"the guvnor" > wrote in message
...
> On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 13:24:31 -0500, "Joel Jacobs" >
> wrote:
>
>>>>Yurop has never played fair with auto imports from the US.
>>>
>>> Note how the US car market is closed to true competition due to your
>>> fedralisation rules.
>>>
>>
>>Improve your friggin' build quality on cars other than the Rolls, and
>>Americans might well buy your cars - IF you build them to world standards
>>of
>>crash worthiness. I loved Rover, but Rovers - other than the old Land
>>Rovers - were pieces of crap. AND, your cars are expensive! Parts were
>>expensive, a decent mechanic was hardly ever to be found.
>
> An American crying about car build quality???
>
>>I don't think you realize just how large this country is.
>
> Smaller than Russia, Canada and China.
>
> Note how you never hear people from those larger countries banging on
> about how big they are...
>
>>All the countries of the UK are smaller than the single state of Oregon.
>
> So what?

I actually thought we might make some headway. As I said earlier, I'm one
of the guys that LIKES you guys.

I don't know your age, so it may well be that you don't remember how horrid
the build quality of British motorcars was back in the 1960s and 1970s.
Unfortunately the people my age do remember how bad those cars were - the
same was true of French and most Italian cars - and as such people have
shunned, in many ways, the purchase of European cars other than the German
cars which held up to long-distance driving - and cars that went fast. And
back in those days few Americans could actually afford a Jag and certainly
could not afford a machine such as an Aston Martin.

Most of the small underpowered cars that were shipped over here by most
European builders were ill-suited to American use. It's not uncommon for an
American to climb into an automobile and take a multi-thousand mile trip -
THAT's why I mention the size of the United States vs. the United Kingdom.

I bought another Corvette 3 years ago. I purchased it in California - I live
in Texas - flew out, got the car and drove it home via Colorado - that's
more than 2,400 miles. I put new shocks on it, repaired the radio antenna
(the car was used) and promptly took a 7,000 mile trip around the United
States. American cars do this easily. They're large enough for comfort.
Economical enough to warrant a trip such as that, and manage the trip with
aplomb.

In July I'm leaving the Dallas area driving to visit friends in Tennessee,
West Virginia, Virginia, and New York, a trip of more than 4,000 miles.
This will be my 5th such trip - in excess of 2,000 miles per trip.

American build quality used to be almost as bad as British build quality,
but the Japanese spanked us so thoroughly that we had no choice but to begin
building better cars, and we do. Those American cars are ill-suited for use
in the UK for the reasons stated earlier.

I drove Porsches and BMWs for years, but when I moved back to the United
States and small-town America (70 miles from the nearest BMW or Porsche
parts and diagnostics centers) I went back to driving something I could get
repaired here - population 9,500. For a performance two-seater the obvious
choice was Corvette. I can get a Corvette repaired at any of the 4,500+
Chevy dealers in towns scattered across America.

Joel