June29
With the perfect of storm of an economic slowdown and $4 gas, U.S. automakers have found themselves in some of the most dire straits the industry has ever faced. But, despite the bleak out, Senator John McCain says he would not support a Big Three bailout if elected to the White House.
The government has already pulled Chrysler back from the brink once, but no such plans would be enacted if McCain was voted to office. “Frankly I just don’t see a scenario where the federal government would come in and bail out any industry in America today,” McCain told The Detroit News.
Instead, McCain said U.S. automakers should focus on producing smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.
However, as seen by the Senator’s $300 million battery grant proposal, McCain says that he would fully support further government funding of battery and other green tech research.
In a bit of good news for the automakers, McCain said he is supportive of a nationwide CO2 standard, rather than a patchwork of regulations set by individual states. A single federal standard would save automakers billions in production costs.
The Detroit 3 should be used by the US government as assets in the interest of the American economy. Whether that means financial assistance or defense against imported goods, something should be done. However, it is a two-sided effort. The Detroit 3 need to design and market cars that American consumers find relevant and interesting. Until then, any financial or defensive strategy will be lost on products that barely match-up to their foreign rivals.
Kaizen- As a believer in the proverbial invisible hand I’m pretty sure your second point would negate the need for the first.
gm and ford have finally gotten the message and started turning things around. i just hope they don’t run out of time.
certainly would sway my vote in the opposite direction… like kaizen said, they are assets to the american economy, and the amount needed to bail them out is CHUMP CHANGE compared to the cost of the war.
alex189a: if I had an invisible hand the government’s tit would be about the last one I’d grab a hold of.
McCain is an old ****STICK, who is going to lose the election!!! I wanna curb stomp him for making a statement like that.
Does McCain not realize that 1 out of every 6 jobs in America have something to do with the American auto industry? When the big 3 does bad, the whole American economy does bad, as it’s happening now under a current ****stick republican. Without the big 3 the American economy would collapse!
its sad that US gov fails to see how much impact the domestic auto industry has on the US economy. Japan supports Toyota-’supposedly’ and in the last years it seems like US wouldnt give a **** if the domestics fell off the face of the earth. pretty sad.
What’s really sad is that they won’t help out AMEREICAN companies, but PISS AWAY BILLIONS on FOREIGN NATIONS.
I agree with McCain on this one. It’s not the government’s job to babysit automakers- especially ones that have ignored the American public for so long. They are like the fathers who ignored their kids. They didn’t give us what we wanted product-wise. Their quality wasn’t as high as other automakers, and they could care less about what the public thought. Same thing with the mortgage companies. Now that the public has actually gotten a brain and started buying fuel-efficient cars and looking for quality, the Big 3 are suffering. Surprise! Gone are the days when they can put out a car like the Avenger/Sebring and have everyone snatch them up just because they are “American.” If they do survive though, I hope they learn. Watch and see how they act after the bailout if it happens.
Why on earth would the Big 3 look to the government for help? I guess they haven’t realised that the Bush regime’s mass deficit spending on rediculous programs and this unjust war is what has ruined the automotive market for them in the first place. Recent government policies have devalued the dollar so much that it may take 10 years to recover. That is why gas prices are so high. 8 years ago the Euro was worth 85 cents, now it is worth $1.70. That, gentlemen, is the foundation of this economic ****box we find ourselves in.
The big three have large operations in Canada and Europe with rapidly growing operations in Mexico. Why don’t they bail the automakers out? Mexico should be raking in big bucks from their oil industry at $140+ per barrel. I don’t remember the U.S. Government telling the automakers to focus exclusively on trucks and SUVs while letting their other products go down the tubes. Do you?
In theory I agree 100% with McCain on this, but in reality since our idiot politicians feel the need to bail out the Californian and Floridian morons who took out ill-advised loans to buy overpriced houses they could never afford, and thus to also bail out the lenders who made the stupid loans for overpriced houses, plus our Federal Reserve bails out crap investment companies like Bear Stearns in a backroom deal to infuse $30 billion into JP Morgan via Bear Stearns, then why would they not try to save the Big 3?
^^^^ Are you guys retarded? I agree the automaker’s should know enough to run their own company. But when OUR GOVT gives huge tax incentives, free money and other extra’s for foregin companies to come over here, that’s ok? I suppose it’s also ok for our gov’t to bail out 3RD WORLD COUNTIRES but not our own people? What a bunch of dumb@$$’s.
Well mayer ray posted right before me, didn’t mean to cal you a retard, nice post by the way.
mayer_ray_nagin, government took very careful approach in saving of Bear Sterns (which is a profitable company). It is a function of Federal Reserve (an independent agency not reporting to President) to oversee stability of financial health of the country. What was done was a loan guarantee (just like a federal government actually guarantees some portion of your and mine mortgage) to JP Morgan at a set low price. The Fed was so careful, that when JP Morgan realizing low price raised the offer dramatically, government responsibility and risk dissipated. Otherwise we would have market crash similar to 1929.
Us public already well prepared to demise of former big 3: more then 50% of Americans buy foreign brands. We don’t wear American jeans, don’t watch US made TV’s and out stars even can’t find American made skivvie’s: just look at pictures of Lohan and Hilton on Internet. The only successful car manufacturing in US is done by Asian companies. I see no problems or issues here. As corporations our automakers are not run well, and there is no reason to save their bureaucracies: everything else is already gone.
Why is it that when someone posts some comment on here that some of you disagree with, you have to descend into the world of a below-average 12-year old boy? Why can’t you make a comment and either agree or disagree? It actually is VERY simple! Plus, your repsonse doesn’t come across like some idiotic, uninformed 7th grade twit!
Anyway, I have to agree with Hemi… these guys need to run their companies better and not ask for the government to help them out. How many businesses have gone out of business because they cease to produce something that the public wants? Let the free and open market decide their fate.
However, having said that, our government will give billions to other countries and bail out 3rd world countries, but not our own people? What sense does that make?
I say blow out every one in Congress that’s been there over 10 years. We need a fresh start. President Bush may be doing some things wrong, but Congress has lower approval ratings than he does! Gas was a heck of a lot cheaper under a Republican congress than under the Democrat’s control. Plus, why are we whining about oil and gasoline when we are operating under a self-imposed oil embargo (i.e. not drilling on our own soil)? There’s a reason that gas is 40 cents a gallon in Saudi Arabia. They are being strangled by the wacko environmentalist lobby!
No bailout.If there’s a war,however,we might find it useful to have factories that can switch to war production. Think toyota would convert its plants to wartime use if Japan attacked?
McCain is a liar. He’ll bail out airlines,trust me.
@Murderedout
Let’swrite-in Jen Granholm.
@Hemi
I agree with you.No more foreign aid.
@mayer_ray_nagin
I agree with you,too. No mortgage bailout. I’m Still trying to buy my first home.
@muzikman73
The market isn’t free or open
Xyunya wrote:
……”government took very careful approach in saving
…… of Bear Sterns (which is a profitable company).”
.
You mean Bear Stearns is so profitable that it had to be rescued by the Fed in a move that effectively had not occured since the Great Depression.
Yes, I know the Fed does not answer to the President directly, and I know Fannie Mae backs up mortgages just like FDIC guarantees bank deposits up to an amount. I also know that the lenders/banks actually pay a fee for this protection. I am not aware of a fee that investment houses pay the Fed to provide loan guarantees.
Let’s face it: Bear Stearns has a big name, but its market value at that time indicated it was a poorly run company with little market confidence in its management. The equity investments it held were not going to be particularly hurt if Bear went belly-up (meaning their holdings in, say, GE may have been traded but GE would not go under so the notion of market collapse is a joke) and all that may have happened is that the banks that made an ill-advised loan to a poorly run investment company would take somewhat of a hit to the extent that the equities could not be sold at loan value, which is what happens in business when you make poor decisions.
What ended up happening is banker Bernanke saved his banker buddies in a backroom deal using his autonomous omnipotence over the US monetary system, and the world markets interpreted it as a poor and corrupt misuse of his authority and reacted accordingly and dropped. Not only that, because it was a misuse of the US dollar, it in fact contributed to a lowering of confidence in the dollar which then fell over a 1% that day, which effectively lowered the wealth of the USA relative to other nations by about $500 billion, all to keep Bernanke’s friends in their Maseratis.
You can justify it any way you wish, but it was a corrupt bullcrap bail-out amongst old friends at the nations expense. If the government can save Bear, then it sure as hell can and should save the Big 3, or at least the Big 2. I’m not a proponent of gov intereference in anything, and in fact I loathe Uncle Sam, but if you are set a precedent then you need to live up to that precedent in a manner fair to all businesses and not just those run by your best friends.
muzikman73, you made an excellent point about decorum on this site ( or lack of thereof). I agree with you on re-election of current and stale congress. Few things I disagree with you about: gasoline was not cheaper under republican congress, because congress did something about it. Actually it was market response to American conservation in 80’s (smaller fuels efficient cars compare to 70’s). Nothing congress can do to lower price of oil in the world today. We, the people have to purchase more fuel efficient vehicles and drive them We, the people have to demand public transportation in areas were they are suitable (L.A., S.F., Chicago, etc). In Boston and NYC there is quite developed public transportation system that can be model to the rest of the country. We, the people have to build and buy smaller houses: to save on energy cost for heating and air conditioning.
Foreign aid is an important government tool to provide US economy future markets. Historically our country used it since Revolutionary days. Our country depends on foreign markets to sell goods and buy goods (US was not industrial powerhouse in XIX century, but it trading powerhouse). Our government in XIX was spending on mapping trading routes. The investment (or you can call it bribes) of foreign aid is an important tool to open up markets to US. That is our national strength, not V8 packing SUVs and cars (albeit we all love fast cars and trucks).
What McCain Obama needs to bail out is the federal government starting with the debt it owes to foreign countries like China and then work on a way to ensure that social security will be around or generation X,Y, neXt, Z, whatever. The former “Big 3″ dug their own graves and banked on t/market continuing in one direction as it veered in another.
Further, I agree with xyunya, all of these bleeding hard American motorists, need to take a look at the label in their jeans, shirts, undies, and their television for good measure, and see that they have been supporting foreign manufactured goods for ages. Lastly, since the 80’s Japanese car companies have been assembling autos in the states to get around the ridiculous import tax implemented by Regal in the 80’s to save the “Big 3″ from the onslaught of Japanese vehicles. [10.49 pm]
mayer_ray_nagin, saving Bear Sterns was not the goal as I understand it. The real goal was to prevent catastrophic psychological securities sell off.
I may be wrong, but if I recall correctly the initial offer for Bear Sterns was in the neighborhood of 250 millions (with government backing). Two days later Sterns announced results of first quarter of 1.5 billion and that changed the offer form JP Morgan. I don’t think there are any President’s friends involved in Bear Stern’s working or governance or bailout (I am pretty much can guarantee you that he is very disliked in this corner of the country).
I doubt that Bernanke has friends who drive Masratti/Ferrari or even Porsche. He was professor of economics (i.e. math) at Princeton. It is considered ostentatious in academic community to drive Mercedes, I think they all driving Volvos and Priuses. His friends are professors, not financial magnates.
We all love thriller and suspense theories, but in financial markets are very dull in that regard: it is all risk analysis.
@Hemi
I didn’t address the foreign aid issue because we’ve had a history of helping other countries. What I don’t agree with though is not paying any attention to the U.S. economy while is goes down the ****hole. If you don’t know Hemi, there are thousands of foreign companies paying good money over here to employ U.S. workers. It’s not their fault the Big 3 are losing money- they need to take some responsibility for themselves. The unions need to take some responsibility. But no- everyone wants to wave their American flag and blame the Japanese, or whoever they can. Sad…
The situation the “Big Three” are currently in are almost entirely their fault. I remember many of the amazing cars they put out in the 60’s and 70’s, where the average car could outrun a Ferrari, and at the same time be “practical” (I don’t care what you view them as, views have changed). These are the vehicles collectors look for, do you think collectors will be looking for the junk made in the 80’s and 90’s?
There is no way GM, Ford and Chrysler couldn’t have foreseen this market “dip, drop, slowdown”. It may or may not be as bad as we currently see it, but there are even opportunities in a market slump. If you all complain that their executives are all 80 year old geezers, more the reason they should have seen this. Toyota seemed to miss it as well, but everyone else- Honda, Nissan, Suzuki and nearly all other manufacturers saw this three to four years ago.
GM, Chrysler and Toyota could have chosen to produce less popular, but ultimately ones that would stand up to such a market, and invested in those vehicles over twenty, thirty years. But when in the 70’s and 80’s and gas crunches came, they didn’t bother to invest in such vehicles. They gave us half ass products that they hoped gave us reason to reject such small cars. Vehicles like the Focus started out great, and still is but almost died in the U.S due to a lack of investment. Anybody remember the slew of half ass, unreliable, uncomfortable compacts produced by the big three in the 80’s? Instead of moving on, I feel almost like they decided to pout about it, and out of frustration they produced such crap.
And over the years foreign automanufacturers have seen opportunities. They saw that the cars that the U.S was producing 40 years ago, however fast and cool looking, were uncomfortable and not fuel efficient. When the gas crunches came around, they saw the opportunity to come in and take a chunk of the market. One of my technology teachers had characterized this in one of his classes, that when the Japanese came out with their small vehicles you could sit in one and not get a kink in your back, and instruments were laid out ergonomically. And then he talked about an older model Thunderbird a friend had and how uncomfortable it was for long drives. Only until recently did the Big Three consider interiors, of course they could have ten, twenty years ago, but why? If that’s the only thing offered, and margin profits are high, they won’t have much of any other choice. The foreign brands simply decided to sacrifice a little in investments that they knew would last, and they have lasted nearly 30, 40 years. But they knew what to invest in and continually improved.
At the same time, GM was still using an extremely old, outdated three speed transaxle just ten years ago.
While Honda improved on the E engine for nearly 35 years which is one of Wards Best Engines, Toyota sold Corollas like wildfire and the Camry overtook the Taurus for best mid-size sales, the Big Three were busy investing in large trucks and SUVS that they knew would become unstable under ever tightening foreign conditions, and economic conditions like the ones now. Sure, they have high margin profits and they can be useful, but you don’t see them popular in other countries. If you have your own mini-army to take care of, as well as to tow around, I suggest you get in touch with your local Unimog dealer.
And as I said before, when everyone complained that GM had no good offerings to combat the slew of incoming compacts, they said ok… and gave us a half baked sedan that was horribly unreliable and low quality. Then they based a Cadillac, Buick and a whole list of other vehicles off of it. They don’t want to invest in their small vehicles, ones that may not have high profit margins or sales, but will create a positive image and have steady sales. And hey, to me, that says a lot. In other words, the Big Three saying ok to the incoming competition and giving a half ass product to us tells me they don’t want to be here. I’ll stick to my Taurus, a vehicle that has never given me any problems, but I’m looking for a good replacement soon…
third paragraph- *Gm, Chrysler and Ford could have chosen to produce less popular small vehicles
“These are the vehicles collectors look for, do you think collectors will be looking for the junk made in the 80’s and 90’s?” -jayjc08
Your a ****ing idoit!
Ever hear of the 1987 Buick Grand National GNX, a car that is going for $60k+ nowadays? Or how about the 1991 Gmc Syclone, 91-93 Gmc Typhoon? Do you not realize that the F-150 has been the best selling vehicle in the world, yes “THE WORLD” for 32 Straight years? No Cause you don’t know **** about automotive industry. Get the **** outta here!
**** John McBitchass
This bitch aint even President and already talking about not saving jobs, what a bitch, and anybody who votes republican is a bitch.
BTW i agree with post #5 wholeheartedly.
jayc08, you are 100% correct. We do have some slightly opinionated crowd here.
Hoosierhero: Are you stupid? We have a history of helping other countries is THE REASON THE U.S IS UP TO IT’S @$$ IN DEBT! We have bailed out waaaaay too many countires that have no lifted a finger in helping us. It’s the governments duty to be servants to the people, what ever happened to that idea? Our gov’t ALLOWS the japs to come here TAX FREE and give them BONUSES to start their production. And for all the retards in here tat don’t get the big picture and applaud the japs for giving our people “jobs”, it’s nothing but a fing buisiness strategy you dickwads. They can’t build their cars in japan for lack of room, so they come here, for FREE, and use Americans as cheap labor while saving on IMPORT TAXES, SHIPPING FEES, INSURANCE etc etc. Wake up people, your liberalism and lack of nationalism is throwing the U.S down the $H!TTER in a hurry. Keep telling yourselves your right and I’m (and people with my viewpoints) are wrong.
The fingers of blame for the U.S. auto industry’s current predicament can definitely be pointed in many directions: politicians, auto industry, and consumers, but where to begin. U.S. vehicles have been losing market shares in nearly every class of vehicles over the past few years.
Design language and consumers’ motivations started to change. I’m reminded of a Motor Trend poll of several months ago, that showed that not long ago (10-15 years, maybe?) the majority of consumers bought new cars because they needed to replace an old one. Nowadays, something like 80% of consumers buy a new car because there’s something that excites or interests them about a new model. This might change given our current gas prices, but the message up until recently was clear: don’t rely on customer loyalty or fleet sales to maintain profits.
The need for global platform sharing has been the topic of the day for months, but U.S. efforts in this regard are fraught with errors and missteps—Pontiac brings us the GTO, which was a flop; we’re still waiting for the Euro Focus, and production costs are to blame, which leads us to the question: why didn’t the millionaire executives plan for that in advance?
Let’s wail on the unions again too. Hate to say it, but I think unreasonable and unnecessary legacy costs are also responsible for this predicament.
And, what about the consumers. Katrina hits, gas jumps over $3 a gallon and still the Tahoes and Explorers roll off the lots. We’re now at $4 a gallon, and consumers all of a sudden decide that $100 of gas a week to shuttle Jack and Jill to soccer isn’t worth it. Who’s to blame for those purchases? The Big Three may have focused too much on SUVs and full-size trucks (both of which are now not so profitable), but that’s what consumers wanted. Should the auto makers have *anticipated* a toilet economy and voluntarily pulled large SUVs from the assembly lines, when consumers were still buying them?
The million dollar questions is: what should the government do about it? The government can bail out (or attempt to bail out) troubled industries if it wants. Maybe that kind of intervention is preferable to raising CAFE, and I’m not personally convinced that the government should back out of this fight. Plenty of analogies to the mortgage crisis here (which in many ways is distinguishable, especially as mortgage companies may have been complicit in financing upside down loans) and maybe that’s a similar situation. If the social contract with its citizens fails, then maybe the government should step in to provide relief, if only temporary.
Scarface03, I love your editorial. Very thoughtful and well written. I’d like to indicate couple of points.
The mortgage crises is government doing, of sorts. Government dictates to banks the minimum liquidity levels they must adhere to. Therefore banks can issue loans without having sufficient assets of their own. There is 1 in 430+ default homeowners in our country, it is hardly the crisis. The mortgage backed securities is. Banks were allowed to sell bundled mortgages to other financial institutions and they resold them on government monitored exchanges (FTC domain). FTC failed to oversee massive fraud and US Government has complete responsibility for one of each branches.
Federal government does not oversee auto industry. If cars or trucks do not perform per government regulation, the NHTSA jumps into action (as much as government can really jump). Otherwise we’ll end up in Orwellian world if we would want our legislators to legislate our cars/trucks.
Yes Chrysler was saved in 1980, but the argument at the time was that US liberty was at stake. Chrysler was producing M1 Abrams for US Army and program would be terminated at tremendous loss to Army and taxpayers. It was cheaper to save Chrysler. As a result, the program was sold form Chrysler and completed independently.
What would US government have to do today to save former “BIg 3″? States and consumers get more cars and profits from Asian transplants then for our mismanaged auto industry.
“its sad that US gov fails to see how much impact the domestic auto industry has on the US economy. Japan supports Toyota-’supposedly’ and in the last years it seems like US wouldnt give a **** if the domestics fell off the face of the earth. pretty sad.”
bolex
Well the American public hasn’t givin a **** in decades which is why Turdota, Handa, Nipzan has pretty much taken over. Nobody in the US will care until it’s all over then they’ll run around asking “how did this happen” and of course “lets put a commitee together to study how this happened” Everyone already knows… Americans are dumb****s who won’t even support industry in there own country!
Conditions for Big3 bail out such as fuel efficiency, and limits on ratio of their executive pay v.s. their average employees’ pay must be set if tax payers’ money is going to be used for the bail out.
If I remember correctly, one or more of the Big3 received a lot of tax payers’ money in the 90’s for development of electric cars, so far they have nothing to show for it.
Hemi- cheap labor? Toyota pays their employees on par with the other manufacturers. It works so well that the unions are pissing their pants! Talk about unions, they are just as bad as the companies if not worse. They scream about their rights and then bend the companies over backwards to get their $80 an hour for putting screws in a car. Anywhere else they would be pumping gas with their HS educations. But you are right- that’s the “American way.” Bitch about always wanting more of everything, but not wanting to work for it. Take away all of the foreign companies and see how much stuff you have left in your double-wide. It won’t be much…
Toyota on par??? You’ve got to be kidding me right? I worked as an ENGINEER for a JAPANESE company making suspensions for nissan. THEY DON’T PAY $H!T. They use the rural workforce because people there are grateful to be doing something other than construction, farming or working at wal mart. Foreign companies pay almost NO TAXES either, go look that one up. These guys don’t “put screws” in cars either. Would you want to stick your head under the dash of a car 50-55 times an hour? Or route and assemble complicated wiring harnesses 40 times an hour? I’d say some of the jobs the union members do are complete BS, but that’s what the company AGREE’S to in the contract they give them. Doesn’t anybody do what they say their going to do anymore? When are people going to wake up before the U.S is completely operated and owned by foreigners. Oh, and for your “$80 an hour” BS, from what I’ve read, that’s with benefits dickwad. So go complain to the DOCTORS and LAWYERS for the high benefit rates because they’re the one’s that have inflated it.
%The big three will die, and there will nbe no one to maje war poroducts
Wow. It amazes me how few of you know how the auto industry works.
Yes, GM, Ford, and Chrysler have made bad products in the past (and Chrysler and Ford still make a few). Yes, they let their passenger car development slow down in the early part of this decade so they could pump out SUVs.
But the gall some of you have to say that they don’t build relevant vehicles, that they don’t build vehicles customers want to buy, is profoundly ridiculous.
GM retail sales have done nothing but go up month after month in the last two years. They’ve weeded out their lackluster products, not one-by-one, but wholesale. No more Cavaliers, Sunfires, Classics, Ions, L300s, Grand Ams, Centurys, S-10s and Sonomas, Blazers and Jimmys, Uplanders and Relays, etc. All have been replaced by decent-to-excellent vehicles that are only getting better.
The Big 3 would be better able to recover from the mistakes of the past if the US government weren’t subsidizing its competitors on one side - thereby encouraging a massive worker pay/benefits cost differential, and attacking it with unrealistically sudden CAFE regs that NO OTHER manufacturer agrees with, either.
One of the most popular things to do in American politics is to harp on the domestic auto manufacturers. On one side, it’s damning them for building products no one wants to buy. Which isn’t true. On another, it’s damning them for outsourcing jobs. Which is only true because the government isn’t allowing a level playing field. And on another still, it’s singling them out for blame for climate change and resistance to assist in the fight against it. Which is unfair because the domestics aren’t any worse than anyone else when it comes to this.
If the Big 3 do go under (I don’t think they will…maybe Chrysler will get busted up), we’ll see how popular the bloviators are today when massive layoffs and a tailspinning economy occur on their watch.
Have you been around the last couple of years Hemi? Here, try this article for example: http://www.aftermarketnews.com/default.aspx?type=art&id=80833
Union/Non-Union are on par for the most part. The only differences being the way they are set-up. As for foreigners, get over it! Without foreign investment the U.S. would be broke too! Consider it a favor that they are taking a lot of our lower-wage jobs so we can grow our economy with high-tech. We don’t want the **** jobs back. We want to train the public to do the better jobs. Quit trying to blame the domestic automaker’s problems on the Japanese, our government, Bin Laden, Mickey Mouse, and whoever else you think has had a hand in it. Ultimately the companies decide which products to produce, how much to charge for them, quality of build, and union contracts. They are only screwing themselves…
^^^^ Now I know your an idiot. You’re condoning illegal immigration because they take jobs “nobody wants”. So what kind of jobs do your teenage daughters/sons get when they’re in highschool? Foreigners come here TAX FREE (KEY WORDS THERE) and eat up our hard earned tax dollars. There are plenty of people here willing to work. Wake your stupid @$$ up. How old are you anyway? You’re either a stupid @$$ kid or a liberal retard from the Vietnam era.
murderedout- Is there a reason why you can only think of THREE low production vehicles from mainstream manufacturers? I could think of more than that off the top of my head from the 80’s, but that only proves my point. There’s always gonna be a few great cars from each generation, but most of us will agree that the products in the 80’s were crap. Things only really started changing when the Japanese started to actually come out with some less than anonymous, although still bland designs, and possibly when the Taurus rolled around and put the boxy look out of fashion, and the Explorer/Cherokee came out and people started eating up SUVS in gobs.
Xyuna- Thanks.
inline6- Although I can only agree with you that GM’s product line is getting better and better, its still not where it should be.
Just a quick example, the new GMC Acadia, a vehicle that I think is really great. However, sunroofs have been leaking, literally no engine options are available, and they still weigh nearly three tons. Not to mention they’re about to stretch the platform in which my opinions a bit too thin, and really there’s nothing to differenciate the Acadia/Outlook/Enclave aside from body panels and interior panels. They got quality and ergonomics right, and product placement is fair, but they have too much riding on this one vehicle.
I really hope the rest of GMs up and coming vehicles are as well thought out as the CTS, Malibu and Acadia sisters, but looking at upcoming pictures at the new compact GM’s getting, as well as the Aveo which is missing out at a HUGE opportunity tells me differently.
ctla567- Yes, they did. Ford conjured up TH!NK and a few concepts, Chrysler made up a few demo production vehicles and GM brought out the EV1. Cal. made some law that a few percent of an automakers fleet in the state had to be emissions free.
Well said inline6
Hemi- I’m neither a kid nor a Vietnam era person. I’m a 33 year old, college educated person who understands the economy/country. Are you really that worried about what a HS kid is doing for a job?? Since when did they drive our economy with their summer jobs mowing grass? lol I didn’t say one word about illegal immigration. I just said foreigners. This is how I know you are a bigot. Most Americans immigrated here you idiot, so get over it…