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I can't believe nobody has started a thread on the proposed auto industry bailout package. This has been all over the international news lately. Do you guys think the domestic automakers deserve federal help, or should they have seen this coming and changed the product mix years ago?  

For those companies that want the money all the top executives need to sign that they wil be personally responsible for the money they ask for.  
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John R. seeking for the best maintenance help on Toyota Corolla cars..

I hear a lot of critics saying GM sat around and just waited for this to happen, totally oblivious to the fact that gas prices would eventually increase and they'd be up a creek with their lineup of SUVs and trucks.  But that's not what I see at all.  

GM is a huge company, with a lot of bureaucracy - something that I think is common to a lot of 100-year-old American companies.  Trying to change the course of a company that large is like trying to turn an ocean liner around - it takes time.

They've definitely been taking steps in the right direction - we can see it in their lineup.  The Pontiac G6 was an improvement over the Grand Am, the Saturn Aura improved on the G6, and lo: the Chevy Malibu and Cadillac CTS are great cars that Americans love - and are willing to pay for.

GM and Ford are headed in the right direction, but this credit crunch is killing them - and it's not a factor they really have any control over.  I think making an investment in them is a good bet - helping them create the next generation of cars, batteries, etc. will be beneficial for much more than just Detroit, the Midwest, and the auto industry.  

Most of the comments I hear are based on pure ignornace. The average Joe doesn't know squat about the plight of the US automakers. Stupid claims, like the one about industry execs 'amking teh wrong decisions" are incredibly brainless, and disqualify those who make them to comment. The simple facts ahve long been known - the US automakers are held hostage by the extortionary union labor rates they are forced to pay (even after employees are laid off). Only large, high balue cars gave the US automakers (at least some of them) the ability to make any profit, because labor costs are a much smaller percentage of the price in higher priced cars. Even then, they only made money during the good times. Toyota and Honda are making money today
and it has nothing to do with any "good decisions they made" (except to avoid US unions). Any money thrown at the automakers won't solve their inherent problem, which has reduced the number of US autoworkers by more than 80% over the past 50 years. $135 per hour labor rates spell doom for the US automakers, even without the Chinese yet in our marketplace. When they arrive, forget it. Unions have destroyed every single industry this country had - steel, rubber, mining, etc.
Now they will kill the auto industry. The Dems in Washington can force the US automakers to accept what the unions offer (price fixing of labor - non-competitive labor rates, etc) but they CAN'T force consumers to pay the exorbitant prices and behind-the-curve technologies that union labor has forced
Detroit to adopt. The unions are seeing the result of their extortion. And , predictable, they and their bought-and-paid-for Democratic puppets (like the moronic Barney Frank) are trying to pin the blame on "executive mistakes" and "high exectuive slaries and perks." If those fools in Congress really believe that GM's multibillion dollar losses are going to be affected in the slightest by flying coach and taking $1 per year salaries, they simply aren't competent to
have an opinion on the matter. Gee, what a change with Obama. Same old crap. Same old lies. Let the automakers go into Chap 11 and get in touch with economic reality and shed labor contracts. There simply is no other alternative. It's the end of the road.  

I love right wing propaganda.  

It was the unions fault that GM, Ford & Chrysler built shitty cars.

'Cept it doesn't hold water now because Ford is building good cars.  With the same unions contracts.

While you're blaming the unions, explain to me why the Chevy Aveo is such a POS relative to the Honda Fit.  Or the fact that the Cobolt sells for less than the Civic or Corolla.  

So if Ford fails, then you will change your mind about the impact of unions? At current burn rate, that could be about 5 months away.