Are our automotive companies destined for the scrapheap?

[CanIgonow]

I am afraid that the lackluster products, the poor sales and the metooism of the big three has caught up with them.In the last quarter of the model year, they are unable to sell their cars without massive incentives while the German and Japanese cars are just about sold out without any incentives at all.To add to the pain, the new hybrid cars have given Toyota, Honda and Lexus a head start over the Big Three in fuel economy at a time of rising gasoline prices.If the Big Three want to catch up, they are going to be forced to buy the hybrid parts from the Japanese parts makers.

I am not sure when we lost our auto industry but I knew their days were numbered when I heard my college age girls saying"eeeewww" when asked their opinion about a Ford or a Chevy or a Chrysler while jumping with joy at the thought of a BMW or a Toyota.

[phantom power]

1. they've used imported parts for years

In the sense of being "all American made", they've been "dead" for years.

They'll survive, in the same way they survived the 80s. A combination of playing the loyalty/patriotism card, and scrambling like hell to catch up.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. The Escape from Ford

is a hybid vehicle, to be released this Septmeber, but yuo are right. the plant was bought from Toyota and it is older technology than what is being installed int he Accord I am looking at, right now

[tridim]

3. It only gets 31mpg highway

That sucks for a hybrid. Honda's non-hybrids get better mileage than that.

[rkc3]

Wait until Toyota or Honda puts a hybrid engine in a big SUV.

Size, power, and 35 MPG would crush the last money making ventures the Big 3 have left.

[CanIgonow]

5. I went to a local Lexus dealer who said that a new hybrid SUV is coming in

October this year (RX300h) that looks like the gasoline SUV and has somewhat more power but almost 30% more MPG.

[DoktorGreg]

4. I tried really hard to buy American car

But the truth of the matter is, I cant afford it. Buying an american vehicle is a luxury. They fall appart, right as you drive them off the lot.

The very last american car I owned was a Ford F150. Within two weeks, the automatic mirror adjustment thing broke. Then over the two and a half years just about all the little dash controls broke. The windshield wipers broke. I had to take it back for safty recalls twice. I had those nasty tires on it. On and on and on.

By contrast, at the time, my wife was driving her little Toyota. It had like 350,000 miles on it. All the dash controls still worked. It even still had the original muffler on it, and we live in a rust belt state. The car kept on going and going. We sold it for like 600 when we finally got rid of it, it still was working great.