Communist Japan

[Imogene]

What I find HIGH-larious is that Hitler had the same vitriolic hatred of communism.

Godwin's law...
Thread over.
As for me, I'm surprised anyone thinks Any Americans are even buying cars at the moment, thanks to the down economy and such. In other words, these people, who are driving your 'un-American' cars, may have owned them a few years as it is.

[Nurian]

My father swore off American cars when a Chevy, a Ford, a Mercury and an Olds all died on him repeatedly and his Nissan, all three Hondas, and a Volvo (which, I swear, MUST be Swedish for "tank") all performed exceptionally well for years needing nothing more than routine maintenance.

I personally had a Ford Ranger (which I loved, the first vehicle I ever drove regularly), a Honda (one of the aforementioned) and now a Pontiac. All three have done well for me so far. But I think I want a Prius or other hybrid. Does that put me in the Communist club?

[Jadedcarguy]

As for me, I'm surprised anyone thinks Any Americans are even buying cars at the moment, thanks to the down economy and such.

Believe it or not, we're still selling cars. Not as many, but they are moving.

[Chromatix]

FWIW, Volvo *do* make tanks (and lorries) as well as cars. Saab's other business is aircraft.

Or rather, Volvo sold their car division to Ford, and kept the tank and lorry businesses to themselves.

[Mark Healey]

Lemme see, Chrysler is owned by Daimler, Ford owns Mazda. GM owns Opel, Saab and Volvo are owned by Ford & GM (I don't know which owns which). Tata owns Jaguar and Rover. These companies, parents and subsidiaries, have plants all over the world and their stocks are owned by people all over the world.

Welcome to the global economy dude.

[Jadedcarguy]

Sadly JB was the kind of guy who will never understand the concept of "one world". Kind of sad, really.

BTW, Daimler sold Chrysler. Just so ya know.

[protege]

JB and his ilk are idiots. They all think that any money made by those firms...goes back to Germany, Japan, Korea, etc. Sure, a percentage does, but a huge chunk of it gets used to pay American workers, taxes on American factories, gets used to buy things from other American companies, etc. See a theme here?

Most of the time, these JB's are bitching about events that happened years ago. They usually bitch about the "rice burners" from Japan, mainly because of the Bataan Death March and Pearl Harbor. I've never heard them complain about Mercedes and BMW...which is odd, since Germany perpetuated some of the worst crimes against humanity, including torturing our own soldiers

Getting back on topic, I must be a damn communist. I will not buy an American car...mainly because the local dealerships suck. As such, I've stuck to Japanese and British makes--I'm on my second Toyota and there's an MG in the garage.

Here's something else to consider--the JB's of the world have actually *helped* the foreign car companies by trying to put import taxes on them. That's why so many are built here now--you can't put an import tax on a domestically produced good. Way to shoot yourself in the foot, JB

[Gabrielle Proctor]

Lately I've realized that most people who throw about those words generally don't know what they mean ... Sorta like Arab, Muslim and terrorist. All the same.

Agreed. That's why I like the people here. It's a dose of sanity for me.

[protege]

You do realize that "sanity" and "normal" are relative, right?

[Dips]

This thread reminded me of a story told by a co-worker, Mr. Darlene...

He and his wife, Darlene, owned and operated a competing company which merged with ours in 1999. This happened before the merger.

An SC called up and got belligerent with one of their customer service people. He was demanding a discount and she wouldn't give him one. In other words, a typical SC.

Mr. Darlene could hear her side of the conversation and noticed she was getting a bit frazzled. So he signaled that he'd be willing to take over the call to give the CSR a break and handle the SC for her. So she offered the SC a chance to talk with the owner and the SC seized it. The conversation as told to me by Mr. Darlene:

Mr. Darlene: This is Mr. Darlene, owner of [Pretty Good Software]. How can I help you?

SC: Finally! Someone who can help me. Your CSR was acting like a communist and...

Mr. Darlene: [Interrupting ] Of course she was acting like a communist! Everyone here is is a communist!I am a communist! We here at [Pretty Good Software] only hire communists! Now what can I do for you, sir? Hello?...Hello?