c_canuk said:
thats interesting since when you pop the hood on a Mazda B series these days all you see is ford badges... B Series and the Ranger are using tried and tested Ford technology
I stand corrected, The North American market Mazda B series are indeed ford based. Fords aquisition of Mazda, Volvo, Jaguar, Aston Martin translates into using existing technologies to build (borrow) from established production lines, domestic fords. The grey area exists as to who's car is it, when they marry up chassis, engines, transmissions etc.
The sad part is the N American big three have gone this way because the cannot compete with imports. Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors were and are in a hurting way.
Should we be sympathetic? I don't think so. there is no cutting edge technology comming out of Detroit. They simply duplicate from other markets. (alternative energy, ABS, crumple zones, etc)
For too long the Big Three turned a blind eye to customer satisfaction. They turned out overweight low tech gas pigs, and refused to stand behind them. Factories kept turning out cars and then have fire sales, no intrest financing, rebates etc. to motivate customers. Try getting that on a Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Volkswagen, BMW...........you get the point
Until they (N Amer.) change their ways I will buy a quality import. Is it a knife in the back of Canadian UAW and local economy? Possibly, but if my town had a clock maker the turned out peices that always had to be returned due to defects I would not feel bad if the shop closed and took with it the people it employed. Why continue to support poor quality and in essence pay people handsomely to provide sub standard products....................
