Post by C. E. WhitePost by jim beamPost by C. E. WhitePost by Larry PollardNo doubt. Even our legal system encourages payola for "expert
witnesses". There is nothing that prevents or even deters a legal
team from hiring someone with good paper credentials to "find" this or
that.
But is this guy really a good enough writer to do this professionally?
I doubt it. And also since the audience of Usenet has diminished
greatly over the years, it wouldn't really be an efficient use of time
or money for someone to pay him to troll here.
You need to understand Jim Bean. He thinks anyone who doesn't agree
with
him
is either an idiot or a paid shill. He attacks me and claims I am a paid
shill because I don't go along with his "party line" regarding the supposed
awesome quality of Japanese cars.
The truth is I am just an ordinary citizen
sure you are ed. that's why you blindly and steadfastly regurgitate the
party line, even when it it is blatantly and patently bullshit.
Post by C. E. Whitewho has owned all sorts of cars
from most manufacturers, or at least had close family members that did. I
have never believed all the BS about how great Toyota are. I owned one years
ago and it was a turd. Others in my family have owned them and currently
there are 5 Toyotas in my close family group. All of them have so far been
reliable. I particularly like my Mother's Highlander (I should, I
recommended it to her) and particularly dislike the 3 RAV4 owned by the
group ( POS ergonomics being my main gripe - but the actual owners are very
happy). My experience has been that Toyota builds vehicles with quality and
longevity comparable to vehicles from other major manufacturers. Some
Toyotas are good and some are bad. I do think tht in the past Toyota has
routinely misled Customers and worked very hard to cover up significant
defects. The sudden acceleration "issue" finally exposed some of these
practices. I think it is ironic that this isn't even close to the most
blatant customer dis-service issue. On a percentage of vehicles sold, rusted
truck frames, defective ball joints, rollover prone 4Runners, and others
were all much more significant cases of Toyota quality and design problems
but they never generated the sort of firestorm related to the UA issue. And
even the origin of the UA firestorm (the match that lit the fire so to
speak) was not Toyota's fault in any meaningful way (the Lexus out of
control in California). But now that the cat is out of the bag, Toyota is
getting the sort of scrutiny that was absent in the past. It is well
deserved.
so ed, apart from being full of it, where is your "scrutiny" of your
employers failing to, ahem, "notice" that the billions of taxpayer dollars
used to keep them afloat are in fact being used to support chinese jobs,
not american? because that's where g.m. gets its componentry. unlike
toyota that not only assembles its vehicle here, but does so with
AMERICAN-SOURCED COMPONENTRY.
My employer is not involved in the car industry (at least not directly - I
am sure they all buy some of our stuff - including Toyota).
"your employer"??? but you masquerade as an ordinary farmer ed! and "not
directly involved" means what exactly? you mean the p.r. and lobbying
industries don't actually manufacture cars???
I've never claimed to be an "ordinary farmer." If you read older postts I
think you'll see that I ahve never claimed that I am a full time farmer. I
own a realtively small (by today's standards) farm in northeastern NC
(around 350 acres of cropland and pasture). My farm is too small to make a
decent living given the current depressed commodity prices (my Father raised
three children on even fewer acres, but that was 25 years ago). So I have a
"real" job with a corporation. I am fortunate in that I have lots of
vacation time saved up and my employer provides flexible scheduling. Between
vacation, weekend, and the occasional 4 day week I am able to keep the farm
going and still keep my real job.
Post by C. E. WhiteI don't actually
think you believe I am a paid shill. I think you just use that as an excuse
to justify some of your more ridiculous attacks.
don't put false words in my mouth ed - i most definitely do believe you're
a paid shill. no rational educated individual could possibly have the
bullshit "opinions" you have without some kind of prostitution.
So what BS opinion do I have that is so "out there." Pointing out that
Toyta's are nothing special is hardly an "extreme" position. Your wacko
claims seem far more extreem than anything I have said.
Post by C. E. WhiteAs far as motives are
concerned, it seems to me you have never come clean about yours. You
repeatedly attack GM and praise Toyota. This leads me to believe you have an
axe to grind with GM and that you feel the need to kiss Toyota's a*&%.
wrong. don't put false words in my mouth.
What is wrong with the statement? Don't you repeatedly attack GM? Haven't
you repeatedly defended Toyota?
Post by C. E. WhiteI can
almost understand the anti-GM stuff, but given your seemingly
pro-American
rhetoric, I don't understand you praise for a foreign owned / foreign
government supported company that has caused the loss of tens of thousands
of American jobs (some of which they have "graciously" replaced with lower
paying jobs).
dodge and weave. why are you condoning the [mis]use of american taxpayers
dollars being used to support jobs in china ed? because you're paid to!
This is an idiot statement. And it is wrong besides. Show me one time I have
condoned the use of American dollars to support jobs uin China.
Post by C. E. WhitePost by jim beamoh, wait, am i not supposed to point out the facts??? [rhetorical]
It is easy enough to find comparison of domestic content for the various
makes and models of automobiles. I posted links to this sort of information
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2009/07/domestic-parts-content-and-automakers.html
you've cited that "article" before ed, but it doesn't state its sources.
god forbid they should ever make a "mistake" or skew the numbers in any
way.
It is what it is. I didn't write and have n reason to think it is any more
slanted that many other similar studies. They all start out with the same
data provided to the Government as a result of the American Automobile
Labeling Act.
Post by C. E. Whitehttp://www.nhtsa.gov/Laws+&+Regulations/ci.Part+583+American+Automobile+Labeling+Act+(AALA)+Reports.print
you apparently can't read. "country of origin" is carefully defined as
country of assembly, not the country from which the components were
actually produced. all the componentry i cited is made in china,
carefully not included in that list, and automatically redefined by
"assembly" here in the u.s.
No, you have not carefully read the rules. Did you even look at the
reference? here is jsut a small part of the lenghty description from the
reference:
Vehicle manufacturers must calculate the equipment content percentages for
their carlines prior to the beginning of the model year. They estimate the
number of vehicles and subgroups of vehicles that will be built within each
carline, e.g., the number of base level and high-line models. For each
carline, the calculation of U.S./Canadian content percentage also includes:
1. The U.S./Canadian content (by value) of each item of motor vehicle
equipment that will be used to assemble the vehicles within the carline;
2. The total value of each equipment item, i.e., the price the
manufacturer will pay for it (this information is typically provided by the
manufacturer's suppliers); and
3. The total number of each of the equipment items that will be used to
assemble the vehicles within the car line during the model year.
BTW - If you actually go look at the label on the new vehicles they also
indicate where the engine and transmission were made.
Post by C. E. WhiteAs for Toyota not buying parts in China - you are an idiot. The Toyota brand
floor mats I ordered for my Mother's Highlander came in a Toyota logo box
with a made in china label.
floor mats ed. not engine computers, instruments, brakes, glass, seats,
wiring harnesses, drive-shafts, all of which are made in china and used by
g.m. none of which are used by toyota in the manufacture of their
american vehicles, made with american componentry
You have zero proof that none of the Toyota parts used to assemble cars come
from China. ZERO. You are just making this up as some sort of defence of
Toyoya. Toyota has numerous manufacturing plants in China. Toyotya does
buisness with many Chinese suppliers. Althoguh I can't prove it, since I do
not have access to COO labels for all the parts in a a Toyota, I feel
certain that Toyota sources significant numbers of parts in China.
Post by C. E. WhiteToyota does business in China just like almost
every other company foreign and domestic. We might not like the practice (I
don't like it either), but singling out GM for buying parts from the Chinese
is not fair.
why do american taxpayers need to support chinese jobs ed? toyota started
manufacturing here due to tax pressure. it's utterly ridiculous and
completely indefensible to not ensure that american taxpayer bailout
dollars given to g.m. have no "must use american components" strings
attached.
I am not interested in defending the way the GM bailout was handled. I have
alawys said that was wrong. GM should have been allowed to go into
bankruptcy. For political reasons that I opposed, the current administration
choose to essentially nationlize GM and give a significant chunk of it to
the UAW. It was wrong. Don't paint me as defending that nosense.
Post by C. E. WhiteIf you want to attack manufacturers for buying from the
Chinese, attack them all (at least all the ones in the US - I am not sure
about the European manufacturers).\
but i do ed. and if you're "not sure" ed, that's because you're not paid
to be "sure".
Where are your attacks on Toyota, Nissan, Honda, etc. They all do buisness
with China. Don't hold back, go after all of them. I am OK with any legal
means of reducing our increasing dependence on the Chinese. But I am sure
you will again defelect attention form the Japanese companies you kiss up to
and rant about GM again.
Ed