What are we (as Democrats) going to do to save the U.S. auto industry?

[JCMach1]

The U.S. auto industry is in deep, deep trouble. It's true that there has been corporate mismanagement and downright idiocy in the industry, but I think we seriously need to consider the importance of having an auto manufacturing base in this country.

If we do nothing, a huge portion of the industry will shift to China from here on out. Here is just an overview. Chrysler is just the current symptom http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2730329





Chrysler Group and Chery Automobile are reported to be negotiating over the sale of a gearbox manufacturing line that sources say will be shipped to China from the US... http://www.automotiveworld.com/WVMA/content.asp?contentid=58114


...A key part of that growth will include the addition of more fuel-efficient small cars to Chrysler's lineup. To get them, LaSorda is turning to China. He has signed a letter of intent to import cars from Chery Automobile Co. in the future. This will likely make Chrysler the first Detroit-based auto company to import Chinese cars to the U.S.

"We can't compete in this segment with our cost structure in Canada and the U.S.," he says... http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070207.wwh-chrysler0208/BNStory/Business



Chery Automobile, German-U.S. carmaker Daimler-Chrysler's new partner in China, has announced plans to build three plants abroad to assemble its own brand of cars.

Yin Tongyao, chairman of the company based in East China's Anhui Province, said the three plants will be built in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South America. "We will formulate a clear plan for these plants this year," he said.

Yin did not reveal the size of investment in the new plants, their production capacities or specific locations... http://english.anhuinews.com/system/2007/01/24/001658189.shtml

And this is just Chrysler... What about GM and Ford? What about their plans for China?


Isn't a strong manufacturing base part of national security?

We seriously need to consider some protectionist measures to protect this key industry?

Is there anything else we can do to keep this industry alive... apart from adopting some economic nationalism?

Is it worth saving? I think it is...

[seabeyond]

1. corporations start bringing jobs back to u.s. i will start helping saving them

oh...... and treat employees well. one of kerrys wonderful plans... reward companies in u.s.

[Bluebear]

2. 'Is it worth saving?' You're damn right it is.

[JCMach1]

5. In just a few years, Detroit could shift thousands of jobs to China

It's already happening under the guise of all the job churning.

If we do nothing, a huge percentage of American branded cars will be made in China!

I don't think that is acceptable under any circumstances and it is dire for this nation's industrial infrastructure.

Do you want an EV-2 manufactured in Michigan, or Shanghai?

[NewJeffCT]

32. There are Buicks all over China

And somehow I doubt they've been imported from Detroit.

I was in China a bit over 2 years ago and I think Buick and VW were the most common car makes I saw there, along with those Dodge Sprinter vans that look like they're ready to tip over.

[lectrobyte]

67. There's a GM model or two that already has an engine built in China.

Look for this trend to continue. Short of drastic trade law retstructuring, which I don't believe either party has any interest in doing, don't look for things to change until our economy gets much much worse.

[NMDemDist2]

3. i'd buy their cars if they weren't mostly gas hog pigs

i have been a loyal GM buyer my whole adult life and i'm now driving a 1991 Buick

i'm gonna be in the market for a new car in the next 18 months and there isn't a car in the big 3's line up i'd consider buying at this point and they are saying they won't have hybrids or bio diesels ready until 2010 or later

:banghead:

how can I save them from their own bad business decisions??

edit to add, i'll probably end up with an older diesal Jetta and do the bio changes myself

[itsmesgd]

9. I agree completely

I went from a Ford pick up to a Toyota Corolla. I now get more than twice the miles per gallon. If an American company could make a solid, small, efficient vehicle, there's no doubt that it would sell. I personally would like to get another Ford ranger if they would give it an overhaul. btw my dad's Dodge Ram gets 9 mpg. I get about 40. There's no comparison.
Sorry to the big 3, but I gotta look out for my bottom line and the environment. Adapt or die.

[MadHound]

35. For your information, all diesel engines are bio-diesel ready

Diesel engines were originally designed to run on bio-diesel, and they still can. Most of the diesels currently manufactured are ready to go on bio-diesel right off the showroom floor, and if not then all they need is the replacement of a fuel line or a few seals.

[NMDemDist2]

38. right, it was the fuel lines i was thinking of n/t

[MadHound]

44. When my old truck finally dies, I will probably by a US product

The Big Three have shown that they can build a quality pickup, as we've seen for the past few decades. However it will be powered with a diesel engine, and I will fuel it with biodiesel. The Big Three have been making their diesels in such a manner as to be able to handle biodiesel, metal fuel lines, neoprene seals etc. So I will go ahead and buy American in that case.

I don't know if I would get an old Jetta though. I've known lots of people who had trouble with those, whether using biodiesel or dino diesel. It seems that VW has lost some quality since they switched from aircooled to water cooled. Just a word of caution. Mercedes used to make a diesel car that did pretty good, and Honda is coming out with a diesel car. I would probably go with one of these over a Jetta:shrug:

[meldroc]

72. I agree - build better cars!

Unfortunately, there's way too much emphasis on "value engineering" - building cars as cheaply as possible. Sure you're able to shave quite a few pennies, and when you're talking about the number of cars manufactured in the U.S., those pennies add up quickly. But the end result is that the cars are crappy. Build quality sucks. The interior's made out of cheap plastic and crappy upholstery, the engine's are simultaneously inefficient and anemic (because it's cheaper to reuse old long-in-the-tooth engine designs instead of designing new engines with current technology), the bumpers fall off if you breathe on them wrong or scrape them on a curb. American cars are engineered to be as cheap as possible and it shows.

That's why my current car's a VW Jetta. Call me unamerican, but the Germans and Japanese make far better cars for the buck than anything coming out of Detroit.

We all know the big three are easily capable of building better cars, but the beancounters won't allow it, and the end result is barely marketable.

[The Anti-Neo Con]

4. I'm not sure anything can be done...

as long as Chinese workers will still entusiactically work for 50 cents an hour.

[Fovea]

We start a mass transit program

with military type specifications, and require ~100% domestic content.
We spec that at least 75% of the labor must be from union shops.

I think the automobile is a waste of resources for a transportation paradigm that
very few actually need, the one occupant vehicle.

But the jobs that used to go into making cars is what we really need. And to get that back
you don't want to go back to business as usual. Business as usual is what got us into this mess.

[brentspeak]

6. Restoring the nation's manufacturing base should be domestic priority Number One in Congress

[JCMach1]

25. So why are we hearing crickets?

from them... :(

[Ron Green]

7. The US auto industry ought to be shifting from private cars to public transportation infrastructure,

for two reasons:

1) It's the future of transportation.

2) Such jobs aren't as easily exported.

[JCMach1]

10. There is a future for mass transit, but as we move economic

sustainability models of life, there will still be a massive need for individual transport.

Electrics are the ultimate future (not even hybrids). High quality electric vehicles will change all of the equations.

Imagine you can have your dream SUV and it costs nearly the same to run as a car (through an all-electrical system)...

[demnan]

8. I have a list of suggestions

1. Fuel efficiency standards need to be tougher. No more SUV's and monster trucks mass produced. Period.

2. Fund research into developing a four door sedan hybrid, like the Taurus, or Chevy Cavalier type vehicle.

3. Continue to give tax breaks to those who purchase hybrid vehicles.

4. Research into alternative fuels and electric cars.

5. National health care to unburden the industry from having to foot the bill for the benefits.

[JCMach1]

12. Electric is the future

Hybrids are a dead-end technology! The future is electric motors... American companies need to jump ahead to the next step, not invest R&D in something the Japanese already have done pretty well.

And yes, national health care would be an excellent way to unburden Detroit.

[pampango]

17. Great list of ideas that don't build a wall around the country. n/t

[JCMach1]

20. Free trade is one factor that got us into the current mess...

:(

[Horse with no Name]

11. To start with...two words

Nationalized Healthcare.

[PassingFair]

23. Support Unions.

I go up against Union-bashers ALL the time, and
I LIVE IN MICHIGAN. These idiots are SO brainwashed
from "Reaganomics" that they blame the worker!

No one bothers to air the other side, and when
they DO hear it, they shut up and sit down pretty
fast. But, alas, it's too little, too late.

[JCMach1]

24. Exactly, stop blaming Unions for the retirement healthcare crunch

the big three are experiencing.

Our industries are victims of the same healthcare morass as everyone else.

[etherealtruth]

29. That alone will make the auto industry more competetive!

[NewJeffCT]

36. Agreed - national healthcare would make a huge difference

GM makes more cars in Canada than they do in Detroit. Are Canadian workers that much cheaper? No, but GM does not have to pay for employee healthcare costs in Canada.

Pratt & Whitney makes more aircraft engines in Canada than they do in the US. Same reason.

Toyota recently decided to open a new factory in Canada instead of the US. Same reason.

Is it any wonder that the CEOs of GM and United Technologies (the parent company of Pratt & Whitney) went to Canada to lobby the Canadian government to strengthen their national healthcare system?

Now, imagine the US enacts a national healthcare plan... and then GM announces that they will be shutting down their plant in Canada and opening a new one in Detroit. They'd be national heroes. Imagine the great publicity?

[Hav]

13. .

I understand the problem with the damn low wages in certain other countries. I've also seen many cases of companies that went bankrupt because they didn't adapt to the market by producing the things that the majority actually wants. That might not be the whole truth behind the troubles of the US car makers but I think it is a part.
I'm not sure, but if people have to choose between a Toyota (maybe a hybrid?) or a Chrysler, for example, I don't think that these 1000$ alone will be the deciding factor. Especially if it meant that 10k people lost their jobs for that.

[Iwasthere]

14. Electric and bio diesel NOW !

SUVs MUST go !

[JCMach1]

15. We can't wait to act on this!

The jobs are bleeding away like a main artery. In 5 years (if we do nothing) it could be gone.

[pampango]

16. No protectionist measures or other walls around the country, please.

If you protect a company or industry from losses, you take away their incentive to innovate and get out of the hole they dug for themselves.

With GATT and the WTO and not sure that we can go around slapping tariffs on countries or products just because we want to. We are the biggest exporter in the world, with millions of jobs tied to exports, so we wouldn't want to start a tariff war. Also, economic nationalism might have a negative effect on the foreign car companies that build their cars here. If we don't allow outsourcing, why should they outsource their jobs to us.

If Americans are smart, the auto companies will figure a way out of this and may be stronger for having gone through it. The government should be able to help them, national health insurance would be one good way, without starting a trade war.

[JCMach1]

18. Unless you make it contingent on rolling out the new product

i.e. electics, hybrids, biodiesels, and ethanol capable engines within a specific period of time (say 5 years).

Think of it as incubator protectionism...

[brentspeak]

41. Sorry. Nope. We tried that "free trade" thing, already. It's why we're in this mess to begin with.

Enough pseudo-intellectual economist blathering about "incentives" and "innovation"; that was just phony cover to justify the creation of a cheap labor market. The American people should demand that we tariff all incoming goods from nations that engage in unfair trading practices: China, India, Taiwan, etc.

[pampango]

45. What is unfair about the trading practices of China, India and Taiwan?

Are there any other countries that you would like to slap tariffs on? South Korea, Japan, Mexico?

Are there any "white" countries that you would apply a tariff to or is it just the "brown" ones that cheat?

[brentspeak]

46. Thanks for demonstrating the latest pro-free-trade argument strategy: pulling the Race Card

Scraping the bottom of the barrel now, are we? Beyond pathetic. And it shows, once and for all, that the pro-free-traders/enlightened neo-liberals among us know that their time exploiting the American worker is just about at an end.

(p.s. All the minority workers in Cleveland, Detroit, N.C.,and Chicago who've had their blue-collar jobs offshored to India and China might have something to say your lame DLC Progressive Policy Institute talking points.)

[pampango]

47. Pathetic? Perhaps. True? Perhaps, since you neglected to

mention any "white" countries that you were itching to slap tariffs on. (I'll grant that your plans for protective tariffs may not be intentionally racist, but they will have that effect.)

[Broadslidin]

19. Unaffordable Health Insurance + Designed Early Obsolescence = D.O.A.

Replicating the "Holy Roman Empire" bankruptcy model,

The only financially viable
U.S. empire manufacturing base remaining
is obviously 'predatory' War related.

[JCMach1]

21. Electric vehicles will require a different business model

as maintenance will be much less. There simply isn't the complexity of systems and engineering to break down.

They are quite modular and components can be easily replaced.

[Deja Q]

22. It's up to the corporations to mae a good product...

Bad workers? Or bad parts workers put together with little rhyme or loyalty? (Loyalty DOES build a better product...)

And if health care is a concern, somebody better tell the HMOs to change their tune...

And if America is dead, why can't Bush press the bomb now?

[jakefrep]

73. They already make good products nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. Like some species, they didn't evolve, face new competitors, and will die.

They were the top of the evolutionary heap for so long that they no longer saw the need to compete with the upstarts and are now so far behind that they can only try to be adjuncts to the more efficient species.

[Skidmore]

27. I don't thing we need to do anything to support an industry that

has had 30 years to get with a program that would conserve energy for the nation but elected to crawl in bed with Big Oil and get the cooties. We bailed that industry out before and it turned around and foisted shoddy products and bad design on us while fighting CAFE standards tooth and nail.

I'm not inclined to bail them out again. I will happily support new industries that are interested in developing technologies that can get us places without contributing the global disaster that is coming.

[JCMach1]

31. So, we should give up a major piece of infrastructure

That would be insane for the U.S. economy.

Sorry, but I am not an economic darwinist...

The death of the U.S. auto industry would mean the creation of a hundred Flint, Michigans.

[Skidmore]

34. Perhaps a new infrastructure should be created.

That industry had 30 years in which to reinvent itself, and wasted every one of them. AND it still doesn't appear to have gotten the message. Dinosaurs became extinct for a reason, and the auto industry as it currently exists is a blind dinosaur.

[JCMach1]

56. I don't think so... any move to shift massively to mass transit

in the states would take a generation... 25yrs. and be massively expensive.

Cheap and energy efficient personal vehicles are a very real near-term possibility.

I agree with a need for mass transit! However, we will likely always have a mixed system.

[Tyo]

40. Agree

We can't save an industry that doesn't want to be saved.

Give tax breaks, benefits, money, protective tariffs whatever to American car makers only so that they can continue with their soviet-like state-run-industry style of management? Their anti-change, anti-innovation, give the customers what we want to give them, not what they want to buy mentally appears to be permanent. I think that they actually WANT to close up shop here.

[geiger]

28. Single pay health care system, and give to DU to get the final punch by 11

[JackRiddler]

30. Convert urban centers into car-free paradises...

Liberate streets and residential areas of this pestilence, let the people grow gardens on Second Avenue.

An infrastructural renewal, the birth of an industry far larger than GM and Ford:

Create mass transit relying on surface light rail or electric buses along the major thoroughfares (at a tenth the cost of subways and a fraction of the energy use).

Assign bike lanes on every street and cover a portion of the street with plexiglass stands providing shelter from the elements and encouraging people to bike and walk in all seasons.

Rebuild the continental rail system, bottom up. Put the freight on the tracks.

[The2ndWheel]

33. Machines can build the cars here

If people wanted to work for less, maybe they'd still need actual humans. But we have all these demands, and machines don't. Machines don't have kids to feed and all that. Just as with agriculture, automation is killing the industry more than anything. Not to mention that the auto industry does nothing to help curb any of the other problems we have, such as Wal-Mart's popping up everywhere. The more we drive, the more Wal-Mart's. The more we drive, the more highways, which is less land for food, which then requires machines churning what little land is left. It's all a crazy circle.

This is what we want though. We can't have everything. Everyone wants to be as mobile as possible, well, you have to give something to get something.

[shain from kane]

37. So capitalism has failed? Live by the sword, die by the sword. Do you want to approach

these born and bred capitalists with assistance or subsidies to keep them in business? Of course, based on their economic philosophy, they would reject any assistance.

[brentspeak]

42. It's not capitalism that's failed; it's laissez-faire capitalism that's failed

Abetted by a system of government that's allowed to be legally bribed on a daily basis.

[MadHound]

39. I have little sympathy for the Big Three

Over thirty years ago they were taught the lesson that bigger isn't better, and got hammered. In fact we the people bailed out Chrysler due to this foolish mismanagment and paid a steep price to do so.

Yet they didn't learn their lesson and after the initial crisis was over, went right back to making large, inefficient, poorly made vehicles. I'm willing to give anybody a second chance, but if they blow that and didn't learn their lesson, screw them, they're not worth trying to save again. Besides, as you pointed out, the Big Three are moving more and more of their production overseas anyway, so it isn't like saving them will do any good. Either way those manufacturing jobs are fleeing from our shores.

And if US auto manufacturing collapses, well somebody will take their place. Foreign companies are setting up plants here in the US, and there are young upstart US companies just waiting for their chance, which is what a collapse will give them.

Sorry, but I've been down this path once before and got burned. I don't want to get burned again. If they haven't learned their lesson, then let them go the way of the dinosaur

[Edweird]

43. How about improving our overall economy

Getting out of Iraq and bush out of the white house... I personally believe that improve it all. I personally see the problems detroit is having as a symptom of the bigger illness. As far as the automakers, adapt or die. They need to build cars people want. I personally like some of the deigns that are coming out of detroit. Dodge started a whole movment of "non-traditional" design and everybody else has jumped on the idea as well.

[Cleita]

48. We need to put a high tariff on imports. This will help

stimulate a domestic manufacturing base. By high I mean 100% tariff. Your Mercedez will cost twice as much as before. Also, our government could fund upstart companies whose goal is to produce fuel efficient, evironmental and safe cars that are inexpensive enough that they can be purchased by the average working class family.

As far as I'm concerned the big auto manufacturers of the past need to go the way of the dinosaurs like the gas hogs they have produced in the past. Ever since I can remember, the government has given these companies what amounts to welfare to stay afloat. With that came sloppy management because they knew Uncle Sam would bail them out.

Also, we should ban SUVs and trucks without a special license for business use or other reasonable reason to have a big SUV, e. g. a large family to taxi around or the need to pull a trailer.

[pampango]

51. If every country put up a 100% tariff, international trade would

come to a halt. We are the biggest exporting nation in the world, so we would lose the most jobs to the collapse of the export sector.

I agree that we could survive as an isolationist economy better than most countries could and some industries would benefit while others would suffer. Of course, many countries in the world, particularly those that are export oriented, would see their economies collapse. These countries are not the world's wealthiest, but would be hit hardest if all importing countries put up 100% tariffs.

[Cleita]

53. Well, then let those countries keep getting the gold mine while

we keep getting the shaft, and I'm not talking about all imports just right now auto imports, until we can get our auto industry back on it's feet and on the right track. Then we can think of lowering or eliminating tariffs once we are competitive again with imports.

[BluePatriot]

49. Well,

My dad works at a Lincoln/Mercury dealership. He is training up on his MCSE. They have had a loss there for 18 months in a row and he sees the end as inevitable.

We have 2 Mercuries, to help out Dad. Everyone is surprised at how nice our new Milan is, so it's not really the product, it's just that people don't think to buy the cars...they'd rather have Toyotas. Toyota has successfully ingrained an image of affordability and quality into the consumer's psyche. I think people don't see the big picture, after all, they are only one person buying a car and looking for a good deal.

[trekbiker]

55. Toyota quality is no joke..

I've owned Toyota's for 30 years. two cars and 5 trucks (every generation), all but the last two were used when I bought them. My last one, a 1995 Tacoma made it to 340,000 miles before I wrecked it. And thats with NO TUNE UPS. And I never changed a single belt or hose, just gas, oil, filters, plugs and tires.. and a couple batteries. Incredible reliability. Like an appliance... they literally run forever with very little maintenance. And my current 2005 Tacoma is the best yet, handles like a sports car which is amazing considering how poorly every previous Toyota pickup handled washboard pavement(TRD package on this '05 latest generation... they really got it right). The big three (maybe) can compete with Toyota or Honda up to around 80,000 to 100,000 miles but then Toyota kills them when the incredible quality keeps them running to 200,000 - 300,000 miles practically trouble free. I'm a Toyota customer for life

[BluePatriot]

70. *nods*

Sure, Toyota makes a good vehicle. My point is that they have really driven that fact into the head of the consumer while the domestic folks have twiddled their thumbs. Despite domestic automaker quality gains, they really can't shake the whole "found on road dead / fix or repair daily" perceptions (crappy advertising) so even if they ARE making a better product, no one will know it, and plenty of people will avoid them on past mistakes / word of mouth. The end result is that lots of people won't even wander over to domestic dealerships to take a look no matter how good the cars are. It's sad.

Happy motoring :)

[gravity]

50. Nationalized health care

It saves the corperation money since they don't have to pay benefits which eat up the profits when competing against the foreign market. Plus everyone it helps everyone in America obtain good health care.

[raccoon]

52. Would they use the money to keep workers' jobs here in the US?

I doubt it. I expect that money would be added onto the big dogs' salaries and bonuses.

[gravity]

54. They would probably lower the price of their cars

The big three need to make their smaller cars more competetive with foreign manufacturers and part of the problem is the health cost making production more expensive. The big dogs aren't going to be adding on to their salaries if they can't turn a profit in the first place.

[Jonathan50]

66. Adding to big dog's salaries while not making a profit.

I beg to differ with you, there are a legion of examples in which corporations running in the red nevertheless increase compensation for top executives.

http://financialservices.house.gov/ExecCompProblems.html

Growth In Compensation Is Not Tied To Performance


As Congress has seen first hand, even executives of institutions that lose money, restate earnings, and face extensive regulatory scrutiny have received (and retained) substantial compensation packages. After being forced out of Fannie Mae because the company used faulty accounting - and announced a $9 billion restatement that could go up - Former Fannie Mae, CEO Frank Raines will receive a pension worth roughly $1.4 million per year for life and prorated portions of incentive stock awards that could be worth millions of dollars.<15> Unfortunately, Raines is hardly the exception.

In the year before Refco sold shares to the public (and then promptly made the fourth-largest bankruptcy filing in US history) insiders at the firm drained more than $1 billion from the company.<16>

The top three executives at Viacom (CEO Summer Redstone, and co-presidents, Tom Freston and Leslie Moonves) received at total compensation of $160 million last year. Viacom lost $17.5 billion and its share price fell 18 percent last year.<17>

HP paid outgoing CEO Carly Fiorina a severance package of $21 million (and within a month paid incoming CEO Mark Hurd a $20 million "welcoming package").<18>

Former Disney President Michael Ovitz made $140 million in 1996 after only 14 months on the job. <19>

US Airways CEO David Siegal collected $4.5 million upon leaving as the carrier faced its second bankruptcy.<20>

Procter & Gamble CEO Durk Jager left the company with over $9.5 million package after overseeing a 55% drop in share price.<21>

Although Morgan Stanley's Former CEO Phillip Purcell was due to receive $62 million in retirement, he was paid an additional $44 million plus administrative support and executive medical benefits when he recently left Morgan Stanley under a cloud of problems.<22>

[raccoon]

68. Wouldn't THAT be nice? nt

[hogwyld]

57. Good riddnace to those dinosaurs

They have brought this on themselves with their poor quality, poor choices, poor management. Now, everyone will be forced to buy fuel efficent cars as that's what will be available. Think of all the greenhouse gas emmissions we'll be cutting down on.

[Greyhound]

58. If GM, Ford and Chrysler die that doesn't mean that there will be no

auto industry in the US. The markets are awash in cash and that is one of the problems, we have consolidated and contracted to the point where venture capitalists (money sources) have few places to put the incredible sums they are sitting on.

If GM or Ford were to become insolvent, it would free up facilities and, to a lesser degree workers, for a new manufacturer. How many threads have we seen here lamenting the fact that there are not enough alternative vehicles available? Why is it only the Japanese manufacturers that are producing hybrids? Why is no one producing electric or alternative fuel vehicles? Why are the most awesome and innovative vehicle designs doomed to the status of "concept cars" forever? Why is it that even the modest improvements to the CAFE standards can't get past the US Auto industry and their politiwhores in congress? They claimed that they just can't meet them in the required 11 years(!), when even the Chinese are building cars that exceed these standards today!

The old companies are indeed horribly mismanaged, but perhaps more significantly, they stifle all innovation within the industry, and they always have. They have engaged in blatant collusion among themselves to ensure a lack of competition to the point that there is literally no chance of a new American company to come into the market. Even the giant foreign auto makers had to kick their asses for decades to gather enough clout to open plants here, and even then couldn't get in until they agreed to sell large parts of their companies to Ford, GM, and Chrysler.

There would definitely be significant short-term pain with their collapse, but in the medium-term (5 - 10 years) we would be far better off without them, if only we can overcome the fear of change.

Let them die, it is long overdue.

[JVS]

59. buy union-made cars

[Perky]

60. By more Hondas

Detroit is full fo Dinosaurs. The only way to fix them is tohelp position the Japanese to take them over.


If Detroit can't figure out workmanship and comfort and fuel economy. Screw em.

[notadmblnd]

61. India, china and Mexico are going to save America's domestic auto manufacutrers

they have all the jobs.. now let's see them buy all the cars.

[lectrobyte]

62. Isn't Chrysler a German company now?

[Cleita]

71. I believe it merged with Daimler. n/t

[POAS]

63. GM claims

$1500 per car for health insurance costs. Does that give anybody a clue about one part of the solution?

[KharmaTrain]

64. The Stock Holders Are Still Seeing Dividends...

That's all that matters to these companies. GM may have lost sales here, but are doing booming business in China and India. While the economy and the middle class in this nation are in depression, it's booming with a cheap dollar abroad and this is where the action is.

Our largest corporations are now multinational and make their profits where and when they can...and have long left the American consumer and worker behind. Thanks to booooshie's tax breaks for the rich, they can feret that money off shore and continue to outsource and import at will under the guise of "marketplace".

When unions and living standards rise in other countries is when factory jobs will return here. Japan was a haven for cheap labor in the 50s and 60s and evolved with the prosperity that their imports were no longer that cheap and the corporates moved on to South Korea and Taiwan (leaving Japan in a financial mess) and then onto China and India. Eventually the cost of doing business and the yin/yang of the global economy will force them to re-invest here or lose not just a labor force, but its largest consumer base.

[CBGLuthier]

65. Can't be saved

Losses too large. Designs too inferior. Priced themselves out of the market.

Time to move on to something else. Or encourage foreign automakers to build plants here. At least they know how to manage properly.

[TZ]

69. Follow the success stories

I hate to say this but maybe if they study Toyota's corporate policies (which are so highly thought of companies not in the auto industry are trying to implement them) and management styles and start making quality cars that people like and keep they might do better. Toyota has many plants in this country so I would imagine they see some of the same obstacles that Detroit does. Toyota is making huge profits and has huge customer loyalty and makes great product. Detroit needs to get this back. I bought a GM once a Saturn and had all sorts of problems. Since I went with Toyota I have never had mechanical issues. I will likely always drive Toyota unless something drastically changes in Detroit.

[jakefrep]

74. Get rid of NASCAR....

or at least force them to change their rules to make the technology used in racing comparable to what's in the showroom. When was the last time anybody sold a new car with a carburetor?

It seems to me that the increased popularity of NASCAR has paralleled the general decline in the Big 3's fortunes - and now Toyota is getting dragged into that gutter. It doesn't make sense to me for a car compnay to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a racing series that stifles, rather than rewards, technical innovation. There once was a time when racing improved the breed, rather than provide billboards for Fortune 500 companies.

[WI_DEM]

75. Didn't Carter and a Democratic congress save Chrystler in the late 70's?

with a bailout program. I seem to remember that.