I doubt it. I test-drove a decade-old BMW not too long ago. It felt like a Bimmer, not like a Daewoo.

If you’re not in the market for a ‘Vette, the ‘Vette in the showroom is simply something to admire when you’re not being actively hounded to buy the Aveo.

Nothing in “Halo Theory” explains how Toyota and Honda make money. There was close to zero market awareness of the Supra and the Celica probably didn’t get as much attention as the Camaro at any point in its life. Toyota cancelled the Celica altogether and life goes on. It’s doubtful the Prius has an effect on Camry buyers, either, except as further proof that Toyota knows how to build supremely reliable cars.

Facts are inconsequential if you cannot learn to form them into a coherent argument, or apply them in a manner which actually contradicts the statements of another.

Calling himself a philanthropist, billionaire George Soros’ role is to tighten the ideological stranglehold of globalization and the New World Order while promoting his own financial gain. Soros’ commercial and “philanthropic” operations are clandestine, contradictory and coactive. And as far as his economic activities are concerned, by his own admission, he is without conscience; a capitalist who functions with absolute amorality.”

WHatever. Make sure you don’t sleep in your tinfoil hat – it’s quite a lot of work to fold another one when you wake up next morning…

kamm,
George Soros is good at manipulating currency.
”
—

You’re confused: he was *shorting* the pound because it was OVERVALUED. If you believe anything close to a free market then you know it was the RIGHT THING TO DO.
Same thing goes for the Malaysian crisis, the Russian crisis etc – all he did was exploiting national central banks’ and/or governments’ arrogance and stupidity.

—
” He should stick to that, but try to do it with the social conscience he claims to have grown.”
—

He never claimed anything to have “grown” – you obviously don’t know jack about him or else you would know he’s advocated quite socialist (OMG! The S-word! FauxNews’ end-of-the-world alarm just went off!!) points for long years now.
In essence he says there are certain roles market cannot fulfill, certain services that cannot be operated on market-based principles, fully or partially but the government must take care of it, in return for the power and taxes it gets form the people (e.g. police, fire depts, *healthcare* etc.)
All this is only part of his Open Society idea which is based on *individual* *freedom* – what is your problem with that?
Perhaps you don’t like the fact that it would mean exposing lies and illegal acts of governments and parties?

—
” IMO, his new goal is manipulating our entire country, and any others he can on the way. The real con is that he IS the manipulative rich guy pulling strings and keeping the little guys down, but the left adores him. I can’t think of a conservative equivalent to the man. ”
—
Oh yeah, suuure: that’s why he financed 5-6 regime changes out of HIS pocket, gaining nothing but hatred in most cases in the process, right?
First was Hungary, his – and my – native country, he spent BILLIONS to establish free thinking, he financed several of today’s younger (~50y) politicians’ trips to the US and Oxford – all whom now he can count as enemies…
The list goes on: he financed the Serbian democratic movements (mainly Otpor) against Milosevic’s police state, he brought down the post-Soviet pseudo-democratic dictatorial regime in Ukraine (aka Orange Revolution, led by Pora), in Sevarnadze’s “personal country” Georgia (mainly financing Kmara), Kyrgyzystan etc.

WTF do you think, why did today’s last Stalinist ruler, Belarus “president” Lukashenko expell the Soros Foundation years ago?
Because he KNOWS that OPEN SOCIETY EMPOWERS THE PEOPLE and kills dictators.

—
“Your observation about me could use some supporting evidence, or you could try to point out where I made an error in my argument. Instead, your post is the logical equivalent of “You are a fool, and you are wrong.””
—

It’s always funny to read these silly-illogical fluffs, dreamed up some badly educated (LIberty University et al, anyone? :D), overpaid right-wing nutjob moutpiece and presented by some ill-informed bystander in such a “confident” manner and then hit them in the face with FACTS, only to leave you speechless or throwing around empty cliches – like you just did, accusing me preemptively, right… :p
—

“If you actually READ my post with less of a bias of your own, you would have caught on to this part: “Fox simply has all the problems of the rest of the MSM with a conservative, rather than liberal spin.” Restated, that means they suck with a conservative bias rather than a liberal one. In other words, I can see through windows, and I know and see through plenty of rich folk, but can you think your way out of a paper bag?”
—

I did read it and I found it preposterous to claim that FauxNews has resemblance to any half-decent news network (NBC, CBS, CNN) – don’t try to sell me FauxNews’ sheer lies and primitive propaganda-style under some false, fake even-handedness, please.
Look, I grew up under Communism, I can smell BS FAR AWAY, from lot further than any of you will ever – and FauxNews is EXACTLY like the Commie state TV was in Hungary in mid-80 except that was a lot less agressive, way more toned-down, they actually didn’t try to say things that were outrageously-obviously false while Faux do it regularly under the moniker ‘opinion’ (via Bill’O'Falafel etc).
Rest of the news pack is also laughable, puny and useless etc yes – but FauxNews is a completely different level, a magnitude lower quality than any other news service (including the totally corrupt, lame AP).

Your observation about me could use some supporting evidence, or you could try to point out where I made an error in my argument. Instead, your post is the logical equivalent of “You are a fool, and you are wrong.”

If you actually READ my post with less of a bias of your own, you would have caught on to this part: “Fox simply has all the problems of the rest of the MSM with a conservative, rather than liberal spin.” Restated, that means they suck with a conservative bias rather than a liberal one. In other words, I can see through windows, and I know and see through plenty of rich folk, but can you think your way out of a paper bag?

“Read some books from Soros, ”
Now THAT is the most hilarious post of all! Hands down! Winner! LMAO!
MoveOn.org, ACORN, Act Ruckus Society, Lynne Stewart. What a POS”

Seeing your truly hilarious post about GM outselling Toyota I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re like very old and/or very stupid people (aka bums): only your associative arrays work now thus no substantial new material can be sent or retrieved from your brain, no logic, no changes nothing…

…WTF does your erratic mumblings have to do with Soros’ books about democracy and open society? Or even his just-turned-out-to-be-true predictions about financial markets? Unlike you he DID prove he can make money, he can outsmart loudmouthed market “analysts” (total BS job/profession), he DID change autocratic/dictatorial regimes and turned them into parliamentarian democracies (or at least they’re on the right way), he DID put his money where his mouth is – who are you and what is this moronic reply, may I ask?

I know it’s always hard to explain (I noticed that bums are always in great pain when they have to reason their purely gut-based, deep-rooted, primitive grudging hatred) but even despite your obvious shortcomings in all things logical (GM vs Toyota) I am STILL willing to give you a chance to explain yourself here…

The Prius still might not be profitable.

Toyota have claimed the second generation design changes and subsequent volume made the Prius profitable since around 2002 onward.

Other hybrid models are also profitable.

You say this as if that’s a good thing. So now you want the government to play bully and shove things that we don’t want down our throats?

No thanks. Here’s a better idea — get Detroit to build vehicles that people want, and then maybe people will be happy to buy them. Until then, suffer in silence, because companies that don’t make consumers happy deserve to lose.

In any case, such a proposal would violate the WTO. It would also cause other nations to retaliate, which as we learned during the 1930’s, would only hurt the US economy.

For one, you’re going to find that 2008 is the year when this is no longer true.

For another, when the only way for GM to generate those sales is to heavily discount the cars and lose money, then it’s nothing to brag about.

It’s about quality, not quantity. GM would be filing bankruptcy were it not for government handouts. If that isn’t enough of a wake up call, how much more is it going to take?

You are right. GM still outsells Toyota and absolutely dwarfs Honda. Same ballpark…poppycock.”

Ummm are you joking?
Toyota’s just about to post its FIRST LOSS IN 71 YEARS.

OTOH, people still blame the Great Depression on Hoover, though FDR screwed the pooch repeatedly by prolonging and worsening it.”

Bravo – this was the most hilarious post tonight.
Truly priceless, just like FauxNews’ crapola about anything.

You are right. GM still outsells Toyota and absolutely dwarfs Honda. Same ballpark…poppycock.

I can’t think who posted it, but it was hilarious;

“We’re losing money on every sale, but make up for it in volume.” Old Guy Ben was that you??

You are right. GM still outsells Toyota and absolutely dwarfs Honda. Same ballpark…poppycock.

I would say that Fox news is no more Faux than CNN or any other news outlet. I really don’t get it. First of all O’Reilly is NOT news. He isn’t supposed to be news, any more than the Daly Show is news. OTOH, what about Obermeier or Blitzer or the PBS nutbag I can’t think of right now? I suppose you would rather watch NBC blow up trucks?
Fox simply has all the problems of the rest of the MSM with a conservative, rather than liberal spin. I see through both of them, only I am less irritated by the conservative spin than the liberal spin.
Lastly, I don’t get the impression that Murdoch is conservative himself. I wasted two minutes watching Outfoxed before the BS got too thick. If you believe that rich people are evil, and that letting one own a news outlet is dangerous, then suffer in silence or catch them red handed.
I have yet to see any evidence that Fox is any worse than the rest when it comes to getting the story straight. What I see is those who don’t like them repeating misleading rants all over the place until they have become true to the gullible.”

Errr, pal, this post shows you obviously can’t see through a glass window, let alone FauxNews or rich people, stop fooling yourself.

Read some books from Soros, his thoughts and predictions about open society are coming alive every day – you might even get a grasp on conservativism vs FauxNews and their ilks.

I respectfully suggest you’re mixing up marketing with engineering excellence and whether or not a company chooses to connect the two.

As someone who works with a large team of marketing strategists, the “halo” idea has very limited, if any, effect.

Differentiating your soap product at many levels is the only game in town. Our people say the GT-R is a differentiation example, while BMW have built the M3 into a brand requirement, but use it little in their direct marketing efforts.

Try talking to non car people (ie people who consider cars to be an appliance) about brand image, its surprising what people perceive.

Yes, we do this a lot in our company. On expensive items like cars, quality perception above all else, is always first, causing people to select their brand (if not already captive), usually before the item.

If you wonder why the road back for GM/Chrysler is near impossible with the buying public and for some fun check this out;

Chevrolet brand association

(Scroll a bit for the biggest/most frequent Chevy words “CRAP” “CHEAP”). If you’re wondering the Toyota version has “QUALITY”, while the BMW version has “FAST” “PERFORMANCE” and “ASSHOLE”.

Keeping it short, as you have pointed out, the politics has been getting long.

We could all go about what’s wrong with ALL the networks on so many levels. That is my point.

The views you just expressed are similar to those I have with EVERY news network. Everyone I know thinks that the press does a decent job except for on the subjects where they know better. Whatever you know well, you will find the press does a lousy job of reporting it. That’s because they do a lousy job on almost everything, but we don’t know it because we can’t all know everything.

As for why they weren’t making money when they were selling so many SUV’s and trucks – CAFE. Besides that, they can’t show much profit or the unions will grab for it. Therefore, they squander or hide it as best they can.

Okay, that was short for me. :)

My point is that Halo is important, how can you not think BMW are great because of the M3 or Nissan because of the Skyline/GTR and so on.
There are going to be some buyers who think there is a little bit of Corvette DNA in their Aveo (Ok maybe a bit of a far stretch, but you get the point)

Try talking to non car people (ie people who consider cars to be an appliance) about brand image, its surprising what people perceive.

I would have more respect for Rick and Bob if they got caught by the FBI in a drug sting like Delorean rather than beg politicians to steal from me.

Why?

I don’t mean to continue a non-car point to this topic, but I am amazed at this line of thinking. While Hoover certainly did not cause the great depression, he certainly did little (nothing?) to end it. Roosevelt did not end it, but claiming that he prolonged and worsened it seems a bit over-stated. As has been pointed out by Keynesian economists, it was only when FDR tried to balance the budget that there was a decline in economic growth in his administration.

Let’s be honest here. Though many pistonheads would love to buy a Lotus Elise or Porsche or Corvette or Evo or whatever impractical go-fast, zoomy, fun-to-drive car they could get their hands on, most people still get staid sedans. That’s because they need to have a practical vehicle that won’t break down and can carry at least a few people. Domestic automakers seem to have given up on that market, or put their ‘B’ team on that car.

They’ve ceded the segments that sell the most cars almost completely. Where is their -good- small car, and -good- midsize car? Don’t tell me the Cobalt was better than the Civic or Mazda3, because it wasn’t.

General Motors seems to get stuck on emotions rather than logistics. Case in point: The Corvette is a world-beating, astoundingly good car, it really is. It should be, there’s millions of dollars of R&D into that thing, and there has been for years and years. But, GM can only sell ten or twenty thousand of those a year.

Meanwhile, the Impala is mediocre. Why is their mid-size car so crappy when that’s what most people buy?

Toyota doesn’t have one high-end sports car and they haven’t had one since they killed the Supra in the 90’s. Why’d they kill it? Not enough sales. They were wasting their money. To tell the truth, for all the talk and magazine articles and everything, the demographic that will actually buy a sports car is pretty small.

General Motors needs to look at the numbers for once, and cut their sportscars and make good sedans and small cars.