Reply #37: Your list is very interesting, and I have a couple of suggestions.

[amandabeech]

First, universal health care will help enormously, and not just with the Big 3, of course.

Shoring up the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation would also make a lot of sense, or sweetening social security more at the lower benefit end. On the outside chance that you aren't familiar with them, they take over pension plans of bankrupt or nearly bankrupt companies. Now, they pay only about 1/2 of what had been promised to folks who used to work in companies that went through bankruptcy, like some steel and airline companies. If the autoworkers plans are taken over by PBGC instead of working something out with the UAW, as GM has done with funding a UAW trust fund, then everyone suffers absent cash infusion. Why should the FDIC get favored treatment and not the PBGC?

To design and produce plug-ins by Christmas 2009 is simply not enough time. I'd say design by Christmas and roll them off the assembly line 1.5 years later. Ford may need even longer because it is currently planning a massive retool of some of its truck, van and SUV plants to produce two of the smaller Ford European offerings here. I've seen the brochure on the vehicles, and I think that they will sell provided that gasoline prices go back up. If Ford has to design and retool for a plug-in Escape Hybrid and Fusion at the same, I think even that timetable will not be adequate, even with lots of student engineers working on it. Retooling a big plant is a huge undertaking, and just the coordination with suppliers is a major headache. What I'm saying is that there needs to be oversight and goals, but with flexibility.

Right now, the Big 3 has a huge amount of competition from overseas automakers, particularly the Japanese, but the Germans might be back in the U.S. if the dollar drops against the Euro. Pulling Buick out of GM and merging it with Jeep from Chrysler won't help much against Honda, IMHO. GM might be better off dropping one of its lines, like Pontiac and consolidating Chevy and Buick, plus combining Chevy Trucks with GMC Trucks. The multiple lines often share basic platforms, so why not just have higher trim lines or maybe a different engine and suspension system on the same platform in the same line? That'd probably reduce some overhead and free up some money to concentrate on new propulsion systems.

Right now, the metal in autos is recycled. The problems are everything else, which is mostly plastic and other petroleum products, particularly in the interior of the vehicles. Recycling used plastic is a world-wide problem, and there are ongoing attempts to find a way to do so. I think that the Big 3 can find some substitutes, but I think that this issue is a general societal problem, and that the Big 3 should stick to fixing the problems with the more metallic parts of the car for now, which is a problem particular to them.

Otherwise, thanks for putting together your thoughtful plan.