Bailout Watch 409: Freep: "Still No Love for Detroit"
Alternative headline: “Extortionists Are People Too”
“It’s worth wondering why Detroit’s automakers are still having such a tough time winning public support. Do Americans still not grasp the consequences of a GM bankruptcy? Have the companies so soured confidence in their products that Americans think them unworthy corporations? Are their CEOs so uninspiring that Americans just don’t trust that they’ll turn things around?
Hard to figure how these companies, which employ millions, and whose spinoff industries reach into every nook of the manufacturing sector nationwide, can’t get more support than they are. They’ve got detailed plans. They’ve been forthcoming about their circumstances.
Do people really believe the nation would be better off if they didn’t survive?”
More by Robert Farago
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@edgett: I don't know, building cars people asked for, like the Saturn Astra, Chevrolet Malibu, and the Pontiac G8.
taxman100 said When our manufacturing base is gone, and we become a second world economy, they still won’t care. I don't see why. I mean, most of the agricultural jobs of the old days were gone. But we didn't starve and the US is not a second or third world economy. The manufacturing base won't be gone. Only the unneeded jobs will. We don't need a couple million Americans building cars and components. In the future, maybe 100,000 workers are enough to do the same work. Nothing unlike the agricultural sector. And, oh, they won't starve and their children will get into a different industry.
edgett said: If he could restructure Ford so they are today producing cars people want, and seem to evidence the means to come out “leaner and meaner”, WTF were the idiots at GM and Chrysler doing while he was doing his job? Because they didn't drive Lexus cars.
@mikeolan building cars people asked for, like the Saturn Astra, Chevrolet Malibu, and the Pontiac G8. These are all decent cars, but Saturn is now gone (that's some great product planning, there Rick) and they were losing money on every Astra sold. The Malibu is a decent car as well, but seemed to cannibalize Impala sales for its success. The G8 might have been a real winner had it come out earlier and, oh-by-the-way, The GM braintrust is also deleting Pontiac. Somehow I don't think the Malibu, supplemented by the CTS will be able to bring GM back to life.