Interesing read... sort of what I've thought all along. A drastic shift that wasn't really predicted. Big 3 were in a good position, competitiors were trying to play catch up in the truck/suv market (look at Toyota, BMW, Audi, etc.), then things changed and suddenly the competition was in a better position... it happens.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/...ses/index.html

EDIT: the one area I agree with where they really messed up was the lack of focus on "good" small cars. Small cars are usually people's first cars and people typically buy a brand for life if they're happy w/ it. That's why even the luxury brands like BMW and MB make entry level cars.

 

Also a good read from the dealer's persepctive - http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/...row/index.html

 

It seems that the Big 3 are focusing a bit too much on the muscle car revival at a time where the economy just isn't right for it. They need to be focusing on small cars right now. Look at Chrsyler, their smallest car right now is the Caliber, which is still pretty hefty. I thought Ford was heading in the right direction with the announcement of the US getting the Global Focus as well as the Fiesta in the near future, then I read the F-Series is only available with an 8cyl.

 

they evidently worked on the fuel economy so the 2v 4.6 is getting the same gas mileage as the old 4.2 6 cyl that was in the 08's...

 

I agree somewhat... many have said that the new Camaro is the right car at the wrong time. We'll see. The V6 model makes fantastic power and gets good economy.

 

I wish I made 75 dollars an hour. I wonder if that has anything to due with it.

 

Everyone loves to fixate on that. I'm not really pro-union, or even very informed on the UAW, but I know enough to not let the media hype overshadow the truth.

They don't make $75 an hour...

That's what the automakers end up paying per employee per hour because they have to cover benefits, pensions, etc. Union workers make only about $35-37/hr out of that total $75. That's a very common misconception. So basically UAW workers don't really make much more (if any) than the Japanese-brand autoworkers working in the US (Toyota, Honda, etc) but the Japanese automakers don't have all of that overhead so they actually pay closer to the $35 per man hour instead of the $75 per man hour.

A lot of the proposed (and currently negotiated) restructuring has to deal with cutting that UAW payout overhead through things such as no pensions fo employees hired after a certain date, reduced medical/dental, etc. This is a sore spot right now apparently but the UAW needs to play ball to keep the Big Three alive. It doesn't matter at all what job benefits you have if you don't have a job.


*EDIT*: Oops, I see they already glossed over the same topics in one of those articles. Anyway, I've seen the $35-37 per hour figure thrown around a lot from other sources, so there's the hard numbers. They should have mentioned that the three execs all took (separate) private jets to the congressional hearings dealing with the bailout money. Good PR move.

 

I would totally agree about the lack of good small cars.

 

i found that article very insightful ......and 100% accurate

 

Ford actually has a somewhat independent british arm that came up with the escort(a bit different from what we had) and the focus. You can just look at a focus and tell it didn't come from detroit. I think that may be one reason they are doing the best of the three and had a leg up on what the public wanted with high fuel prices like in europe. Shit i think if we were offered the AWD Turbo Focus RS they'd take a bite out of the sti/evo market for sure.