US Auto industry

Just saw president Obama's speech on the news here... Looks like some though times ahead!
The president was pretty though on the managment as I understood it.

they need to fall into banckrupcy and let the judges decide, thats the only thing that will save thier asses, i said it before the quality is definitely back but maybe a little to late, they changed the looks of the cars to compete.
Im for a man making a living, im not for a man making an easy living at the price of failure, the biggest cost the big three is encountering is its employees....thats where you start with concessions....dont worry, the judge will decide

What does the govrnment know about making cars? or anything else for that matter. They fire the CEO of GM, and they say we will back the warranties. Sounds like Government Motors to me. Scary sh!t.
How would you like to buy a car mandated buy Pelosi, Reed and Obama?
Whats next? the Recreational stuff?

Steve, GM was so large in the 1960's that the Gov. wanted to come in and break up the company in fears of a takeover, hard to believe.....
if it aint broke dont fix it, its broke
god damn i could fix this country in an afternoon,
regulate the banks to go 2% accross the board on new and existing home loans, defer 4 months house payments staggering them like the draft, odds this month evens next month...remember the banks got us in this, a program such as this would get cash flowing and of course stipulations would be added such as the monies saved during those months would be used to spur the economy and get money flowing inside the walls.
we gotta get these manufacturing companies going again and that includes the big 3,

just thinking lol

Saw a bumber sticker the other day, thought I'd share....

One
Big
A$s
Mistake
America

we have no checks and balances right now, it's like the fox is guarding the chicken coop.

One thing I know for sure is that we can't spend our way to prosperity

Morfoot wrote: Correct me if I'm wrong but Harley Davidson filed for bankruptcy years ago and they made it through. Face it there are Hog's all over the place and I know several owners happen to own a Correct Craft.

I believe you are wrong about that. I think they were close at one point before AMF bought them. I'm one of the Harley/CC owners!

The main difference I see between the airlines and the auto industry is the type of product they sell. I'll buy a plane ticket from a bankrupt company but I won't buy a car from one, especially when there are others to choose from.

I sure hope they can make it under bankruptcy protection, but it's just hard for me to see how.

Morfoot wrote: Correct me if I'm wrong but Harley Davidson filed for bankruptcy years ago and they made it through. Face it there are Hog's all over the place and I know several owners happen to own a Correct Craft.

I am one of those Harley owners. Just don't think the Hog will do well pulling the BFN though!

I guess Harley is having a tough time moving the 09 bikes. I got a letter from them telling me if I traded in my 08 for a bigger 09, they would give me sticker price back on trade.

Mike, my brother bought a Fat Boy in 2001. He said there were 2 dealers in New England that would sell for MSRP. All the others were tacking on a few thousand on top of MSRP. He bought his in VT. He put down $500 and it took more than a year to get his bike.

Bruce,
Manadanock in Keene would sell for msrp. You had to wait forever.People used to camp outside that place.

I'll let the cat out of the bag so everyone can see how these guys put up big fancy buildings. In the late 90's, the local dealer close to me was selling 600 bikes a year roughly. If you got taken in by the F&I people and bought the extended warranty coverage,financed the bike so they could make 3% extra on interest,joined the HOG club, bought all the latest riding gear and prepaid for the first services up to 10,000 miles they were averaging a profit of approximately $10k per bike sale. That's right...10k per unit. Some did not go to that extreme,but in this era the above scenario is how 85% of the bikes were sold.
Do the math on that.

    I have a customer who was just quoted $4000 over msrp for a 09 SE Roadglide at our local "stealer".

   Eric, some of the metric stuff is creeping right up there. Gold Wings are up over $20k base now. They have discontinued the cheapest model Wing they make and guess what ? They will be moving all Goldwing production out of Marysville Ohio and back to Japan, essentially laying off their production force.
    

   Mike

why does history keep repeating itself? blow em up build em back up?

I gotta laugh, a guy that comes around took delivery of a buell or some type of 20k Harley?? by the time it was done and said with financing it was 30k,
He got laid off the very next day, as it sits its probably worth 15k????

eric lavine wrote: I gotta laugh, a guy that comes around took delivery of a buell or some type of 20k Harley?? by the time it was done and said with financing it was 30k, He got laid off the very next day, as it sits its probably worth 15k????

I think where people get into trouble is the "extras" they finance on top of the bike. For example, a new Fat Boy MSRP is 16k (which should end up being less these days), but what people will do is add pipes, efi tuners, wheels, chrome this and that and a whole pile of accessories and clothes and finance the whole mess. So for the first year or two they are still paying for all the bits and pieces while the bike is depreciating.

The last bike I bought, the original owner loaded it up from the dealer, drove it about 300 or so miles in two years and then sold it to me. He gave me all the sales paperwork and I figured it out at one point... I think he paid something like 25 per mile. Ouch.

Here it is on a trip through Michigan's Upper, at the Wisconsin border.

Riley wrote: The salesman talked him into Screaming Eagles because he said stock pipes sound like an old VW.

That's a pretty close description LOL. You have to change the pipes and air box just to get them to run half-way decent. Ya gotta love the EPA...
I think now they even have catalitic coverters or will soon.

Waterdog wrote: The newer goldwings have a V shaped air bag for front end crashes. (no sh*t)

Yep.One of my customers bought one last year and that was the only option he did not get on his.

   Mike

One of the big car dealerships in the area "Serpentini" got clipped for an 18 million dollar judgement from the bank, I guess he is a little behind on the floorplan, these are the things that make you jump off buildings