http://www.newsweek.com/id/171244 At first I was opposed to the idea of “The Big 1”. However, maybe it would be best for all. Judging strictly by sales and reliability (based on Consumers Reports & JD Power), Ford has a wide lead in cars & SUV’s and GM a small lead in full size trucks. Maybe a merger whereby “Ford” handles cars & SUV’s and what’s left of GM the full sized trucks. Also, Ford is making good progress on fuel cell technology and GM on electric. With hybrid technology now going strong, this presents a good opportunity for “The Big 3” to merge and skim the cream of the best they have to offer and in the end it may cost some jobs, but it will make them better as well as save some jobs- which is better than losing all the jobs.
The National Car Company of the United States? scary. with the government bailing them out too, then combining into one, big government run corporation?
This may be an acceptable compromise. A viable auto company still remains and it may create some accountability.
There should be accountability already: a company that is poorly managed has management replaced by shareholders... and ultimately goes out of business. Putting unlimited governmental backing behind it won't improve the way things are run, IMO. Ed O.
How about we let them go bankrupt, and Toyota, Honda and Nissan swoop in and scavenge all the best parts and assimilate them into their own companies as they see fit? If I have three retarded monkeys and I want them to build a car, does it really make sense to dismember them so I can rebuild them into a Frankenstein monkey who may be able to do it a little better? Or should I just kill the monkeys and feed them to a team of competent engineers and managers who have been building great cars for decades? The Japanese companies have proven that they are actually good at what they do. Why not let them feed themselves on the tasty carcasses of our ruined industry?
The thing that people forget is that America won't stop needing cars just because Ford/GM/Chrysler go tits up. Sure, they built crappy cars. But they built a LOT of crappy cars. That demand isn't just going to go away. Massive bankruptcy of the Big Three would create a huge vacuum in supply. The Japanese would have a feast of expanding market share, but they don't have the resources to get all that business right away. And even if they did, there are lots of very good reasons to want to build those vehicles in the US. The easiest solution for them would be to buy up equipment and buildings in places like Detroit and start hiring. Taxpayers win because they don't have to finance a failing industry. Consumers win because we'd have a lot better cars. The economy wins because failure is not rewarded. The losers would be all the labor and management that were counting on the old salaries/benefits. But those salaries and benefits are one of the main reasons that industry is so fucked up.
....And for those who cringe at my proposal because they want to "buy American," guess what? GM, Ford and Chrysler aren't really "American Companies" any more than Nike or Honda. The management is headquartered in America, and so is a lot of the production, but they are owned by stockholders all over the world, and they get parts from all over the world too.
On the other hand, for the sake of losing as few jobs as possible, can't we take the best of the Big 3 and turn it into one good company. Ford has proven they have reliable cars and Chevy reliable trucks. Here I am, standing up for the union and none of the dead head libs are coming to my defense. That's criminal!
Hey, I am a deadhead liberal. I also happen to have driven in crappy Ford and GM cars and trucks, and have seen our auto industry kick and scream over common-sense issues like seat belts and fuel mileage regulations. In fact, it's pretty likely I lose my job if GM goes under. But I'm tired of these guys. They make crummy cars. They take twice as long to generate new product models (compared to Honda or Toyota). They spent ridiculous sums on advertising and lobbying, and precious little on good R&D. They're big and stupid and they should die the death they deserve. When Zenith was in trouble years ago because they were getting their lunch eaten by Sony and the other Japanese TV manufacturers, nobody tried to save them. They died, and as a result there are more good TV's out there not made by crappy American TV manufacturers. If it's about saving American jobs, Congress should impose a "transition tariff" or some such thing that says x% of all cars sold in America must have x% of the total cost of the vehicle built in America for x number of years. That'll give the Japanese (or Koreans or Germans) the incentive to open new plants here pulled together from the shattered remnants of our old industry. Congress should also implement a sensible health care system that allows car manufacturers to compete globally without having a huge cost disadvantage in health insurance. Both of those ideas are pretty liberal solutions, but they keep American government out of the manufacturing plant ownership business, and they reward success.
have you heard the new radio spots for the new chevy malibus? pretty sad if you ask me.....kind of made some veiled jabs at buying Japanese or something...like calling them ricemobiles or something. they're desparate
Goes to show how many decades behind the times they really are. Can you imagine Dell or Microsoft or Nike or Ben and Jerry's running such a campaign? Of course not, because they manufacture products to fill a customer demand. "Buy our product because although it sucks, it was made somewhat nearby." Yeesh.
A lot of us liberals are of two minds on this issue. On one hand, we want to try to foster unions. On the other hand, we're pretty fucking frustrated with the whole goddamn industry, what with the lousy record of safety, innovation, green technology, fuel economy, etc. I'm not so liberal that I want to keep people employed for the sake of employment. Might as well give people shovels and pay them to go dig holes in a field, only to fill them when they are done. So keeping union jobs around isn't really enough of an incentive for me to take GM's side on this. And there are a lot of liberals out there just like us.
There's a great Simpsons moment about this. Montgomery Burns is reminiscing about his father firing a young worker in his "atom smashing" plant in the early 1900s...the worker who's being dragged away shouts: "You can't treat the working man this way. One day, we'll form a union and get the fair and equitable treatment we deserve! Then we'll go too far, and get corrupt and shiftless, and the Japanese will eat us alive!" To which Burns' father responds, "The Japanese?! Those sandal-wearing goldfish tenders? Balderdash! Flimshaw!"
That makes me said. I won't go far as to say that Hyundais are better than Toyotas but they are damn near as good. If any of the big three had made a fraction of the advancement that Hyundai has in the last 15-20 years this wouldn't be an issue. My aunt had a 1987 Taurus, take that car and compare it to the 2006 POS Taurus company car we just finally rid ourselves of and there is very little difference. Compare an old Hyundai Excel to a new Azera or the new Genesis and you wouldn't know they are from the same company if they didn't say Hyundai on them. The only thing that kept Ford from having NO sales of the Taurus were the fleet sales and people like my grandmother who had good memories of old Fords. I tried to get her to drive a Camry before she bought her 2003 Taurus but she wouldn't do it. She just doesn't know what she is missing. In a nutshell, taking the best of the big three and expecting them to compete with Honda and Toyota is a joke. I read that Ford can't even engineer a world class transmission on their own these days. That makes me sad.
