Are people really this stupid?

In reply to yamaha:

I thought it was the other way around, though I may very well be wrong.

David S. Wallens wrote: I once bought a washer machine without first trying it out. For many people, it's the same kind of purchase.

Yeah, but most people don't sit on their washing machine everyday. Well, unless they're into that sort of thing.

alex wrote: I bought a sofa last year from some big chain store (American, I think it was, ironically) had it upside down to put some casters on the ottoman, and found out it was made in the USA. It didn't even cross my mind that cheap furniture (not that it was inexpensive, but I don't see it being passed down to my grandkids) would be built in the States.

I bought kitchen cabinets from Ikea, really inexpensive build-it-yourself cabinets, and they were made in the USA! Not just the USA, but in Ohio. That kind of blew my mind. Nice cabinets, too, especially for the price.

yamaha wrote: You realize the matrix is just a guzzied up Pontiac Vibe I trust.......

No, it's not even gussied up, it's just got Toyota badges on it instead of Pontiac badges. But to some people that's a Japanese car. Swap Matrix with Avalon and you still have an 85% American/Canadian content put together in the USA versus much, much lower American content and assembled in Mexico for the Ford.

Other way around. The Vibe is a Toyota with Pontiac badges. And I would certainly say that it's at least gussied up. It's not just a "stick this badge on instead of that badge" sort of thing, as the previous poster suggests.

16vCorey wrote:

David S. Wallens wrote: I once bought a washer machine without first trying it out. For many people, it's the same kind of purchase.

Yeah, but most people don't sit on their washing machine everyday. Well, unless they're into that sort of thing.

Well, true, but I didn't see how well it washed or anything. I trusted that it would do a decent job of washing my clothes. Same with the matching dryer. Me: "Does this one work well?" Salesman: "Yes." Me: "Sold."

Look at it this way. How dumb is the average person? Half of the people on this planet are dumber than that guy.

David S. Wallens wrote:

16vCorey wrote:

David S. Wallens wrote: I once bought a washer machine without first trying it out. For many people, it's the same kind of purchase.

Yeah, but most people don't sit on their washing machine everyday. Well, unless they're into that sort of thing.

Well, true, but I didn't see how well it washed or anything. I trusted that it would do a decent job of washing my clothes. Same with the matching dryer. Me: "Does this one work well?" Salesman: "I dunno, but I can do zero percent financing on it." Me: "Sold."

FTFY

Bobzilla wrote: Are we, as a society, really getting this dumb?

Oh, heavens no. You'll find people MUCH dumber than that.

16vCorey wrote: Other way around. The Vibe is a Toyota with Pontiac badges. And I would certainly say that it's at least gussied up. It's not just a "stick this badge on instead of that badge" sort of thing, as the previous poster suggests.

It's the same car, yet the Vibe is a lot less expensive, both on the showroom floor and used.

Why? Because one is a Toyota and one is just some POS Pontiac.

So, yes, people are that dumb.

Most of my past and present cars are built in Mexico.

I started a husband/wife knock down drag out once completely by mistake. She drove a Mercury Villager, the timing belt let go at ~130k and I was hunting an engine for it, I mentioned that a Nissan Quest engine was the same. She got this really weird look on her face and asked me WTF I was talking about. I explained that Nissan had built the Villager for Mercury; she turned to her husband and screamed 'I TOLD YOU I WANTED A GODDAMN AMERICAN CAR!!!!!'

There hasn't been an "American" car built since like 1979.

I've said it once, I've said it again. All this safety in the world interrupts natural selection. Used to be the stupid people would be killed off, now they go on and live and reproduce and contaminate the gene pool. (I keed)

On the other hand, people may not be and stupiderer, it's just in this hyper-connected world we live in now, we hear more stupid stuff, whereas before that guy was some dude in Cleveland you've never met.

Curmudgeon wrote: I started a husband/wife knock down drag out once completely by mistake. She drove a Mercury Villager, the timing belt let go at ~130k and I was hunting an engine for it, I mentioned that a Nissan Quest engine was the same. She got this really weird look on her face and asked me WTF I was talking about. I explained that Nissan had built the Villager for Mercury; she turned to her husband and screamed 'I TOLD YOU I WANTED A GODDAMN AMERICAN CAR!!!!!'

LMAO!!!!!! That is too funny.

Curmudgeon wrote: I started a husband/wife knock down drag out once completely by mistake. She drove a Mercury Villager, the timing belt let go at ~130k and I was hunting an engine for it, I mentioned that a Nissan Quest engine was the same. She got this really weird look on her face and asked me WTF I was talking about. I explained that Nissan had built the Villager for Mercury; she turned to her husband and screamed 'I TOLD YOU I WANTED A GODDAMN AMERICAN CAR!!!!!'

If it helps, it was probably built in Lorain, Ohio.

16vCorey wrote:

David S. Wallens wrote: I once bought a washer machine without first trying it out. For many people, it's the same kind of purchase.

Yeah, but most people don't sit on their washing machine everyday. Well, unless they're into that sort of thing.

I purchased my toilet without a test drive as well. It isn't that I didn't try - but the people in the Lowe's seemed appalled and threatened to call the cops.

I really don't think you can get it through to the "appliance" crowd just how global the auto industry is now.

For the record, my quirky German cars built in Germany have been more trouble than my plain-jane German car assembled in Mexico.

What if you buy a car that was designed by a GM of Europe company, built by a GM of Korea company, and sold in the US at a Chevy dealership?

Or if you buy a car that was designed by Toyota of US, built in a Toyota of US factory, and sold in the US at a Toyota dealership?

Globalization confuses things, I guess it depends on if you want the corporation's net profit, or if you want the money that comes between the net and the gross.

I mean, I'm sure some of the money from Opel and Vauxhall and Daewoo and Ford of Europe make it to Detroit, but the majority of it stays behind in the form of supplier funding, utilities, raw materials, and direct factory worker/engineer/executive payroll.

It's like the arguments for space exploration. The money doesn't just get set into a big pile and burned, it pays a lot of salaries and creates new technology that other industries get to use.

Meh, I'm Canadian. All car companies are foreign.

In reply to rallymodeller:

I could have sworn my ex-wife's 92 Civic DX was built in Ontario..

EDIT: Wrong smiley! There, I fixed it.

A lot of those Crown Vics with "Keep my flag off of your foreign car!" stickers are made in Canada, too.

In reply to rallymodeller:

My Intrepid was built in Brampton and my Road Runner was built in Windsor.

I saw this Kia in my town a few months ago:

To the OP: Yes.

without reading the text of your post, I was already prepared to say yes. Nothing surprises me anymore.
I worked on a sentra today with a front plate which read: "Buy American!"
Ask me for pictures, I took 'em. lol

I've gone back and forth with posting this today. Don't want to see this fly off into another locked thread, but I need to ask anyway.

Back to the original post, why is the Elantra guy being labeled as stupid/dumb? Because he wanted a US built Korean car, or his ranting about getting a Korean built one on the internet? And what's the need to jump all over it?

I'm not saying everything has to be "Team America! Berkley-Yea!" but what's the problem of wanting to purchase a US built version of the car?