The US Government Is Gonna Bailout The Big Three

[cassiusclay]

This is a band aid on the problem. The US is gonna loan these fuckers money, incredible. Some of my thoughts:

If the US is going to lend any private business money the US should obtain stock in the company as collateral, banks, autos, whatever.

Bailing out the Big Three is like betting on the St Louis Rams, yeah they might cover a game or two but in the long run it's a bad investment.

Bailing out companies who have no idea how to control expenses and how to manuafacture a good/affordable product is insane. Let them fold or make them merge into one large company. Duplication in each of the Big Three is ridiculous, example, why does Chrysler make a Grand Caravan and a Town & Country minivan? Same with Ford/Lincoln and Chevy/Pontiac/Saturn/Cadillac. Too many choices, too many dealerships, so much competition between each brand and between themselves.

Hyundai, Kia, Honda and Toyota have it figured out. Vehicles are built in "blocks", for instance, when Hyundai makes Sonatas they make the same model, same engine, same equipment just in different colors which seriously reduces the cost t o build the car. The cars are then shipped to a distribution point and Hyundai's Dealer Rep calls the stores and offers the vehicles to the dealer. Typical domestic dealers order their own cars with their own option preference (everyone orders differently) and this drives up the cost of production.

The unions are killing the Big Three, at some point there will be some type of mutual agreement, probably when and or after a ton of people lose their jobs.

I have not checked stock prices today but GM and Ford are at all time lows and nearing junk bond status, a bankruptcy for GM is inevitable unless the government does step in.

My friend recently got back from Europe and told me he drove a Mercedes Benz that got 100 miles to the gallon, a car only distributed in Europe because gas prices were some sick dollar amount. The technology is in place, why not introduce it in the US?

A Nascar automobile can go how many miles without changing a tire but most people can't get 30,000 miles on a set of tires?

It seems to me that no-one is addressing the real problems the Big Three are facing, make a better car, a less expensive car, great on gas and good to look at. Eliminate double and triple production and get union wages/pensions/benefits in line with how your business is performing.

My rant will continue at another time.

[Dirty]

good post CC.... The Main part is realing in the Union... Not really what they are paying now.. but what they are paying out to retired employees.. it is crazy...

[Finance]

Nice write-up - you are obviously closer to this than most of us....it is obvious that they are using horrid business models, but like Dirty said, until they can do something about the retiree expenses it seems to be almost a moot point - their costs start so high with that big nut to cover they will never be competitive. That being said, the people running the show today are somewhat handcuffed by those retiree expenses that were promised long before they were in charge, and I'm not sure what the equitable answer is....do you take a pension away from a 90 year old who has no other source of income? They didn't have 401k's back then...GM to me is a microcosm of our whole economy - the pension and healthcare for the retirees (social security and medicare) will eventually bankrupt the system because they were not adequately funded in the beginning....geez - didn't think that was going to go on so long....sorry

[asianhandicap]

I couldnt agree more

[Dirty]

damn Shame when US Automakers are $6k in the hole from paying out retirement before they ever start the assembly line on one Vehicle....

[YeahBoyHowdy]

GM is one of the worst run major companies in the world. Their business model has put countless suppliers out of business, and they take supply chain management back to the stone age. The toyota's of the world are the companies that have it figured out.

Even though the government bailout would actually be beneficial to my company, I really hope that it doesn't happen. It would be a nice reality check for the unions that have helped kill Motor City.

[NickPappagiorgio]

While wages and benefit costs are costly, CC is right, the quality of these cars are just shit. Toyotas, BMWs, Mercedes and Hondas can run forever. Americans want to buy Big 3 cars, but they arent going to throw their money away for an inferior product.

Give me a car that can run 150,000+ miles and gets over 30 mpg and Ill buy it.

[Dirty]

Every Ford F150 or Explorer My Family or I have had in the last 10 years I have ran until they have 300k on them.. No trouble...All My dad's companies work trucks are Fords.. Best out there... Chevy's are shit after 80K miles... We have gotten to where we call Ford Disposable Trucks because you just drive them until the wheels fall off.. They had 3 95' F350's doing heavy commercial work that had almost 750K miles on them when they had to trash them

[NickPappagiorgio]

Originally Posted by Dirty

Every Ford F150 or Explorer My Family or I have had in the last 10 years I have ran until they have 300k on them.. No trouble...All My dad's companies work trucks are Fords.. Best out there... Chevy's are shit after 80K miles... We have gotten to where we call Ford Disposable Trucks because you just drive them until the wheels fall off.. They had 3 95' F350's doing heavy commercial work that had almost 750K miles on them when they had to trash them

Then they should become a pickup truck company, that says nothing about how their cars hold up

[CUBSFAN]

Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and the creation of an egalitarian society.^[1][2] Modern socialism originated in the late nineteenth-century working class political movement. Karl Marxclass struggle and a proletarian revolutiontransitional stage between capitalism and communism.^[3][4] posited that socialism would be achieved via which represents the
Socialists mainly share the belief that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and creates an unequal society. All socialists advocate the creation of an egalitarian society, in which wealth and power are distributed more evenly, although there is considerable disagreement among socialists over how, and to what extent this could be achieved


What country is this starting to sound like?

[cassiusclay]

Giving the Big Three money will not solve their problems, they will blow through the money. If the money is made available to them they need to be held accountable for how it is spent. It's obvious no-one in their right mind is buying stock in these companies so why should the government invest our money into these companies?

[cassiusclay]

A good friend of mine has been in Dc the last couple of days (he drove) said the deal is done, wrapped up the bill and it will go to the Senate next.

Dumbasses from Chrysler, GM and Ford flew there in corporate jets, spent $20,000 in fuel....nice.