Auto Industry Blue
I don't have the time at the moment to post more than this, but I am debating writing a letter to my congress men and other representatives. Hell, maybe even the current and to be president.
I do not want to see the US auto makers bailed out by the government. The short story is that they are making cars no one wants to buy, have had years to see the trend of rising gas prices and slumping demand for their vehicles, and have made a multitude of mistakes as a whole. GM for instance has for years made more cars than they could sell just to keep there factory lines active/people employed. Furthermore the product they make is almost strictly inferior to the European or Asian equivalent (I have driven a fair number of US and Asian cars, and the magazines agree with me - you're just better buying something from elsewhere).
Sure, I love the Corvette, and I would not want to see the Mustang discontinued, even if it amuses me how much the latter isn't a sports car. But, honestly, if the companies can't pull their weight they need to die. Even my beloved Ferrari has gone through tough spots, and faced with the prospect of failing the company allowed itself to be acquired by Fiat, the Italian equivalent of Ford. Every company is faced with hard times, and they either die, change, or make concessions. In the case of Ferrari they made the concession to give up their status as an independent company. It has payed off, around the turn of the century Ferrari was the most important and profitable part of the FIAT group, and helped pull the group through a rough time.
Quick fun fact, about 3-4 years ago when GM started its downturn it looked to acquire FIAT to help bolster itself. FIAT was in trouble at the time with Ferrari being one of the only parts of the group turning profits, and the talks began. Now, if you know the old joke about FIAT, it is said that it stood for Fix It Again Tony because of how poor their car quality was when they were still sold in America. FIAT left America because of their inability to sell cars, and in Italy they were struggling with, to my understanding, similar quality issues around 2003-2004. Anyways FIAT backed out of the GM deal for two reasons. First, they were beginning to see an upshot in sales. The second one, I believe, was that they saw how much trouble GM was actually in four years ago, and they didn't see a safe future under GM. That was four years ago - and again we are talking about a company that left America because of quality issues. What does this say about GM four years later?
Nothing Good.
Later.
I do not want to see the US auto makers bailed out by the government. The short story is that they are making cars no one wants to buy, have had years to see the trend of rising gas prices and slumping demand for their vehicles, and have made a multitude of mistakes as a whole. GM for instance has for years made more cars than they could sell just to keep there factory lines active/people employed. Furthermore the product they make is almost strictly inferior to the European or Asian equivalent (I have driven a fair number of US and Asian cars, and the magazines agree with me - you're just better buying something from elsewhere).
Sure, I love the Corvette, and I would not want to see the Mustang discontinued, even if it amuses me how much the latter isn't a sports car. But, honestly, if the companies can't pull their weight they need to die. Even my beloved Ferrari has gone through tough spots, and faced with the prospect of failing the company allowed itself to be acquired by Fiat, the Italian equivalent of Ford. Every company is faced with hard times, and they either die, change, or make concessions. In the case of Ferrari they made the concession to give up their status as an independent company. It has payed off, around the turn of the century Ferrari was the most important and profitable part of the FIAT group, and helped pull the group through a rough time.
Quick fun fact, about 3-4 years ago when GM started its downturn it looked to acquire FIAT to help bolster itself. FIAT was in trouble at the time with Ferrari being one of the only parts of the group turning profits, and the talks began. Now, if you know the old joke about FIAT, it is said that it stood for Fix It Again Tony because of how poor their car quality was when they were still sold in America. FIAT left America because of their inability to sell cars, and in Italy they were struggling with, to my understanding, similar quality issues around 2003-2004. Anyways FIAT backed out of the GM deal for two reasons. First, they were beginning to see an upshot in sales. The second one, I believe, was that they saw how much trouble GM was actually in four years ago, and they didn't see a safe future under GM. That was four years ago - and again we are talking about a company that left America because of quality issues. What does this say about GM four years later?
Nothing Good.
Later.