4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

a US company makes the best CPUs in the world, whats your point. It aint the work ethic you think america got to where it is by being lazy? Europeans have 30 hour workweeks and 2 months of vacation a year, whos lazy now

LexFather

You totally forgot the fact things are made in Asia b/c they are relatively much cheaper to produce.

Many American products are quality filled and thus, cost more to make.

Nike is an AMERICAN brand that dominates sports merchandise, but they produce the clothes in Aisa b/c its cheap to make there.

I am not saying at all that Asia only makes cheap goods. That is far from the truth. Japanese electronics for instance are incredible. Clearly many of their cars are.

rg_gibson

EXACTLY! The only BMWs that are built in the USA are the X5 and the Z4, nothing more. Most of Toyotas, Nissans, and Honda/Acuras are built in the USA. We hardly can get our hands on a Japanese made Toyota these days.

Shawnmack

What's killing the plant in Spartanburg SC. Is all that there hiring are Temps. They are putting these guys on the lines that are messing up a lot of stuff. Back when I got hired You had to do several test before you got hired. Now al these temps have to do is pass a drug test and add 2 + 2 and they have a job.
BMW isn't exactly laying people off in SC but they are hiring these temps paying them a whole lot less with no benefits.

LexFather

Insightful, thanks! Must be due to demand...

UDel

Mercedes cars had problems long before the ML was built in the U.S. Also the ML may have shared some parts with the CLK but it was a totally different vehicle and most of the peices were unique to that vehicle. The CLK has also received very poor reliability ratings from consumer reports and is not recommend and does not hold its value well, it does not have a good reputation at all and it is no shinning star compared to the ML. My cousin had a ML and it was absolute crap but it had nothing to do with the workers who put it together, the engine had problems and eventually had to be replaced as it burned too much oil, the electronics and 4wd system had constant problems, the buttons and switches were just cheap feeling and many did not operate properly all because it was poorly engineered and built cheaply. Luckily he got rid of it before things got too bad. The dealer/mechanics never told him the problems were the result of it being put together wrong, everything was from faulty design and engineering.

When people have problems with cars it is rarely the fault of the people screwing it together. In all my years of owning cars and knowing people who have owned cars I have never once heard them say they were told or knew the problem with their car had to do with the way it was put together. Our window motor in our 87 accord did not die out after 10 years because of the people who put it together but was a mechanical failure, my grandmothers Bonneville alternator constantly failing, starter dying, and electronics going haywire and paint peeling and seats and dash fading and falling apart had nothing to do with the people who put the car together, it was cheap crappy materials and poor design, my Eclipse transmission failure and engine failure and overheating problems were not the results of the autoworkers putting the car together but poor design and engineering, my uncles grand prix needing 3 GM3800 engines and 2 transmissions and all the speakers blowing and the cheap fabric seats falling apart, radio eating discs and not working had nothing to do with the people putting the car together, it was poor design/engineering and subpar materials and parts, my GS430 doorlock actuator failure, moisture in the headlights, rough idle, suspension squeeks, possible ball joint issues/failure are not the result of the autoworkers putting the car together but known design defects and poor engineering. Even if there was a problem with someone building the car like missing a bolt or not tightening it enough it is easily and cheaply fixed as opposed to very expensive design and engineering issues that leave your car inopperable.

I have worked off and on at a GM car plant for a couple years and I can tell you it is extremely rare that you can screw up and get away with it. Everything is torqued to a certain specification and there is little you can do to make a mistake. Everything is checked and rechecked down the line and when the car is finished. If someone made a mistake it is easily seen and corrected. Most people there take alot of pride in their jobs and the majority do not fit the lazy dumb stereotype, many of the people who work their have college educations.

British and Italian cars were two or the most horrible cars you could possible own reliability wise as they always had problems and literaly fell apart as you drove them. Does that mean that English and Italian autoworkers are dumber and lazier then American auto workers or was it a product of their shotty designs and poor engineering and horible electronics and cheap parts. It does not matter how motivated or smart your auto workers are, if you give them a badly designed car with cheap crappy parts that car is not going to be reliable or well built and is going to give the owner and company problems.

You can't have Hondas, Toyotas, Acuras, etc models that are known for being extremely reliable and some of the best made cars you can buy being made by American workers and then say when American workers build things they are usaully not good because American workers are inferior. Look at the Lexus ES and GS. They are not made in America yet are having a bunch of problems, a version of the GS was even put on the not recommended list by consumer reports and the new ES will probrably be put on the not rec. list too soon. Many American made Buick models are very highly rated and are being recognized for being well made and trouble free. German, British, and Italian cars have been having serious reliability/quality problems for years so it has nothing to do with "lazy" american autoworkers, it is the design engineering of the cars and the suppliers of parts that equal bad cars.

Companies choose to make cars where it is the cheapest and most convenient for them not whether they think the workers are inferior or superior. That is why GM is moving many plants to Mexico and Canada because it is less expensive. That is why Japanese companies and European companies have plants in America because it costs less then to have thousands shipped over here from their countries. That is also why Japanese or American companies do not have plants in Europe because of the extreme high cost of building cars over there.

Hyundia also made some of the crappiest cars you could buy because that is the way they were designed and engineered, now they build some of the most reliable cars you can buy and have been receiving alot of praise, this is from the same people in the same country in the same plants who once built horrible cars now build very good cars. It is because Hyundai chose to design and engineer their cars much better and to higher standards, it had nothing to do with the people who put the cars together.