Now that Toyota seems to be ahead of GM in sales,?

the question has come up, are the unions to blame. Were the unions credited when GM and Ford were ahead in sales? And are over payed salary positions as damaging as union wages? Or are we just hunting a scape goat and have found one in the workers?

Now that Toyota seems to be ahead of GM in sales,?

NO... i think GM%26#039;s quality that lead to a bad rating with JD power and Consumer report is the one to Blame.

Yes, Toyota%26#039;s quality has degraded, i drove both, but their product are still way better than GM with the same price MSRP.

check this out

http://s152.photobucket.com/albums/s175/...

if you hate toyota or GM supporter, but, understand one thing, GM%26#039;s quality in History last decade brought them to their critical rating by reports.

Yeah... check the news about Toyota has this many recalls this yr and honda has that. But those article never reports how many recall out of how many sales from each co. to let us compare.

Now that Toyota seems to be ahead of GM in sales,?

Nah, unions aren%26#039;t the main culprit in this. Alot of was a period called the %26#039;80%26#039;s. The big three spent so much time chasing the japanese cars in economy and size, but not cheapened their quality, that for most of the 90%26#039;s they had to not just keep their diehards, but try to win over converts, by putting money into research and development.

The fuel crisis of the 70%26#039;s had a big effect. Toyota and Honda weren%26#039;t just making small cars, but they were doing it with a different approach. The 80%26#039;s also brought about a change in American culture...in other words, we wanted (and still do) not just luxury, but fuel economy, practicality, and to be different from our neighbors...all at the same time. Our big three were a little slow on those points.

This is not to say that unions and management of the automakers aren%26#039;t to blame. Again as Americans, we feel like we can have it all...if we feel we deserve it, why not try to get it. The presidents and CEO%26#039;s have gotten nice comp packages...whether they did good or not. Unions want not just a safe workplace, but one with good amenities. If you want a better example of this, look to alot of our friends on the other side of the Atlantic...the French have 35 hour workweeks (and they want shorter ones). When was the last time Citroens, Renaults (Yeah, I know they own Nissan) and Peugeots were world renowned names?

Now that Toyota seems to be ahead of GM in sales,?

Totota imports half of the cars they sell in US,and because Toyota and the Japan government work together to keep the Yen undervalued they make an extra $4500 average on every vehicle imported.How can the US automakers compete with that?

Now that Toyota seems to be ahead of GM in sales,?

seems that wages are a small amount of the cost of the vehicle.

The design department needs a swift kick in the butt. Variety should be the issue. Chrysler is still trying with the PT Cruiser, but the others? Not since the late 60%26#039;s(Camaro,Mustang, Challenger, Charger, Cuda,. Javelin) days the excitement of the US car has been to own one. Now they all look the same.

Quality shouldn%26#039;t be an issue anymore. After 100 years of building them they should have got the bugs all out. But they haven%26#039;t. They were starting to train the people to trade in their cars for new ones after 4 years for a new model.

There once was a time when the advertising was%26quot;a car you can give to your kids and they to their kids%26quot;. Not anymore. Cars were breaking down and rusting out faster than ever before.

Add a little bit of electronics, and they add several thousand to the cost of a car.

The foreign cars offer a variety of looks and sizes between the various foreign companies. So there is a choice that is distinctive.

And we all want to be distinctive. More power, less power, lots of room and not, agile and not, sharp looking and weird, functional and useless.

The foreign builders are showing that cars can be built better. VW showed that when it first showed up in the west coast(mainly English cars that leaked oil and always broke down) while this Bug looking car just chugged along summer and winter. People took notice. The rest is history.

So you are seeing history repeat itself.