Why General Motors Left Europe
CNBC:
In 2017, General Motors,
the largest U.S.
automaker with brands known around the
world made perhaps one of
its boldest moves in its history.
It sold its European Opel and
Vauxhall brands to the French
automaker PSA known for brands
such as Peugeot and Citroen.
It was the end of an era
for GM which had first ventured into
Europe nearly 90 years before.
It also marked the end of nearly
two decades of losses for the
brands under GM's stewardship.
GM executives said the deal
would unload a difficult and
struggling business and allow the company
to focus on its more
profitable North American market and free
up cash to make needed
investments in new technologies such
as electric cars and
autonomous driving.
But the move came with risks.
The European new car market is about
as large as that of the
United States and leaving it would
not only hit GM's volume but
also increase its exposure to the
ups and downs of the U.S.
auto market.
The sale of the unit
also racked up huge costs.
GM took a $3.9 billion
loss in 2017 owing
mostly to the $6.2
billion in costs it had to
shell out for the sale.
So why did GM leave?
Did the automaker simply
screw up or fail?
Was it wise to get out of Europe?
And what does it mean for GM's
future and the future of the auto
industry?
The decision actually says a lot about
how difficult it is to be a
global automaker today and the
sometimes subtle ways markets
around the world increasingly favor
local players who can tailor
their products to
specific markets.
In the end GM may have failed
in Europe in part because it just
isn't European.
The numbers show General Motors was
having a rough time on the
continent in the nine years or
so before the divestiture of GM's
European business.
It bled money at the EBIT line
every single year for a total of
about $14 billion in
losses on $208.4
billion dollars in sales it's nine
year weighted loss of 6.9
percent.
EBIT stands for earnings before interest
and taxation and is the
metric GM uses to report
the money its international business
divisions make.
Its worst year during that time
was during the financial crisis in
2009.
Where GM incurred a 15
percent loss of $3.6
billion dollars.
The best year in that period was
2016 where it still had a 1.4
percent loss totaling
about $257 million.
Now that sounds like an improvement
and in absolute terms it was.
But consider that over the same
nine year period GM turned a
profit in North America of
$28 billion on $823.7
point billion in sales.
That's a nine year
weighted gain of 3.4
percent an automaker generally tries to
target an 8 percent EBIT
for any given region and for
the world as a whole.
GM's rival, Ford for example has an
8 percent EBIT target for its
European business.
The automobiles never really
sold well with consumers.
And one of the reasons they
weren't able to achieve profitability
is because what they did sell
were primarily passenger cars and
not the higher margin trucks and SUVs
that they saw a lot of in
the U.S..
So that's that's a
big part of it.
There's also a lot of headwinds that
they faced on the cost side
of the equation with with the
cost of labor, unions, and
also more stringent regulation
particularly from an emissions
standpoint.
So a lot of those reasons are
why they had such mixed results and
from a market share perspective when
they pulled out they were
they only had about 6
to 7 percent market share.
So it wasn't really a
dominant market for them.
And GM was losing ground
during that time to competitors.
Consider that the automaker
had a 9.3
percent share of the European car
market in 2008 but that fell
below 7 percent in 2014 and stayed
there for two years and then
fell again to around
6 percent in 2016.
Meanwhile European competitors seem
to be faring better.
And once GM sold off its
European business its earnings shot up.
The automaker earned a
global EBIT of 9.9
percent in 2017 and 8.4
percent in 2018.
But why was GM struggling in Europe
when it does so well in the
United States and is
even leading U.S.
automakers in China a market that is
by no means easy to do
business in.
One reason is that
Europe is pretty unique.
To be fair to GM it is not
the only automaker that has had trouble
there.
American cars have never been an
easy sell in the European market.
Ford for example has dialed back
its presence in the region.
Gm is not alone
in their struggles.
You see Ford pulling out of
Europe and American cars just never
have really sold very well there.
That market is really dominated
by the big three German
manufacturers and others.
But it's also a
fairly fragmented market.
So they just really were never
able to compete and consumers just
didn't really like their cars.
There were larger economic and political
factors such as the great
recession and tightening emissions
regulations that made it
tougher for companies to
do business there.
Another factor is the
distinctiveness of European tastes.
At the time GM CEO Mary Barra
said 80 percent of the vehicles in
the Opel portfolio didn't share
parts or platforms with those
sold in any of
GM's other markets.
When we look at the portfolio
going forward from a vehicle
perspective or a portfolio perspective
only 20 percent of the
portfolio overlapped with the rest
of the General Motors
portfolio.
So we think the real opportunity
for PSA is to leverage that
Europe specific scale.
That put the company
in a tough position.
Major automakers generally want to
build flexible platforms and
parts that can be used in
a variety of models in different
markets.
This helps them keep costs low
and achieve those highly desired
economies of scale.
There are forces however that make
it difficult to share parts and
platforms.
Automobiles tend to be highly regulated
products and many of the
markets where they are sold
and the regulations can vary
sometimes widely from
region to region.
One example of this is
fuel economy and emissions regulations.
Both the U.S.
and Europe have them.
But they tend to differ and
producing cars to meet each
regulatory regime costs
more money.
It requires that the company engineer
and test every vehicle to
fit every set of rules.
But many industry observers say GM
made a number of missteps over
the years that contributed to
the brand's struggles in Europe.
Opel and Vauxhall are often thought
of as sensible cars but they
do not have the glamorous
reputations of more premium brands.
GM typically sold Opels and Vauxhalls
in high volumes usually to
keep costs low.
But simple supply and demand shows this
has a way of driving down
prices.
And while GM produced a lot of cars
it was hard for it to make
money on the cars it made.
It also introduced its Chevrolet brand
into Europe which had the
effect of undermining sales
of Opel and Vauxhall.
Both brands already had
difficulty distinguishing themselves in
Europe's competitive landscape and
selling highly similar
Chevrolets right next to
them further confused buyers.
Furthermore the company didn't
have the right products.
Opels portfolio was heavily
weighted toward traditional passenger
cars such as
subcompact and sedans.
And the brand missed the boom
in crossover and small SUV sales.
At the end of the day Europe is
a large market but it is a mature
one and does not offer the
opportunities for growth companies can
find in China and other emerging
markets or even the kinds of
opportunity in the U.S..
A lot of it is really reflection
of the economic growth in Europe
relative to China.
You have one of the fastest growing
countries in the world and the
U.S. which is growing stronger a
lot stronger than Europe now.
You know if you look at European
GDP over the last several years
just has really lagged the
North American market in Asia.
China is now the world's largest
car market with 28 million new
vehicles sold in 2018.
That number is likely to continue
to rise as the auto market
continues to grow.
In North America particularly the
United States, is becoming an
ever more profitable market as
consumers turn toward higher
priced crossovers, SUVs,
and pickup trucks.
So GM cut the cord in Europe and
said it would use the money to
focus more on its strong business
selling trucks in North America
while sinking piles of cash
into its investments in electric
vehicles and self-driving cars.
Those aren't cheap aspirations and it may
be a long time before GM
or anyone else makes
money off them.
Meanwhile GM's North American sales
have grown pretty consistently
from 56 billion dollars in 2009
to 113 billion dollars in 2018
according to FactSet.
Meanwhile it was able to sell the
business to Peugeot and a large
automaker that has been successful
focusing on Europe but who
also has plans to
return to the U.S..
They've been very open over the
last few months about their
interest in specifically
Fiat Chrysler.
Which I think they view as a
opportunity to gain a foothold in the
North American market and obviously
you know that company has
said some very well-received brands with
Jeep and a lot of the
new products that
they're introducing.
In a comment to
CNBC, General Motors
said:
Peugeot surprised the industry by saying
it had restored the Opel
and Vauxhall brands to profitability in
part by cutting costs and
introducing new more
profitable models.
How Chevrolet Started, Grew & Became $11.5 Billion Company
Success Secrets TV:
How Chevrolet Started, Grew & Became $11.5
Billion Company
The name Chevrolet originated from a Swiss-born
American racer Louis-Joseph Chevrolet, who
founded his company with William Durant in
1911, stayed for four years and then left
his own company to Durant in 1915.
The Chevrolet Company previously called the
Chevrolet Division of General Motors Company
and simply called the Chevy is the automobile
department of General Motors, a manufacturing
company in the United States.
How Chevrolet Began
Twenty years before Chevrolet, Durant was
the founder of a successful Durant-Dort Carriage
Company which manufactured horse-drawn vehicles.
And so Durant wouldn't even touch a car with
a ten-foot pole, let alone allow his daughter
to ride in what he called, "loud and dangerous
horseless carriages."
But as time passed he realized that there
were more cars than carriages on the American
streets; an experience that did not settle
well with the relatively tentative public.
As the government regulated cars for their
safety, Durant had other ideas.
Why not improve the security of these cars
instead?
In 1904, Durant approached a struggling Buick
Motor Company and became its controlling investor.
Within a span of four years, Durant demonstrated
his salesman attitude and transformed Buick
into a leading automobile name amongst the
likes of Ford, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac.
For Durant, however, it was only the start.
Durant figured he could further improve his
odds in the industry if he built a holding
company that would control several automobile
divisions, with each division manufacturing
their own car.
With the Buick's outstanding profits, Durant
had sufficient capital to found the General
Motors Company in 1908.
A year later, General Motors acquired several
car brands like Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac,
Elmore, and others.
Unfortunately,Durant got so carried away in
his "automobile acquisition crusade" that
GM suffered cash shortage with their sales
losing to Ford's.
And so, in 1910, General Motors showed Durant
the exit door.
But Durant did not give up.
Having regained his bearings, he reunited
with an old colleague from the days of the
Buick motor company, Louis-Joseph Chevrolet.
Durant knew the Swiss-born American as a man
whose competency for car mechanics matched
his passion for racing.
In 1909, Louis had participated in the Giant
Despair Hillclimb.
An oddly apt name, considering the Hillclimb
race was less about the racers themselves
and more about test-driving the competing
car brands they drove.
Therefore, when Durant offered a chance to
build more automobiles, Louis couldn't resist
signing his name on the dotted line alongside
Durant's.
In 1911, Louis co-founded the Chevrolet Motor
Company with Durant.
Durant used Louis’ racing status as a means
of building a motor company, and his way of
getting back at General Motors.
The first Chevrolet car, the Series C Classic
Six was designed by Etienne Planche with directions
by Louis.
The prototype was ready before the company
was incorporated even though the production
didn’t happen until 1913 where it was introduced
at an auto show in New York.
In 1914, Chevrolet redesigned its logo.
And so a "bowtie emblem" logo was used on
Chevrolet’s first produced cars in 1914:
the Chevrolet H series and L series models.
That same year, Durant and Louis argued about
their differing intentions for Chevrolet’s
future car designs.
Durant wanted simple and affordable cars that
would surpass those of Fords.
On the other hand, Louis preferred playing
it fast and loose, with luxury or racing cars.
These differences split these two associates
and Louis sold his shares of the company to
Durant.
Now alone at the helm, Durant was able to
focus on his next winning car design.
He achieved this in 1916 when the cheaper
Chevrolet Series 490 finally outpaced Ford
in sales and cemented Chevrolet’s place
among the big automobile names.
To say Chevrolet made huge profits during
this period would be a severe understatement.
Durant revisited General Motors as a controlling
investor, purchasing their stocks, which gave
him the leverage to launching himself into
leading General Motors once more.
By 1917, Durant had become the president of
General Motors.
All was right, now that Durant's "big automobile"
dream was back on track.
And of course, his first directive was merging
the highly successful Chevrolet into the parent
company General Motors as a separate division.
How Chevrolet Grew
In 1918, Chevrolet launched a new V8 powered
model, the Series D for open two-seat cars
and the touring cars that could seat 5 passengers.
These models didn't sell well though and they
were scrapped by the next year.
Given Chevrolet's successful track record
in the market, General Motors rebranded and
sold their commercial grade cars and trucks
as Chevrolet with similar appearances with
the Chevrolet’s vehicles in 1919 from Chevrolet
factories located in Flint, Michigan.
The automobile company built several branch
assembly plants in New York, Ohio, Missouri,
California, Texas, and Canada.
Somewhere between the 1920s and 1940s, Chevrolet
would see Durant's vision for "producing simple
and affordable cars" come true.
In fact, Chevrolet, Ford and Plymouth were
known to Americans as "the low priced three".
During this period, one of Chevrolet's most
notable cars was the Stovebolt introduced
in 1929, which was tag-lined "a six for the
price of four".
This and several generations of the car model
blew away the competition of Ford and Plymouth.
In 1953, the Chevy Corvette, a sport’s car
with two seats and a fiberglass body debuted
to become the first mass-produced sports car
in the United States, championing the "America's
Sports Car" appeal.
The appeal of the Corvette and other Chevrolet
passenger cars would be enhanced with the
first-time introduction of Rochester Ramjet
fuel-injection engine as a high-performance
option for the price of $484.
The Chevrolet small block V8 car design made
its debut in 1955 and remained in circulation
longer than other mass produced engines around
the world.
Modifications to the V8 engine including the
aluminum block and heads, the electronic engine
management and the port fuel injection gave
birth to the designs in production today.
In 1958, Chevrolet introduced the Impala series,
which went on to become one of the best-selling
American cars in history experiencing popularity
during the 60s and 70s.
The parent company General Motors introduced
Chevrolet to Europe in 2005.
With rebranded cars manufactured from the
General Motors branch in Korea acquired Daewoo
Motors.
The economic depression between 2007 and 2010
hit Chevrolet hard.
But the road to recovery began in 2010 with
the introduction of fuel-efficient cars and
trucks to compete with foreign automobile
manufacturers.
Within the same year, Chevrolet introduced
the plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, Chevrolet
Volt in America, which was sold under the
name Opel/Vauxhall Ampera throughout Europe
with a record 5,268 units soldand became the
world's best-selling plug-in hybrid electric
vehicle (PHEV) car in 2012, winning the award
for the North American Car of the Year, European
Car of the Year and World Green of the Year.
The series was then named the combined Volt/Ampera
that was sold across the world.
It exceeded the 100,000 unit sales milestone
in late 2005 and eleven years later the Volt
family of vehicles had become the world's
best-selling plug-in hybrid as well as the
third best selling electric car after the
Tesla Model S and the Nissan Leaf cars.
In 2011, Chevrolet set a global sales record
of 4.76 million vehicles sold worldwide
In late 2013, the Chevy brand was withdrawn
from Europe by General Motors leaving the
Corvette and Camero lines.
In 2016, Chevrolet unveiled the first affordable
mass-produced all-electric car the Chevrolet
Bolt EV.
This car too has won several awards.
Where Chevrolet Is Today
Chevrolet now has its headquarters in Detroit,
Michigan, and operates throughout 140 countries
in North and South America, Asia, Australia,
South Africa, and Europe with over two million
vehicles sold annually in the US alone and
a brand value of $11.5 billion.
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The Truth About GM’s Huge Layoffs and Why You Should Be Mad About It
Scotty Kilmer:
Rev up your engines,
today I'm going to tell you the truth about
GM's plan to layoff a bunch of workers and
to shut down a bunch of US factories,
well if you remember a few years back they
got the big bailout because the said they
were going bankrupt so the government gave
them a bunch of money, and oh to save American
jobs and now their just leaving anyways, so
what's the truth behind what's really happening,
now I've read and watched a bunch of these
reporters these experts saying, oh market
forces you have to follow the market forces
blah blah blah,
but here's the truth and to understand it
you need to a little about history,
now I learned to drive on a Chevy biscayne
it's kind of like an Impala, it's a big American
car, back in the 1960's when they made solid
cars that everyone in the world knew, hey
they were good cars and they lasted a long
time,
back then everyone said, oh the Japanese cars
are piles of junk what are they making,
well guess what, they kept making better and
better cars as time went on from Japan,
while the quality of the American cars starting
going down and down,
to give you an example, the Impala used to
be a great car, in the 60's everybody wanted
an Impala they were very popular cars their
pretty well built, they could last a really
long time, but not so recently the Impala
was one of the models that their going to
stop making,
basically the didn't build them all that well,
I had customers with them and every single
person that owned one when they finally got
rid of it said, I'll never buy another one
of those pieces of junk I had more problems
with the transmissions and the engines and
the old ones didn't used to have very many
problems,
so these experts that talk about market forces
is forcing them to shut down these factories
and layoff people, that's basically a lot
of bs,
they were just making the cars poorly and
they were making models that people didn't
want like the Chevy Cruze, which not only
was it a model that people didn't really want,
it was really poorly made, I had a customer
with one, he's been through 3 automatic transmissions
that went out completely in the first 75,000
miles of driving that car, that's just crazy,
and look at another one of their failures
that their not gonna making anymore,
the Chevy Volt, hey they tried to compete
with the Toyota Prius and they failed massively,
the cars were garbage compared to what Toyota
was putting out, so they can talk about market
forces all they want, a lot of the problem
is they were making vehicles that were either
poorly made or people didn't want to buy them
because they didn't like the way they looked
or the way the handled,
and unlike the Japanese like say a Toyota
Corolla, they started out with a basic car
and they keep improving it over decades, GM
was like, oh that model didn't work we'll
get rid of that one and try something else,
it's much better to build something and perfect
it over time than to just say, oh that didn't
work lets try something else and see if that
works,
some of their ideas are, oh we'll go to just
a bigger vehicle, SUVs and trucks that make
a lot of money, well talk about short sighted
again, now just because gas is cheap they
think, oh we'll sell these giant vehicles
for a bunch of money, well guess what people,
gasoline is a limited things, the price is
only going to go up and it will probably happen
relatively soon, and then all those big cars
people are going to not be driving those anymore
and then they'll be in a even bigger mess
than they already are,
and as far as I'm concerned, GM's idea of
shutting down these factories down in the
US and laying off all these Americans, hey
that has to do more with them making a profit
in China not the US,
realize that from the last data I could find,
the Chinese produced 24.5 million cars and
at that same time period the US produced 4.1
million cars, a big difference,
and as for GM itself, GM sells 70% more cars
in China than they do in the US, and these
cars are all made in China,
so if things continue like this, I wouldn't
be surprised that if someone in the US wants
to buy a GM car in the near future, it's going
to be made in China not in the US,
even though we taxpayers bailout GM the last
time, their big thank you is, bye we'll see
you in China,
they didn't seem to say, oh the market is
forcing them to do that when they took all
that taxpayer money, you know their giving
these promises about US jobs and stuff but
as soon as they see a way to make their cars
in China, sell them in China and probably
import those Chinese ones over to the US,
hey those guys are basically laughing at the
average American,
and it's bad enough they were making cars
that had faulty ignition switches and then
they cheated and changed the parts numbers
so they think, oh people aren't going to figure
out that we made these bad ignition switches
that some people were killed in wrecks because
the cars stopped running,
you know their not interested in telling the
truth about the problems that they have, but
taking taxpayers dollars and then shutting
the factories down years later anyways and
moving all the stuff to China, hey all I got
to say is, you can vote with your dollars,
don't buy their products, nobody is going
to force you to buy one of their products,
at least not yet, hey take Toyota for example,
they make a bunch of them in the US and they
have for decades, you might end up driving
a Japanese car around that's made in the US,
where if you buy a GM it's going to be a Chinese
made car, the world is upside down on that
one,
so it's really a double edged sword when you
think about why GM is laying off all these
workers and closing all these factories down,
they've often made poorly designed and built
cars that didn't last so their base that used
to be, oh when I was a kid people would say,
oh I buy a new GM car every 3-4 years, well
that base is gone and then they want to make
them cheaper so their going to move all their
production to China where they can make them
cheaper,
now the Chinese factories are all modernized
so they have less labor that they have to
deal with, but from what I read about them,
they have really good quality, for example,
buicks are like the real popular car for the
upper level management guys to ride around
in a Buick in China,
kind of like it used to be in the 1950's in
the US, a little time warp there,
so basically, the real problem is greed, they
want to make their cars cheaper so they can
make more profit and eventually they want
to make the most profit by building their
cars somewhere else where they can make them
cheaper and in the modern factories more efficiently
than in the old factories in the US, my hometown
Niagara Falls had the same fate itself, when
I was young, there were factories everywhere
building all kinds of stuff but they were
old factories, first they moved the factories
over the Mexico, then they even moved them
further to the East because it was even cheaper
there than it was in Mexico,
so if you think about it as a career, hey
you probably wouldn't want to get involved
in either building cars in the US or working
for the company that builds them because you'll
find that your job will probably vanish in
the near future, so if you never want to miss
another one of my new car repair videos, remember
to ring that bell!
Why it’s Illegal to Remove the Catalytic Converter in Your Car
Scotty Kilmer:
rev up your engines, Adrian says what do you think about removing
the catalytic converter in order to
boost the power of a turbocharged engine
is it harmful to the engine, well realize
that it's against law to remove a catalytic
converter in United States you're breaking
federal law, but I mean I talked to guys
they live in Montana where they don't
have any kind of inspection and they do
it, and the only thing that a catalytic
converter does, is it slows down
pollution, it burns
unburned hydrocarbons if you remove it
from a modern-day car, all the kinds of
lights and stuff will come on, but it' isn't gonna
hurt the car will actually run better,
cuz it'll breathe better but it will
pollute more, you're braking the law, but the
only thing or reason a car has a catalytic
converter is to burn hydrocarbons, if you
remove it of course you remove that and
then it will just go through the exhaust
and there's less back pressure and when
you set them up right they of course
will run better, you know race cars don't
have catalytic converters on them, cold
wild says Scotty my car has a check
engine light when I turn the key to
accessory, when I start the engine it
goes away, what could it be should I be
concerned Thanks, okay no cars are made
that way, here's how it works, if you have
a normal car and you turn your car to
the accessory and don't start it, the
check engine light is supposed to stay
on that shows you that the bulb still
works then when you start the car the
computer does a bunch of tests, if it
finds a problem that'll turn the light
on and leave it on, if it doesn't, the
light stays off that's totally normal
almost all cars sold in the United
States are set up that way, as I tell
people when they're looking for a used
car, if you're looking at a used car good
idea to have a scan too, like I
showed you get twenty four dollars
scan tool easy cheap enough stuff, but if
you don't have a scan tool you turn the
key to the accessory and a check engine
light doesn't come on, odds are they took
the bulb out and then you definitely
would want to scan it cuz even if they
took the bulb out, the scan tool would
still read a problem if there are any
stored inside the computer, Eto says scotty
just bought a used 2008 mazda cx9 what
do you think about this SUV, well I would
have never bought it, I had a customer
that just bought one of those and
then they brought it to me a week after
they bought it, was running like crap and
I said you're gonna have to rebuild your
engine it's got a problem it's gonna be
anywhere from twenty five to forty five
hundred dollars I am NOT a fan of those
things, but you've already bought it, so
change your oil a lot,
and on that baby I'd change it every four
five thousand miles religiously, because
they do have engine problems as they age, if you
don't have any engine problem and you change
the oil every four or five thousand
miles, hey it might be a decent car you
never know, but I've had customers have very
bad experience buying those things
secondhand there's a lot of them where there
VVT valve system will break down a
lot and then it cost thousands to repair
them as they do break down, so if it does
run good now yeah I haven't any problems
change the oil all the time, edward says
Scotty what do you think of a 2005
pontiac grand prix GXP was two hundred
two thousand miles, and a new tranny for six
grand
although it does need spark plug wires and a
new ABS passenger side wire, thoughts okay
well if it really has a new transmission
I would want the
paperwork and I would call the place
that supposedly did the work to see it
was really done and six thousand dollars
more than I'd pay for a 14-year old
Pontiac but if you like it and it runs
good and that transmission really was a new
one put in or remanufactured one
installed in it, ahhh have some fun driving
around, just don't drag around in it
because you'll burn that transmission
out too, the problem of that vehicle is
the engine is stronger than the
transmission, if you want to drive it
normal and use it as a toy car nothing
wrong with that, but don't think you can
drive that car as an everyday driver and
put thirty thousand miles a year on it
cuz it will fall apart in front of your
eyes if you do that
Armando Lopez says Scotty I'm 17 I'm
getting a 2009 or 2010 g37 Infiniti
coupe do you think it's reliable, I'm
getting from car max do you know about
those cars, okay you're 17 you're getting
a g37 Infiniti coupe you're gonna pay up
the wazoo for insurance cuz that's a
sports car, the problem with those cars
are they're good cars, they're well make
cars but as they age they're expensive
to repair, Nissan Quality has gone down
since the company Renault the French
company bought them out and merged with them
years ago, the quality isn't what it used
to be the problem with the g37 is, it's a
high-tech car they break when they break
the parts cost a fortune,
I'll give you an example, I had a customer with
one, the power steering hose went out, the
only people that could get it was the
dealer and it was like 350 bucks for
hose assembly, where for say a Toyota I
could get an aftermarket one for 50 bucks an autozone that works fine
but I couldn't get it for the infiniti,
so realize that, I wouldn't go that
high-end if I were you and seventeen and
getting the car, unless you have a rich
father who's gonna pay for everything, then
go right ahead,
Melod says is a Hyundai
2013 with 126 thousand miles a good car to buy
are there problems with their engines too,
here's the thing
Hyundai and Kia they're kind of a merged
company, Hyundai I bought 33.8% of Kia in
2013, so they're kind of like a merged
company and they ended up recalling 1.2
million of their 2.0 and 2.4 liter
engines if that car has one of those
engines don't buy it, but if it has a
different engine they can be a decent
vehicle, don't pay too much for a used Hyundai the Korean car the resale values are
kind of low, so if you can get it cheap
enough it could be a decent car, so if
you never want to miss another one of my
new car repair videos, remember to ring
that Bell!
How To Drive A Stick Shift For Beginners (pt. 1)
Guys With Rides:
We’re GuysWithRides and today we’re going to be showing you the basics of driving a manual
Before we actually start driving, let’s get into the basics of things
The first thing you’ll notice is that a manual car has 3 pedals instead of 2
The brake and the gas are in the same place but the pedal on the left is called the clutch
In an automatic, the car changes gears for you, hence the term automatic
but in a manual this is what you’ll be using to change between gears
The next thing you’ll see is the gear stick
Most cars will come in either 5 or 6 speeds and the one we’re in today has 6
Before you start driving, you should play around with the gear stick
a little and make sure you know where all the gears are
All cars will have the same basic setup with first gear to the left and up
second to the left and down, third in the middle and up
fourth is in the middle and down, fifth is right and up
and sixth is right and down
While this particular car has reverse all the way in the up and left
many cars have reverse in different positions, which is why it is best to know your car before you attempt to drive it
Lastly when the gearstick is in the middle, it is in neutral
It is important to remember that the ONLY time your car can come to a complete stop without stalling
is when you’re in neutral OR when the clutch is pushed all the way in
Practice shifting through the gears with the clutch pushed in before you actually attempt driving
Another thing you’ll notice is the parking brake
Unlike in an automatic, manual cars don’t have a gear for park
so to park this car all you need to do is pull the parking brake up and for extra safety you leave it in first gear
Now lets start driving
Make sure your seat adjusted so that you are in a comfortable position
and you can push the clutch all the way in
and make sure your mirrors are properly adjusted as well
In order to turn on your car, you need to push in the clutch all the way in and either push the button or turn the key
Some cars will actually require you to push both the clutch and the brake to get it started
First release the parking brake and to back up you’ll push in the clutch and put the shifter in reverse
Now you slowly let go of the clutch until you feel the car starting to move
At that point you hold it right where it is and and very lightly tap on the gas to get you moving a bit more
If you feel you’re going too fast then push the clutch back in and just feather it out slowly again
When you’re driving in reverse, unless for some weird reason you decide to have a backwards race with someone
you don’t ever want to fully let go of the clutch because that’ll cause you to launch backwards with much more force than you would ever want to
YEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH
Now comes the hardest part about driving a stick
Getting going in first gear
Before you start trembling in fear, don’t worry because we’ve got a secret to make it very easy for you
Make sure you’re in an empty parking lot with lots of space to practice
Okay now do this
Push in the clutch and put the car in first gear
Now WITHOUT touching the gas, slowly let go of the clutch
At a certain point the car will start to move forward and at that point you hold the clutch in place
That point where you are holding the clutch is called the catch or the bite point
This is where the clutch engages the transmission
What you want to do next is give it just a little bit of gas, keeping your RPMs around 1800
and the car will start to move a lot faster
Now you slowly let go of the clutch until your foot is completely off of it
The key here is to SLOWLY let go
If you let go too fast the car will jerk, you might stall
On the other hand, don’t give it too much gas because then you’ll launch the car
To prevent this from happening the ideal RPMs would be around 1800 until you fully let go of the clutch
Once your foot is completely off the clutch and you’ve got the car moving, you should just cruise around the parking lot in first gear
stopping and starting until you get the feel of the catch point
Remember, this is the hardest part about driving stick so be sure to practice this the most
Once you’ve got this down, the rest is a piece of cake
Now for changing gears
So generally first gear is used only at very low speeds
such as pulling out of your mom's garage and parking lots
Once the RPMs hit around 3500, you’ll want to push in the clutch and pull down the shifter into second gear
Be sure to let off the gas when you push the clutch in
Once you’re in second gear you slowly let go of the clutch while giving it gas at the same time
just as you did to get started
If you’re able to go this then you’ve officially learned how to drive a stick
because the rest of the gears work the exact same way
Once you’ve got enough practice you can go onto the road and try it out yourself
When you're coming to a stop, for now you can just put it in neutral and use the brake
Eventually you’ll want to learn how to downshift and we’ll teach you that in a later video
For now just practice what we’ve taught you and congratulations
You’ve learned how to drive a stick and go impress all your friends
If this video helped you out make sure to like it and subscribe to GuysWithRides
If you guys want to see something explained better or want to see us post a video about downshifting
just comment below and we’ll do it right away. Thanks A lot, Later YouTube!
Rescuing Richard From Lone Wolf Mountain | Top Gear | Series 22 | BBC
Top Gear:
The Top 5 Used SUVs Owners Love (And the 3 to Avoid) | Consumer Reports
Consumer Reports:
In the market for a
used SUV and wondering
which ones other
owners like the best?
Check out our list of the
most loved used midsize SUVs
from our owner
satisfaction survey.
And find out which ones
owners regret buying most.
The best SUVs are models that
are three to five years old.
Cars with a lot of
life still left in them
that can be had for a bargain.
The Honda Pilot scored well
in our survey among three
to five-year-old SUVs.
Buyers thought the Pilot
drove well, and was
a good value for the
money, with 67% saying
they would buy it again.
70% of people who bought
a Volkswagen Touareg
said they would get another.
They found the
Touareg comfortable,
and loved the styling
and driving experience.
Jeep fans are a loyal bunch, and
their enthusiasm for the brand
continues with the Wrangler.
Despite telling us it wasn't
actually comfortable to drive,
owners loved taking
the Wrangler off road.
And 73% said they would
buy another used one.
Toyota 4Runner owners were
also dedicated to the model.
76% say they would
buy another 4Runner,
even while admitting
they weren't
thrilled by its audio
system, comfort level,
or driving performance.
And the most satisfying
used SUV out there,
that's the Toyota Highlander.
78% of people who owned this SUV
said they would buy it again,
citing a superb driving
experience, attractive styling,
and overall comfort.
But not all drivers
who bought an SUV were
happy with their purchase.
These are the three used SUVs
that had the lowest owner's
satisfaction.
Used Mazda CX-9s
didn't impress buyers.
Although they were very
satisfied by how it drove,
only 48% said they
would buy the car again.
Only 39% of use Nissan
Pathfinder buyers would
make that same choice again.
Owners didn't find
the Pathfinder
particularly comfortable.
And they didn't think it was
a great value for the money
either.
And at the bottom of the
list is the Dodge Journey,
which didn't appeal to
the majority of people
who bought one used.
Calling it out for
being uncomfortable
and a bad driving
experience, only 31%
said they was purchased
the Journey again.
For more on used cars, check
out consumerreports.org.
Why Not to Put Wheel Spacers on Your Car
Scotty Kilmer:
rev up your engines, today I'm gonna talk
about why not to use wheel spacers on
your car, now lately quite a few people
have been asking me, Scotty is it
alright if I'm gonna get bigger wheels
to put wheel spacers in my car and some
guys say, hey I'm gonna get a wider
traction so I want to put wheel spacers
so my tires are out further, well it's
not a good idea and here's why
using spaces is basically just a rig, you
get the spacers they go over the hub and
bolts on over that, it's just a cheap way
to get bigger rims to fit on a car or to
make your wheels go out further, these
are really cheap ones here
they make ones that actually have in
sets, where they bolt to your hub and
then they have new studs sticking out
that the wheel goes on, but they all do
the same thing, they push the wheel out
further, it's basically a cheap way of
modifying the suspension system on your
car, guys do it because maybe they got a
wheel that doesn't fit right,
so they'll put spacers to make it fit or
they want to have their tires out
further, so that it handles differently
or has more acceleration with bigger
tires, but it's just kind of a cheap way
of ringing things and it's not a smart
idea, in that sense it's just like the
video I made a while back about why not
to change the muffler on your car to
one that makes more noise, the engineers
have designed these things, they spent
decades perfecting suspension systems,
they created them so the tire rides
perfectly and will wear evenly but still
can corner are really well and
accelerate in corners without skipping,
and guess what, when your tire is bolted
onto the stock hub, all that geometry is
correct, from the angles of the top to
the bottom, to where the tread contacts
the road, this was all carefully designed
so if you get a spacer and stick it on
here, it's gonna make the wheel sit out
further and the theory is, a wider track
you're gonna get better grip, but really
from what I've read from the engineers,
the most you're going to get better
doing that is one two maybe two,
which isn't much and since doing this
moves the tire out further, that changes
the entire geometry of the suspension
system, which often leads to more tire
wear, it can make your steering effort
harder, it can make your steering
somewhat unresponsive under harsh
braking because of the change in this
geometry, and lets face it, if you modified
your car to go faster, the last thing you
want is unresponsive steering when
you're braking hard, and because it's
changed the way that the tire sits, it
also can wear your wheel bearings out
faster, they're loaded differently and
they weren't designed for that load they
were designed for a load that was closer
to the center of the wheel bearing, so
the wheel bearings can wear out faster
now you have to use your head when it
comes to trying to modify your car, come
on, these engineers have been designing
these things and they started with basic
wagon technology in the stagecoach days
and got into the sophisticated cars that
can break handle and be a nice ride, you
start modifying it by sticking your
wheels out further, hey it's just a dumb
idea really, now big wide tires are
fantastic for drag strips, because you want
the most contact you can, to get all that
power to the ground, so that it takes off
and doesn't just sit there spinning
skinnier wheels, but hey we don't drive
quarter mile races, we drive all
over the place in our cars and you're
gonna ruin all other aspects of it just
to get one thing of, going in a straight
line a quarter of a mile faster, now I do
admit that spaces are better made than they used
to be, these are the cheap ones, the
actual expensive ones look like this,
they are quality made, they bolt on and
then they got their own studs and nuts
to hold your wheel in, it's not like
they're gonna fall off if you put them
on correctly, because again decades ago when
I was a young mechanic, some of these
kids I actually saw the wheels fly off
because they were just using cheap ones
and not bolting them on right or they were
so thick that there wasn't enough for
the nut to go onto the stud
so it wasn't holding it much and they
would just fly off when they took off
fast, that's not a problem with modern
vehicles with these well-made hub
centric
really quality products, but still it's
ruining the original design of the
vehicle, and sure guys are always gonna
do those kind of mods on jeeps and stuff
especially ones that they take off-road
I mean if you've ever been in a Jeep,
they ride like crap anyway if you're
gonna put these giant wheels and you're going
rock crawling, it's a specialist vehicle
that you're having fun with, it's not
something that you drive every day on
the road, because if you do all the
fillings in your teeth are gonna fall
out, so now you know the truth about
wheel spacers and why you should really
stay away from them, unless you're going
to the drag strip or rock crawling, so if
you never want to miss another one of my
new car repair videos, remember to ring
that Bell!
Man in wheelchair holds on to back of semi-truck in South Africa
ABC7 News Bay Area:
New Opel Astra 2018 Review
SDA Dan Cars:
hey guys today I will show you a very
nice car Opel Astra this card's 1.4 II
turbo petrol and I want to show you the
interior and exterior of this car the
design is very nice outside here we have
some sensors in front and here we have a
light normal for flight but here we have
the LED light of the new LED light from
they make a great job with this life is
very good here in the front we have the
logo above logo we have some ground
clearance very high here I like this
thing on the car that the clearance to
the ground it's really oh now what can I
say about the car the design it's very
nice I like it it's not so tall the
thing that I like about this car is the
fact that you can lift this wipers up
and you can take it out very easy
anything clean down there very deep
that's a place that I like about the car
and I like these rims 19 inch wheels
they look very nice
on this car I don't know what you can
see it with this video but they look
very nice here we have the signal light
we will see later it's with normal light
bulb here we have the newest they are
very big very nice we have there some
nice systems technology news that show
you if a car come from behind because of
the sensors here it's the openness of
the door on this car is not with finger
you have to open it from the key but on
the full option you will find with the
finger in the back I love this design
with this new light this new light it's
really great it's really nice I love it
very very much I like the design
actually here is the parking sensor and
here you can pull other flowers here is
the reflection red here we have the
camera in the back when you go back the
up camera and have a LED light to the
numbers that's a close that's really
really interesting really nice back then
you and them for it's really nice here
we have a button where you can open the
trunk here you can see the design of the
it's going like older they make an
interesting design I didn't see this
other parts till now but a little bit
out we have here a wiper in the back
that's very useful when it's raining and
let's open the trunk to the Opel Astra
the new Opel Astra and here we have to
first think that I don't really like the
the fact that you can close the trunk
only from the right side it's not so
but it's doesn't matter it's not so
important something that I really like
about this car is the big place in the
trunk as you can see here it's a huge
place in the trunk guys we can put a lot
of stuff here and it's really big look
at this it's really really big you can
stick a lot of stuff here inside this
car and you can actually put the seat
down - that's that's abuse - - drop the
cards look small but it has a lot of
space there the cabin from the back and
I want to show you later a little bit
how we sit down
and how's the space and I want to see if
it's flat or not now let's see the doors
they are closed really really nice I
like this thing that the door closed are
easy a very interesting design I see the
old manufacturers from walzog and they
make some interesting cursory design for
aerodynamic I don't understand why they
put this in here it's kind of old not so
interesting here we have some plastic
you have nice Chrome
plastic opener very interesting here
it's soft and down here soft
- nice place here you can open the door
and window button to close it you have a
place for a bottle of water the sound
and down here we have some entrance with
plastic plastic here on the side as you
can see it's really plastic on the sides
they decided to do it like this let's
see the place so wow this is really
interesting because we have a downhill
here you can you cannot put some some
long items it will be really hard but
here space from here it's really huge I
never see so much space there on other
cars you can put back there maybe - it's
really big you have a little trunk you
got nice design - you're on the side -
black glossy but look at this look at
this place here it's going up and now
you can not go to Ikea or you want to
carry something you cannot put it there
it will be really complicated but I
don't think it's so makes such a big
difference but this is really the way
are to exit this is really impressive I
didn't see on other cars like that
really look at this here we have kids
out is the fix easy to use and the other
thing that I don't like it
in the back it doesn't have cup holders
we cannot open this if you want to carry
our ski or something and down the
interesting stuff on this car that I
find the seat are really well made I
think their first entrance but really
interesting in here I don't understand
why they do this build they made it so
short that you have a lot of space and I
like this thing that is not so high
there in the middle is the same like you
and I not so high that's really close
here we have some plastic and this is
nothing here I think on the full-option
version here will be some air
conditioning some ports 12-volt boards
or something I don't know it's not no
cup holders in the back here the back
seat it's from soft material and not
plastic like in some of the parts now
let's see inside this case good I stay
really good in the car the headrest it's
nice space up it's really very good
something up front it's really make a
difference here in the front it's really
big place to stay if you are a really
tall guy this is the car for you this is
an amazing car it's really great look at
this guy's look at this huge place that
why they make this seat shorter because
they make really big space on the legs
and I want to show you the position in
the back it's really comfortable for
really tall guy and keep your back
straight you don't have back problem
it's really good I'm impressed and I'm
really really liked it in the middle now
the position it's a little bit taller
but the space in the left I look at this
is really big and the right - you have
three person here without any problem up
it's a lot of space to techne space it's
a lot as you can see you can stay very
comfortable in the middle it's not so
hot as you can see the seats in the
passenger it's really in the back so
this is a huge space that's why they
make the the banquette in the back
shorter because they want more space on
the legs here we have some light normal
life is not LED light but it's look as
nice beside its new mold now we will go
out and we will go in the front and I
like the way the doors are opening on
the wall they make a great job with the
doors here we have the same thing here
the buttons were closed off on the doors
the same plastic but here we have a nice
interesting design a black glossy
plastic like in the golf Jetta with
money oh god you can see this and I like
it very much but this scratch will be
very easy here we have the mirror
the buttons for the window they are made
good not fancy but good here we have
some soft plastic really nice really
interesting here a lot of space for the
bottle and other stuff that you keep and
yeah it's nothing special
now I want to show you the sit it's
really good that you can adjust it there
the headrest here we have the side a
nice design and they made very well here
you can do have a longer fit you can put
it front or back I'll show you later
that you stay very well we have an
electric adjustment here you can put it
up and down here we have manually so
it's a combination between manually and
electric here we have a role that you
can put your sit on the back I will show
you later that is not so comfortable
it's not so useful here we have some
plastic with here we have the carpet
with the Astra Opel Astra there the
pedals are normal like not so expensive
not so fancy but a seat I like to see it
look space in the back it's really good
and the seat in the front they are very
nice they keep you in the seat really
really good here in the middle center
console very small down there it's a new
SB and auxiliar but you cannot see in
the camera I don't know that's it's not
so much light there but I tell you you
have to trust me because it is the USB
there now here in the middle I like this
series simple for two cup holders here
we have some rubber I didn't see this in
other cars interesting rubber rubber on
the side and here here it's plastic
great easy to use here the brake is no
more manually I love this I like this
really great
12 volt port and electric brake right
good job
good choice here we have the same nice
glossy plastic black that's really
interesting on Opel Astra
the new Opel Astra if it could jog with
this they do the same like a Volkswagen
but it's cool here we have a place oh
it's bigger than the Volkswagen really
interesting they actually copy this too
old
also I can copy from oh but I don't know
here we have a soft nice dashboard up
here it's really interesting donor we
have the sound system it's really nice
here on the sides on plastic hard
plastic up here it's no more plastics
time this is soft material but now
that's tearing well I want to show you
the steering wheel now and yeah this is
really great this dashboard it's cool
here we update the the classic thing and
open the buttons on the steering wheel
where you can adjust your phone your
driver navigation the cruise control
here we have some plastic chrome design
interesting and the steering wheel it's
it's leather and it's very well made
Opel made very good steering wheels and
I like it here the classic wind washer
and other stuff here in the middle we
have to gear manually gear 6 gear with
this engine it's really great really
economical they did a good job with this
it's feel good the position it's great
it's the way it should be here have them
option sport mode keeping the lane
parking sensors and other stuff ESP and
its look good the buttons are small and
they look good here we have a space for
the handy for telephone you can put your
mobile or other stuff here and look good
here we have the climatic system really
simple really easy to use really easy to
reach to touch to hold it's really great
it's really good I like it up here the
the nice design on the navigation system
we have two emergency light there button
I want to show you first the light how
they look on the new design you can see
this it's an L
look really nice I like it very much
this on the back the light on the back I
like it and the side look very well too
you have to see it in the real and in
the front I don't want to talk because
it's amazing it's great light on the
front it's fantastic light I really love
it
now we go inside which close this
emergency light and we go forward here
to say nice classic plastic that look
really amazing the the mirror it's
really very very very big and nice and
the visibility it's great here inside
this it's the Center for holding you in
the line here we have 2 X OS and some
buttons the light here up here is the
light it's very easy to use nothing
fancy nothing special here we have the
mirror with the light on the side now I
will show you a little bit later that
light it is not LED light it's normal
right to normal both I don't know why
they no they don't put an LED light
inside too so now let's close the tour
and the position of the tribe really
well here you have good visibility they
made this window here and you can see
very well the upper space it's very good
as you can see the leg space is big is
comfortable you can drive long roads I'm
really I really like I'm really complain
with this not complaining to space but
now to adjust your your seat it's really
complicated if you have a watch you can
scratch it in the back there it's really
not easy to adjust your your seat
it's the melody it's really too bad so
that's the meanest but the seat position
is great I like it you sit very well and
sit really good position for driving and
the space here as you can see you don't
have a light inside here and the sea
deeds take all the space here I don't
understand why they make it so small you
can put on your book up here and a
little bit of stuff and right that's the
kind of minister for this car I don't
understand why they do it like this but
not everybody needs a space there so a
lot of space in the car where you can
put your stuff now we open the
navigation system and now you can see
the light here that is not a LED light
normal light and here too you see this
it's normal like the same like in both
of them but with a normal light not with
LED light anyway here we have a color
display in the middle they you can find
a lot of information there about the car
like how much to go meter you drive and
cruise control and other stuff I will
show you this in the other video now I
want to speak a little bit about
navigation that it's really great the
navigation system and this here it has a
very good resolution very good quality
and I like it very much it's a it's not
matte it's a glossy but this glossy it's
easy to use it's not working
smooth as in my status or and Volkswagen
but you can use it very well and very
fast and the quality of the resolution
of the screen it's really put the
display quality it's really impressive I
like it very much
I'm not I didn't try the navigation on
the street but I think it's good right
you can use it good but here when you
try to move it you see it's a little bit
it's not so smooth the processor inside
this maybe not so good but yeah you have
here some buttons for menu for radio for
navigation it goes wherever you want to
go and it's ready to use here we have
the setting language you can connect
with android apple carplay Android auto
bluetooth you have all kinds of
information you have camera in the bed
you have radio it's really like you have
all you need here it's not super fancy
but it look good and it's very useful
and I'm impressed with the quality of
the display the display quality it's
really good they did a great job with
this display so that here you can change
the radio station you can make all kind
of adjustments and this is really good
to see that
but but something that I want to say is
from here the position that they put it
in the position that the people on the
back can see this but the driver doesn't
see it so well it's a little bit not not
so good position in the display but
anyway it is useful and this is like
extra stuff that everybody asked there
but someone likes not everybody like
like me or everyone is different and
everyone like different stuff now I just
want to show you the engine open the
hood very simple from there we go here
and we open this I have to warn you this
is manually and I hold it with my hand
here down here you have nothing just the
paint and the metal you have to put it
manually up so for woman it's a little
bit complicated it's nothing special to
see here just the normal classic engine
so that's easy to close put it in down
and then push it a little bit and yeah
what can I say that design is very
beautiful the price is 25 2900 maybe you
can take it cheaper I'm happy that you
watch my video guys I hope it was
helpful and you learn something from
here here is the LED light they are very
beautiful very nice it's very cool
so guys if you enjoy the video please
like subscribe my video subscribe
comment if you wanna see something and I
wait to next time for more videos
with other cars so thank you for
watching guys see you next time
you
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