Here is a link to a company supplying them over here...it is the one on the top left of the page...http://www.survivalaids.com/product2.php?subcat=195

the prices sure are a lot different over there. what is the exchange now, something like 1.8-2 USD/#?

I think it was about 1.68 when I was there around 2000

Another reason why GM is about to down under unless they get the 25billion from the fed is that They keep on making big cars that nobody wants. They need to start making cars that give more than 15miles for the gallon if they want to stay in business...

The exchange rate at present is low....I think it is about $1.62 to the pound...this is going off my last Paypal rate...I did hear it could have been $1.57 at one point...but you are right on our prices...we pay more than virtually anyone for products over here...going to knob Creek and getting some knives saved me a fortune...

I was in South Africa for a while and Range Rovers there which are UK spec because they drive on the right hand side like us...they cost about £20,000 LESS than in the UK and that was not all down to exchange rate....the Rand was weak at the time and they should have been much more expensive...you could have shipped one back for £3000....makes you realise that our economy is a joke...what you pay in dollars we pay in pounds...someone is making a lot of profit out of us.

When Mom was looking for a car recently, she drove a few US made 4-cyl models, but their power was pathetic. I thought my Toyota 4-Runner (Rear wheel drive, manual, 2.7 liter 4-cyl) was low-powered, but those cars, which were much smaller than my 4-Runner but still had engines with over 2 liter displacement, had terrible pickup. The 6-cyl cars she tried were pretty good, but I thought US companies would have mastered the art of designing a good small engine by now; I was surprised. Of course, it's probably unfair to characterize all US small-engine cars as poor performers based on just a few (and they were used cars at that), but I expected better based on my Toyota.

On another note, if the taxpayers do pony up the money to bail out the auto industry, what's to keep them from moving more plants out of the US -- personally, I consider a "Japanese car" made in KY or TN to be American.

i've been listening to the live coverage of the bargaining between the big three and the fed on bloomberg radio. i do believe they are back on their feet in terms of the designs (small, efficient cars) but the two biggest problems they have to face are payin the union pensions of $105K for every union laborer they let go as a result of greater production efficiency and the reputation they created themselves during the 90's. one can be helped by the bailout, the other cannot. honda and toyota don't have to pay that pension, which is one reason they thrive.

also, after the AIG thing, the govt doesn't much like the idea of a bailout and wants to be sure they can help before they just give money away. people say bankruptcy won't kill these companies, but people will be even less inclined to buy a car from a bankrupt company no matter much higher the quality actually is over imports. in the end that would do more damage than good. the share holders would be screwed, the good designs they have now would be lost, and their reputations would be unsalvageable. the talks themselves are doing damage as we speak, though. it's a real shame.

The big 3 have very little to no reputations at this point. Just merely matching what the other brands can do is not enough. They need to be "better" than the other cars.

Like Jim said, American auto engineering is just not up to speed with countries like Japan or Germany. My Subaru Impreza WRX STi makes 300HP and 300pound/ft of torque with its "small" 2.5L engine. and it is very reliable!! Can American cars do that? not even close...

We need to be "better" than the Japanese and Germans in making cars, and we are light years away from that. It is for that reason why I think the 25 billions would be as good as dumping it in the ocean if we give it to GM.

I find it hard to believe that any normal engine of only 2.5L could produce 300 ft/lbs of torque unless it is supercharged. Torque is a function of displacement, and typical values would be about 1 to 1.3 ft/lbs per cu in of displacement. 2.5L is about 150 or so cubic inches. That motor has to be supercharged. I wouldn't own a Subaru. Only the gay folks around here drive them.

It is actually turbocharged but my point is... if the Japanese can make a reliable turbocharged small engine car, then why can't we?

Our cars have very little selling points compare to theirs.

Yeah, it has a turbo. The WRX is a rocket and with AWD...



...but I don't own one. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

...if you don't mind paying for premium gasoline.