Stick a Fork in the US Auto Industry

Honestly, I was concerned about that. But, I made sure the loads I do need to haul fall within the acceptable towing weight range. My boat and its trailer are pushing the upper limit, but considering I only trailer it twice a year, it'll work. Everything else can either go in the small camper or the small enclosed trailer I have. Seriously, aside from groceries, there's nothing I haul regularly enough to matter. I can easily get my hunting gear or enough supplies for a full day at the range in the cargo area.

The mileage difference between the Mazda 2 and Mazda 3 just isn't that great, but the difference in the comfort and noise level was off the charts. The only car that I've driven at the super compact level that I found comfortable was the Chevy Sonic. Not great, but the best of the ones that I've come across. The Chrysler 200 flat out sucked. I figure the super compacts are going to be marketable in places where the streets are narrow, the passengers are tiny and gas prices are sky high.
I believe the suuper compacts were pretty much there to boost fleet mpg ratings. Now that those are being loosened and the bigger car mpgs are pretty damn close to the smaller ones, it just makes sense to cut back. Of course, it's still amusing to hear people who went for relative gas guzzlers when prices were low whine when prices go up. It's like "no one ever told me prices could go up, too!"

I know it's just not practical in many places, but I think every business should consider a bunk room with showers and a set of bunk beds or at least a cot in case of emergency. Back in 2014, before I joined the organization, two of our ladies got caught in the "Snowpocalypse" and couldn't get home. The roads were impassable. They were stuck at work 16 hours until someone could get to them.

My last job had showers, which was really great.

My current office building has quite a few places where people can sleep in the event they can't get home because of weather or job demands. The commercial edit suites all have pretty comfortable couches in them and are in a fairly isolated part of the building.

Ha ha, @Ancalagon liked my post, this confirming that he thinks I’m intelligent and fiscally responsible.

My current job has showers. I used them during Bike to Work month a couple years back. Gonna try it again this year.

While not officially a bunk room, my old unit (male only at the time) was in a Company HQ designed for a mixed gender unit. I had a cot hidden in one of the womens' showers. Nice, dark and cool in there. Perfect for napping.

Honestly, MINI is not nearly as commuter-friendly as you'd think. Mine's a 2015 Cooper S, I've traveled an average of 30 miles for work and I have to fill up about every ten days.

Doesn't cost much since the tank's so small, just irritating because the previous gen MINI Cooper S had a 13.2 liter tank that was entirely a fluke to the American model. MINI didn't realize what had happened until the service advisors reported how long the gas was lasting for a 10 gallon gas tank!

Honestly, for fuel economy and you need to go from point A to point B, I'd gowith a low end Prius or a Honda. VW is basically the Chrysler of German autos and I took in far too many on trade that went catawompus after 60k miles.

Honestly, MINI is not nearly as commuter-friendly as you'd think. Mine's a 2015 Cooper S, I've traveled an average of 30 miles for work and I have to fill up about every ten days.

Doesn't cost much since the tank's so small, just irritating because the previous gen MINI Cooper S had a 13.2 liter tank that was entirely a fluke to the American model. MINI didn't realize what had happened until the service advisors reported how long the gas was lasting for a 10 gallon gas tank!

Honestly, for fuel economy and you need to go from point A to point B, I'd gowith a low end Prius or a Honda. VW is basically the Chrysler of German autos and I took in far too many on trade that went catawompus after 60k miles.

Friend of mine wanted to take her car on a trip to Vegas, and I was like

Um

I have a MINI :|

I only had to fill uponce, when he were fifteen minutes out from our hotel

You asked for it. You got it.

Yeah Anna's post really has me thinking Honda as a good car for my son (he totaled his Kia about a week ago). He wants something small (he's single and.....small) so no need for anything big. Definitely 2 door versus 4 door, maybe something in a hatchback for carrying his film gear with quick loading/unloading, if Honda makes a hatchback. I've heard a lot of good things from several folks over the last few days who know more about the pros & cons of cars than I (or my son) do.
Toyota of course is two thumbs up for dependability! Right now his insurance company rental is a Camry but it's way too big for a permanent car.
As for VW being the Chrysler of German cars I must have gotten lucky because my 2010 Beetle is still running great after 140K miles. My Jetta lease is that's for sure! Five months now and it still has that "new car" smell too.

True, and I think part of that might be the lack of styling and innovation in the industry. I've ridden in a mid-2000's Audi TT and a late-model Dodge Dakota. In terms of performance, the TT beats the Dakota, of course, but in terms of fit and finish of the interior, as well as ride comfort, the two of them are about equal, and the interiors looked damned near identical. And the styling of most cars today is rather bland. Tesla's are about the most interesting looking cars out there, and even then, their designs aren't earthshattering.

Yup. Stationwagons and minivans are seen as "old people's" vehicles, so not really popular with most people. Large hatchback cars have never sold well in the US, for some reason. In the early '70s, you could get a Nova hatchback, and those things looked really fucking weird.

Maybe. When the gas prices spiked the last time, there was a lot of talk about relaxing US auto regulations because the small cars built for the European and Asian markets couldn't pass the safety regulations in the US. I don't know how many of Fords non-US models could pass safety regulations.

It's funny how, despite working on hybrids and pure electrics for a while now, the only one produced by the Big 3 that had any kind of loyal following like the Prius has, was GM's EV-1. Which hasn't been made in decades.

Partially correct. Ford was in dire financial straits, prior to Bill Ford taking over. The automotive press was filled with speculation as to how long the company would be around, and if they were going to need a Chrysler-style bailout before Ford took over. At the time Mulaley took over Ford, the opinion of the automotive press was that Ford hadn't really been able to do much to turn the company around, and they were uncertain as to how Mulaley would do.

But they showed up with GM and Chrysler when they asked for money, because even though Ford wasn't broke (thanks to all the loans they'd secured a few years before the collapse), they weren't in such good financial shape that they didn't have to worry. Also, unlike Chrysler and GM, Ford was able to sell some of its underperforming brands for a considerable chunk of change, instead of shutting them down. (Had Chrysler not been looted by Mercedes before being sold off to Cerebus, they might not have been in such bad shape when the collapse hit. GM was just batshit with what they were doing.)

The crucial issues are going to be what happens with gas prices and self-driving car technology. Ford is going to have to be extremely nimble for an automaker if gas prices spike before they've got either self-driving cars or decent electric vehicles on the market.

Yep, Jeeps generally do not get good gas mileage.

Tuckerfan, wrt hatchbacks never catching on in the US... It is probably my why several European automakers failed out of the US market in the 1970's and 1980's. In Europe hatchbacks were just considered good designs and efficient uses of space where as in the US they were associated with cheapness and lack of quality.

Growing up one of my neighbors had one of these:

https://www.google.com/search?q=rov...8#imgdii=T798zynJ7iX1nM:&imgrc=t4cwMbLW3SHpQM:

He would brag about its European origin and that it must be a luxury car as it has a V-8 but inevitably people would point out it was a hatchback and no wonder Rover as a brand failed out of the US. I can remember another neighbor telling him "You could buy a Ford Pinto hatchback with a V-8 as well but only idiots ever bought them."

The key metrics I consider when buying a car is mpg & projected resale value after 5 years. Honda & Toyota have this on lock unfortunately. I'd really like to get an electric car one day when battery and recharge stations get more... feasible.

Tesla's already there. Everyone else is basically playing catch-up.

Tesla's big problem is its cash burn rate and the fact that it has really great fancy engineering. Wait, isn't that last part a good thing? Yes and no, but, for selling mass market vehicles having designs which are easy to assemble quickly, using the lowest possible number of inputs and commodities sure helps the bottom line as margins get thin. Tesla didn't do that with the Model 3 so it ended up with a model that was way too complex, way too hard to build, too heavy, and too costly. You can't fix that after the fact without a significant redesign which is extremely expensive.

It is a great car by all reports but there are big questions about if it will be profitable or not. If they do well enough for long enough to make it to a redesign period in four or five years then I suspect we will see a completely different and more main stream (as far as engineering goes) product.

Good man.

A really good complete tear down of a Model 3. The engineering is good, the electronics are best in the industry but where Tesla is falling down is the traditional stuff car makers are supposed to have nailed down decades ago. The not high tech day to day stuff manufacturers need to have squared away. Also there are some newbie design mistakes.

As a Car Doctor, I can say the Big Three has been hemorrhaging money in the passenger car market for years. They make trash, compared to Toyota, Honda, Mazda, hell, even Hyundai and Kia. If you've ever seen a brand new Jeep Libery, with 7000 miles on it, with a serious rear main seal leak, or a fresh off the lot Chevy Trailblazers shift knob come off in your hand, or an S10 Blazer randomly burst into flames while you're greasing the suspension........you'll know what I'm talking about.

Crossover have most of the benefits of an SUV (height, room, styling) along with fuel economy and prices closer to that of a car. That's why they have been eating up both the car market and the soccer mom/dad SUV market.

I guess what I have been struggling to articulate is that while people see Crossovers as SUVs due to their height, room and styling they are more accurately station wagon/hatchbacks. Front wheel drive, unibody construction, built on car platforms.

The American Fiesta isn't actually going away, just the name and sedan version. The B3 platform will live on in the EcoSport.

The American Focus isn't actually going away, just the sedan version. The hatchback version will live on as the Focus Active.

The American Fusion isn't actually going away, just the name and sedan version. The CD3 platform will live on in the Edge.

The American Taurus isn't actually going away, just the name and sedan version. The D4 platform will live on in the Flex.

In the US, Ford is doing very well with its trucks and crossovers. Not so well with sedans, aside from the Mustang. So they are pulling out of a business they don't have an advantage in to focus on futureproofing ones they do (by focusing on R&D). Yes it is a gamble, but not as big as it seems on the surface. Especially when you remember that Crossovers are just tall hatchbacks and station wagons and not the SUVs they are styled to look like.

My absolute priority on a vehicle is reliability and robustness. I want a vehicle to go as many years as possible before having any kind of mechanical (engine, transmission) or electrical problem that actually requires a mechanic to correct.

Here in the DC area, I know from seeing it every winter that people are buying crossovers and expecting them to be as capable as SUVs. A lot of them wind up in the ditch every time it snows. I wave cheerily from the Mighty Jeep as I roll past in 4WD.

Right. If you actually need a truck then buy a truck. But most people are perfectly fine with a Crossover.

Basically they moving the soccer parents to Crossovers while making their trucks and SUVs for those that actually need trucks and SUVs. Thus bringing back the Ranger and Bronco.

Sorry, that was the autoline.tv after hours wrap up, a kind of web only supplement to the episode. If you go to their website they have a one hour show just about this Telsa tear down and it gets into everything. Just everything. Car companies and suppliers pay Munro $70,000 to $200,000 just for a copy of his reports because really does give manufacturers the inside scoop about what is well done, what needs improvements, what is over done from a manufacturing standpoint. We are talking every single part on the entire vehicle down to every weld and every bolt and washer. Everything.

Ford's passenger cars always got good to decent marks in the quality department. I wouldn't trust most Chrysler products and GM can be very spotty on some model lines as well. I would avoid Nissans as well.

Very true, with the exception of small cars, Ford makes shit small cars. Nissan has gone downhill in recent years.

Nissan's quality troubles seem to go back its near death experience in the 00's when Renault effectively took them over. They cut costs alright but they also tossed quality out the window.

My '08 Fusion has been super reliable. Only issues have been a broken latch on the dash storage bin and an interior door handle.

I've worked for three different suppliers for Nissan since the merger with Renault. If they tossed quality out the window, it's been a very recent thing, as they were quite strict with what they'd accept and reject.