$50 billion bailout for the struggling big 3???

[Win]

Originally Posted By: ViragoBry
It's not like GM presents a lot of competition to them, so why not keep them in business? Every one of their employees pours money back into the economy, allowing more people to buy Japanese and Korean cars.


I don't agree with that at all, the domestic automakers still present significant competition.

Their market share is what, 50-60% ?

When one half of the supply of automobiles goes away, who knows what the cost of the remaining automobiles will be. They won't be cheaper, that's for sure, and they may be a heck of a lot more expensive.

If you want a cheap car, now might be the time to buy .....

 

[Win]

Originally Posted By: moribundman
Originally Posted By: Win
Volkswagon


Must be a Chinese knock-off.


That's how we spells it down heah!

 

[moribundman]

Originally Posted By: Win
Originally Posted By: moribundman
Originally Posted By: Win
Volkswagon


Must be a Chinese knock-off.


That's how we spells it down heah!


That's why you get the knock-offs!

 

[Win]

Originally Posted By: Gary Allan

Is there any chance of grouping The League of Distinguished Gentlemen in to something like the UAW? They've cleaned our clocks pretty thoroughly and are far more "dead weight" imo. Not that they have the vast numbers, but they surely, collectively, leave their mark on all of us...not just the auto industry.


Sure, as far as the auto industry goes, I'm not all that sure the present holders of the office of distinguished gentlemen are all that culpable compared to their predecessors. Sometimes a person is just in the wrong place at the wrong moment in time, but have at them if you want.

what do you want to do to them? Make them wear a scarlet A?

Cane them?

 

[Win]

Originally Posted By: moribundman
Originally Posted By: Win
Originally Posted By: moribundman
Originally Posted By: Win
Volkswagon


Must be a Chinese knock-off.


That's how we spells it down heah!


That's why you get the knock-offs!

That explains all the parts that fell off it!

 

[moribundman]

It's as good a theory as any!

 

[Gary Allan]

Quote:
what do you want to do to them? Make them wear a scarlet A?

Cane them?


Wall St. wide? If that's all that I could get. I rather an eternal future in a lower middle income neighborhood in a town with a poor tax base and no job of merit ..for the rest of their lives. If they're eligible for retirement, the extended family can take their place. Naturally the liquidation of all assets would be in order.

Sorta like sending them to the rice paddies to rethink their anti-social ways.

 

[Cutehumor]

I keep hearing that a reason to do the bailout is to avoid GM failure. Which would cause the Toyota and Hondas to go up in price, if that was true, why does Toyota not want GM to fail? They could just sit back and cash in.

 

[OVERKILL]

They want to look like "good guys"?? I dunno.

 

[jsharp]

Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
The big 3 have consistently been 5 years behind the market for the past decade. Probably because no one could get in touch with the CEO and the 50 mini mes below the CEO because they were too busy golfing.


I won't argue your last point and I'm no fan of Detroit for a lot of reasons. I've made that pretty clear on this board. Maybe it's because I've worked in manufacturing my whole life, but I do have some sympathy for both the development and marketing people at those companies.

No one, with the possible exception of the "commodities investors" that drove it, could have predicted how high oil prices would rise so quickly. Even many of the speculators, oops, "investors" got caught out when it ran up so fast then collapsed, helping to take the world economy with it. If not for the other economic issues we're seeing right now oil might still be $150+ per barrel.

Detroit was in a precarious situation as far as product was concerned. Not having unlimited resources they spent most of them protecting the profitable market they had from the guys across town. Not GM or Ford or Chrysler could wake up one morning and decide to let trucks and large vehicle development languish while they spent their money on improvements in their smaller car lines.

They'd have been gone long before now had they tried and the guys that were left would have been laughing at their stupidity.

Meanwhile, Toyota coming from the other end has spent huge sums of money to make even a small dent in the truck and large SUV market. That market has collapsed for them too but they can always fall back on their smaller vehicles. That has certainly helped them vs. the situation the Big 3 faced.

Of course today, and this comment isn't pointed at you so much as some of the others, it's easy to see how "had Detroit just made small cars!" they'd all be in a better position. That's true but only in hindsight. Had my hindsight been better I too could have made a fortune from oil futures in the last year.

Anyway, I know how hard is is to turn even a small private manufacturing company a new direction and stay in business while you make it happen. It's just that much harder with a large and public company with a union workforce, legacy issues, a big dealer network, and wall street + your stockholders breathing down your neck.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled Big 3 bashing...

 

[jsharp]

Originally Posted By: Gary Allan
Quote:
what do you want to do to them? Make them wear a scarlet A?

Cane them?


Wall St. wide? If that's all that I could get. I rather an eternal future in a lower middle income neighborhood in a town with a poor tax base and no job of merit ..for the rest of their lives. If they're eligible for retirement, the extended family can take their place. Naturally the liquidation of all assets would be in order.

Sorta like sending them to the rice paddies to rethink their anti-social ways.


How about we make them live in Detroit. As in inner city Detroit?

 

[Gary Allan]

That would work. Help them realize when they produce PR sound bites like "building a better tomorrow" ..they had better mean it.

 

[Cutehumor]

I was watching video clips on CNN of the big 3 CEO's in front of congress asking for bailout money. Congress was asking them what they will do with the 25 billion bailout money. The big 3 CEOs had a bamboozled look on their face. They couldn't say exactly what the money was going to be used for or what is their plan for making their auto companies profitable. Very troubling if that is your leadership...I guess they assumed, they could fly to D.C, ask for money, and they would get the money no questions asked. Since Congress asked for a plan, they said they would come back with one. Expect one in a few weeks

 

[jmac]

Originally Posted By: Gary Allan

How do you propose to dispose of these losers and parasites and their entitlement mentality now that they've clearly demonstrated no more fiscal restraint than a high school dropout with his first credit card and a blingmobile??


Valentine's Day is not too far off, how about a party for all the top perps in say a garage on the S. side of Chicago?

 

[addyguy]

Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
I was watching video clips on CNN of the big 3 CEO's in front of congress asking for bailout money. Congress was asking them what they will do with the 25 billion bailout money. The big 3 CEOs had a bamboozled look on their face. They couldn't say exactly what the money was going to be used for or what is their plan for making their auto companies profitable. Very troubling if that is your leadership...I guess they assumed, they could fly to D.C, ask for money, and they would get the money no questions asked. Since Congress asked for a plan, they said they would come back with one. Expect one in a few weeks

I love it...'give us lots of money'...'what are we going to do with it - well, we're going to use it to keep going!'...'change? what do you mean, there's no need to change anything! Everything will just turn around soon!'

'la,la, la-la-la-la, laaa, la-la-la-la...... (hum 'smurfs' theme song here...)

 

[Gary Allan]

I'd really not mind that sorta thing happening (in a dark comedy tongue in cheek way) ..but that would just mean higher compensation packages in the future for the risk factor and the higher costs of even more substantial gated communities. Many of them make Michael Milken look like a mere j-walker.

 

[jmac]

There's always a gotcha.

 

[Steve S]

Originally Posted By: ARB1977
Becasue were stupid. It is the tax payers money but its the government whos allowing this [censored] to happen.
The people you vote into office represent their largest contributers .Not the people who vote them in. The big contributers are being paid back for their political contributions with the bailouts. The government is supporting poor busisness practices. The people who are the cause of these problems we are having are not the ones who will be suffering the consequenses on their actions.

 

[Steve S]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Quote:

So why are we doing a bailout anyway??


3 million jobs....

Many suppliers will tank leaving other mfg's with no parts....

You can't have 1 huge company disappear and not have a massive ripple effect.
People are not buying new cars .The people are all bought out the [censored] has come to an end for a while. Do you suggest these people make cars when they are not being sold?

 

[Steve S]

Gary,Gary,Gary,,,