Just watch with Kiva, though - like I said, the borrower does pay interest to the partner firm. If you loan money, you don't get that interest - the partner does. Some of them charge exorbitant interest rates. OTOH, what seems awful to us can be a good rate to the borrower - I once lent money to someone in…

Well, it depends on how you define making money off of debt. A few years back, with all loans apart from my mortgage paid off, I started aggressively investing. I've kept the mortgage and only paid the required monthly payments (fixed 15 year term). Had I paid off the mortgage instead of investing, I would have…

Kiva never has paid people interest. Their partners do charge interest to the borrowers, but anyone providing $ for a loan doesn't receive a cent in interest.

Yep - I'm amazed how often companies ship production to China simply because one person is in charge of production costs, and another in charge of logistics, and no one is doing the calculation of the total cost to get it to the customer, but rather just fighting over their own fiefdoms... I've seen simple injection…

Hey, corporations are people and can have religious beliefs now.

(sigh).

The list of "Most American Cars" is a garbage list established by an arbitrary cutoff in domestic content percentage then reordered based on sales. Did you know the first year they listed the Camry #1, there were 40 vehicles on the list with higher domestic content, most of which were developed mostly in the US,…

Not likely. Transpacific shipping will cost nearly as much as their labor savings.

The Chinese-built cars are coming. Of that, we can be certain. Everyone expects legions of ultra-cheap subcompacts priced below even the least expensive Japanese, American and Korean cars, ideal for broke-ass Millennials. But the first major China-made car to come to our shores will actually be pretty nice.

I would understand that if it weren't for the fact that Mazda had already carved out their current market share before American's accepted Hondas and Toyotas...

But yes, since that time, Mazda's brand identity has certainly changed, even though their share hasn't.

This thing - or likely any of the other "trucks" made by "Big Ass Trucks". I got behind this exact one on the freeway one day - it barely fit in between the lane lines, the bed was a good 6-8 feet off the ground, the side mirrors intruded into the neighboring lanes, and it was unstable as heck - the back end had one…

"The success of Honda and Toyota allowed for smaller brands like Subaru and Mazda to carve out their own niches."

IIRC, for a good while there, Mazda had the second highest market share of any Japanese manufacturer selling in the US - I don't believe this changed until around the mid 80s. Wards Auto locked that data…

No one is calling them American cars. They're global cars. And you know what? They have been for years. Even back when the Fiesta was only sold in Europe, the number of people working in the US to support that product was staggering. It's a similar thing to what Toyota has going on in the US right now - they have…

Ooh... you're a contractor? Guess what buddy, I've worked directly for Ford (and other manufacturers), and on a contract basis. You really need to look at the number of employees in R&D in these firms. There simply aren't enough people at Ford of Europe to do what you claim.

And your claims of not seeing a new…

90%? Are you kidding? This sort of claim is ignorant of where the work to develop a car is actually done.

And the midsize market in Europe is far from dead. Is it as strong as the US? No - but describing it as dead is extreme hyperbole. As for what was #1 and #2? The VW Passat and the Opel/Vauxhall Insignia. The…

I'd agree that their vehicles designed primarily for the US market don't work in Europe - but describing most of their vehicles as being designed by Ford of Europe is a gross oversimplification. Ford has set up their development centers to focus on specific systems, and vehicle leads split among the various sites...…

Seriously? The following GM vehicles sold in China are shared with the US:

Buick Regal, Buick LaCrosse, Buick Enclave, Buick Encore, Buick Excelle GT/ Verano, Cadillac ATS, Cadillac CTS, Cadillac SRX, Cadillac XTS, Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Aveo, Chevrolet Camaro, Chevrolet Captiva, Chevrolet Cruze, Chevrolet…

First off, your statement belies the truth over where the cars were developed. There are few Ford vehicles left that were developed entirely in one location or another - Europe is moving to specializing in chassis, US to working on powertrain and styling.

As for the Fusion (aka Mondeo) sales in Europe, sales for the…

And my point is that there aren't many Ford vehicles left that aren't shared. So the vast majority of the "US market cars" in Ford's offerings are in fact sold in Europe. The biggest exception is the F-series - where they get the Ranger. And based on the fact that countless Europeans working at my co. drive…

Wait - I thought all Japanese manufacturers worked perfectly and allowed workers to stop the lines to fix this sort of thing. :S

Seriously, though - this just confirms what I've seen working with and for Ford, GM, Chrysler, and Toyota - the companies all had stated standards that stated that workers were encouraged to…

"Current US market cars, whether they're Fords, Chryslers, Cadillacs or Toyotas, don't stand a chance in Europe"

Do you really think so? Because the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, Transit, Transit Connect, Escape, Mustang, and C-Max are all shared...