Weird. I was following one in rush hour traffic this morning and had the usual thoughts...
- “He’s going nowhere fast just like the rest of us in traffic.”
- “I don’t think he can see anything out that back slit of a window. Too bad I can’t moon him from the front seat of a Subaru to find out.”
This.
Celia wanted, and we bought, a Jetta turbo. Fun car, tight as a drum, quick, way nicer inside than its price suggested. When she moved on to another car, I decided to keep the Jetta - it only had 6 years and 75,000 miles. Big mistake. The mechanicals started ... dissolving.
It was a shame, really - the body and interior were in perfect shape (made in Mexico); it was the engine (Germany) and the transmission (Japan) that bled me dry.
If VWs were free I'd still walk.
Nauga,
twice bitten
Add me to the “VW can go to hell” list. Same deal, vehicle turned into a maintenance nightmare and had over $13,500 in repairs on the ONLY extended warranty I’ve ever bought and the extended warranty people were MAD about it.
Sent people to the dealership where it had had ALL dealer only maintenance for the few years we owned it, when it tossed a transmission and VWs answer was “not serviceable, replace the entire thing”. They wanted to make sure the dealer wasn’t running a scam.
I never once saw that dealer’s maintenance shop not so busy people were literally running around trying to keep up with all the broken cars and people waiting for them plus regular maintenance. They had thirty bays for vehicles.
Drove nice the first year. That’s about all I can say about the diesel Jetta wagon. By the time we got rid of it at the end of the extended warranty it needed motor mounts, the suspension felt like crap, and the diesel was so clogged up with soot it had lost a lot of horsepower. The turbo lag had gone from “noticeable” to “floor it and maybe it’ll accelerate”. Stuff rattled and squeaked.
It was a cheap POS designed to drive nicely for about a year until components started wearing. Parts were four times as expansive as any other vehicle we ever owned. Thankfully we didn’t pay a penny for them.
But, just what in the hell is that these days?
Is a Toyota that's built in the US considered "American?"
Is a Ford that's built in Mexico "American?"
I seriously doubt that there's much, if anything, that's truly 'murican these days.
Spoken by someone who's now been around long enough to really know this place!
Whichever one leaves the profits here, which considering they’re all multi-nationals, is probably none of them.
Who cares where they’re built? It’s where the profits go and whether you can invest in them, against those same profits in the same market, that counts.
Manufacturing moves wherever the cost of shipping vs massive tax kickbacks given to subsidize jobs is a net gain.
As soon as someplace wants their normal tax rate, somewhere else will bankroll a new facility and give new tax kickbacks, and the old building will stand empty.
