A new way to purchase cars and trucks in the USA needed?

For most car, truck, or SUV buyers the worst part of their experience is being ripped off by a car dealer when they go to purchase their vehicle. Perhaps an approach by car manufacturers should be to deal direct with purchasers and bypass the traditional car lot buying experience.

It all seems so great when you go to the manufacturers websites to look up information on your upcoming purchase. The facts and figures look right, and you can configure specifications you want within a few clicks. Then you go to a independent dealer in person and your experience changes dramatically. You have your typical sales managers that try to stuff more gingerbread into your vehicle at really big profit margins to the dealers and you walk out of their or run with a totally different experience than what you wanted.

Is it time for the manufacturers to now deal direct with the public? The bottom line is the bottom line, why then do car dealers effectively be so hard to deal with. This is a new computer age, and all of the stuff that used to be so secret is out in the open now concerning pricing. Dealers will try to charge you as much as you'll pay believe me, I've seen it personally. So why then can't large manufacturers start to weed the shady dealers out and give us what we want as vehicle buyers; a good deal without being ripped off?

Ford gets happy with the new 'Fiesta'

Ford Fiesta: coming soon the new subcompact

  I remember as a teenager a very small boxy car from Ford called the Ford Fiesta. The good old days are back again, and so is the Fiesta. The competitors responded to $4 per gallon gas fairly quickly this time around. Toyota has it's Yaris, Chevrolet, the Aveo, and now Ford albeit a little late to the game is releasing the Fiesta. Yes, same name but it's been updated for the times and we'll be hearing about it towards the end of the month on Ford commercials.

   Ford is going after the younger driver, and had an online competition that will see 100 'young' people get a free Fiesta, gas, and car insurance for 6 months. They will in turn drive the vehicle, and make observations about it on video clips uploaded to the internet. Forget about all the old timers, maybe the ones that have money to buy a car. No, Ford is going young and appealling to the new 'younger' potential buyers. Hmmm.... that kind of leaves us older folks out of the equation just a little. The gas price see-saw has even swung back the other way and now, there is still concern about the prices, but not a panic like it was 8-9 months ago when we still had $4 a gallon gas across the US.

Hyundai goes 'Prada' over Genesis car model

As reported on The Auto Channel, Hyundai releases a special edition Genesis model that is aimed at the upscale 'Prada' crowd.


http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2009/04/01/455399.html



Read about the special edition vehicle of which only 3 were made, two to be auctioned off for charity and one more to be retained by Hyundai as a milestone of a car that put Hyundai at the front of many car buyers wishlists!

GM and Chrysler explore bankrupcy - as a way out of financial mess

The financial mess brought on by $4.00 dollar a gallon gasoline and economic uncertainty amongst homeowners, and financial institutions have brought the auto industry to it's knees as the big automotive giants struggle even more to survive. Despite a huge influx of cash by the US government, the automotive manufacturers such as GM and Chrysler have now wielded the 'B' word as a way to further get out of debt.

Government intervention has brought upon the retirement of GM chief, Rick Wagoner a bit earlier than he probably would have wanted. It's really unprecedented for a government like the USA to dictate to private industry on calling on any executive to resign. I wonder if any other auto executive feels uneasy about his or her own job and the scrutiny of government agencies examining private industry.

The more this prolonged dismay of the automakers in the US drags on, the more strange it is getting. More and more the line is being crossed on what or what not government intervention into private industry such as the auto industry should be considered correct. It seems now that the auto makers are being blamed because of all the economic woes of something that they don't really control.

As we go into the Spring season, it will be interesting to watch the developments that are unfolding each day. The day to day business of private companies were never run by government agencies and shouldn't be run by them today, anything else reminds me of certain countries that control industries, and they are not capitalist style governments. Let's make our voices heard.... "Keep America strong and free, and let's leave the business decisions to the companies not politicians."