jungle [8] | Branded adventures in and out of the jungle.

4 Comments

1. Laurel Paley added these pithy words on December 9, 2008 | Permalink

   OH yeah.

   In the 1980s, my very patriotic (“Buy American Cars”) family bought two big Chevy Caprices. That year, GM put in transmissions that couldn’t support their six-cylinder engines. They were always in the shop, always overheating, and completely unreliable and unsafe.

   Tens or maybe even hundreds of thousands of folks nationwide had major trouble with those cars from that year. Then, all those cars died around the same time (our two gave it up within six months of each other). All required new transmissions.

   A class-action lawsuit reimbursed everyone the cost of those transmissions, but NOT the cost of the unending trouble.

   So my family members went from being “Buy American” to “Never Buy American (almost).” And subsequently, our immediate family has bought the following new cars:

   Audi (1)
   Honda (4)
   Toyota (5)
   Lexus (well, Toyota) (1)
   Acura (well, Honda) (1)
   Infinity (3)
   Subaru (1)
   and……..

   Ford (1).

   Um, ooops. The Ford truck flipped over from an accident that should NEVER have caused it to flip. When I was looking at a Ford wagon, my brother and his wife (AND my parents) BEGGED me not to buy a Ford.

   Look at how many sales Ford & GM lost, in my immediately family alone!!! Let alone, how many sales they lost from the word of mouth generated from our complaining about our Chevies and Ford!!

   I’m sorry about the economy in Michigan. I’m sorry about the loss of jobs. But in my opinion, GM brought all this on itself.

   As for Ford, I was in Europe a few months ago, and I saw all these tiny, adorable, seemingly incredibly fuel-efficient cars. “What are these?” I kept asking. I had never seen such cars before. Easy to maneuver, easy to park, small but sturdy-looking, engineered to hold a lot of cargo, and four passengers, and still be small. I got closer, and to my shock, I discovered that they are made by…….

   FORD.

   So they are able to make excellent, fuel efficient vehicles, but not even to TRY to sell them HERE.

   Charming.

2. Laurel Paley added these pithy words on December 9, 2008 | Permalink

   oops, two infinity cars, not three.

3. Liz added these pithy words on December 13, 2008 | Permalink

   I concur with Laura. I come from a “buy American” family until our last looser chevy (a Blazer). All American cars seem to have it set that the transmission goes out at around 90,000 miles (that is if your lucky enough to get them up to that number). I wonder what kind of dirty deal they struck to keep that breakdown in place. When your out on the freeway, you don’t see nearly the number of “on the shoulder breakdowns” you once did despite the increase of traffic. Why? because fewer and fewer people buy American. When you do see a breakdown, it’s an American car. I own a Toyota, the rest of the family Hondas. I can’t tell you the pleasure it is to go on a road trip and NOT expect a breakdown. They shot themselves in the foot.

4. Sarah Krausse added these pithy words on March 12, 2010 | Permalink

   Awesome ad. Where’s it from?