Fiat came to america several years ago with junk cars, and they are now making a resurgence in the sub-compact market, I would call that a re-tool in the "American market."
...resurgence? I have yet to see a Fiat on the road around here. And when you're starting at the bottom, it's easy to make numbers look good. For example (not actual numbers), let's say a brand only sold 1000 cars a year ago, and this year, it sold 3000 cars. On paper, this translates to "Fiat increases sales by 300%!" Mathematically, this is correct and sounds pretty damn impressive by anyone's standards. However, when you look at what the actual statistics are, not so impressive. Though it's too early to tell how they'll fare in the long run, Fiat is pretty far from a resurgence at this point.
One more argument I would like to see refuted...GM only kept GMC around because they can rebadge the Silverado line for little overhead making them HUGELY profitable. That's the only reason GMC outsold any of the other GM lines besides Chevy.
How is that an argument? GMs are almost ALL rebadged, period, so why would you only point out GMC? What do you think a-body, or f-body, or w-body, or h-body, or n-body, or j-body, etc platform is referring to? Same cars with slightly different skins and slightly different features being sold under different badges. This has been their recipe for a few decades. See, this is what I'm talking about. You come in like you have this great point to make, and then you make a statement that is completely void of any logic or thought. The only way someone can make erroneous statements of this magnitude is if, again, as I suggested several times, your sense of logic and reason are being blinded by your love for Pontiac, or if you are one serious dumbass. I'll let you make the distinction.
I can buy a brand new Dodge Ram, with Hemi for less than $25,000, look up the Dodge express line, Regular cab, short bed. Dodge wanted to make their trucks accessible to blue collar workers
Well that's very nice of them, but a Silverado 1500 regular cab STANDARD bed can be had with the option of the 5.3L VVT Vortec Flexfuel V8 for just under $24k (most expensive motor offered, cheaper V8s available).
And nothing that chevy makes besides the Aveo, I would consider cheap by any standards..
Chevy doesn't make the Aveo anymore. That was announced almost 2 years ago. It was replaced by the Sonic, which starts at $14k. The Cruze starts at $17k and the Malibu starts at $22k. That's more than reasonable for what those cars are.
Chevy cars are still between $25-30,000 new, how are they affordable?
No offense, but if $25k for a car strikes you as unreasonable or unaffordable, you need to get a bit more ambitious with your job/career, or you're still stuck in the value of the dollar from the '90s. At the very least, you're in no financial position to have helped Pontiac stay alive.
Cadillac between $40-100,000. Hence, the 2012 Pontiac Grand Prix, restyled..$20,000 for a well equipped.
....aaaaaand you just illustrated why American car companies make better cars for the overseas market than they do right here at home: Because AMERICANS ARE CHEAP! They SAY they want quality, but they don't want to pay for it. $20k this day and age for a brand new, well equipped mid-sized car??? Smoke crack much? So basically, you want a brand new, well built, well equipped, mid-sized car for the price of a 2 or 3 year old used car. That's your brilliant formula for saving Pontiac? This is how they could have avoided failing in your book? Definitely not a math or business major, ARE you? And I thought
GM had some morons running the company.
My first car was an '86 Pontiac 6000 STE which still had the original sticker in the glove box. That car, equipped with dual power seats, stickered for over $16k. That's 26 YEARS AGO! My current GTP, fully loaded with the addition of SE appearance package retailed for over $29k, and that was 11 years ago! As txslow6 pointed out, if you actually do the math on inflation, cars today are CHEAPER than they would have been for a comparable car in the economy of past eras. If today's prices strike you as expensive, the problem has more to do with your lack of sufficient income than it does with the price of the cars. It is not the job or corporations to lower their prices on their products so that everyone of every level of status and income can afford those products. It's on you to make more of yourself so that you can provide the means to obtain those products.
