Buy Canadian.

[injusticebuster]

British say "British made, perfect made". Americans had a campaign "Do not buy Japanese".

Should Canadian made Chrysler 300 (half Mercedes Benz) replace BMW?.

Chrysler is struggling to cut inventory thought to be about 76 days of supply and is offering car and truck buyers zero percent financing to help bring levels down. Meanwhile, production will be cut back by around 10% in the third quarter and discounting may need to increase through the rest of the summer if the unit is to achieve its objectives.

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB115412...ine_market_week

[jdobbin]

British say "British made, perfect made". Americans had a campaign "Do not buy Japanese".

Should Canadian made Chrysler 300 (half Mercedes Benz) replace BMW?.

Chrysler is struggling to cut inventory thought to be about 76 days of supply and is offering car and truck buyers zero percent financing to help bring levels down. Meanwhile, production will be cut back by around 10% in the third quarter and discounting may need to increase through the rest of the summer if the unit is to achieve its objectives.

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB115412...ine_market_week

I think that article is only available to subscribers.

Also, those figures are likely American figues.

Chrysler's most productive and best rated factories have been in Canada. This has been true of GM and Ford as well. They might cut production but it doesn't necessarily mean it will be the Canadian factories that are cut. And Canadian sales have differed from U.S. sales. Two different markets. I have no idea what the latest results are.

Buy Canadian sounds good but Canada lives on exports. We are more likely to suffer from chauvinistic policies on trade.

[Renegade]

Buy Canadian., Should we buy Canadian things made only.

To buy a product based soley on its source of origin would be the stupidest thing we could do as a consumer. It would only give those manufacturers incentive to produce shoddy products knowing that they have a captive market who will differentiate on geographic source rather than quality or value.

Go ask the Soviets how well their products were made under communism when they enforced a policy of only making available domestic products.

[injusticebuster]

British say "British made, perfect made". Americans had a campaign "Do not buy Japanese".

Should Canadian made Chrysler 300 (half Mercedes Benz) replace BMW?.

Chrysler is struggling to cut inventory thought to be about 76 days of supply and is offering car and truck buyers zero percent financing to help bring levels down. Meanwhile, production will be cut back by around 10% in the third quarter and discounting may need to increase through the rest of the summer if the unit is to achieve its objectives.

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB115412...ine_market_week

I think that article is only available to subscribers.

Also, those figures are likely American figues.

Chrysler's most productive and best rated factories have been in Canada. This has been true of GM and Ford as well. They might cut production but it doesn't necessarily mean it will be the Canadian factories that are cut. And Canadian sales have differed from U.S. sales. Two different markets. I have no idea what the latest results are.

Buy Canadian sounds good but Canada lives on exports. We are more likely to suffer from chauvinistic policies on trade.

I copied and pasted for you.

The good news is that second-quarter net profit doubled to €1.81 billion ($2.3 billion). But strip out the €800 million gain from hedges it held on its 22% stake in Airbus parent EADS (they increased in value as EADS shares plunged on news of its production problems), and the overall improvement is just 37%.

The results clearly show that the Mercedes-Benz unit, which includes the troublesome Smart car business, is out of intensive care. That helped lift the company's stock (ticker: DCX) nearly 5% last week, to $51.15 on Friday.

The Chrysler side, however, appears to have had another relapse. Unit sales fell 9% for the quarter and revenue declined 4%, resulting in operating profits collapsing to just 10% of the previous year's level.

As efficient as Chrysler's productivity has become, that's of little use if inventory is allowed to build up because customers are buying fewer cars.

Chrysler is struggling to cut inventory thought to be about 76 days of supply and is offering car and truck buyers zero percent financing to help bring levels down. Meanwhile, production will be cut back by around 10% in the third quarter and discounting may need to increase through the rest of the summer if the unit is to achieve its objectives.

Whatever Chrysler does will no doubt be followed by Ford (F) and GM (GM). All three continue to see sales figures ravaged by higher gas prices, intense Japanese competition, too much capacity, and tight pricing.

At the same time, price discounting is having less success than previously in enticing new customers to buy cars -- which is presumably why Chrysler warned of a substantial third-quarter loss.

While this must be a concern for now, DaimlerChrysler management is confident that revenue will improve in the final quarter as a result of new models, and that Chrysler will end the year in the black.

Back in Stuttgart, news that Mercedes-Benz produced €807 million in operating profit compared with €12 million in the comparable quarter last year is just what investors needed to hear.

But even at Mercedes, worries persist that vitally important truck sales may have peaked.

DaimlerChrysler says its full-year operating profit will exceed €6 billion, which encourages stock buying. But that doesn't mean there aren't some big problems to face.

Auf Wiedersehen, Wal-Mart

German retailers' ability to resist Wal-Mart's efforts to squeeze them out explains the U.S. giant's costly pullout, but only in part. The simple truth is that Wal-Mart's strategy in Germany was flawed from the start.

The postmortem will reveal a variety of causes for its failure. Top of the list are: poor acquisition strategy, scant respect for local regulations, and the erroneous belief that U.S.-style marketing would lure German consumers.

Wal-Mart (WMT) started well in 1997 by buying 21 Wertkauf stores that collectively generated profits of 3% of sales. But its 1998 deal to buy 75 hypermarkets from Spar was a wrong move. Those stores were considered run-down and never generated adequate revenues per square meter.

What's more, Wal-Mart reportedly paid €560 million for the Spar stores -- but only two years before, Spar had bought 36 of them for €85 million.

One reason for Wal-Mart's U.S. success is its ability to extract concessions from suppliers on the strength of its distribution. But in Germany strict zoning and planning regulations don't easily allow organic growth. Indeed, Wal-Mart admitted Friday that its inability to achieve economies of scale quickly was the primary reason it couldn't succeed in Germany.

Another mistake was the initial failure to take on an experienced German to head its business. In an industry where knowledge of local sentiments matters most, the company started off with a U.S. citizen, switched to a Brit and then settled on a German. But by then Wal-Mart was starting to clash with unions. Another mismatch with Wal-Mart's strategy: Germany allows retail stores to stay open just over 80 hours a week, half of what's permitted in the U.K.

German laws that restrict retailers' ability to sell goods below cost price also played against Wal-Mart. This prevented the retailing behemoth from attracting needed traffic away from rivals.

All said, Wal-Mart alone is to blame for its failure in Germany. It clearly should have done more risk analysis and thought twice before making its investments.

Show Time for Vodafone

Arun Sarin has avoided being made the scapegoat for Vodafone's woes, securing the support of shareholders and both the outgoing and incoming chairmen. Yet the CEO of the mobile titan shouldn't read this as grounds for complacency. Instead, it is a warning shot.

A majority of shareholders -- almost 86% by proxy -- voted in favor of Sarin's reelection. Lord MacLaurin, the departing chairman, came out in support of the CEO, denying there was any rift in the board. Sir John Bond, who now becomes chairman, also stood by Sarin.

Still, almost 10% of shareholders -- including institutional holders such as Standard Life and Morley Fund Management -- voted against Sarin. And not without cause.

Vodafone's underperforming shares (VOD) are down 15% over the last five years; 21% in the last 12 months. It's now time for Sarin to prove he isn't simply managing Vodafone's decline. That means spelling out a strategy that until now he has only vaguely defined.

[geoffrey]

Buy Canadian., Should we buy Canadian things made only.

To buy a product based soley on its source of origin would be the stupidest thing we could do as a consumer. It would only give those manufacturers incentive to produce shoddy products knowing that they have a captive market who will differentiate on geographic source rather than quality or value.

Go ask the Soviets how well their products were made under communism when they enforced a policy of only making available domestic products.

Exactly right. I buy the best products in my judgement, I don't look at where they are made.