Like Dinosaurs The Big Three should be Extinct
by Tran, Harry ~ November 21st, 2008. Filed under: Rants n Raves.Today I am writing this with much anger as to the fact that The Big Three auto companies, Ford, GM, and Chrysler may actually get a bailout loan of $25 Billion dollars when Congress resumes their hearings on this situation in December.
If these guys do get a bailout based on a proposed plan that they have, I don’t want them to have a plan which states how they’ll make billions again selling large SUV and Pick Up trucks. I want to hear about a forward looking plan, one that isn’t so myopic. I want to hear about how they’ll be able to produce a car that can adequately compete with the Prius to win the hearts and minds of the fuel efficient market. This is no longer the niche market, and yet The Big Three are still far behind in competing with Toyota and Honda in cranking out cars that get better gas mileage.
I don’t want anyone to lose their jobs, but for anyone to keep their jobs they must adapt to the change in times. We the general public are not going to let them fool us over and over again. As we saw gas prices creeping dangerously into the $3.00 zone the days of purchasing SUVs that get 16MPG were over for many of us. Not to mention that at a time when many people are losing their homes we are no longer looking towards making lavish car purchases.
How The Big Three looks to the future is definitely something that I would be interested in reading about. Will their plan be just a load of white washing in order to get the loan or will it hold through to their plans? Are they still playing us for fools, if you read what I wrote about the CEOs taking private jets to Washington than you better believe that I still hold them as evil sinister beings trying to trick our Congress into giving them free lunches. It is up to them to prove otherwise and not any other way will there be to change my perception of them until than.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Chevy and Ford already have more cars that get <30mpg than Honda and Toyota
Ford has better quality ratings than Honda and Toyota
Ford has the highest overall safety ratings of ANY automaker
Chevy has (at least) 9 models with over 30 mpg
Chevy has a hybrid version of almost every car they make that doesn’t get 30+mpg without being hybrid
Lastly, for all you tree hugging economists, auto companies (including foreign ones) make a VERY small, if any, profit on their hybrids.
As for Chrysler, They got hit by a weak economy at a bad time and (admittedly) aren’t making cars of as good of quality as they should to compete in today’s market.
The best plan for them would be to sell them off in different pieces because if they go under, they will pull Ford and Chevy under with them because of the domino effect on the suppliers.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
My father is a hard working, non-union, ford engineer - if the big 3 go under, I will not be able to go to college
December 10th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Rob,
I totally feel your pain in being closely tied to the auto industry. And also like I said I hate when a family gets hurt because of poor decisions made by the employer. Look at Enron for an example of a company which has ruined so many lives.
With that said I hope you can understand when I say, I am tired of seeing the Big Three running around back and forth like they have been for years trying to fool us into their charades.
While it may be true that these companies make more hybrid models, than Honda/Toyota, that is due to their larger lineup of cars in general. Many brands simply aren’t noteworthy enough to exist in todays market.
What Toyota has done to the hybrid market is put out a high quality vehicle which people trust. The big three have more to prove than what they’re going to do with the loan $ to become profitable again, they still need to prove to the world that their cars are of good quality. I have driven new Fords before and I have a thing or two personally to say about their handling.
December 10th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Many Americans do trust the big 3– 50% of all vehicles produced in the United States come from them!
What people need to know is that Toyota really does not have as good of quality as they think! They have recalled many more vehicles than Chevy and Ford in the past year.
So here’s my question:
Why did the financial institutions get the money HANDED to them (not a loan, just free $$$) when everyone knows that over a billion of it has probably already been spent at country clubs, Ferrari dealerships, and the like when the big 3 are being practically raped for it?
December 10th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Well I don’t believe there is ever a perfect vehicle, but Toyota did have problems, and so did Honda, and here is just my opinion on where they had their recalls but many of the cars they tried to make to compete with the big 3 such as trucks and suvs were where the recalls came from.
The tried and true compact cars of Toyota and Honda held true, but as they lost focus themselves they started making cars they weren’t too familiar with.
To answer your question: If you followed my blog closely enough, you will know that I never ever believed in a government bailout for any industry, strictly because it isn’t equitable.
Why isn’t my job safe if a car company gets a bailout, because I work for a retailer for instance?
Why isn’t my mortgage being modified because I can still pay for it?
So I have already questioned the logic or the lack of it for the financial institutes being bailed out, this is no different.
And to throw in my opinion on why the big 3 are getting raped, it is because they have always followed this philosophy that if they build it people will buy it, and what is good for us is good for America. What may be logic that worked in the 80s and 90s doesn’t work in the new century because people change and the environment and our climate have changed yet they haven’t changed with it.
And last but not least, the housing bailout was sold to us as a means to save households from falling into foreclosure, yet none of that money has gone into keeping families in their homes, banks kept it because the oversight that managed the funds wasn’t present. What is to say that the big 3 won’t do the same and horde all the money into their balance sheets, and outsource all their labor and management to another country anyway in an attempt to regain profitability?
Where does the line get drawn on these bailouts, there is a lack of clear oversight in all these bailouts.