Change will be very very slow. Those who have cash to spend are going to hold back for a long while. Obamas socialism scares the heck out of them. Until gas prices rise to $4 again the whole auto business will be in a slump.And even then only Fits and the like will sell, no matter the manufacturer. Detroit takes a real bath because most of their production lines are for SUV's, trucks, and the like.

 

Nothing is recession proof...if the dealer says it is, they are full of sht!

 

Actually that's a reflection more on this society...not on human traits. There are alot of places around the world that are suffering poor economies and what not...you don't see them running out and getting guns do you?

 

I couldn't agree more!

Here’s to the 2009 CORRECTION! Let the mayhem and correction begin.

Let all the bastards and crooks and stupid people pay the price for being indulgent, greedy, and fraudulent.

Let the hard working, honest people who saved, lived within their means, and admitted to seeing what was coming prosper.

Let the losers who now want to be bailed out because they couldn’t sit down for 20 minutes and read a 10 page contract lose their homes, their yachts, their 8 passenger SUVs…and NEVER be able to buy another home again. EVER.

Let the CEOs with huge bailouts get put in jail or burn through that magic cash of theirs so they can end up working at a Starbucks.

Let the fraudulent mortgage brokers, slimy real estate agents, and scam artist appraisers hit the ground so hard they’ll taste the dirt they are selling.

Let the Wall Street crooks lose everything they’ve got and enjoy looking at their $20K a month condos from the street corner in their new cardboard boxes.

Let the Big 3 who’ve screwed us for decades making absolute garbage SUVs and gas guzzlers completely implode due to their irresponsible, crooked, and pathetically run business models….perhaps then the workers will end up in something more useful like wind, solar, or geothermal (please….no one should, even for a minute, buy this crap that the world will end because GM and Ford aren’t around…what a joke).

Let all the idiots and morons who CLAIM they didn’t see this coming and now want handouts, be able to develop such clarity of vision that they’ll be able to see the massive economic freight train they built, come barreling down over them from a mile away….then they won’t complain about not seeing what’s coming.

MOST OF ALL:

Let the environment and this beautiful, precious planet regain her composure and have a breather thanks to the inadvertent fact that we pathetic, stupid humans are consuming less, polluting less, and wasting less….for now.

Perhaps this global “crisis” is what we’ll look back on in 50 years and say that we accidentally saved our own asses….because I know we can’t do it when we try.

Have a good day.

 

You gave your rights a long time ago to the lobbyists and people who have the power and money to control and manipulate you. Owning guns is an illusion...and a really stupid one at that...to make you think you have power.

You want to regain power? You do it through clearing out the scum who are now running this country into the ground....and the corporations who are draining you out of existence.

Until then, owning guns is a freaking joke.

 

Dealers are a business. They don't take your trade unless they beleive they will resell it in no more than a month, or at an auction house. A reasonable expectation is making at least a thousand bucks on its resale.
Regardless of 'book value', which is usually 60 to 90 days behind, dealers have to value your trade on the used car market today.
I have seen owners trade in two year old cars, one a Civic and the other a fully decked out Silverado with comparable miles; the trade-in for the Civic was higher than the Chevy simply because the dealer expected to have to take the 1500 to the auction house and he knew he'd sell the Civic by the end of the week. Which he did.
Dealers have to pay for their operating costs even if they don't make a book profit even though the dealer principal gets a 'profit' from the mnanufacturer seperately.
Right now selling anything that gets less than 20 mpg routinely as opposed to EPA numbers is a difficult sale. Routinely means the dealer knows how much mpg that model is getting on the street, not the idiotic 'highway' mileage quoted in the ads.
That is compounded by the buyer marketplace decreasing due to less dredit availability and natural marketplace caution after an unpleasant election. Don't kid yourself, the buyers with ready cash and crdit are taking a deep breather after the election. The threat of socialism will do that to you..

 

I agree with Climatologist 1000%

Every word he/she said is true. I say let the Big 3 die a dinosaur's death. May they rest in peace.

 

Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't really. We just threw out one party for another and they're no different are they?... this new one is preaching ethanol and wanting to save the Big 3. Corporate socialism at its best.

Now if people actually did something with their right to bear arms, they might be able to clean out the scum. But the populace today certainly don't have the will that will force meaningful changes to happen. No I'm not suggesting everyone go on a shooting spree, but a revolution of the people backed by the resolve to force upon real change would quickly get the message across to those in power.

Instead, we shuffle the deck and figure if someone preaches change, we'll get it. We just shifted the special interests, and nothing more.

 

If you're suggesting that the USA isn't as mature as Europe and needs to go through a revolution of sorts...I agree. We're about 200 years behind Europe as far as that is concerned.

But if you're debating that socialism doesn't work...I disagree.

Socialism will have a hard time working in a country like this because of the fact that we are a 1) self centered, 2) egotistical, 3) selfish, 4) super-money driven society that is driven only by the ME complex.

It's hard to make a communal, decent social system work in such a society....it will inherently fail.

 

for those who think that we need to carry guns to fight against the government - isn't it considered "domestic terrorism"? Isn't that what Bill Ayer was trying to do forty years ago to stop the vietnam war?

Wake up folks. if you use your weapon against someone it's a crime. if you don't then there's no point of having one.

back to Fit, I hate those dealers trying to add on expensive accessories just to make an extra profit. I guess for the best deal we have to wait a few more weeks, if not months. I dont think the economy will get better within half a year to a year at least - man that sounds depressing isn't it!

 

Yes it will... no disagreement from me.

Its a dog eat dog world here... but that rewards the best and brightest, and separates the strong from the weak. You talk about the planet and nature - just observe the behavior of a pride of lions... the strongest in the pride will feast first. Its the circle of life... we should just embrace it instead of trying to undo what is natural as God intended it, to begin with.

Socialism = mediocrity.

But Europe is smart in certain ways - they have embraced diesel in a big way while our diesel technology is years behind theirs. Instead we're pushing ethanol... we are not a farm driven economy either. And we can't proceed down the path of energy independence because we are saddled with people thinking in the past, failing to realize that nuclear, clean coal and natural gas are abundant sources we have readily available. While countries like France have a ton of energy from nuclear power. Instead we try to reach for pie in the sky solutions that cannot yet scale in any meaningful way... and continue to import foreign oil.

Hmm - a diesel or NGV Fit - that's a thought!

 

Not when its used as a deterrent - Reagan did it with Russia and we won without firing a single shot. The iron fist in the velvet glove... it works. Pushovers won't be taken seriously. And look what its gotten us with that approach... the threat of nuclear war and worldwide devastation has been greatly reduced.

Giving up rights is giving up power to the government and making the populace more submissive to their power and rule. And we all know just how smart our politicians are right?

 

[quote=

But if you're debating that socialism doesn't work...I disagree.

Socialism will have a hard time working in a country like this because of the fact that we are a 1) self centered, 2) egotistical, 3) selfish, 4) super-money driven society that is driven only by the ME complex.

It's hard to make a communal, decent social system work in such a society....it will inherently fail.[/quote]

Take good notes on the socializing of Russia, Poland, England, and others.
Having been all over Europe I have serious doubts about Europe being ahead of us in anything but vehicles (they tax the living daylights out of vehicles. What was the prices quoted by Top Gear in England for our $17,580 Fit? 21,000 pounds or about $29k. Don't know if that includes the purchasse tax of 15-20% as I remember.)
One thing very noticeable is the lack of diversity there.
And obviously you didn't pay attention to Obama. Democrats are posing government ownership of financial institutions, large manufacturing industries, medical fields, and your career.
And you wonder why American industry is scaling back. If you are under 30 your career is at stake. You may note that few new companies open in those countries. Taxes matter.

 

Yes here that is true...that's why the quality of life in other countries is, on average, quite a bit higher...with people working less, enjoying their time more, having a slower pace of life...things people in this country would die to have.

Many countries in Europe are socialist with elements of competitiveness to spur progress. That is the best form...why? Because when things are invented and things are improved, a good majority of people benefit...not a few as in this country. That's the difference.

Well...we'll have to change or become extinct...there is no where else to go.

 

Having lived in the UK for half my life, I can honestly say that socialism is good for the people over there....for many reasons. It has its pluses and minuses...but as a whole, society in Europe is just more together IMO.

I'm not asking anyone to agree with me...it's my own point of view.

Scaling back of industry is not a bad thing. How long do you plan to go full throttle with limited resources, space, increased pollution, waste, destruction of habitat, etc? Is that what capitalism is going to be? Always push to the brink and hope for the best?

We've lost sight so badly of what we are doing to ourselves in the name of "being free" (whatever that gimmick means) and making a buck that we've royally screwed ourselves. Moderation is a good thing..in all aspects of life.

 

Actually, we didn't win. The old soviet union wasn't beaten by us. they were beaten by themselves - in fact the whole communist block crumbled due to the inherent problems within their system. I grew up in communist China so I know - for years as children we were taught that in America workers had nothing to eat and lived in crumbled old apartments choked by smog. Then we saw from TV that average Americans lived in nice homes w/ fireplaces glowing and white picket fenses and that's all it took for us to totally abandom communism. It didn't take a bullet. all of a sudden we all wanted to be like Americans. So we did - we became more capitalist than Americans (w/ the exception to holding onto the communist brandname). My mom refused to move back now because there's no social security or medicare there. To her America is almost socialist. Vietnam also went capitalist - all w/o waging any "war" against it (I am not talking about the earlier Vietnam war which solidified communist rule for awhile). Most evil regimes will collapse on its own due to the butality, inefficiency and corruption. the best war is waged from within by the nation's own people - when they are ready to wage such a war. The more you try to interfere w/ that natural progression - the more you try to demonizing them and attack them, the more they will unite behind their rulers due to a sense of nationalism. You will find this very interesting phenominon: if you ask most mainland Chinese people in this country about what they think of their government, they will likely tell you it's a very corrupt government and a lot needs to be done to change it. But if you first tell him that you think Chinese government is very evil and then mentioning things like Tibet, you will find a lot of them enthusiastically defending their government, because it is seen as an attack on their identity and pride. Similarly we should stop demonizing Iran and other countries and let them bring out changes by their own people. When left alone pro-Western iranian youth would gradually push for more reform and democracy. It is the conservative forces within their country who LOVED to see our attack on them so they could hold onto their power longer - they need us to be their enemy.

Remember, an external enemy takes people's focus from domestic issues such as economy and corruption and unite them behind the otherwise declining regimes. Is that why the out-going Bush administration so wanted to start the iraq war?! Bush's rating was very low before 911. He did absolutely nothing good for the country. Then came the outside enemy which made him look like a hero. Going into a no-end-near war in Iraq guaranteed that he would be a war president and would be re-elected for a second term. Thank god we only have 2 terms for prez here.

sorry for being OT. for those of us kept on wandering off topic we need to find a political forum somewhere so as not to piss off everyone else.

 

I thought I was in the wrong freaking thread!

What does all this have to do with sales of '09 Fits?