Advice, Buying a Truck

[Lawman]

Don't know much about Cerberus, but if this is true, can't say its the best thing to happen to Detroit... Lawman, please give us the down-low.



http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/24/news/companies/pluggedin_taylor_cerberus.fortune/index.htm

Simple reason for it being good is because as Daimler Chrysler the company was being constantly screwed over by the big wigs in Germany that had no time or patients to understand the very different way that American Manufacturers operate when compaired to European ones. Add that to the fact that Chrysler was basically forced to accept a lower standard of design in order to not compete with the Daimler Benz buying market and you get a lot of loss to brand value. Americans didnt care that Chrysler was owned by and therefor a part of Mercedes what they saw was that Chryslers werent that good (because of forced lowballing) and then the brand its self lowered in value to the buyer. Cerberus making the company a private entity drastically cuts down the cost of bueracratic nonsense thats why we cut those jobs so fast. You dont have to have a massed shareholders meeting with lots of imput and other garbage while you are bleeding money out your ears, you can just get the CEO's together and vote on it and be done with it. We went from 8 vehicles on the list of possible cuts to 4 confirmed cuts in a matter of about 7 weeks. That process could take up to a model year or even two in any other company (remember how long the F-body deal took).

Could Cerberus sell the company off at a later date, sure they could. It wouldnt be the first time an Auto company changes hands in ownership. But right now the company is doing nothing but getting better. We're not going for market share totals, were going for gross profits per vehicle sold, something a lot of the other guys have sacrificed.

 

[Herc_Dude]

Great insight Lawman, thanks for putting things in clearer terms. Look forward to seeing what happens over the next few years.

 

[xj220]

There are certainly going to be a lot of exciting things coming out of Detroit very soon. From GM, the new Malibu and G8 are certainly worth looking at and Ford's Taurus is certainly a very nice car.

 

[OneBadSSS]

IMHO, buy Japanese if you want a car, but buy American if you want a truck. My dad and I are Chevy truck guys through and through (he has an '02 Z71 silverado and I have an '03 Z71) but my first car was an '86 Toyota Camry and my Mom drives an '01 Accord and my sis drives a '98 Civic. All of our family's Japanese cars had/have 100K+ miles on them and run good as new and continue to be well cared for.

My dad bought his Z71 brand new, changes the oil religiously @ 3K with Mobil1 Synthetic and is always on top of the maintenance schedules. His truck now has 95K miles on it and the only things hes had to replace are tires, brake pads and shocks! My I bought my Z71 with 59K on the clock and I have had no problems with it in the 4K miles I've put on it since! I even had the truck independently inspected and certified by Auto Critic before I bought it and the inspector said he couldn't find anything wrong with the truck other than the tires needed to be rotated!!

 

[HeloBubba]

IMHO, buy Japanese if you want a car, but buy American if you want a truck.

I second this opinion. In my family all cars are Honda. A mix of Accords, Civics, and Odyssey vans over the years. Our trucks are Dodge.

 

[Random8145]

Simple reason for it being good is because as Daimler Chrysler the company was being constantly screwed over by the big wigs in Germany that had no time or patients to understand the very different way that American Manufacturers operate when compaired to European ones. Add that to the fact that Chrysler was basically forced to accept a lower standard of design in order to not compete with the Daimler Benz buying market and you get a lot of loss to brand value. Americans didnt care that Chrysler was owned by and therefor a part of Mercedes what they saw was that Chryslers werent that good (because of forced lowballing) and then the brand its self lowered in value to the buyer. Cerberus making the company a private entity drastically cuts down the cost of bueracratic nonsense thats why we cut those jobs so fast. You dont have to have a massed shareholders meeting with lots of imput and other garbage while you are bleeding money out your ears, you can just get the CEO's together and vote on it and be done with it. We went from 8 vehicles on the list of possible cuts to 4 confirmed cuts in a matter of about 7 weeks. That process could take up to a model year or even two in any other company (remember how long the F-body deal took).

Could Cerberus sell the company off at a later date, sure they could. It wouldnt be the first time an Auto company changes hands in ownership. But right now the company is doing nothing but getting better. We're not going for market share totals, were going for gross profits per vehicle sold, something a lot of the other guys have sacrificed.

That's really interesting, I had always thought Chrysler vehicles would have higher quality due to being owned by Daimler. Didn't know they purposely prevented this.

I can say I am glad that Daimler doesn't own Chrysler for the simple reason that I found it incredibly ironic that the Jeep brand, the vehicle which was legendary in helping America defeat Germany during WWII, was now owned by one of the very companies that supplied the German military with equipment during WWII (I think). Though I read the Ford Motor Company also secretly supplied the Nazis with tanks during WWII as well, yet the Ford F-150 is an iconic symbol of American freedom, so who knows. Strange ironies!

 

[Lawman]

That's really interesting, I had always thought Chrysler vehicles would have higher quality due to being owned by Daimler. Didn't know they purposely prevented this.

Dont get me wrong here, Chrysler got some great R&D from working with the Kraut's. The LX platform (300, Magnum, Charger) is basically designed off of the previous Mercedes E class and the Pacifica is on a platform designed by Mercedes (which is why its being axed). Just that a lot of cars were forced to have less features or that good concepts were shelved if not completely killed by Daimler because they stepped too far outside of a buyer catagory.

 

[xj220]

Actually, Mercedes is just recently pulling out of a quality slump. VW is also having it's own fair share of issues and even Toyota is dealing with quality problems. Just recently they've had several recalls out for their SUVs and trucks. Their rapid expansion is starting to hurt them a bit.

 

[Lawman]

Actually, Mercedes is just recently pulling out of a quality slump. VW is also having it's own fair share of issues and even Toyota is dealing with quality problems. Just recently they've had several recalls out for their SUVs and trucks. Their rapid expansion is starting to hurt them a bit.

We wont take VW's on trade because of the problems they have been having and the massive drop in their retail value.

 

[Random8145]

I've heard of Toyota's problems, and of Mercedes's, however I didn't know of VW's. An interesting thing I was reading is many complain that the current Cadillacs, while great cars, don't have the kind of luxury interiors of the caliber of the Mercedes, but they say that technically right now the Caddies have a superior build quality to the Mercedes.

Sorry to here they're axing the Pacifica, IMO, along with Cadillac, Chrysler has the most stylish cars and trucks on the road.

I fear that if gas prices keep going up, they might kill off what could be a true Golden Age of the automobile. The current vehicle selection is far better than what we had in the 80s IMO, but it could be even better I think.