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The rubber always hits the road sooner or later… [Americanthinker.com via Instapundit]
47 Comments on “What’s Wrong With This Picture: Flaunt Or Reprimand Daily Edition...”
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I like the Dick Edwards bit. Dick Edwards. DICK EDwards. Did anyone not see that?
I saw it too. Dicked Wards?
ED = Erectile Dysfunction. You see the ads more often than Pepsi or Coke.
What’s wrong is that Ford has taken money from other federal programs, just not TARP.
John
Loans are one thing. Ownership quite another. The government OWNS 61% of GM. What percentage of Ford does the US own?
I guess no one should buy Nissan’s either. Or for that fact Toyota who took money from Japan to develop the Prius.
Here we go with the “Ford took government money via DOE loans” argument again.
This billboard is in poor taste, and I’m surprised no one in Dearborn has demanded that it come down (which ought to happen).
So are you saying the the DOE is NOT part of the government?
Or are you saying that when the DOE loans out money…it’s not government money?
It’s not an argument…it’s a solid, indisputable fact. Ford took government money.
Bah, I get tired of these semantic arguments. Arguing repeatedly that Ford’s Department of Energy loans have the moral equivalency of GM and Chrysler TARP grants does not make TTAC insightful, controversial or hard-hitting. It’s an asinine argument that equates a kid going to college on a federal school loan with a welfare mother with an ever expanding number of dependents. Rational people can see and understand the difference between the Government helping and the Government enabling.
As the owner of two Government Motors vehicles, I may find the billboard distasteful, but the sentiment is on target.
My next vehicles will be from an American auto manufacturer – Ford.
Not from an American auto plantation owned or ran by a foreign company. An real American company.
And there is only one left.
Ford.
Don’t bitch then if GMs loans don’t get paid back.
And I since you are on a silly American kick, I suggest you stay away from the Crown Vic, Grand Marquis, Town Car, Fusion, Milan, MKZ, Fiesta, Edge, MKX, or Flex.
In fact, you are better off buying a Camry (80% domestic parts content and built here) than a mediocre Fusion (50% domestic parts content and built in Mexico).
/yawn
Z71_Silvy: Don’t bitch then if GMs loans don’t get paid back.
Who told you that GM would ever pay back any of its loans? The same person who told you that the new Cruze would be among the best in its class? I think you need a new source of information.
Geeber:
No one ever said they would pay back the loans. But common sense tells you that GM will have a lot harder time paying the loans back if people have such misguided and childish beliefs that because GM was loaned money, that they are not buying a GM product. That thought process is stupid, closed minded, and disgusting.
And the Cruze will be best in class. Best looking, best driving, and best price, and best fuel economy. It isn’t a ugly POS that relies on dangerous technology to sell it (2012 Focus reskin)
The billboard seems more appropriate for June 2009 than now, but if someone wants to spend the money on such speech, go ahead.
Indeed it was. From the Americanthinker link:
When the government’s auto bailouts were announced, Dick Edwards Ford in Manhattan, Kansas, saw an opportunity. According to Mark Besthorn, the dealership’s sales manager: “We just thought about it and decided we wanted to strike while the iron was hot.” Days later, the following billboard made its first appearance
What are “dicked wards” anyway?
Orphans who are getting screwed over. Read this on the Intertubes, by the way.
Our gubmint thinks we’re all children, hence wards of the state. Connect the dots.
Too much text on a solid color makes for an uninteresting visual composition. Also, the shades of blue in the background and the logo clash.
People are free to spend their money wherever they like, it’s true that Ford borrowed money from the DOE but so did Nissan and few other car manufacturers. I have high hopes for GM, I think they will repay the loans( or most of it) and I like their new vehicles, but it’s unfair to call people buying GM traitors or socialists.I was shocked by the level of venom and hatred in that website and reading the stuff they write is really depressing.
Too much for your virgin eyes? Get real, your favorites Daily Kos and DU are much worse.
Really… do they call people monkeys and snakes or accuse black people of herd mentality and racism while calling democrats their plantation masters?
abcars, they just accuse those on the Right of such things, and much worse!
My family has owned (and enjoyed) Fords for a half a century. But there are three things I see that are wrong with this picture:
1) I am frankly SO tired of the ink wasted over the “scandal” of federal money to the US auto industry. Letting GM and Chrysler go down the drain would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs throughout the industry. Why is that a good thing?? Is the principle of the “free market” so dear that it’s better to let people suffer through poverty and hunger? If you are against federal money to the industry, what would you do instead?
2) certain people get FURIOUS when the government gives money to an industry that actually creates something, but couldn’t care less when government throws BILLIONS at a to send our innocent 18-year-olds to kill innocent people in war based on lies . . . Um, what?
3) The only real Manhattan is in New York. So yes, I am officially an elitist, Chardonnay-drinking, Latte-sipping, effeminate East Coast liberal. Except that I drive a Ford and not a BMW. Boo-yah.
1) Deal with it. I have no problem whatsoever kicking over 100,000 UAW “workers” out into the streets, forcing them to actually sweat and toil for their pay. Whatever economic impact those job losses result in, will be worth it in the long run, because…
1a) The Free Market isn’t something to be put in quotation marks. It is what our country was built upon, and it should pain us all to see it corrupted like this.
2) Grow up, war is necessary. Deal with it.
3) Ford weeps.
The money on the war was not wasted – Halliburton, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, etc. all benefit greatly. As many conservatives would argue, these industries are more important than the auto industry. Especially when the world hates us.
Oh, and I would still buy an Equinox over a Ford Edge. (Edit: I know the Equinox is built by our “brothers from the North”, but there’s a fair amount of “Domestic Content” in the ‘Nox)
“Is the principle of the “free market” so dear that it’s better to let people suffer through poverty and hunger?”
Yes, it is better.
State interference into the economy creates more poverty and more hunger. I suggest you to read “Economics in One Lesson”. It takes 90 minutes to read the book.
“If you are against federal money to the industry, what would you do instead?”
Nothing. Let the failed enterprises to be liquidated and let the assets to be relocated where can be used more efficiently.
“Certain people get FURIOUS when the government gives money to an industry that actually creates something, but couldn’t care less when government throws BILLIONS at a to send our innocent 18-year-olds to kill innocent people in war based on lies”
1. Certain people is inconsistent. They are not here. Straw man.
2. We are not talking here about “just” or “unjust” wars. We are talking about cars.
3. ALL wars in ALL countries are justified on lies. I suggest you some research topics: “Maine” (no, it was not a mine) , “Lusitania” (yes, she was used to ship war supplies, therefore it was a legit target), “Code Purple Pearl Harbor” (yes, FDR had foreknowledge), “Gulf of Tonkin incident” (yes, LBJ lied). There is nothing unique about GWB and the 2003 Iraq war.
4. Two wrongs do not make a right.
Oh, and I would still buy an Equinox over a Ford Edge.(Edit: I know the Equinox is built by our “brothers from the North”, but there’s a fair amount of “Domestic Content” in the ‘Nox)
Technically, the Edge and Equinox are both made in Canada. So is the RAV/4. We make the Flex, Impala and Camaro, too. We’re going to be making the XTS and Insignia/Regal.
Next thing you know, you’ll have socialized health care, official bilingualism and milk in bags.
psarhjinian: “Next thing you know, you’ll have socialized health care, official bilingualism and milk in bags.”
Another slippery slope to worry about – how depressing :-(
Perhaps it is most ironic that this dealership also has the Chrysler lineup, too. Talk about departmental politics…
“Don’t bitch then if GMs loans don’t get paid back.”
I won’t. That ship sailed long ago. The loans only prolonged the agony.
I’ve always been amused at the fact that diehard Buy American folks have no qualms about driving cars and trucks made in Mexico or Canada. Weird. Guess they really are the 51st and 52nd states.
The high-tech engineering and designing of the vehicles are still done in the USA. The profits from them stay here.
Final assembly is only one part of the process of making a vehicle–the Carmy assembled in Kentucky is still entirely designed in Japan by Japanese engineers. The profits also go back to Japan.
“The profits go back to Japan”.
Yes, but the manufacturing jobs keep what’s left of a “Middle Class” hanging on by a thread in the US – whereas American corporations are actively contributing to the class division which keeps the left/right battle joined, and while we fight, they profit. I expect that my simplistic view is a mere nanofacet to a larger, more unsettling truth, but I believe that while we argue about who’s more patriotic. cons or libs, the corporations are manipulating the game to come out the true winners.
Oh, and I like cars, too. And Beer, though I actively avoid beers from Venezuela and the Middle East ;-)
I doubt the automotive corporations can be manipulating the game that much … they can’t even control their business model to save their hides…
the Carmy assembled in Kentucky is still entirely designed in Japan by Japanese engineers.
The Camry is actually ‘designed’ all over the globe. Most cars are, unless they’re heavily localized (eg, half-ton trucks, including the Tundra, are designed in North America; kei cars in Japan, etc). It’s easier and more efficient to recruit engineering talent where you can and leverage engineering expertise that has contextual relevance to the local market. This is is why even VW is opening engineering facilities here.
The point you’re missing is that it doesn’t really matter where a car is designed or where the profits go. The bulk of a car’s MSRP is cost, not profit, and the bulk of the cost is parts and assembly, not design and engineering. And those costs are local.
If you want to support your local economy, buy locally made as it will keep the bulk of dollars in “closer orbit” around you. Buying an American car built in another state (or Canada, or Korea) is far more harmful than buying a Japanese car built in your own state.
A lot of people swallowed the UAW/CAW line on “Profits Go to Japan” and the like, mostly because the D3 did nothing to dissuade or dilute that message. It suited them just fine, even as they outsourced production to non-union jurisdictions and played the union for a patsy.
BDB – the biggest portion of the cost of a vehicle is in manufacturing. That is why manufacturing is farmed out to every little low cost country for EVERYTHING we seem to buy in this country. Profits are very small in the automotive industry, so I’m not totally concerned where they go. Toyota uses their engines, transmissions, and chassis across so many models that it is silly to develop those in North America. Toyota has a company, TEMA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Motor_Engineering_%26_Manufacturing_North_America), that is pretty much all manufacturing engineering. They also have 2 design centers in the US that employ nearly 800.
There is a Toyota plant 6 miles from my house that makes engines and transmissions for basically every north american built Toyota. Giving my money to Ford, Chrysler, or GM, who avoid my state like the plague, does nothing for my local economy. I’ll do my best to spend my money on a vehicle that has a locally manufactured engine and transmission.
If you pay money to taunt your competition in Arial 18″, the joke’s on you.
Are there any good studies that show statistics on the most important car buying factors? My gut feeling is that for every person on this forum who will only buy a vehicle if the engine is made in factory X or assembled in plant Y, there are 10 people who only know “Ford,GM,Chrysler=American. Nissan,Toyota,Mazda=Japanese. Ferrari,Lamborghini=Italian…), and 100 people who, when asked what kind of car they want, respond with “A nice blue one…and big so I’ll feel safe”
“The profits from them stay here.”
No, profits are either re-distributed to shareholders (for publicly traded companies) or they are re-invested where the company wants to see growth (all companies). Right now, the places with the most growth potential are the BRIC countries. So, almost all automobile companies are investing whatever profits they make heavily in Brazil, Russia, India, and China. All these companies are global corporations that want to maximize their future profits. Whatever profits GM is making right now are largely being re-invested into emerging markets.
“The profits from them stay here.”
* If you buy Toyota shares some Toyota profits will go to your pocket, wherever you are.
* If Mr. Takamoto (from Nagoya) buys Ford shares, some Ford profits will go to Nagoya.
I’d like to visit the parallel universe where GM and Chrysler were actually making profits that could “stay here.” Last time I checked, the GM and Chrysler that exist in the real world were losing money hand-over-fist.
Oh, sure.
But…”the losses stay here” :-P
“here” in this case means “the American taxpayer pocket”. Everytime I see a new Sebring/Voyager/Pacifica/Cruze/Whatever in Spain I say to myself: Why the American taxpayer was forced to subsidize this car for this buyer?.
There is nothing wrong with this at all.
I like so many others will continue to support the Chryco and Government Motors bailouts by NOT buying their products. These companies should have been given the same free market treatment as Plymouth and Oldsmobile. Nobody wants your junk, you fail. Buh bye.
Hey hey – let’s not bash on olds . . .I think their problem was that Saturn cannibalized too many sales (reasonably affordable cars with a few options).
Fortunately, GMC and Chevy have no overlaps no do Buick and Cadillac. :o History repeats itself . . .again.
I just got notice that the local Saturn is now a GMC/Buick dealership . . . (I was praying they were going to pick up an Acura franchise instead – lots of ex-Honda people work in service there)
Jan. 1979, suburb of St Louis, MO.
Pulled off I-70 to grb a mug o’ coffee at a stop-n-rob store.
Itty bitty kitten slurping some milk outside the front door shivering in the bitter cold.
Clerk inside fed the fur face but proclaimed she could not allow the apparently slowly freezing-to-death critter inside due to possible job loss for breaking critter-in-store rule.
Sigh.
Grabbed the critter and tossed it into the semi’s cab where it found a heater duct atop the dash to plant itself.
Several deliveries into Kansas, stopping at lumber yards, finally found one willing to adopt fur face.
Manhattan, it was.
Hope the ratty thing appreciated it and evaded being eaten by a starving college student.
Wonder if Dick owned the Ford dealer at that time.