QOTD: "You Are Full Of Shit" – Ralph Gilles to Donald Trump

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

Pursuant to our continued discrediting of the “ Jeeps built in China” lie, Donald Trump took to Twitter to further propagate that falsehood. And the Donald ended up getting a virtual earful from Ralph Gilles, head of Chrysler’s SRT Division.

The Trump tweet that launched a thousand shits reads as such

Obama is a terrible negotiator. He bails out Chrysler and now Chrysler wants to send all Jeep manufacturing to China–and will!

Gilles took a direct and concise course of action, one that may even qualify him for a Farley Award. Now, if I can find an auto exec willing to rebut a silly question from a journalist inquiring why their new product’s rear sway bar isn’t 2mm thicker, I will die a happy man.

Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

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  • Moparman426W Moparman426W on Nov 02, 2012

    Geeber, just keep reading consumer reports and taking your car to the shop every time it needs fixed.

    • Geeber Geeber on Nov 02, 2012

      I hate to disappoint you, Moparman, but I'm not taking either our Honda or our Ford to the shop on a regular basis for problems. I have last five annual auto issues of the magazine, and the results match very closely with our experiences with our 2003 Honda Accord EX (185,000 miles) and 2005 Ford Focus SE (154,000 miles).

  • Moparman426W Moparman426W on Nov 02, 2012

    My point was not how often you may take your car to the shop, but that if something were to go wrong you would have to because you don't know a carburetor from a door handle. But you could probably tell me which auto plant was the first to have vending machines.

    • See 4 previous
    • Geeber Geeber on Nov 02, 2012

      @geeber But then why does virtually every mechanic I talk to tell me that Honda and Toyota really are the most reliable vehicles out there? And if you have corporate insider experience, please share it with us. Those are always interesting to read. Among the domestic, for example, which is the most reliable? I'm curious to hear your perspective.

  • Moparman426W Moparman426W on Nov 02, 2012

    Right.

  • Moparman426W Moparman426W on Nov 02, 2012

    And that's what sets us car guys apart from the general public. Say for example a certain vehicle is notorious for eating stabilizer links at around 50k miles. They cost around 10-15 bucks apiece for most vehicles and take about 5 minutes per side to install. A car guy would buy the links and install them himself. If someone asks him about the service of his car he would say something along the lines of "it's been a good car, only thing I've done to it is replace the stabilizer links." The general public is not like that, though. They would have to take it to a shop and most likely leave it for a day and get charged a couple hundred bucks for labor and ripped off for the price of the links. Then they will complain and fill out their survey, telling about how the car cost them money and spent a day in the shop.

    • Geeber Geeber on Nov 02, 2012

      In other words, the car guy overlooks problems because he can repair them himself, but the non-car guy is more likely to provide an accurate snapshot of the vehicle's service record because he experienced the inconvenience of taking it a shop and paying for the repair. Your post isn't making the point that you think it is, Moparman426W. The overwhemling majority of people are not mechanics, so any company that builds a vehicle with the expectation that owners will overlook a problem because they can repair it themselves is headed for bankruptcy.

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