Ray D
Well-known member
The RV industry will change. The market is world-wide, and there are countries that are looking for stuff they can make and export to the U.S. markets. Smaller markets, where they can get a foorhold, are just fine! I?d like to see Japan do it. Korea would be good. China is competent and looking for markets. They seem to be using the old Japan model, which, obviously, works very well.
Forgive me for telling another one of my stories. I started pretty well, as a young man, 50 years ago. I bought a brand new luxury Ford Fairlane 500, 1962 paid just over $2,000! Lot of money, back then! As I got ready to exit the lot, in my new Ford, I pushed the cigarette lighter to light a celebratory cigarette. Short story, it didn?t work. I turned around and went back in, laughing - Ha Ha, this didn?t work. Thought I?d get a new one, free. Hey, I didn?t have a single mile on that car, yet!
No warranties on cigarette lighters! Two bucks, please. The situation degenerated to a shouting match, and I left without a new lighter. A man looking at a car, in the showroom, came over to confirm what he had just heard and seen. Yep, this is over a cigarette lighter and yep, I got to the street and immediately back onto the lot. He walked out, telling his salesman that he wasn?t gong to buy a Ford. (Gave me an idea, later!)
A nagging rattle bothered me, for several weeks. Ford wouldn?t fix the car. Said I had ?voided? my warrantee, the first day. A friend, a car buff, was riding with me one day. He noticed the rattle and I told him my tale of woe. He started smiling, and after we did whatever it was we were doing, he invited me to his house ?to look for that rattle.?
In his garage, he immediately went for tools and then the driver?s side door. He took the panel part way off, grinning the whole time, and pulled out a Coke bottle! It was fairly well known, at that time that union workers were taking frustration with management out on people who bought Fords. Fairly well known, but I didn?t know that!
When the car was just over three months old, as I was driving down a city street in a business district, I heard a loud explosion in the engine compartment, and smoke rolled out. Turned out that it wasn?t an explosion. As I looked in there, the engine had fallen out! Yep, the engine mounts broke and the engine was down on the axle. The smoke wasn?t smoke, but steam from the fan blade cutting the radiator.
Cops came - called a tow truck - traffic backed up - cops laughing at my car, as they looked into the engine compartment - used car dealer right there. I walked over to the dealer, and sold him the car, then and there - as is - where is, and called a taxi.
All of the big three did that sort of thing, back then. But, it wasn?t the big three that did it to me! It was Ford. As I progressed in business I got a reputation for driving good bargains for acquisitions, and then began getting paid to do that. I passed a million dollars in fleet-car purchases, steered away from Ford, in less than five years. Stayed with it for a long time.
Went to buying foreign cars, for my personal use, and never looked back. Never bought another Ford. When Toyota came out, in the U.S. I went to Japanese cars, finally Subaru, and stayed with them until 96. So did millions of other victims of a renegade industry, here in the U.S. That industry is only beginning to change, now. But, they are changing. American cars are getting better! There is a punch line, to this!
My most recent purchase was a 1996 Volvo. Stay with me, here. Recently, Ford bought Volvo! My beautiful Butterfly of a car, a Volvo, has transmogrified itself into a caterpillar, a worm, a Ford! ! ! Now what do I do?
The U.S. RV industry will improve, or die and be replaced by Japan or China. Meanwhile, bite the bullet!
Ray D.
Forgive me for telling another one of my stories. I started pretty well, as a young man, 50 years ago. I bought a brand new luxury Ford Fairlane 500, 1962 paid just over $2,000! Lot of money, back then! As I got ready to exit the lot, in my new Ford, I pushed the cigarette lighter to light a celebratory cigarette. Short story, it didn?t work. I turned around and went back in, laughing - Ha Ha, this didn?t work. Thought I?d get a new one, free. Hey, I didn?t have a single mile on that car, yet!
No warranties on cigarette lighters! Two bucks, please. The situation degenerated to a shouting match, and I left without a new lighter. A man looking at a car, in the showroom, came over to confirm what he had just heard and seen. Yep, this is over a cigarette lighter and yep, I got to the street and immediately back onto the lot. He walked out, telling his salesman that he wasn?t gong to buy a Ford. (Gave me an idea, later!)
A nagging rattle bothered me, for several weeks. Ford wouldn?t fix the car. Said I had ?voided? my warrantee, the first day. A friend, a car buff, was riding with me one day. He noticed the rattle and I told him my tale of woe. He started smiling, and after we did whatever it was we were doing, he invited me to his house ?to look for that rattle.?
In his garage, he immediately went for tools and then the driver?s side door. He took the panel part way off, grinning the whole time, and pulled out a Coke bottle! It was fairly well known, at that time that union workers were taking frustration with management out on people who bought Fords. Fairly well known, but I didn?t know that!
When the car was just over three months old, as I was driving down a city street in a business district, I heard a loud explosion in the engine compartment, and smoke rolled out. Turned out that it wasn?t an explosion. As I looked in there, the engine had fallen out! Yep, the engine mounts broke and the engine was down on the axle. The smoke wasn?t smoke, but steam from the fan blade cutting the radiator.
Cops came - called a tow truck - traffic backed up - cops laughing at my car, as they looked into the engine compartment - used car dealer right there. I walked over to the dealer, and sold him the car, then and there - as is - where is, and called a taxi.
All of the big three did that sort of thing, back then. But, it wasn?t the big three that did it to me! It was Ford. As I progressed in business I got a reputation for driving good bargains for acquisitions, and then began getting paid to do that. I passed a million dollars in fleet-car purchases, steered away from Ford, in less than five years. Stayed with it for a long time.
Went to buying foreign cars, for my personal use, and never looked back. Never bought another Ford. When Toyota came out, in the U.S. I went to Japanese cars, finally Subaru, and stayed with them until 96. So did millions of other victims of a renegade industry, here in the U.S. That industry is only beginning to change, now. But, they are changing. American cars are getting better! There is a punch line, to this!
My most recent purchase was a 1996 Volvo. Stay with me, here. Recently, Ford bought Volvo! My beautiful Butterfly of a car, a Volvo, has transmogrified itself into a caterpillar, a worm, a Ford! ! ! Now what do I do?
The U.S. RV industry will improve, or die and be replaced by Japan or China. Meanwhile, bite the bullet!
Ray D.