Automakers struggle to survive past mistakes

 the big three sought to divest themselves of any social responsibility in reguards to healthcare and pensions so they abandon the USA amd moved 90% of thier manufacturing to china and mexico where they had no social concience at all sucking in huge profits on the cheap labor and then suddenly they bring thier products to the usa and the same union members that were FAITHFULL customers and distributed the high wages around to thier communities in shopping and commerce, they no longer have jobs,and thus cannot afford a new car  hmmm  maybe the big three should regear their china factories to make bicycles, because thats what thier employeees are driving in china

Where is the money coming from? Really, where? Social Security, Medicare, Healthcare in general. They keep saying there is no money. But, there is all sorts of cash ready when Bankers need it, or car companies. What's the deal? Really?!!

When Saturn was built in Tennessee in the 90's it was the first car 100% built in the US. It was pitched to the public that way and they bought it. About 6 months into production the outsourcing of jobs started and Saturn started buying parts from all over the world to bring down costs because the union salaries were killing them. But less than a hour away in Smyrna, Tennessee Nissan built there plant and built 4 different cars out of that one plant. The top out pay for Nissan was around 16.50 to 17.00 an hour at that time verses 21.00 to 23.00 an hour at Saturn for just 2 cars. You guess which ones still open. Saturn closed its doors in Tennessee a couple of years ago and moved it to Pennsylvania and Nissan is still making a profit. The UAW tried to unionize the Nissan plant but Nissan headquarters told the workers they would shut that plant down if that ever happen. If it weren't for Nissan the middle Tennessee area would have been devastated after Saturn shut down unemployment went sky high local plant shut there doors because they only supplied Saturn at the time. So evolve or close your doors. Or since the government is going to bail you out you can start making a low paying government salary. In Tennessee a correction officer makes about 10 dollars a hour and he has to worry about getting killed a work.

Interesting speech give by Obama at the DEC (Detroid Economic Club, read auto-industry). He kind of warns about these issue. Hope it's not to late

How many times  are we going to have to bail out these idiots for their stupid decisions. They saw the writing on the wall years ago, but ignored it dues to their pompus management style. I dont like to see them sink into their own hole but enough is enough, fish or cut bait your management stlye stinks and you got to go. The Chrystler people? Oh well you buy at great risk you lose at great risk. 

The funny thing to me living overseas is the same auto company's make many more fuel effeceint cars over here.  So why not bring them to the states or make them in the states, is it the cost, is it we as american are scared of a diesel or what it is.  For example Ford makes a mini van over here, it is called the Galaxy.  We rented one when my in-laws came for a visit last month, so we could all fit in the same car and tour around.  It has a 1.9 liter tubro diesel engine, more than enough power to pass when needed, seats 7 with ample room for stuff, bags, kids and all the things they need or want.  We drove it for three weeks and averaged 49.6 miles per gallon, and I have a very heavy foot. Now I'm sure if my wife would have been driving we would have got 55mpg or more.  Now I know someone out there will say "well diesel is higher price", but with that kind of gas milage, double what any other mini van gets in the states, but diesel is not double it is more but not double!

I say they get nothing, but the Unions are under Nancys Skirt. If President Bush does not give them what they want now.. Nancy will push it through the House Next year and Harry will do the same in the Senate..

Please, Please help them NOW. This much more serious then Giving Wall Street and all those Crooks $700 billion.

What they are asking for is peanuts when you stop to think how many good paying jobs that'll be lost, not only the Big 3 but how about all the suppliers who make parts for them, those Jobs we be lost also.

I believe the people in this country are only worried about thier own pocket book and have no sense of loyalty and or Pride, and of course thier Jobs are not tied to the Auto industry now. But in the long run they will be.

They have made honest mistakes, not like Wll Street who are out and out crooks.

We must as a Nation give them a second chance, those jobs are the backbone of this Great Country.

PLEASE BUY AMERICAN!!!!!!! We owe it to ourselves........

The only jobs ultimately saved saved by a bailout would be in Mexico and China.   The "big three" continue to relocate production and engineering jobs to cheap labor countries.  Who doesn't know this?  It has been their corporate strategy for decades.  What we should be seeing is that none of these companies have had any plans to invest anything in America and were caught flat footed by the sudden downturn.  Now they come pleading to Uncle Sam in order to keep their executive management jobs, salaries, and bonus plans.  Instead we should prosecute the management of these companies for the 100's of thousands of jobs already lost in this country and the expoitation of foreign workers abroad. 

These are no longer American companies but American brands. 

why not retool to make wind and solar power plant equipment? If they could build warplanes during WW2, then this could be a legitamate use for any bailout money they get ....one that keeps existing jobs, and generates new jobs while reducing carbon emissions......

all that technical know-how and no-one with the common-sense to see that it could just as easily transform our infrastructure.............  

 Years ago FORD stood for Fix Or Repair Daily  --- Now it means Found On Road Dead -- What a shame,  management/unions now the PIGS get sent to the slaughter

these auto makers have had carburators that aloow a car to get between 80-120 miles to a gallon,   these are regular carburators that have been modified,  so these auto companies paid ALOT  of money for these patents from the individuals that made these carbartors,   so the last time i checked i 've never had some one pat me on the back and say.......hey .....  Anomalovho,   you really screwed up... good job buddy,  you need to screw up more often,  and buy the way,  since you are a major idiot ..hers a million bucks,    welcome to the rest of the world....  better get used to it ...  cause this plan has been in place for a long long time.  good luck.

should the big 3 go under, then the suppliers go under, and all thier machinery and tooling gets put up for auction or sale (likely bought up and shipped overseas). Think it's bad now?

if that happens we will BE a 3rd world country........

How many businesses have to fail before you realize that those politicians(ESPECIALLY those who've risen to power lately) won't care who they have to rape to take thier revenge for the last 8 years............

Ford and G.M. are global operations with manufacturing and marketing around the world.  They also keep separate books (like the insurance companies) for various operational units.  Before U.S. taxpayer dollars are spent rescuing U.S. operations, it should be determined that these organizations are using all available capital of their own to keep things operating during the temporary financial crisis.  As anyone knows, the only worthwhile rescue is putting Americans back to work and money in their pockets; the rest of the correction will follow.

hi the wolf from canada i agree with most of what you people say about the big three
they had years yo get it right by investing in new products taking on the unions which need to see that they need tomake concessions.although management needsto thin their ranks a little bit share the pain . i say give them some funds to continue operating but make them pay back with interest like chrysyler did under lee iccaao in 1979.

gary graham
saskatoon, sask canada

I remeber being in europe in 1999   and seeing ford cars ...little bittty ford cars,   and looking at the smart cars than to...   and thinking ,,,how come they ain't got them little cars in US?   but ....here in the USA we like to think alot about...what if's ,   why are so many people in this countrie scared?   i buy used cars,,,,... ones that last and are easy to work on......  and it's not my fault more people can't work on there own car,   so many people do not know craft...people used to know craft.....   but ....craft is on it's way back...

All that I ever heard from the American auto industry was how great there products were.  Not only did their quality go by the boards but they igmored the their customer service.  As a business owner and traveling sales representative I could not live with their nickle anbd diming me to death for reparis that should have to be done.  Long I had a kproblem with a GM product and had a major repair under 20K miles and when I complained, they chose not even to acknowledge me and not speak with me.  My family had been loyal GM buyers for 30 years and chose to dismiss me.  At that time I owned, a Monza, Impala, a Regal and my company car was a Malibu.  I even pointed that out to them and they decided that I was not important enough toe ven talk to.  I wrote the letter to Roger Smith.  All of those cars were gone in a year and Istgarted purchcasing foreign brands.  I have been treated much b etter since.  MY dad Owns a new Cadilac, and the qualitt is still compromised.  He is suing them and they still resist acknowledging that there is an isue with a $50K vehicle.  He also will not buy another American car.

The handwriting was on the wall in the 1970's. Initially, Congress did its part by raising the EPA standards for cars. But trucks were exempted! Iaacoca got the brilliant idea to SELL the American public on vehicles built on truck frames called Minivans!! It wasn't a long stretch to SUV's and the Big Three were off to the races! Skirting the EPA standards and IGNORING that proverbial handwriting on the wall!! SURE, I say bail them out! BUT WITH a PROVISO! WHY, because if we don't, there will be millions of jobs lost by people who didn't make the STUPID decisions that the car company executives made! Those execs will still be in their gated communities on the golf course and the beach!! SO, that PROVISO: How much of THEIR wealth are they willing to give back to the taxpayers so we can save their SORRY companies? Iaacoca SPEAK UP!! Its your grandchildren's future at stake!!! 

We shouldn't have bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  We should definitely not bail aut the auto industry.  They have done it to themselves.  They have been whining for years and have been in bad shape for years.  They knew this was coming.  And, besides, NOBODY IS BUYING CARS NOW ANYWAY!  It really wouldn't help.  They will come back regardless of what the government does.  They will survive.  They always have and always will.  And, if they don't, so be it.  As for the jobs lost, send home the illegal aliens.  Then see if we can fill all those jobs that nobody else will do!

We shouldn't have bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  We should definitely not bail aut the auto industry.  They have done it to themselves.  They have been whining for years and have been in bad shape for years.  They knew this was coming.  And, besides, NOBODY IS BUYING CARS NOW ANYWAY!  It really wouldn't help.  They will come back regardless of what the government does.  They will survive.  They always have and always will.  And, if they don't, so be it.  As for the jobs lost, send home the illegal aliens.  Then see if we can fill all those jobs that nobody else will do!

The media keeps focusing on how the unions reuined The Big Three and how only the unions kept them from being competitive.  Does anyone recall GM's poor excuse for a small luxury BMW competitor?  They called it the Cimarron but it was nothing more than a Chevy Cavalier with Cadillac badges on the grill and hood.  The garbage that came out of Detroit in the late 70s and throughout the 1980s was a result of management decisions.  It was typical American corporate culture.  Profit over everything else.  Forget quality, forget customer service and forget a long term approach.  Build them fast, cheap and get them rolling off the assembly line, we'll deal with the kinks later.  That is the truth nobody wants to acknowledge or highlight in the news.  Unfortunately for the Big Three, this management approach failed when Japanese competition came ashore and people began experiencing quality and reliability.  The Japanese business model was one of keeping customer loyalty by producing a quality product which may initially  have cost more to produce but would "lock in" the customer to repeat purchases of the product in the future.  Hence, that is why once you buy a Toyota, Honda, Subaru, etc.... that is reliable and made of quality materials, you most likely will continue to purchase that brand.  Engineers design their vehicles not accountants (bean counters).  Blame the CEO's not the unions.  The unions exacerbated the problem, yes, but did not make the decisions in building such unreliable products nor did they create the corporate culture of greed and shafting the consumer.  What is ironic is the business model the Japanese use to conquer the auto market in the United States was one we taught them shortly after World War II before we became a nation of greed.      

If the Gov is going tp bail out the big three, the Unions should be required to live like the rest of us with a standard hourly pay.  I wish I was making 40 or 50 dollars an hour.  Or as highlighted a few years ago , a bathroom attendant making sixty thousand a year keeping two bathrooms for GM nice.  Why would anyone not vote union when you have a cushy job.  I say let them make consssessions like the rest of us before we as a nation bail them out.  Like Nissan in Tennessee, let them have livable wage and not outrages wages.

Private sectors have to cut back on everything, let the Unions cut back.  They as well as our congress are protecting there own renumerations while the rest of us support their high living.  I say let the free market prevail and let the Unions suffer......

If the Gov is going tp bail out the big three, the Unions should be required to live like the rest of us with a standard hourly pay.  I wish I was making 40 or 50 dollars an hour.  Or as highlighted a few years ago , a bathroom attendant making sixty thousand a year keeping two bathrooms for GM nice.  Why would anyone not vote union when you have a cushy job.  I say let them make consssessions like the rest of us before we as a nation bail them out.  Like Nissan in Tennessee, let them have livable wage and not outrages wages.

Private sectors have to cut back on everything, let the Unions cut back.  They as well as our congress are protecting there own renumerations while the rest of us support their high living.  I say let the free market prevail and let the Unions suffer......

 I work for a union... not the UAW but a union in the public sector.  I am not making $40 to $50 dollars and hour or even close. I keep hearing these stories of employees making this, but as of yet I have seen no hard evidence except for a few isolated cases. I will bet most people in the UAW are  making $18 to $20 an hour. Most of the cost they are talking about is from healthe care costs.

  I can name 100 top excects in the healthcare (insurance not doctors) field who are making 7 figure incomes..... and I personally know an owner of a consulting firm who works with medicare...... and he gets a huge ammount of money for doing practicaly nothing.

The US Goverment, and the American Public by proxy, should not be in the business of bailing out the "failed domestic car makers and their flawed business models". These companies have been mismanaged to an abyss by executives who 1) did not have the backbone to stand up to the unions 2) did not have the foresight to see Japanese dominance of the car market and 3) only concentrated on making money in the present without looking to the future where energy and financial markets would change the landscape. I have an MBA and I could have forecast all these problems back in December of 2007, but it helps that I work for an airline where we are particularly sensitive to fuel costs.

For GM, there is no hope. Ford is salvageable. Chrysler should be broken up and the Dodge brand should be sold to a strong automaker without a truck line, like Honda.  Giving money to failing companies, such as GM, who may declare bankruptcy regardless of  how much money we loan them is bad policy. We should not be in the business of supporting a company whose goods noone wants to buy.