he US companies could not compete head to head with toyota on quality and technology.
The public employees have out the city of san diego and state of CA on the brink of insolvency, so blame the UNIONS and also the CONSUMER ( look in mirror)

[Ian Gills]

Blame the unions? My eye.

The uncomfortable truth is that workers here are less productive and competitive because they do not have access to universal healthcare nor universal education, like workers elsewhere.

So they are either sick, stupid but cheap; or, clever, healthy but expensive.

Neither of which gets you very far in a competitive global economy.

Blame the founding fathers for putting the fear of God and Big Government in you.

Time to revisit your values before your values visit your wallet.

[ballvalve]

As a kid I worked as a temp through an agency at a union shop {Raypac - still making pool and water heaters, maybe in mexico now}

So here comes this kid and the angry union guys put me on the biggest hydraulic press brake in the shop, bending pool heater boxes.

Expected me to run off or cut an arm off. Little did they know I was bending steel since I was 12. After 10 minutes of training, in about 4 hours I bent the whole shifts average production. Kept checking my output with calipers and gauges. Could'nt reject a part.

So now they move me to a nasty punch press a few stories tall. Bent up a days worth of titanium burners in a few hours.

Asked them for more parts, I was on a roll. Scared the hell out of them as management was watching from the catwalk.

6 of me could have replaced 15 of the sleepy union guys. And they were paying me quite a bit of money for those days. I got a BROOM for the rest of the program.

The Unions had or have 2 faults, a culture of very moderate and disinterested productivity, and wage creep that killed them off.

A culture of productivity should be a value revisited. And Union wages brought down from the sky. That would keep Americas factories working and competetive - and make health care possible.

Edit: http://www.raypak.com/commframe.htm

So big brother AO smith gobbled up family owned Raypak, and probably moved much of that plant south.

[Dunbar Plumbing]

Unions constitute only 6% of the work force.


Can you say, "Dying Breed?"

[Tom Sawyer]

drive a 96 honda civic. gets about 30mpg. have not put more than 500 bucks into it in 14 years cept for gas, oil and tires.
drive a 97 Ford F150 4wd. It's got 285,000 miles on it. A bit rusty but starts every day.


Can the Brit's make cars? Hmmmmmm. Triumph, MG Lucas the prince of darkness

[Dunbar Plumbing]

If honda built a good work truck, I would of bought Honda over Toyota, but I'm more than happy with my Toyota.


Honda Motto,

"If Honda built humans, we would never die."

[Ian Gills]

Can the Brit's make cars? Hmmmmmm. Triumph, MG Lucas the prince of darkness

Are you mad? Compared to what's on offer in the US, hell yeah!

And now the American cars...

[ballvalve]

When that Lincoln sled hits a honda civic head on, you just put the wipers on and keep going.

And they were required to keep the Mafia happy. All they have now are Suburbans.

"If honda built humans we would never die" : If Honda built humans in America, They would work for a fair wage, buy American made cars, and have such productivity that no factories would need move south or far East.

[Terry]

I used to own a Ford Taurus too.
Not the SHO though, but it did kind of look like the one in this video.
I also had a newer one that was silver and with the sleeker more rounded look, but apparently American didn't like the Taurus that looked Italian.
They made it boxier after a year or so.



The 96 was nice, but hard to keep running.

[jimbo]

Unions constitute only 6% of the work force.


Can you say, "Dying Breed?"

I believe if you count school teachers, + federal, state, county, and city workers, it is much higher than that. It is enough here in SD to keep electing the commie pinkos to a majority on the city council