G4G5--I KNOW my money is leaving the country. We tried to go back to Ford in the 90's.
They had this big push for quality and my uncles who are line and management at Ford said they had made huge strides in quality. (Considering the nightmare that was my dad's '84 T-bird, I can see their point.)
We bit and got a '92 Explorer. It generally worked ok but didn't have the interior quality that our '86, '90 and '91 Accords had but it was alright.
We sold that vehicle to my wife's sister. The tranny crapped out at 60,000 miles. Oops! Juuussst out of warranty.
Our next foray into the domestic market was the flagship Ford Expedition. Within the first 10,000 miles, accessory motors started dying. Then, on three separate occasions, we ran out of gas--with more than a quarter tank showing. And, it was bent--you know, like it needed a half a tweak of rudder trim.
We called Ford's much promoted customer care line after getting nowhere with our dealer. Their solution? They referred us back to the dealer. Great...
It was the closest I've ever come to committing insurance fraud by torching a vehicle.
G4G5, you know I'm from IND--deep in the heart of UAW territory. And, I'm a union member myself. But I know a bunch of line workers at Chrysler, GM and have numerous family members who worked the line at Ford and Cummins Diesel.
I've heard countless stories of drinking on the job--every day. It was expected that you go pound some beers at lunch. My uncle the supervisor at Ford was threatened with his life if "you make us work". Supervisors at Allison Transmission in Speedway have had their cars burned in the parking lot, tires slashed and windows broken in addition to the verbal threats. Workers who had a good work ethic were threatened with violence if they tried to do a good job.
My wife worked as a bank teller near a GM plant. Every payday, the workers would line up at the drive through and periodically go to the cooler in their trunk and get another beer while waiting. And this was on their LUNCH BREAK. They were going back to the plant to finish their shifts on a moving assembly line after pounding a few beers.
Are there good, hard workers in the auto industry? Absolutely. Are there more than a handful? I can say with certainty--NO!
So, yes, I'm sending my money overseas (same as you do when you fill your gas tank) because I won't reward bad quality and poor performance.
If that's unpatriotic, then so be it but it's no more so than screwing the public by building overpriced pieces of crap and trying to shame us into spending our hard-earned money on them.
Take care.
TC