Financial Aid for the Detroit Three Carmakers − How Important and How Realistic?

Abstract:
For the first half of the lifetime of the automotive industry, the former Big Three carmakers − General Motors, Ford and Chrysler − had the North American car market to themselves. That is the source of much of their current trouble. Naturally enough, they developed a mindset and management style that has subsequently proven hard to shake. Now those three have been augmented by four or five automakers with head offices in other countries. This is a large jump in the number of suppliers offering product to the car-buying public. Something has to give. The Detroit Three are being severely tested.

Member Comments

12/19/2008 - posted by marcus

Very very well said, Alex.  I meet too many people who blindly curse the Detroit-3 & condemn them to total collapse; these people do not respect the history (Detroit-3 BUILT modern North America), recent grand improvements in quality (Malibu is a great new mid-size; Ford continues to get quality grades on-par or better with the Japanese), and recent long-term commitments to alternate technologies THAT WILL BE IN SHOWROOMS WITH A PRICE TAG incredibly soon (good you mention the Chevrolet Volt).

I am not a fan of Globalization but, if there’s one thing it is doing, it’s making North American unions realize how power-hungry they’ve become.  Remember when Buzz Hargrove (former CAW leader) was seen prancing around the country with Paul Martin in the 2006 election?---Yeah, that’s ridiculous.  It’s about time that people start to get paid REASONABLE wages again.

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