The Detroit News (of course) reports that Chet Czaplicka (real name) is doing a Ressler (i.e. conflating purchasing a Chrysler, Ford and/or GM product with patriotism). “The chief executive of a Livonia blood-processing firm is trying to do his part to give the automakers a little bump in sales. His medical firm, Comprehensive Care Services, is offering workers $1,000 toward the purchase of any new truck or car made by Detroit’s auto companies — a small gesture that Czaplicka hopes will make a big statement about just how important the Big Three’s survival is to businesses in the region.” Other than the MSM, Czaplicka’s offer has fallen on fertile ground with his employees– ish. “The incentive already has caught the attention of one employee in Florida, Sean Murtha, who is looking to replace his wife’s Lexus with a more fuel-efficient vehicle. The offer of an extra $1,000 got him to consider buying American. He and his wife are eyeing a Ford Edge.” Well, he would say that wouldn’t he? And Murtha sounds like a tire kicker to this former salesman… And it might be churlish of me to point it out, but Detroit’s automakers have been offering a grand off their vehicles (at least) for a long, long time– without stimulating much action down at the dealership. Still, makes a good story.
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Ironically, the Ford Edge is assembled in Canada. And what Lexus did they have before if they consider the Edge (17/24 MPG for FWD, 15/22 for AWD) to be fuel-efficient? I suppose only the GX or LX series…
The Ford Edge is stamped out here in Hamburg, New York at the Buffalo Stamping Plant on Route 5 five minutes from my house. American auto manufacturers provide more jobs for American people. Wherever the vehicle is sold, when a consumer purchases an American vehicle the money returns to this country.
I remember hearing that Gov. Granholm (God, I hope I spelled that out right) saying that she was buying shares in GM and Ford for her 3 kids this Christmas- 300 in total, I think. The first thing I thought was, I don’t know her kids, but I’m confident they wanted a Wii for Christmas. Amirite???
“when a consumer purchases an American vehicle the money returns to this country”
and then some of the money is sent to canada or mexico or australia to pay the people who worked on the cars there.
auto manufacturers want american taxpayer money then keep the jobs here. for american taxpayers.
@ Maxb49
Wherever the vehicle is sold, when a consumer purchases an American vehicle the money returns to this country.
Simplicity is bliss. Just add those losses to the pile.
zedmanauk- a lot of people think any car with a roundish/sleek body and not a v8 engine must be fuel efficient. The Edge and the Dodge Nitro/Jeep Liberty get similar fuel mileage 15/21, The Pathfinder gets 15/22
The Edge was selling fairly well before the crash/credit crunch.
@maxb49
that might be true if they were making any money. They don’t seem to be doing a good job of doing that or they wouldn’t need a bailout.
Nice try, but these types of gestures miss the entire point of what they’re trying to accomplish. Why should an employer have to pay his employees an incentive to buy American cars? For that matter, why should the manufacturers have to throw cash on the hood to make their products desireable?
As long as we have to throw money at people to get them to see the value in “buying American” (or at least buying a car with a U.S. company’s nameplate) things will never change.
I’m really tired of hearing the myth about all profits from foreign headquartered companies go to that particular companies home country and stay there.
The reality is that most car companies have share holders from multiple countries. The Detroit 3 have Asian stockholders and the Asian automakers have plenty of US stockholders. Spend money on any car and the money goes around the world. That’s the reality of a global economy.
To back up what I’m saying, here is an excerpt from Toyota’s 20-f filing with the SEC:
According to The Bank of New York, depositary for Toyota’s ADSs, as of March 31, 2008, 121,480,634 shares of Toyota’s common stock were held in the form of ADRs and there were 2,443 ADR holders of record in the United States. According to Toyota’s register of shareholders, as of March 31, 2008, there were 522,135 holders of common stock of record worldwide. As of March 31, 2008, there were 316 record holders of Toyota’s common stock with addresses in the United States, whose shareholdings represented approximately 12.1% of the issued common stock on that date. Because some of these shares were held by brokers or other nominees, the number of record holders with addresses in the United States might not fully show the number of beneficial owners in the United States.
So, a percentage of Toyota’s profits are indeed coming back here. If anybody out there is upset about Toyota’s profits going to Japan, just go out and buy some of their ADRs, then take the dividends they send you and spend it locally.
I like that this employer is taking care of his employees with something that he sees as the right thing to do. In fact, I applaud it- as his company this is his right. He is trying to make a gesture for his company and for his employees.
What is not right is to take money from hard working people by force (try not to pay your taxes and men with guns will knock on your door) and give it for free to whining car companies who have done not a thing to deserve it. Who have treated those hard working people with contempt and worse.
I guess what I’m saying is that those companies do not deserve someone like Mr. Czaplicka.
I cannot comprehend why any of you would think this is inappropriate. This guy has a company in Michigan and clearly understands what most of you do not seem to – our economy is intertwined on a large basis with the domestic OEM’s. The entire country, not just the midwest. Jobs at the OEM’s drive jobs at their suppliers. Jobs at their suppliers drive jobs at sub-suppliers. Jobs at sub-suppliers drive jobs at service companies (like this guys), restaurants, stores of all types including the dealerships.
And the ludicrous notion that we have a ‘backup domestic auto industry’ in the transplants. Open your eyes (@mcs). You can talk all you want about how some of the foreign cars are built here, but the true value of a domestic auto industry is the sheer level of technical capabilities that this entails. And I have been in virtually every R&D center of both the foreign and domestic OEM’s and a majority of their tier one suppliers (and many in Europe as well) – the foreign OEM’s (and suppliers) do the vast majority of their true development in their home countries – that is why every country works hard to develop and NURTURE their own auto industry – it is the key to a middle class lifestyle and leads to numerous opportunities for other types of industry to develop and thrive.
I have said this before, but people that have blinded themselves to this truth (I thought this site was supposed to be the truth about cars), instead many times it seems to be the truth about making negative comments about everything you can possibly find. This guy wants to help to maintain his business by supporting those who provide his and his employees livelihood – I’m sorry, there is absolutely no justification for making negative comments about this.
I took my girlfriend and bought her a Honda Accord V6 2008 fully loaded with Navigation, moonroof, alarm system + remote start and heated leather front seats.
The only thing I liked about the car was that it only cost me a TOTAL of $30,800 (with taxes and fees included.
What I hated about the car was that the interior driver/passenger leg space was tiny for me – I am 6’7 tall. I own a S550 benz and a Chrysler 300 and this car is about the size of the 300, yet I barely fit in it.
Personally I will NEVER buy Japanese cars. The size issues is one reason why I will not. I fit perfectly in my S550 but I tested out the Lexus LS460 before I bought a car and I barely fit in that because of shoulder/hip space. The Lexus also didn’t make me as excited as the S550.
The way I see it, GM and Ford cars have a bad rap from stupid lemons and problems that happened over 30 years ago. i.e: Pinto, bad transmissions, poor quality interiors,etc.
GM and FORD and even Chrysler cars now are made better than they ever have been before, yet those idiots on the news lie or continue to mischaracterize the bailout as “American companies producing cars nobody wants”.
Truth is, Japanese cars, like the Accord are easier to purchase even if you have crappy credit. All you gotta do is compare Ford and GM’s financing/leasing programs to Nissan, Toyota and Honda and you will see huge benefits on the Japanese side. Japanese car companys are backed by BANKS (Toyota for example). The JApanese government has NATIONAL HEALTHCARE so their car companies are able to make cars without paying huge legacy costs and healthcare for salaried workers. China is the exact same way – and I’ve actually lived in China and used their healthcare citizen as a traveling visitor. I got quality healthcare where I had a broken bone in my leg CAST and recieved medication to the total amount of $100
America without national healthcare can’t compete with that. THE TABLE IS RIGGED AND IT ISN’T LEVEL.
They will sell us cars almost at a LOSS.
What kills me is America’s government is stupid enough to let the trade imbalance persist rather than practicing the same protectionism that Japan and Korea (and soon, China) practice.
If Korea moves 700,000 Hyundai’s here and we only have 6000 American cars there that are tariffed so high nobody can buy them and they sit on the docks…that’s simply ridiculous.
I hope, so deeply, that Obama will tell his critics to STFU and pass a national healthcare plan. YES IT WILL EXPLODE THE DEFICIT but GUESS WHAT…THAT’S WHAT WE NEED. America went into depression before and the President was criticized then for spending massive amounts of money. The only thing that brought America out of depression was WW2. Nowadays, most economists AGREE that if the president had spent MORE MONEY we’d have come out of the depression even stronger. SPEND MONEY TO MAKE MONEY.
As for the Accord.
The interior is CHEAP. I never liked it. Even the leather heated seat buttons aren’t regular switches. they are “click” switches that don’t return to position. I’m like WTF?
The sunglass holder is thin, cheap plastic, the dashboard is a cluttered mess of buttons…
the Navigation system and voice activation are HORRIBLE. I don’t care what anyone says. Even the Chrysler 300’s Navigation systems (both Mygig and the original) are EASIER TO USE. They are easier to use than the Navigation in my Benz and in the the BMW 7 series. FORD’s new Sync option is even better than that. Its simple, elegant and fun to use.
The only thing in Accord’s favor is the zippy V6.
The I4 is only good for people in densely packed cities (like my NYC) where traffic is always a problem.
Sure, this car does fufill a niche. Its cheap, inexpensive and offers alot of the German cars IT COPIES OFF OF. I saw a Accord next to a 5 Series and I was shocked how much of that car was stolen from the German design.
I would perfer a Malibu, but, stupidly, GM didn’t offer a Navigation system with it. I love the malibu’s style 10X more than the Accord Sedan…although the coupe is very hot.
The new Ford Fusion is gonna blow the Accord away. And since i already know Ford/GM are getting bailed out, their success will increase my shares I hold in both companies :-)
RF, I don’t think Phil Ressler sees buying American as patriotism, it’s more like community service.
Just without the formality of an actual sentence.
If Czaplicka’s willing to do this… well, more power to him. We can’t argue that a firm in Michigan is probably going to get hit very hard by major Detroit upheaval. I can see where Czaplicka would believe it’s in his self-interest to make a difference in favor of Detroit’s automakers.
But Czaplicka can’t bail them out on his own; he must know it and I think he’s more hoping to set a pattern that saves the day.
Sadly, Czaplicka’s plan is doomed. Even GM management has admitted that selling cars isn’t enough… GM needs charity.
@mcs
Informative!
“What is not right is to take money from hard working people by force (try not to pay your taxes and men with guns will knock on your door)…”
This goes beyond a criticism of the bridge loan…something deeper is going on here. Sounds like anarcho-capitalism to me. To paraphrase Dennis Miller, if you don’t want to pay the cover charge at Club America, feel free to move elsewhere.
>>”…To paraphrase Dennis Miller, if you don’t want to pay the cover charge at Club America, feel free to move elsewhere…”
In Club America, we enjoy the privilege of being able to approve or disapprove of the way our tax funds are spent. This includes whether they are wasted on doomed boondoggles in Detroit. If you don’t like the freedom of thought people in Club America enjoy there are places where the workers must freely support all government manufacturing enterprises such as Cuba. Perhaps you would enjoy the weather there.