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Nonsense…to a point. The SUVs were rammed down the American throats with a well crafted, well researched PR tsunami.
Unfortunately we ARE a nation of narcissitic sheep.
Remember the car commercial that went “You’re at a stop lighr for thirty seconds. In that thirty seconds what kind of impression do you want to leave?” A more sane question would be WHY would you care what someone at a stop lighr thinks of you or your vehicle.
With gas going up again, if GM had a line of stylish,sporty and utilitarian hybrids and electrics(provoded you had a place to juice up) ready to go they would clean the other car manufacturers clocks, world wide.

Wagoner’s replacement has a Harvard MBA.
George W. Bush has amply demonstrated the management skills conveyed by a Harvard MBA.
Bye, bye GM.
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Yeah ALL Harvard MBA’s are incompetent because Bush went there.

Liddy came out of retirement to help run AIG for $1 a year at the request of the Bush administration.

If Wagoner had not gone, everyone would be screaming about the fact that he was not fired.

The President is trying to save an industry that directly and indirectly employs tons of Americans. Japan is helping keep its care companies in business. Until we get changes in health care American companies will always be at a disadvantage.

Many, but not all of the wallstreet guys who caused our problems are no longer working at the companies they ruined.

Lake Lady says:
30 March 2009 at 12:55 pm
Audie…..I’m not defending the managers of the car companies but isn’t it their job to give the consumer what they want not to convince people to change their habits?

SUV’s were developed by the auto companies for big profits. They are built on light truck frames (pick up trucks) and are not covered by the requirement of higher gas mileage and safety standards that were introduced years ago.

Passenger cars (mini vans, cars) had much higher mileage requirements and higher safety standards and LOWER profit margins.

This is why the advertising to support SUV’s. Do people buy what that want? How did they know they wanted SUV’s with 8mpg before Detroit developed and marketed these?

Regarding Japanese quality/DNA – in the 1950′s and 60′s, W. Edwards Deming – the original GURU for total quality tried to get Detroit to listen to his ideas. He was ignored, but not by the Japanese who were hungry to improve and update and modernize their factories.

Short term profits trumped long term investment.

The Japanese have proven that you can make both a high quality product/plan for the future AND make a profit. Most execs in the us are primarily concerned with their own profit.

You are exactly right. We were going to buy a Snapper for that very reason. Ended up buying a Brill electric mower.

I think a lot of it is cultural. A high value on natural beauty, and a horrific war. Godzilla wasn’t about monsters. It was about the environment. And the US.

-Short term gain. We’ve got a 10 year plan, I’d like to find an American company that has one and isn’t focused on quarterly earnings.

-Consumers that value nothing but cost. We don’t value value. Rail WalMart all we want, but the average American buys their $50 DVD player there. They neglect to notice the reason it’s $50 is because the manufacturer built a shitty DVD player to hit that price point.

Statistically, the US cars are on a par with the Japanese these days. My point is they only improved build quality because they HAD to. If it wasn’t for the Japanese entry into the US market we’d still be making sure we didn’t buy a car assembled on a Monday or Friday.

Where I fault American car designers is the planned obsolescence. The damn things just started falling apart. I have bought Toyotas for years because of their dependability.The improved gas mileage was a perk.

The reason the Japanese wiped the floor with them is because those companies strived for continual improvement. Many of these companies have environmental policies built into their very charters and management plans.

I forget the brand, but didn’t one Japanese manufacturer recently build a plant in Indiana that has zero waste emissions?

In this case, the government and the car manufacturers knew that we were using more oil/gas than we could sustain long term. We have known this since the 70′s. The car companies did it for greed and our elected politicians did it because of the oil/gas lobbyists filling their pockets. Not telling the public was wrong and immoral. They should have been re-educating the public decades ago, and started making cars based on the facts, rather than cars that would make them rich. I think the consumers should get what they want, but at least they should have been honest enough to give the consumers all the information, so they can see the repercussions of their decisions, so they can make an educated choice.

They made American’s think that they ‘needed’ big cars and SUV’s as a symbol of success. It was a marketing campaign, pure and simple. If we were all driving electric and smart cars eight years ago, and didn’t need the oil, I can guarantee you we would not have gone to war with Iraq (for the oil). That is why I call this whole thing immoral, and we deserved better.

AMAZING what can happen when you get an ultimatum.

At least this way the warranties will still be enforced and maybe, just maybe we can get some cars made that will actually run efficiently, reduce our dependency on foreign oil and be better for the planet.

If we had let them go into bankruptcy and restructure, who here thinks they would have ‘really’ changed course dramatically and done the right thing? If the consumers are only offered fuel efficient and electric cars, guess what? They will have to buy them.

I don’t blame the workers in Detroit, but the management jugheads that knew this day was coming back when Jimmy Carter was our President.

As for their union workers making big concessions why? It has come to light that non union car workers working for the Japanese in the South are making a smidgen more now.

What I find sobering is the huge difference between how the finance sector is being coddled and the industry sector is being brutalized.

What has made this country strong in the past? A strong middle class and unions. I fear we already are a banana republic and the elites are winning.

As for lending,all the small local banks and regional banks who did not participate in the high level thievery are doing fine and they are lending.People are not buying cars and houses because they are tapped out after years of stagnant wages,now they have a severe reduction in the worth of their main asset, their homes or they have already made huge concessions in wages and benefits or they have lost their jobs.

Granholm said this morning, on Morning Joe that the problems the car companies are having with restructuring is that their bondholders refuse to take a haircut.Bondholders are part of the problem with the zombie banks too.The elites are not giving an inch.

That said I am not sure that his recent decision is a bad thing. Maybe in extraordinary times, the government has to act as a majority investor with a say in all aspect of the governance of companies that it has bailed-out or that it considers systemically important. I don’t think I have an issue with that as long as it is not permanent and that as they are also seriously thinking of an exit strategy. But if that is the plan, it would be good for the administration to just come out and say so.

The car companies also have a cash crunch. Part of that is credit drying up. But most of it is that Detroit is making cars not many people want to buy. It’s a demand problem, not a liquidity problem. So unless the government is going to mandate that we all buy American cars (and that day may not be that far off, the way things are going), these companies are almost certainly dead firms walking. They should file Chapter 11 and those that survive (I think GM will, in a much smaller form), will be better for it. So will the country.

It looks like the administration is going to let Chrysler go under. If we want a 21st Century economy, painful changes like these are necessary.

Here’s why “terrified” works better for me. I don’t know where this ends. The WSJ is reporting that the government intends to set salaries etc. for all financial firms, not just those that received TARP money. That is economics by fiat, by the dictate of the state. Which in turn sounds like just Venezuela or any other banana republic that can nationalize its industries and kick ownership out at its whim.

We are trying to ENCOURAGE private investors to come out from the shadows and put their money at risk again. Which is why i applauded the geithner plan. But this level of intervention is going to cause private investors to take their ball and go home. As I write this, this Dow is down almost 300 points.

We cannot afford this. Again, the government has no business being in the sandbox. Regulate it, make it safe, and then get the heck out of the way.

“For a fair price” means that unions have to make deep, deep concessions. Developing…