American Auto Industry

[Domestic Disturbance]

Had to bring it up. Its definitely hurting right now. Ford/GM/Chrysler over the past couple of years have been on quite the rollercoaster. This should hopefully be a nice look away from all the political discussions.

So currently the Big 3 are hurting, and hurting bad. Chrysler especially, talking about being bought out. Hummer is sold. The market is shifting and at a fairly rapid state. Trucks and SUV's are fading out, hybrids are in, and a next coming of the muscle era is upon us. Big horsepower sports cars is the hot topic right now, but can it carry a company? Same goes for hybrids.

What do you think the american car companies will need to do to pull out of this slump, as far as new models, existing, and past. Just in the mood for some AUTO related discussion on here.

[NewSpeedSteed]

This is a touchy subject for me, I love American cars, but I don't think we (tax payers/general public) should be the ones to bail them out. I saw on 'World News Tonight' or w/e that it would take 75 million dollars the first year from tax payers to bail them out.
I know that the American car industry is struggling but so are the American people- just because we bail them out doesn't mean we are all going to buy new Fords or Chevys. Today people just can't afford them, plus I'm sure there's alot more price marking up to make up for the losses the big 3 are taking.

I believe for the most part the big 3 will slowly die out (not completely) but look at what they produce; In my honest opinion for the most part they haven't made a decent 'normal car' (not a sports or speciality car) that looks good, is quick and gets decent mpg. I think to fix this problem they should start cutting the top ceo's salary... after-all they are getting paid big bucks to run a failing company. I love how some company's 'profit share' when they make a good month or quarter. The idea of the top dogs getting a ungodly large amount of money if the company makes a profit or loss is just stupid.

I believe that if they make an honest effort to save themselves (pay cuts, better engineering w/e) and they still fail then we could look at saving them. Its just that if the auto industry wants to be bailed out, where does it stop? I mean hell why can't everyone give me some tax dollars? I'd like to be bailed out too. :supz:

[96-eclipse-gst]

Well first off in order for GM to live, they need to file bankruptcy. There have been numerous stories talking about GM and the former CEO of GM said for them to live, they NEED to file bankruptcy. Then they can start fresh. Chrysler, I am not sure what can be done to save them. They are becoming such a small amount of the industry, being bought up is almost inevitable. Ford, I honesly haven't read much about. So I cant give an opinion.

Also I believe I read that if the government gave the BIG 3 money, the CEO's salary would cease to exist. That was basically their trade off. The sad ideal situation would be to control everyone's salary but we all know thats not democracy.

[Fire Hawk]

Watching CNN on a break at work earlier this week. There was a debate about bailing out GM and the others. I felt the one guy was dead on saying if GM was to be bailed out they would have to cut off all ties/contracts that are inforce with UAW and retirement funds. If we give them all this money right now and all those contracts are left in place were just going to have to keep bailing out not only GM but the others also how many years down the road.

If the big 3 do go under it's going to affect tons of jobs (2 million) roughly and other makers also like honda, toyota, nissan since they all use the same part makers also. It's not good for the industry to go under but we can't bail them out cause they fucked up and didn't make the vehicles that were needed over time and have contract setup to pay people outrageous amounts of money they really can't afford.

[DJ0820]

Make more SUVs.....right?

[Domestic Disturbance]

It's definitely a good time to buy a truck for a good price. Too tired to add much more than that.

[black88gt]

legacy costs and the uaw are killing the big three. 1500 dollars a of every car goes to legacy costs, paying for the health care of FORMER employees. Healthcare for GM UAW employees cost GM 65 dollars an hour.

that is all.

[Scott]

You'd think the oil companies would take some interest and think about bailing them out, I would prefer that much more than using my tax money..

[DJ0820]

The UAW killing the American auto industry? Irony anyone?

$65 an hour?! Don't those people have social security to take care of them? Is this in part due to possible class action lawsuits involving asbestos or the handling of any other hazardous materials back in the day?

The big three put themselves in a great place there.

[NewSpeedSteed]

I happened to catch a bit of 'World News Tonight" and the senators were just cutting the Big 3's Reps apart... like the senators were saying how the head guy at Ford made 9.6 million dollars last year, so why do they need 20 million to be bailed out? Another one said that it would be stupid to give them the money because they would just make bad decisions; like you have for the past 20 years!

All in all I found it really comical... I was amazed that the senators actually put there 'feet' down.

[DustinsDuster]

im with Scott on this one; the american auto industry's cars collectivley have the worst gas milage out there- you would think the oil companies would want to save them more than anything...

[Scott]

I believe "obviously" that the gas prices were to blame initially anyways, there used to be a time when gas mileage wasnt EVERYTHING when buying a vehicle, its always nice to have good mileage but you used to be able to afford to own a gas hog AND DRIVE IT.. All I own is v-8 gas hog cars and when I drive them I get as many coments about bad mileage as I do about having a nice lookin car!! priorities have definetly changed due to price of gas and it is having a very bad effect on many things, it would be nice if they stepped up and tried to help..