The auto industry. tell us what you think. Be polite and informative

[jnjross]

i don't think they tryed, they just have their hands out,. they could have started by reducing the number of names they make, really everyone knows chevy and gmc are the same why make the same car under two names, the gov should have given that money to customers in the form of discounts and the public would have bailed them out, the money really should have gone to schools! what a waste,

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I dont know about toyota but I hear honda is doing well an I know VW is building there first state side plant in years it Chattanooga Tn.

The problem is, the only cars there making that are affordable look like poo. The cars people wont are over priced. Does it really cost $25,000 more to build a 09 Challenger than a 09 Caliber an another $60,000 to build a Viper. Thats a big jump between a junk car, a good car an a great car. VWs start at $16,000 an top out at around $30,000. I know there apples an oranges but still?

 

[conradpdx]

Quote:
Funny you could give me any one of those three cars and I'd drive them home and craigslist em, and buy me an old pick up truck (or if it was the viper pay off a chunk of my mortgage. I'm not sure which ones you meant to be the junk car, good car, and the great car. At 65mph all three behave pretty much the same. So it really isn't apples to oranges. It's how much spare cash you have, how much you need the attention, and how much you need to stroke your ego.



<edit> BTW Honda aint doing so good either. http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-37090020081218 so I don't know where your getting your info. since this article is a month and half old.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I meant looks. The challenger is one of the few new cars made in the USA I would drive. I drive a rust bucket 91 chevy. My point is the big 3 forgot somewhere in the 80s that body lines sell cars. An when they do make a car with nice lines they jack the price up 2 to 3 times the rest of the line.

What made the classics so rememberable was the fact that they had good lines an were affordable. They can make a safe, low MPG car that looks nice for a conpetitive price they just choose not to.

 

[mom'sfolly]

American car makers in general have made some very bad decisions. The Ford Escort had the name recognition of a camry or civic; and sold nearly as well....discontinued. The Hummer was introduced at a time where everyone knew fuel prices could only go up. Fuel efficient cars were made in other countries but not here. Fuel efficient models that were here, were discontinued.
American car companies are paying for unions deals that cover retirement benefits and health insurance of retired employees. The insurance, in particular, costs a whole lot of money.
I think that they should get money to retool factories, to produce more effcient cars. GM makes alot of cars overseas that have much better fuel ratings than those made here.
I also think the companies bare blame in not changing with the market, fighting fuel effeciency standards, not upgrading factories, producing cars that don't match the quality standards of the Japanese and European car makers, and in general being nonresponsive to demand.

 

[wilds of pa]

Gonna be purchasing a new car in the next month..give the 1980 and 2003 dodge rams a rest for awhile..

Gonna be looking for a good deal on 4x4 car/suv type..Hope there will be some good deals out there when we go looking..


Charlie

 

[cluckychick]

This is not the first time Crysler has had to take goverment loans. The corporation needs to go back and look at the 80's, pay the bigwigs $1 for salary, stop marketing vehicles that don't appeal to their customers. The president and vice need to market themselves not just their corporation. People buy from what they relate to. Not people who fly in corporate jets and hobnob in the bahamas every other weekend.

 

[geareduplyn]

I have always been on the other side when dealing with unions since I was always the Boss, so my opiniopn of them should be self explanatory. As to the auto industry, banks,etc. that are failing. Let them fail. I have never been rewarded for failing. In the Auto industry both Management and the Unions are to blame. There is no lack of incompentence on both sides.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

When people think about our auto industry they need to remember that they are actually a key part of our security and defense. The auto industry is what is left of the companies that were cranked up to produce tanks, jeeps, troop transports etc, during WWII.

When the war was over the gov't did everything it could to revamp those businesses in ways that allowed them to remain in place in case the gov't needed them again.

People need to be wary of multinational corporations who are beholden to no country. I am not proposing nationalism or protectionism; just a healthy does of self preservation would be a good idea.

 

[curliet]

I'm in West Michigan. Not near Detroit at all, but still in 'car country'. We have several GM plants in our area, and they are beginning to announce their closures. I keep seeing visions of deserted towns in my dreams. And the reason for that is that everything (well, almost everything) here depends on the auto makers.

When the GM plant down the road shuts down next year, so will all the companies that GM outsources jobs to. (actually have already begun shutting down) And as they all shut down, the load on the remaining companies that have no ties to auto making gets lighter as well, because many of their customers will stop purchasing goods because they cannot afford them.
Our groceries are going up, not gradually, but by leaps and bounds, and yet jobs are disappearing rapidly so that folks can't buy the food.
Yes, The automakers did shoot themselves in the foot. When they started making the big SUVs and Hummers, they didn't have enough forsight to see that not everyone was going to want one. We aren't all soccer moms who need to impress anyone. We're a middle class couple, ranging toward the upper middle age range who has worked and saved for all these years so that we wouldn't have to eat cat food in the next 20 or so years. But it looks like even cat food might be too expensive.

Corporate greed by the car companies caused the downfall of the car companies, and corporate greed by administration and financial institutions in the country caused their downfall. But, that downfall is affecting only those who don't already have the means to weather the storm. If the automakers need a LOAN to get their butts in gear and learn to listen to what ALL the consumers really want and then build that, then I think that's the thing to do. Too much rides on the auto industry. But, the bigshots in auto companies shouldn't be able to capitalize on these loans. They need to be used for only bringing the auto business back to life, not for bringing the CEO back to Vegas.

And the administration needs to run a system of checks and balances on their own offices, get them into gear, stop taking foreign oil and research and develope alternative energy sources here in this country.

BTW, if oil prices are going down right now, why is our gas getting more expensive? Is it because we aren't using our own oil for gasoline?