Comments on: Episode 258 – Ford & UAW At Odds, Honda Triples Forecast, Brazil’s Energy Policy

By: Keith

Keith — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:08:50 +0000

Ford should get rid of its union ties. Its time to move on, there is no reason to do what the union wants anymore. It is time to start building cars in Michigan without union “assistance”. Its time to stop doing what the union wants. There are plenty of capable non-union people with the abilties to build great automobiles, in fact the cars may turn out better. In the past, all of our “union” familiy members in Michigan really got the short end when Ford cut back on the number of employees a few years ago. The union still demanded all its dues while these folks where laid off. These folks where caught having to pay the union first and not having enough money for day to day expenses. This forced the many of these families into bankruptcy – oh thank you Mr. Unionn for watching out for us!!

By: Alex Zauder

Alex Zauder — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:12:04 +0000

the energy industry here in the US knows exactly what to do to become independent from middle east oil exporting countries. Our rabid environmental establishment howesver seems to control democratic party thinking about climate change (note, not temperature increase any more) and imposes extreme environmental considerations that make no sense on our energy policy, which results in no policy.

By: Jim Sachetti

Jim Sachetti — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:50:50 +0000

http://www.autoextremist.com/

Our own Mr. Autorextremist exposes the UAW’s utterly disgraceful behavior recently in his today’s main editorial.

By: dcars

dcars — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:44:57 +0000

Give backs are tough and hurt in regular people’s pockets. The automotive industry has changed and giving in to union’s demands has left the US Automotive industry in shambles.

It appears that companies like VW, M&B and Porsche are out sourcing the manufacturing portion of building cars and retaining the engineering and design side. The UAW’s membership does not appear to want any changes in the way they have done business; yet, they might get forced to change in a very unpleasant way.
The Unions have done a lot of good things in the past, but its future might need more consideration.

By: Nick Stevens

Nick Stevens — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:08:52 +0000

These are very strange results, Porsches are up there but do not have a good rep for reliability, they used to be far below BMW and MErc. Same with Saab and Mitsu. A lot of these companies do not sell many cars, so the data could be statistically meaningless if their samples are too small (Saab, Merc, Porsche, even Mitsu)

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:13:28 +0000

Its interesting that Ford is 16 but Lincoln is 20 and there are the same cars and trucks and Mercury is is 10? I dont know about that at least Mini and BMW are side by side as they should be. And Mitsubishi in the near the top? I just wonder if the scoring was very close all the way down because some of this seams to be out of line

By: Jim Sachetti

Jim Sachetti — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:45:59 +0000

Actually, FOrd is barely above average above. The article I read was far more enthusiastic than the actual rankings. Ford is nowhere near Honda or Toyota, but still is much better than the Welfare Queens GM and Chrysler.

By: Jim Sachetti

Jim Sachetti — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:44:20 +0000

“# Pedro Fernandez Says:
October 27th, 2009 at 3:57 pm

You can sit there and criticize Brazil’s energy policy all you want, the fact remains they have become energy independent and we ‘re still at the mercy of OPEC, where most of its members hate our guts, and would harm us if they could.”

OPEC hates the US, it does not hate Brazil. Therefore, according to your own criteria above, Brazil’s econ policy makes zero sense.

I am 100% in favor of breaking OPEC’s back, and we have FOUR Saudi Arabias in unconventional oils to extact, that will last us for ever at our current decreasingf rate of consumption. No need to meeddle with the stupid ethanol, which is just another multi-billion GM -Chrysler rescue Govt subsidy program.

Canada already produces millions of barrels a day from its oil sands, it will end up makign FOUR mill barrels a day from them, while we have far vast-er amounts of oil in oil shales and are sitting on our ignorant butts.

By: Jim Sachetti

Jim Sachetti — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:39:06 +0000

As a forced US investor in two auto companies, it pains me that my tax dollars are propping up the bottom half of the Consumer Reports list, and NONE of my investments made the top half.

COngrats to Ford who has been making progress and now is almost on par with the best from Japan. No wonder they are not picking my pocket, like GM and Chr does!

Hot off the press: Best to worst brand list:

1. Scion

2. Honda

3. Toyota

4. Infiniti

5. Acura

6. Mitsubishi

7. Lexus

8. Hyundai

9. Porsche

10. Mercury

11. Saab

12.Subaru

13. Suzuki

14. Kia

15. Mazda

16. Ford

— Middle —

17. Nissan

18. Volvo

19. Buick

20. Lincoln

21. Volkswagen

22. Pontiac

23. Mercedes-Benz

24. Audi

25. Chevrolet

26. BMW

27. Mini

28. GMC

29. Saturn

30. Jeep

31. Dodge

32. Cadillac

33. Chrysler

By: Don J

Don J — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:26:44 +0000

I kind of understand where the ford employees are coming from when I heard a local UAW president say, let Alan Mullaly take a concession comparable to what the leaders of GM and Chrysler are making if he expects the rank and file to do so.

By: FrankCanada

FrankCanada — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:55:51 +0000

What about Italian engineers. Fiat is #1 in Brazil. You have it in for them don’t you John. Go Chryco!

By: C-tech

C-tech — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:39:37 +0000

With all the UAW bashing I wonder if you guys heard what was said? The Leadership of the UAW has been out front trying to partner with Ford, while some members are dragging feet (Gotta love democracy!). Who is out there selling the plan and educating the rank and file? By the way, transplant employees should thank the UAW for the benefits they receive, after all Honda, Hundai, and Toyota wouldn’t be so generous WITHOUT the threat of a union.

By: Pedro Fernandez

Pedro Fernandez — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:00:28 +0000

The UAW is being stupid and shortsighted, if they continue in their present course, Ford will just move more and more production out of the US, into Mexico, for example and then we’ll see who the UAW is going to represent when all the assembly jobs leave this country, I suppose with Obama’s help, they’ll try to get the transplants into the union too.

By: Art DesJardins

Art DesJardins — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:32:25 +0000

Unfortunately the UAW has been short sighted before and caused a large portion of the problems regarding the cost of building American cars and trucks. If they think that a short term gain by not giving Ford the same deal as they gave GM and Chrysler will benifit anyone, then they are blind to the big picture of the future of the industry. If they want to lose more jobs and members of their union due to cutbacks that will be inevitable if costs are too great to compete, then they will only have themselves to blame. The industry needs a fresh start without the legacy costs that have crippled them for the last few decades that have been directly the result of the demands of the unions. Don’t screw up the progress in making American cars competitive with the rest of the world by thinking in the past. Make a level playing field work for a brighter future for the American aautomobile industry.

By: Pedro Fernandez

Pedro Fernandez — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:57:49 +0000