Bimmer, nice piece of information. I will now attempt to reword my statement in order to be right Who knows, I would be curious as to what they spent their bucks on in R&D. Ford’s new heat treated quiet frame? Well, to be honest, your info WOULD make sense. The problem is, we’ve been arguing about the past and not what is coming out in the future. Ford has been working on the regenerative braking system for their trucks and other hybrid technologies in that time frame. So who knows. We’ll see in a few years who has the most fuel efficient vehicles.

My comment still stands about unions!! Down with unions!

By the way, I bet Honda, Toyota, Nissan are fighting this battle as well. For them it will be difficult to comply. Remember- all hybrids use gasoline.

I think the list would provide even more insight if it were ordered in percentage of revenue spent on R&D.

My friend Richard. Again, a very simple view to a very complex problem. The problem with your explanation on domestics vs foreign is that profitability does not come down to simply ideology. If the big three would simply embrace eco-friendly hysterical regulations then they surely would be more profitable by spending more time moving forward than remaining stagnant. No. As it stands today, foreign car manufacturers like the Koreans and Japanese can manufacture a vehicle for far less than domestics. The great equalizer is tariffs. Honda, Toyota, Nissan and the whole lot of them have plenty of room to invest in R&D for this type of BS because the tariffs will be renegotiated. Domestics don’t have such luck.

And before anyone goes bashing them for not being able to react to mandates like this, (oops, too late) try operating a company where you have little to no control over your own employees. Just try it.

Well, that’s hard to determine, however, I know that the emissions that cars have now are solely due to Cali’s standards, California is the ONLY state that is allowed to set it’s own air standards, as we had them before the EPA was even invented.
I think that the increase in MPG is due to the price of gas and consumer demand.

2) Is it the job of the gov’t or of the consumer to punish/reward corporate entities such as GM/Ford?
Both, in a perfect world it would be driven by consumers only, and the companies would be driven by MORAL standards, however there are a lot of ignorant consumers in this world. and Corporate America is a horrible example of Ethics. Especially in the US. Not to mention that US automakers have a very short and narrow minded view of economics. They think “Profit now with low cost/quality products” as opposed to, “make less profit now, build a car people want and get a good reputation and make more money that way”
This is also how they look at advanement of pollution standards. Why spend more now to benefit us in the future? Honda and Toyota have great cars with low emissions because thats what the Government of Japan has forced them into. BMW has great emissions and MPG because they know what the consumer, the world demands and they demand more from themselves.

To Clarissa, my next album is coming out in 08. Look for it

Apparently Kenny Wayne, Fatsrat, and 90Z are ok with mediocre standards — for cars and themselves. And like car mfgs. of past, they too have never had anyone given them HIGH STANDARDS and GOALS to live up to, hence they cannot relate and can only whine or make excuses.

1) As it has already been pointed out to you this suite is not only from GM/Ford but from other companies as well.
2) If all of the car companies where to stop selling in California it would hurt the imports more than the domestics. Domestics combined make up a mere 33% of the California market, Ford having the largest share, then DCX, then GM (the GM/DCX might be switched, I don’t remember off hand).
3) Your love of VW/Audi is commendable, but ironic considering that they have worse reliability ratings than GM/Ford.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but please do some research and check your facts before talking out of your ass.

Exactly. The Big Three has historically reacted to new regulations by developing strategies to fight them. The Japanese have historically reacted to new regulations by developing strategies to comply. The end result has been that the Big Three have to comply with new regulations eventually. The only thing is that they have lost time and money fighting new regulations that could have been better spent working on compliance. It seems they never learn.

“A court case by General Motors, Ford, AND OTHER AUTOMAKERS against California’s new emissions rules will go forward.”

Thank you.