How good is the camry !!Read This article
#1
09-07-2006, 05:30 PM
How good is the camry !!Read This article
Test Drive: Toyota Camry Hybrid Shows Detroit How it Ought to be Done
Sept. 02, 2006: Texarkana Gazette</SPAN>
Summary: Note to GM, Ford, and Chrysler: You’re toast.
The American automakers this week looked down, scuffed their collective shoe on the floor and finally admitted that, um, the days of cheap gas really are in the past.
The only surprise here is the length of Detroit’s fantastic journey through the land of denial. It included countless sunny proclamations that all would be well with a product mix that relies heavily on hefty profit margins from beefy pickups and sport utilities, and sub rosa attacks on the algorithms used to compute the value of hybrid technology.
It was Chrysler chief executive Thomas W. LaSorda who nailed the bill of particulars on the church door, letting it slip that internal marketing analysis puts the price of gas in the $3 to $4 range for the auto industry’s foreseeable future—the next decade.
> Read Full Story
Sept. 02, 2006: Texarkana Gazette</SPAN>
Summary: Note to GM, Ford, and Chrysler: You’re toast.
The American automakers this week looked down, scuffed their collective shoe on the floor and finally admitted that, um, the days of cheap gas really are in the past.
The only surprise here is the length of Detroit’s fantastic journey through the land of denial. It included countless sunny proclamations that all would be well with a product mix that relies heavily on hefty profit margins from beefy pickups and sport utilities, and sub rosa attacks on the algorithms used to compute the value of hybrid technology.
It was Chrysler chief executive Thomas W. LaSorda who nailed the bill of particulars on the church door, letting it slip that internal marketing analysis puts the price of gas in the $3 to $4 range for the auto industry’s foreseeable future—the next decade.
> Read Full Story
#2
09-07-2006, 05:55 PM
Re: How good is the camry !!Read This article
I love this quote:
Case in point, the 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid, which has to be the best $25,900 car in the history of the universe.
#5
09-07-2006, 06:35 PM
Re: How good is the camry !!Read This article
Originally Posted by JOE540CI
And I love this quote : Summary: Note to GM, Ford, and Chrysler: You’re toast. -PS Ive been a chevy guy my whole life,till now
#8
09-08-2006, 08:50 AM
Re: How good is the camry !!Read This article
I gotta admit, our new TCH is the finest automobile we've owned. We are consistantly averaging above 38 MPG and that during our short, around town trips. It's quiet, well-made, and the Hybrid system is seamless and brilliantly executed.
My other car is a big GMC truck. I've reached a karmic balance...
My other car is a big GMC truck. I've reached a karmic balance...
#9
09-09-2006, 05:54 PM
Re: How good is the camry !!Read This article
Originally Posted by CSG
I gotta admit, our new TCH is the finest automobile we've owned. We are consistantly averaging above 38 MPG and that during our short, around town trips. It's quiet, well-made, and the Hybrid system is seamless and brilliantly executed.
My other car is a big GMC truck. I've reached a karmic balance...
My other car is a big GMC truck. I've reached a karmic balance...
#10
09-18-2006, 06:35 PM
Re: How good is the camry !!Read This article
Why is it that American automakers so stubbornly cling to a strategy that is doomed to fail?
I have a theory. I read somewhere that the Big Three's highest market shares are in the Midwest and the South...and that they have about half of that on the coasts. Perhaps the minds and hearts of those making the decisions are in the Red states. Maybe the leaders of the Big Three view the entire country from their own unique perspective, and that worldview regards California, Seattle, Boston, Minneapolis, Baltimore etc. as not a part of "Real America" where people like their SUVs and trucks made of lots of iron.
General frame of reference is another thing. Auto execs in their 50's probably grew up at a time when their favorite cars were Mustangs, Dodge Challengers and other muscle vehicles. Just like some people think the best music made was they listened to as high school seniors or college students, maybe these auto execs think that "quality cars" mean the ones they wanted when they were young...and they assume everyone else wants the same kind of cars today.
How else to explain Bill Ford announcing a goal of 25 percent of Fords as hybrids, only to abandon that pledge in a few months as his company continues to sink? Americans continue to vote with their checkbooks, making Toyota #1 because Toyota makes what they want and need. And our Big Three Marie Antoinettes huff and say "let them eat gas guzzlers" while they wait in vain for a return of the days of cheap gas, high markups and Steppenwolf on the radio.
Those days are gone.
I have a theory. I read somewhere that the Big Three's highest market shares are in the Midwest and the South...and that they have about half of that on the coasts. Perhaps the minds and hearts of those making the decisions are in the Red states. Maybe the leaders of the Big Three view the entire country from their own unique perspective, and that worldview regards California, Seattle, Boston, Minneapolis, Baltimore etc. as not a part of "Real America" where people like their SUVs and trucks made of lots of iron.
General frame of reference is another thing. Auto execs in their 50's probably grew up at a time when their favorite cars were Mustangs, Dodge Challengers and other muscle vehicles. Just like some people think the best music made was they listened to as high school seniors or college students, maybe these auto execs think that "quality cars" mean the ones they wanted when they were young...and they assume everyone else wants the same kind of cars today.
How else to explain Bill Ford announcing a goal of 25 percent of Fords as hybrids, only to abandon that pledge in a few months as his company continues to sink? Americans continue to vote with their checkbooks, making Toyota #1 because Toyota makes what they want and need. And our Big Three Marie Antoinettes huff and say "let them eat gas guzzlers" while they wait in vain for a return of the days of cheap gas, high markups and Steppenwolf on the radio.
Those days are gone.
