I don't get it!

[Greg In Austin]

...and thus it really tells a story when they are unwilling to budge on their overly fat salaries....

[j.whitbread]

US auto makers have been making the cars we want. Mustangs with lots of horsepower, trucks and so on. It is the people who have failed to act on the warnings.

If the US had a reasonable health system for everyone, the car manufactures wouldn't be in this position to begin with. But don't say that's socialism and then turn around to dictate what kinds of cars they make with your money.

[EMrider]

More from the strange but true file.......

The auto company managements used corporate jets to travel to D.C. to ask for US govt. support. Not very bright and they were predictably flogged.

Despite an enormous PR campaign by the automakers for govt. support (check the GM website for a helpful 'write your congressman' link), I think congress understands that cash alone won't solve the problems. It will just enable them to be zombies for a bit longer. It will be very interesting to see what emerges from all of this. Quite a mess to state the obvious.
R

[Jeffrey]

The only way those fat slobs in private jets should get any dough, is if ALL of it goes into alternative energy powered vehicle research.

[John and Dana]

I have to agree that flying their corporate jets to Washington DC to beg for money is kind of like having the guy with the cardboard sign at the end of the freeway offramp leaning against his 2008 BMW while he is panhandling for change.

Originally Posted by j.whitbread

US auto makers have been making the cars we want. Mustangs with lots of horsepower, trucks and so on. It is the people who have failed to act on the warnings.

If the US had a reasonable health system for everyone, the car manufactures wouldn't be in this position to begin with. But don't say that's socialism and then turn around to dictate what kinds of cars they make with your money.

Are you trying to say that if we had national health care we could all get mental help counseling which would help us to realize that our obsession with gas guzzling high horsepower cars is destroying the world we live in?

John

[Greg In Austin]

Sometimes companies have to look to the future and determine what they think the customers will want or NEED, even if it is different from what the customers want at the current moment.

We have had to move away from buying from the US automakers because they were not making the cars that we wanted. We saw the writing on the wall a number of years ago and went for two hybrids, one 2001 Honda and one 2006 Toyota. We do have one vehicle we really like that came from a US automaker, but they will no longer support it (1997 Chevy S10E)

The Big 3 US Automakers took a bunch of Money from the US automakers in the 90's to help develop technology for a new direction in the automobile industry. They all had programs that would meet lower emission and higher MPG standards. ...but they all decided to not carry them forward.

The money was well spent. The technology development was succesful. ...and Toyota is the one that is benefiting from it now...

GM in particular had a very succesful program that created a multiple viable models. (read "The Car That Could") In fact they purchased the technology rights.... and then sold them to Texaco who then became Chevron, who then sued Toyota who had already improved on the technology. The suit was settled out of court and the details were not made public. After some sluething some details were found...
http://www.ovonic.com/PDFs/Financial...nt_7july04.pdf

...and while the US Automakers continue to ask for handouts and conitnue to make products that their customers can no longer afford, Toyota is ramping up to make the vehicles of the future.

OH... .and the US automakers have been taking more tax-payer money in the last few years to again research and develop the same technology that has already been developed, but which Chevron will not license.

Sorry, but we have already given the US Automakers enough handouts. I would be against any further handouts.