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Would you want a kia for 10 years?
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Would you want a kia for 10 years?
Thats 3652 days longer than I would want to drive a Renault for.
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Other manufacturers have offered long warranties in the US too. I remember that VW had a 10 year warranty (in the US) during the early 1990s.
alex
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Yep, 10 years, I heard that too! Just makes you realise what can be done when manufacturers have the right 'incentive'.
With the £ v $ at £1.90ish those cars are very cheap indeed and with petrol at a fraction of the price it is here you can't get much cheaper motoring than that can you?
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"With the £ v $ at £1.90ish those cars are very cheap indeed and with petrol at a fraction of the price it is here you can't get much cheaper motoring than that can you?"
Really?
thats 12,000$ thats £6,316.
Kia Picanto - UK on the road list price £5495
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>>>> "With the £ v $ at £1.90ish those cars are very
>>>> cheap indeed and with petrol at a fraction of the price
>>>> it is here you can't get much cheaper motoring than that
>>>> can you?"Really? thats 12,000$ thats £6,316. Kia Picanto - UK on the road list price £5495
*NOBODY* in the US would buy a Picanto!! The smallest car Kia sell is Rio, and it costs $10,000. Note that US prices don't include sales tax & registration, which varies state by state (but is still less that our VAT).
I was 'upgraded' to Kia Amanti on hire in the US recently - it's a large car with power everything, leather seats etc, but was so softly sprung it was hilarious to drive - it's how I imagine driving a water bed would be! It also had stupid amounts of wind noise at anything over 40MPH.
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I remember visiting the US in 1975 and seeing Mazda were offering 5-year warranty.
I understand that in the US the government (via the EPA) impose a mandatory 8-year warranty on all 'emissions related' parts - that means if your lambda sensor, EGR valve etc pack up within 8-years then its a free fix! They also impose price controls on these parts and can require a manufacturer to reduce the cost of parts. Moreover it is also a requirement for manufacturers to make service data (workshop manuals) available to anyone that requests them.
The problem in Europe is that governments pay too much attention to lobbying from industry, which is keeping costs high.
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"The problem in Europe is that governments pay too much attention to lobbying from industry, which is keeping costs high."
Not true. Industry Lobying in the US is much more prevalent, and has much more affect (like they pay into election campaigns, and directly fund candidates) than lobbying in Europe. They are so far apart as to be incompareable.
The reason is that Ralf Nader* managed to turn the car industry in the US into a "bad boy" deeply mistrusted by the US electorate, and hence prone to populist legislation by any senator or party who wanted to score votes. Also the reason why the car industry in the US is shackled, piloried and legislated with regard to environmental affects while general industry is left well alone.
*he was aided by public mistrust built up by the autocratic and ecentric owners and the "crack their heads" strike busting. Strange phenomina - Yanks love their cars but generally hate the corporations that build them.
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"The problem in Europe is that governments pay too much attention to lobbying from industry, which is keeping costs high." Not true. Industry Lobying in the US is much more prevalent, and has much more affect (like they pay into election campaigns, and directly fund candidates) than lobbying in Europe. They are so far apart as to be incompareable.
No, sorry, you have the wrong end of the stick there! Do a bit of homework. I worked in the US auto industry for a year or so and saw the way government operates. Sure there is a lot of lobbying in the US, but at the end of the day US industry is much much more tightly regulated than in the UK. Competition legislation is tightly enforced and in some industries (e.g. power utilities) profits are capped at quite low levels. Many UK companies have come to grief in the US because they haven't understood the business environment.
Consumers are protected by a raft of laws (the 'Lemon Law' is best known over here, but there are plenty of others). The consumer lobby is even bigger than the business lobby and they tend to win out in the end.
The US tend to talk a good game about free markets etc etc., but in reality the government dabbles in markets far more than they would like to admit and, for example, they implement price controls in the motor spares market.
In Europe, and especially the UK, industry has a lot more influence on legislation. Recent moves that spring to mind including current attempts restrict the availability of 'pattern parts' for cars and the whole issue of 'block exemption' (and the 'localisation clause') which are only now being resolved. The European motor industry has been treated very benevolently indeed in comparison to the US industry. Could 'block exemption' ever have been legislated in the US - I doubt it!
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Sorry Aprilia, you are agreeing with me. I have done my homework and due to the nature of my business have much more to do with the US than you - for 30 years.
If you read what I said the, Motor trade is the exception due to its bad boy image as I described and the consumer lobby outweighs the industry lobby. This is the exception.
This is not the case with the rest of US industry, where industrial lobbying wins and wins big in government. Take steel, coal, farming, chemicals, pharmecuticals. All weald immense power over government.
Take US export regulations and the denied parties list. Think this is done for security reasons as claimed? Nope, its to keep the technology at home, cost high and protected from low cost producers. Who pushed that? the manufacturer.
Power? regulated cost? yup so what do the power companies do? cut the power. Did they get backhanders to put it on again? yes.
Drug licences? ooo dont go there.
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In fairness, reading my post again, I could have made it clearer that the US automotive industry is highly regulated.
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I disagree with your last point, RF. Yanks hate the corporations that produce Yank cars. They love Far Eastern imports. American car manufacturers are haemorrhaging customers because Americans have finally figured out that parts are not supposed to keep falling off a new car. The idea that people would really rather drive a Chevrolet (or Chevrowoo in this country) is long gone.
Regarding another post, American emission controls and safety legislation have almost no bearing on the fastest growing segment of the vehicle market -- SUVs and pickups. That is a direct result of successful corporate lobbying.
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I don't think any of this is new - it may have recently fallen from grace but Toyota Camry has been the best selling car in the US for years.
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"I disagree with your last point, RF. Yanks hate the corporations that produce Yank cars. They love Far"
I think thats what I implied. In fact I said they hate the Home grown manufacturers.
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> Strange phenomina - Yanks love their cars but generally hate the corporations
> that build them.
This is the comment I was responding to.
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Again I didnt mean to infer they loved just yank cars. On the whole Americans deeply mistrust the nations that export cars into the US. They resent the fact that its mostly nations that have been defeated in wars, Nations who are not seen as "democracies", nations who were protected by the Americans from world communism. And here they are shipping in cars made with slave labour, stealing American jobs.
But hey they are goddamn fine cars, dont break down, they are cheap to run, screw the autoworkers in michigan or detroit I will buy my import.
Strange race the Yanks
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I think we are agreeing. Sorry if I missed your initial point. I think Yanks are chronically puzzled how Japanese car manufacturers can do it so well and, after decades of trying to catch up, American manufacturers can't match them.
Returning to the main subject, Kia might be acting disingenuously in offering a ten year warranty. To break into a market, they will surely endure a fair amount of warranty pay-outs in order to shift cars, so long as it does not ruin the brand reputation. Tough balance to strike, I'm sure, but repairing a sold car is cheaper than keeping stocks of unsold cars.
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