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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) 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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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Nov 17, 2008 8:56 am) And only the auto industry, with its vast purchasing power, is able to establish a domestic advanced battery industry. Sounds like Wes missed the news. GM has signed with Hitachi to build the batteries for the VOLT. Probably will be built in China. The only thing I see him saying is GM should keep HUMMER as it builds the vehicles for the military. I am sure if they have contracts some one will buy that company. It was not always part of GM. Seems like American Motors owned them for a while. We built up from nothing to fight WW2. I just don't see much in his logic that makes sense. I believe in keeping a strong military. I don't see where GM in its current condition is a real asset to the military.
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funny you should bring up the 2010 Pininfarina-Bollore B0 I have my eye on. We(wife and I)just got a new HP Pavilion Desktop with scads of memory and a 4-in-1 printer-copier-fax-scanner, 22-inch flat screen monitor that tilts so you can read it in Portrait and Lancscape, etc. I mean, the computer this HP I bought a week and a half ago replaces my first computer, bought in Jan. of 2000! We just took a giant leap forward in technology(and huge RAM and processor speed!). So, yesterday I researched this new little all-electric from Pininfarina-Bollore and had a ball doing it. I put the car on as my background picture on my Windows page with all the icons. She spotted it late last night and here we go..."Don't you go and buy another new car!  " The fact is though is that this all-EV appears to be just what I have been looking or...well-thought out by the manufacturer and a nice looking little rig, too. Lots of research must still be done, though(Warranty and Price, mainly)but if they don't price this thing over say $29,995 USD, the car will remain in contention for our next car. However, only 10,000 become available in late 2010, so one can not sit on his hands waiting if he wants one, eh? It's going to be an absolute ball researching it. I have pre-set parameters that I look at while researching and this car has passed all tests(there's a lot of them, believe me)so far with flying colors. 
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