Oh that reminds me, when I was a kid we went to the drive in with my
Dad in an old Ford Econoline van.  During the movie Dad slid his seat
back to be more comfortable.  On the way out after the movie the
traffic stopped and he went for the brake which was now too far away
for his foot to activate.  When he slammed into the back of the car
in front the engine mount in the old Econoline broke and the engine
fell out. Made shifting and clutching difficult. ;-)

Funny thing.  The girl in the car he hit was named Lapierre.  Not
related.  She's from a different clan that doesn't know how to spell
LaPierre.

Mark LaPierre


A Cuban friend told me that when they got a ¨new¨ Russian car during
  Soviet times, the first place you took it was to your mechanic. The
  reason was to tighten every bolt in the car to make sure the doors
did not fall off or the engine turn upside down.

Dale Davies

The joke in USSR Russia was; "We pretend to work and the commie
government pretends to pay us:)

We are getting a taste of that in the US right now.

Paul Lamar


    Gerald Klerman told me about the quality of US made cars: it look
pretty well in the dealers'
  showroom, but after one week, it start to break apart.
    About the soviet system, a local joke said:
    What's capitalism? -Men exploiting men.
        and socialism? -The reverse.
    Somebody or something is destroying the minds of US workers, this
may be the reason why some
  US products for which the quality of manpower matters are not that good.
      Best regards. Salut      Jose Gros-Aymerich    Madrid, Spain


He is wrong.

That might be true of Chrysler as they are owned by Fiat.
Could also be true of GM as they are owned by the Union and the US
Government.

Ford has excellent quality and several Japanese brands are assembled in
the US.
Toyota is the best selling brand in Cal. Many parts for all cars made in
the world
are now made by the Chinese now enthusiastic  capitalist.

The auto manufacturing world is truly an international biz.

For example Brazil makes BMW engines found in Mini's.

Socialism is close to communism.
Socialism sucks and capitalism is how the world prospers.
Why do you think 20 million foreigners have sneaked into our country
across the Mexican border. They have socialism in Mexico and the country
is a disaster area.

Without robust capitalism there would be no money for poor people.
http://cba3.com/

You need to travel around a bit more  and see for yourself.

Paul Lamar


 Didn't catch that slight against American manufacturing the first time
around.
I'll speak for Ford, because I've worked there for the last 16 years.
Currently, Ford has gained in market share in China, Europe, and central
Asian markets.
I have seen the company turn around an industrial culture of "it's good
enough" to we can always do better (Go Further!)
I know that the products we make today are world class, because the
world wouldn't buy more of them if it weren't so.
Many of the current new model introductions here in CONUS from the last
few years were tried and true popular and reliable models that have been
selling in the rest of the world for years (CMAX and KUGA, ect.).
I won't jump on any nationalistic rant, and make un-supported claims
about Spanish economics. I will say that from the inside, Ford has
picked up the challenge of the global market place, and run down the field.
C. Smith


The only makes I am interested in as far as ownership are Mazda and Ford. The new Ram 1500 is getting rave reviews with the Fiat built 3.0L diesel engine. I am leery due to past electronic issues. Granted most have had electrical/electronics issues due in part to the amount of computer controls and the interfacing between them.

Dale Davies