One more thing that jerks my chain is with all three U.S. auto makers is the cheap plastic they use. It seams that they make no effort to make it look good. I’m not looking for leather dash boards but come on, they have synthetics that feel like leather.

what these companies need to do is not make 4 different versions of the same car. they have gotten to big and and yes they feel because the are huge and own a lot of other foreign companies that they can still be competive in the auto world… but reality
sucks because you need to produce a product at a fair price. All they have done is make crap and selling it for a huge profit.

ATTENTION ESCALDE OWNERS:

did you know you paid 77,000 dollars for a suburban, yes they look a LITTLE different but but I don’t think it 30,000 dollars different.
I believe it was 1999 I almost bought a caddy catera until I refused to pay 35000 for a malibu. different badges and slightly different body panels don’t convince me that is is better.

it’s things like this is why I think these companies are failing, and I refuse to bail them out. It is unfortunate that so many will loose there jobs and I don’t wish anything bad for them but if I owned a business that was going under I wouldn’t get a dime from the government.

Coyote, meet Jane
http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/

Jane, meet Coyote
http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/

I tend to try and keep it relatively simple and amidst all of the for and against saving GM. I’m currently of the opinion of “let GM continue without government support”. Now this may mean chapter 11 in a few months, the potential of massive lay off’s and a down stream ripple effect that impacts suppliers/OEM’s all the way down to the car yards. Pretty ugly thought, given the size of GM.

I’m looking at it from two angles. If the gov’t props up GM with a loan, we the tax payer become silent investors in a company we will have little control over, and it still may fail. Reading about GM’s internal structure and ability to change processes and optimize new technologies, seems pretty difficult given both thier size, infrastructure and union contacts.

On the other hand, allowing market forces to have it’s will; could result in a failure the likes of which hasn’t been seen before. Hence we the tax payer now support 1000′s of people now claiming welfare.

Either way the options aren’t good. I believe that laid off auto workers would eventually gain employment again as the likes of Toyota, Mazda, maybe Ford and other smaller manufacturers, fill in the gap left by GM’s demise as the market slowly improves.

Susan

http://www.car-insurance-choices.com

Susan

http://www.car-insurance-choices.com

My favorite part has to be

“The alternative to not letting GM die is, well, Europe (and Japan). A LOT of Europe’s productive assets are locked up in a few very large corporations with close ties to the state which are not allowed to fail, which are subsidized, protected from competition”

Think Citroen, Peugeot and Renault. Utterly dreadful cars made from plastic and bent wire – especially the diesels. Not available in the US – the manufacturers would be sued out of existence. They exist only due to the massive subsidies they receive from the French Government.

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