Great! No one is doing great! Ford made some good moves early and is well positioned, but if americans don’t start buying american, all three, I fear, will fail. Don’t get me worng, I hope Ford, GM and Chrysler the best. It’s in everyones interest to put money back into the economy… “all we have to fear, is fear itself!” As for “No rush…” BS.

So, no rush. Buy Ford whenever you’re ready.

Only a small portion of vehicle sales price goes to the men and women that assemble them (< $1000/vehicle). The loin’s share is shipped back to the mother company to be spent on R&D, pay local suppliers and feed the tax base of their home country. What did you American’s think was going to happen when you started shipping your hard earned cash to a foreign country? … Your standard of living was going to go up? HA! Call or write your congressmen today. Free trade is BS… Equitable/balanced trade is the only sustainable way forward. Look to South America, or China, or Japan! Try to sell your goods there without being taxed out of the market. Until our govt. comes to its sense, you all can make a difference by voting with your wallet… Buy American while you still can, and I mean while there are still American companies left to buy from, and you still have a job that affords you some spending power.

Maybe Toyotas aren’t selling because the ones that people already own are still running fine?

They ought to set them up to break down sooner………

But, in seriousness, this can be an issue. Their cars stay on the road longer, but they still make huge amounts of brand new cars. They need to tone down their sheer volume, since they’re producing over demand. I don’t think it’s as complicated as people make it seem. When demand goes down, tone down production.

are you stupid? A and B are unrelated. GM got 13.4B in loans and if they survive the money will be paid back with interest. Toyota is reporting an operating loss on their operations. If Toyota had GM’s cost structure (healthcare, pensions, etc.) they would be losing far more money. BTW, GM hasn’t even spent all of its money yet- this is why they told the government they didnt need more money last month. Their cash burn rate has slowed due to cuts made last year.

We were told GM is in trouble do to bad management and the UAW. Why is Toyota in trouble?

“These tax breaks were GIVEN to them, not LOANS like the domestics are getting” If Gm make use of the chapter 11 will they still have to give your money back? Had Gm taken any tax reliefs for any new factories in Usa? Aren’t the americans buying imported products exporting bilions to other countries and forcing your own factories to find cheaper production elseware?

Blame globalisation instead.

Please put things in perspective and begin posting intelligent thoughts.

Sheesh

An aside, big labor is associated with… Wall street and the Banks… this is going to be entertaining indeed;-))

Personally, I could care less – let foreign manufacturers run the market. What are the long-term implications of this…? This is not the UK experience of the 1970’s! The overall dynamic political/geographic/economic are vastly different. Although, at current and projected government spending – the economic part…

DB9;-)

So what else is new?/! What would be more compelling would be to ask where Toyota would be if they were saddled with the D3’s Legacy Costs? What would be the numbers for a Toyota HMO & Pension corp.; a company that just happens to build automobiles on the side?

DB9;-)

You can’t allow foreign manufacturers, who can produce competing products at significantly lower cost, unfettered access to a domestic market – Period! The key point here is why a non domestic producer, whether they manufacture locally or not, has lower costs?/! For example, take GM and Toyota, two plants side by side with exactly the same product, e.g., a Camry, same production lines and parts; before the first car rolls off the line GM is in the hole $2000 plus per vehicle. How do you compete when your fixed costs are that much higher – something has to give? Now spread this out over 30 plus years and throw in favorable exchange rates (for most of the period), government sponsored R & D, i.e., what Washington does with Boeing and Lockheed Martin et al., no legacy costs and public health care etc.

The era of Big Labor is over if the US has any pretense at all of maintaining/supporting a modern, non defense, high tech value added manufacturing base. As many have said, Mullaly – well done – was lucky in mortgaging Ford’s assets when he did; however, they are not that far off from being in the same position as their peers. How will this play out among the inter-relationships among the vested parties…

The next two to six months are going to be very interesting. Just best to sit back and watch it all play out as the rumor mills and innuendo have already begun.

DB9;-)