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Automotive News & Views Does America Even Need Its Own Automakers?
1788 messages, Last post on Mar 03, 2009 at 2:18 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: gagrice (Nov 16, 2008 5:02 pm) Obama: Auto industry collapse would be 'a disaster (CNN)
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Replying to: steve_ (Nov 16, 2008 5:16 pm) "My hope is that over the course of the next week, between the White House and Congress, the discussions are shaped around providing assistance but making sure that that assistance is conditioned on labor, management, suppliers, lenders, all of the stakeholders coming together with a plan -- what does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like? ALL parties need to get together and come up with a plan. It is not enough that a few guys on top take a big salary cut. That will not save GM in the long run. They HAVE to become competitive with ALL auto companies in the World. We are in a global market place. GM is still in the dark ages of being the only choice, take it or leave it. All those involved need to wake up and smell the coffee. Or look for a different line of work. Want some fries with that? |
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Replying to: gagrice (Nov 16, 2008 5:02 pm) For the past three weeks, U.S. continuing jobless claims averaged 3.7 million, the highest figures since June 2003. In the meantime, let the chips fall where they may. Either way, jobs need to go. Any other plan that does not face this reality is a waste and prolong this necessary evil. Pay now or later. The industry will be downsized Gov't bailout or not. Funny how the management of the car companies and the all-knowing pundits say bankruptcy is sheer disaster and no one will buy their cars in Ch. 11. Well, wake up and smell the COFFEE! No one is going to buy these cars because of all the press regarding a bailout either. Let's see what the Big 3 sell in November. No sale, cut expenses and the products that do not sell. I never learned: no sale, ask for government help? What the heck are we turning into? The line is forming behind closed doors as we speak! I will apply for a Government Grant to start an auto company as long as I get part of the T.A.R.P. to support failure. It's a Win/Win. No risk! Guess who's assets I will buy for pennies/dollar??  Regards, OW |
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Replying to: cooterbfd (Nov 16, 2008 1:41 pm) Yes but cooter, 500,000 is a LONG way from 3 million. AND those jobs would go away in phases, as less than 25% of that number is direct job losses at GM (I'm not including Ford, as I think they will make it through). We have lost more than 3 times that number of jobs just in the last 10 months. If we lose that many more in the next 10, all it will do is extend the recession, not make things any worse than they are now. Looks like it is a moot point anyway, as it seems the Repubs are dead set against giving the domestics any money at this point, and GM probably won't make it to the new year. I think it's weird that in the midst of the worst crisis GM has ever seen, they continue plugging away at the Volt. Shouldn't all spending on R&D cease when the company is looking at not being in business in 60 days' time? Even if they avoid the big 'B' this car is going to do little for the bottom line for at least a decade.
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Replying to: nippononly (Nov 17, 2008 8:11 am) I think the Volt R&D will continue unless GM concentrates R&D on stuff like that new engine plant they have on the drawing board. The $25 billion loan guarantee already passed was intended "to spark a wave of automotive innovation." link. So if they don't come up with something to fund that falls under that innovation umbrella, they may not get any of the guarantee money. And lots of that money could be designated for R&D but it also could tangentially help pay some of the existing salaries and overhead that is used for day-to-day operations. |
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I hope the Fed Guv-Mint group that is supposed to guarantee that the General is spending that money on new "automotive innovation" has some teeth to it, then. GM could piss away this cash and say that they're doing something entirely different with it, eh? 
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Replying to: lemko (Nov 15, 2008 8:36 am) Being your like for luxury, would think that an upgrade from a Cadillac to a Lexus ES or RX a more likely scenario.  Or to Acura, or Infiniti, or Genesis, or Audi, etc.
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Here's an excerpt from Wesley Clark's editorial in the NY Times. For the record, I find it dubious at best to suggest that we need to sustain a war economy, or that we can't build a Humvee without GM, or that somehow GM and our "national security" are linked, but the man is entitled to his opinion and he's a smart guy. Sounds like more fear-mongering to me however, for the astronomical Pentagon budget. We already have a huge commercial/agricultural industrial arm in America to build whatever we want, unless we are going to be fighting the next war with Chevy Cobalts? In a little more than a year, the Army has procured and fielded in Iraq more than a thousand so-called mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles. The lives of hundreds of soldiers and marines have been saved, and their tasks made more achievable, by the efforts of the American automotive industry. And unlike in World War II, America didn't have to divert much civilian capacity to meet these military needs. Without a vigorous automotive sector, those needs could not have been quickly met. More challenges lie ahead for our military, and to meet them we need a strong industrial base. For years the military has sought better sources of electric power in its vehicles -- necessary to allow troops to monitor their radios with diesel engines off, to support increasingly high-powered communications technology, and eventually to support electric propulsion and innovative armaments like directed-energy weapons. In sum, this greater use of electricity will increase combat power while reducing our footprint. Much research and development spending has gone into these programs over the years, but nothing on the manufacturing scale we really need. Now, though, as Detroit moves to plug-in hybrids and electric-drive technology, the scale problem can be remedied. Automakers are developing innovative electric motors, many with permanent magnet technology, that will have immediate military use. And only the auto industry, with its vast purchasing power, is able to establish a domestic advanced battery industry. Likewise, domestic fuel cell production -- which will undoubtedly have many critical military applications -- depends on a vibrant car industry. [...] This should be no giveaway. Instead, it is a historic opportunity to get it right in Detroit for the good of the country. But Americans must bear in mind that any federal assistance plan would not be just an economic measure. This is, fundamentally, about national security. |
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Replying to: iluvmysephia1 (Nov 16, 2008 3:19 pm) |
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