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We here much bemoaning and nashing of teeth about the poor auto workers and the detroit economy in general. First I want state I have never bought a foreign rig and never intend to, I am a die hard American made truck guy, currently have Fords & Chevys. What blows me away is the absolute state of denial that many people are in over the state of the big three.I would suggest that many of these people dont really care about the companys themselves, they just feel that they are supposed to be a never ending and ever increasing meal ticket for those UAW folks that show up everyday! The way I see it, is if things keep going the way they are the big three will either be out of business or become one giant company, neither of which will be preferable! What they need to do, Detroit needs to get rid of their high regulation-taxation, anti business atmosphere, and provide incentives for business to come to Detroit instead of leaving, the companys need to dump the unions and relocate to states like kentucky, alabama, texas,tennesee where they would be welcome with open arms and embraced for what they are, an American tradition that has provide employment for millions of americans for years!
I may have the figure wrong but I have heard twice on the news that every American car we buy has $1,600.00 added to the retail price just to pay for retirees health insurance. That's one reason the value of the car drops so much when you drive it off the lot.
I'm for everyone making a good living but why would anyone want to pay for some retirees health insurance every time they buy a new car? That should come out of the companies profits...Not my back pocket...
I think the Big Three wants to get rid of the union and hire lower wage workers...And they will in time....
Do you know what a worker there makes say at Ford? And what does he or she do for it?
Last edited by texanborn; 04-22-2007 at 04:11 PM..
The pensions are killing the automakers, but they have been having problems for a long time now. They are always behind the curve. They told us that Americans wanted to drive big cars in the 1960's and then the Arab oil embargo happened. It took them years to adapt. Then they started building gas guzzling SUV's not anticipating that the market in the US is going to shift. We are now seeing that shift and again the US automakers are behind the curve. Lack of foresight and poor strategy...
The pensions are killing the automakers, but they have been having problems for a long time now. They are always behind the curve. They told us that Americans wanted to drive big cars in the 1960's and then the Arab oil embargo happened. It took them years to adapt. Then they started building gas guzzling SUV's not anticipating that the market in the US is going to shift. We are now seeing that shift and again the US automakers are behind the curve. Lack of foresight and poor strategy...
Have you tryed to buy an Excursion lately, evidently not everybody wants to cram their family into some ecomobile!
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Yep, it's all the dang workers and the unions. They're so bad I just don't understand how Alan Mulally, President & CEO of Ford managed to survive with 2006 compensation that totaled only $28,183,476.00 while the company was losing a few $$$$$$ here and there.
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
68,329 posts, read 54,389,283 times
Reputation: 40736
Quote:
Originally Posted by silas777
First I want state I have never bought a foreign rig and never intend to, I am a die hard American made truck guy, currently have Fords & Chevys.
I don't know about trucks but GM has built an awful lot of cars in Canada over the years while Honda was building cars in Ohio. How do we actually define an 'American car' anymore? All the manufacturers share parts/technologies with plants throughout the world and there are many partnership projects between companies of different national origins.
If Ford, GM, and Chrysler would actually make vehicles that people want, they might be in a better financial situation. Many foreign manufacturers (like Honda) are doing just fine. No, the reason the "Big Three" are having trouble isn't because of unions. That's just an excuse. The reason they're having trouble is because the people running those companies have failed to perform.
No, the reason the "Big Three" are having trouble isn't because of unions. That's just an excuse
This isn't true. They are having trouble trimming fat away because of the unions. Its not the only reason they are doing bad, but its one of them.
Quote:
If Ford, GM, and Chrysler would actually make vehicles that people want
They do. But the auto-industry changes fast. For example it use to take GM close to 3 years to get a car on the dealer floor after the initial concept. On the other hand Toyota can do it in 18 months. Not only that Toyota has the ability to change the cars produced in a particular plant in a number of days to deal with local fads. GM has changed a lot in the last couple of years, they are finally learning that lean production is the way to go. They are now able to get cars out a year sooner and have changed their plants to mimic Toyotas (Toyota started in textiles and almost invited lean production in the modern sense). So, its not really that the American auto companies lack forseight, they have produced some great cars (Created the SUV, Mini-van etc). Its that they are not able to quickly change the production lines. Also, have you taken a look at some of GM's concept cars? They are coming up with some great ideas, better than what is coming out of the Japanese auto companies in my opinion.
The Japanese autos have done well with Marketing (and most likely giving certain groups kick backs), they have many yuppies convinced that Japanese autos are better quality. There are a number of cases of cars with indentical engines etc, yet people rate the japanese version better.
Japaneses automakers have a number of hybrid cars and they can't keep them in stock. The US automakers have almost no hybrids.
Behind the curve yet again.
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