***AUTO MAKERS Survey***

[ColbertWatcher]

Yesterday, I posted a thread asking everyone to list mistakes made by the Big Three automakers (here).

Instead of a straight-forward "pick one" poll, I'm going to try to do something different.

I'm going to ask everyone to give each selection a number value based on how important you believe each "mistake" is compared to the others.

There are ten choices, so please give the selection you think is the most damaging to the industry a "1," for the decision that you feel is the least damaging give that a "10," and then fill in the rest for the other selections.

A. Planned obsolescence (including Dex-Cool)

B. a long "turn-around" time (How long it takes to go from design to the showroom floor)

For the Big 3 the average "turn-around" time is 5 years. For Toyota and Honda it's 3 years.

C. selling fuel-efficient vehicles outside the U.S., but not in the U.S.

D. Pushing high profit-margin vehicles by
* hiking up the price for the base model by including more automatic equipment and surface styling
* offering cheap financing and home equity lines of credit

E. Too damned expensive

in the old days just 36 month loans, not 72 month loans.
Lots of people switched cars every 3 years, not so much anymore.
When your customer base buys every 6 years instead of every 3, you need twice as many customers to sell the same number of cars

F. The Dealership model, including not offering a set price, forcing people to haggle or negotiate with the dealer

G. retrofitting old designs to fit new requirements

H. bloated, top-heavy, fossilized, management

I. Destroying competition, including:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Streetcar_Scandal">the light rail system back in the '20s
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Tucker">Tucker
* the electric car

J. refusal to sign on to the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Forum_for_Harmonization_of_Vehicle_Regulations">World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations

"... a working party of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). It is tasked with creating a uniform set of regulations for vehicle design to facilitate international trade.

The forum works on regulations covering vehicle safety, environmental protection, energy efficiency and theft-resistance."

Please use the "template" in the first post to copy and past the code making it easy to show how you prioritize the choices.

[ColbertWatcher]

1. ***TEMPLATE***

[b]A.[/b] ***

[b]B.[/b] ***

[b]C.[/b] ***

[b]D.[/b] ***

[b]E.[/b] ***

[b]F.[/b] ***

[b]G.[/b] ***

[b]H.[/b] ***

[b]I.[/b] ***

[b]J.[/b] ***


Simply copy and paste the code above in your reply.

In place of the asterisks, put a number 1 through 10, 1 being
the worst idea, 10 being the least offensive

[ColbertWatcher]

2. My picks.

A. 9

B. 3

C. 8

D. 6

E. 4

F. 7

G. 5

H. 10

I. 2

J. 1

[ColbertWatcher]

15. I just realized I did mine backwards! n/t

[TexasObserver]

3. Making a product inferior to those of their competitors.

That's the main problem. I didn't see it listed.

[ColbertWatcher]

4. The Big 3 make comprable products, they just don't sell them in the U.S. n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

5. You're not supposed to pick one; you're supposed to weigh the ones posted against each other. n/t

[Blue_Tires]

6. ok...

A. 5

B. 3

C. 4

D. 10

E. 8

F. 7

G. 6

H. 1

I. 2

J. 9

[ColbertWatcher]

7. Thank you. n/t

[Johonny]

8. here goes

A 2
B 6
C 7
D 3
E 4
F 8
G 9
H 1
I 5
J 10

[ColbertWatcher]

9. Thank you! n/t

[hlthe2b]

10. ok...

A. 4

B. 7

C. 2

D. 9

E. 10

F. 6

G. 3

H. 1

I. 8

J. 5

[ColbertWatcher]

11. Thank you. n/t

[hlthe2b]

12. Come on DUers,,only takes a couple of minutes...

Give ColbertWatcher some data to compile...

[ColbertWatcher]

13. Thank you. n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

14. Friday morning kick! n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

18. Kick. n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

19. Saturday kick. n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

20. Sunday kick. n/t

[Greyhound]

16. Here's mine (for the moment)

A. 2

B. 4

C. 6

D. 7

E. 10

F. 8

G. 9

H. 1

I. 3

J. 5


ETA: votes are pretty interesting so far...

[ColbertWatcher]

17. I just reviewwed mine and discovered I did it backwards! n/t