[Sdgobucks]

Originally Posted by Gatorubet

The shortsighted Detroit CEOs who got our whore congressmen to gut the increased mpg mandates for decades are to blame as well. If they had transitioned to high mpg and hybrid vehicles like they were supposed to, they would be more competitive now. They took the short term SUV cash cows over the long term welfare of the company.

I disagree with this. First of all, the big three all have high mpg vehicles, people may not like them, but that doesn't mean they don't have them for sale. I think having the government dictate what types of vehicles they can build and sell would only have led to their earlier demise. People wanted the SUVs during the 90s and were willing to pay for them. The reason they had an advantage in this market, was the japs weren't used to building this type of vehicle, Honda didn't even know what a V8 looked like. I will agree that the big three need to do a better job of anticipating market trends, and building more desirable econo boxes to compete with the japs.

I think the root of the problem is that their costs are so high, they skimp out on quality materials needed to make the cars "nicer". The profits are so much lower on econo cars that they have to make sacrifices, or they lose (more) money making them. One of my cars is a GM econo box (Saturn SC1), I have no problems at all with it mechanically, but it is not a nice car, its pretty bland. Great MPG, great reliability, bland interior, bland exterior, but I guess they have to sacrifice somewhere.

I also have a 05 Vette that I love, and I would hate to have had the government tell me I can't have it because we should all only drive econo boxes.

You cannot blame all of that on unions. Slave labor is not the freaking answer either. Spending money on factory modernization instead of big dividends is an idea too. But the dealerships have to be reduced, the brands consolidated, and the pension benefits cut to a more reasonable level. Theyworked for thirty years, you cannot throw them to the curb totally.

Let the market decide the price of the labor. If people will work the job for 10 bucks an hour, that's what it should start at, not 30. I agree with much of what you said here though, modernization is hurting them big time, as are brand issues, dealer issues, and pension problems.