Ten Things The Taxpayer Should Know About The U.S. Auto Industry Now That They Own It

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: Zebo
It all boils down to not producing enough. Those 'has been' brands wouldn't fear dealer backlash and franchise laws had GM kept producing quality cars under those badges. Those 3x retirees to workers ratio would not be a problem had GM grown with good cars instead of import supplanting their sales and employees. The bottom line is it took 20+ years to destroy Detroit it will take an another 20 to build them back up and we the tax payers don't have that long. Worse is when China comes 'online' everyone will start reporting loses it's a labor cost no one in the first world can compete with.

SAIC, one of Chinas largest auto manufacturers, just said they are out of money and cant even pay their employees.

 

[SickBeast]

I thought that the government was simply giving the auto industry loans. Since when do the taxpayers own them? How large is the stake?

 

[Pliablemoose]

As a lien holder of GM & Chrysler, the first thing that needs to be done is a little housekeeping in the management suite.

All of them need to be thrown out on their asses, and I want the guy who greenlighted the Pontiac Aztek shot, I'd prefer it to be a Pay Per View event, I'll even pony up $100 for the show...

There is no excuse for what they've done to the auto industry and hiring that fool Nardelli to run Chrysler into the dirt like he did Home Depot is a fucking capital offense too. I'd like every one who signed off on hiring Nardelli shot too.

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: Pliablemoose
As a lien holder of GM & Chrysler, the first thing that needs to be done is a little housekeeping in the management suite.

All of them need to be thrown out on their asses, and I want the guy who greenlighted the Pontiac Aztek shot, I'd prefer it to be a Pay Per View event, I'll even pony up $100 for the show...

There is no excuse for what they've done to the auto industry and hiring that fool Nardelli to run Chrysler into the dirt like he did Home Depot is a fucking capital offense too. I'd like every one who signed off on hiring Nardelli shot too.

I'd like those congress critters shot who gave Cerberus, a private hedge fund with 4Billion in cash, another 4 billion treating Chrysler as a separate entity. I guess it helps when you have Former Bush Treasury secretary Snow as your Chairman asking current Bush Treasury secretary for money.

 

[Strk]

Originally posted by: Jiggz
"Detroit product is not quite as inferior to Japanese and German quality as many people think"

This may sound positive but regardless how you spin it, it's still negative! Meaning Big 3's auto products are still inferior than Japanese and German products!

VW may have nice interiors, but I never understood why some seem to think German cars are very good. Daimler and VW consistently rank very low. BMW is usually about average, but at least they have a top notch warrenty.

As for Japanese quality, that annoys me too. For starters, people seem to forget how many Japanese auto companies there are. Yes, Toyota is good, as is Honda, but how about Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru or Suzuki? Mitsubishi said they're about to give up on the US market if they can't improve its sales. Nissan needed Renault to dig it out of the hole it put itself into. Subaru and Suzuki are pretty small, and yes, GM did own a stake in both, but sold all of it.