Dsuupr

Or pick a career that doesn't have any reason to be shipped off shore. It's impossible for them to have Landlords live in China. Networking is VERY important. It can change your wage by thousands. I went up by $12,000 a year from June of last year to this year because of who I knew as much as what I knew.

Hold on, don't forget honda is perfect so there is no need for a recall. It is interesting they got away with not having a recall.

Yeah I like the longevity crap. Roach I lasted 390k miles with HEAVY abuse. I know there isn't a honda or toyota out there that could take what both Roachs have been given. Heck just taking one up a curb or going 60 mph down a dirt road with huge pot holes would take them out. And for the record, our friends took his nissan sentra on our back roads (made of dirt with big potholes) only to throw off his alignment. He was going 30 mph. I take the same back road frequently in the Cobalt and 40+ mph and nothing has happened to the car.

In the end it's the product not the name that counts. Though using the hertiage of those products to come out with a great modern version of them is a great idea.

My wife and I drive through farm areas to get to work. There are no radio stations. We love our XM for this reason. One can only listen to the same CDs for so many times before you go crazy.

Let me tell you guys a little about how it works. 1. The extra crap my Grandparents didn't buy, we don't buy. 2 We are on a strict budget that allows going out to eat only once a week and at that it's a cheaper resturant like Sushi ($15 to $20 for whole family). There is no "slush" money to spend on what ever I like at the moment. 3. We don't have the biggest fastest most gas hog car one can get. We just have our little Cobalt. We will be getting a LeSabre soon, but that will be inhereted, not purchased. 4. My wife works at UPS "part-time" so that we have never shelled out for day care, and we are given GM like health care (this is what kills most people now days). $26,500 a year for a part time job, plus medical, dental, vision for entire family at no cost. My recent open heart surgery ($70,000 actual cost) cost us less than $200 including all of my medications. 5. My wife does things most wives don't now days. Like make pie from scratch, make dresses for our daughters, make quilts, etc. It's much cheaper to make dinner from scratch than a box. This also provides low cost entertainment that gives us things we need and want. 6. Every vacation, every "treat" has a budget and we stick to it (or she chews me out). 7. I never go out to lunch unless I can charge it too the company. Instead I pack a lunch, like a kid at school. 8. Because we have kids, and kids like to eat furniture and such, our furniture is from IKEA (one of the few areas where we don't buy American though trade is fair with Sweden so all is not lost) which is low cost and very durable (covers). 9. We did not buy a house beyond our means. It's a newer home in a great neighborhood, and in a cult-de-sac. The mortgage person would allow us to go another $30,000 to $50,000 higher but we didn't. 10. Beth has money going to her 401k, UPS stock and we tithe for church. I havn't been with my company long enough to send any 401k yet. At this point we have over $40,000 in retirement funds. At the current rate we are going we will have more money per month retired (adjusted for inflation) than I make now, plus a paid off house. That should be just fine. One area we need to improve is kids college funds. 11. We do have cc bills, though it's WAY under the national average. We got it from me trying to start my own business. As all our bills are over paid by a minimum of $5 they should be paid off within 1 to 2 years. We don't use the cards for anything anymore. Infact they are kept in a safe. If we can't pay cash it's not bought. Only cars and houses should have monthly bills. 12. We only have basic cable, as any more rots ones brain anyways. Books provide much better entertainment and for less money (gotta include electricity in it). 13. Speaking of electricity, everyone in our house turns things off when not in the room. For that matter we often have no lights on in the living room when we are watching tv as it's not necessary. 14. We don't have internet, I hook up through one of our neighbors wireless networks. 15. We have no landline phone. Instead we talked those that we need to speak to daily (like my staff) into having the same cell phone company as us. Everyone else can wait until the weekend or I can call them from the phones at work. 16. We buy American because it lasts, and we get the most for our $$. It doesn't always happen as there certain things that are not made here, but when they are we buy it. 17. We avoid Walmart and other crap stores. Buying crap only has you replacing it in a short time. Better to save the money and buy the good stuff than get it earlier only to have it break. 18. POINT - SIMPLIFY. My Grandparents made it because they didn't demand so much CRAP and they bought what we made (American). 19. I can honestly say the more we've given to our church (time and money) the better our lives have become. Doing something for your spirit and your community will help you fill the "void" that money and crap can never fill. Instead of going to the movies which spends your money, go to your local church and help feed the homeless. At the end you'll get more out of it and so will your community. Do a budget, find out what your wasting then reconsider if those items are necessary. Take some of your extra and give back, to your community, your church, etc. It will come back to you tenfold. For those interested in seeing our home.

Good article and point well made.

Funny, I'm 33 and my wife is 31, we make more money than my parents and have a nicer house, and we are WAY ahead of my parents at our age. Scary part, both of my parents are teachers. I do get the point of the article. If you don't have good manufacturing jobs, like GM, Ford, TV manufactures, etc., for the masses then the country suffers.

Here in import country our dealers are selling the Lucerne at a pretty good clip.

I didn't dawn on me on under powered the Navigator is. The bling crowd won't be much into the low horsepower of the Navigator compared to the Escalade.

From other reports it sounds like the G5 is a stop gap for Pontiac. As long as they don't do it for to long it might be ok.

With all the baby boomers retiring I think these type of stories will be more common for American companies. They are a big liability for our country and short of killing them or kicking them out of the country it's going to be a tough 20 years on the retirement front.

They do have a plan, and it seems to be coming on faster than it used too. It's nice to see GM move at a faster pace than they used to on all fronts. Now if they could just reduce their timeline another 6 months.

They've already dumped Oldsmobile, might as well keep Saturn and the other GM divisions from going under.

Does that come with a polyester leisure suit?

I'm not saying it won't change over time, especially with Gen Y, but the people with the money are still buying more big than little. And as much as the press likes to make us think the Mini & Beetle are such a great success, just remember the Aveo outsells both of them. The Aveo has been a success for Chevrolet even if it isn't the car of choice for many of us car enthusiasts.

Let's face it, in America small car means poor person (with few exceptions). That's not going to change any time soon.

With the current trend of better gas mileage products honda will continue to shine.

With todays gas prices and the push for higher gas mileage cars, I think a luxury "small" car from Buick would be perfect. It would be difficult to execute though as they don't want to dilute the brand like the did in the 80s and 90s. With that said I think the Cobalt/Ion platform is too small for a Buick. An Epsilon with a 4-cyl or better yet, a V-6 hybird would be a much better answer.

Says I'm 27. I'll take it and leave it at that.

toyota is not a landscape changer. They are a mass follower. Not even the idea of going hybrid was a toyota first (honda then yota). Face it, toyota is the 80s GM of today.

I'm told around here they dump the Vics early not because of frame issues but because the engines give way around 60k to 80k. They also have been noticing alot of squeeks and groans early on with the Vics. By comparison we still have Caprices running around with almost 200k.

:rotflmao:

Beautiful.

Funny, everytime I did the math myself I never come up with the same numbers they do. Oh wait, it's because they only take the cars to 60,000 miles in 5 years. No timing belt to replace for foreign cars. To boot they never discount the cars, they assume people pay full price.