Originally Posted by Bewolf
Kay, folks, that's a topic I've been following quite a bit lately. I know the US car giants GM, Ford and Chrysler are overblown monsters, unprofitable, with cars not fitting into a world of dwindling oil reserves and climate change. Oddly enough in a country like the US there are unions that powerful making the life of these automobile makers pure hell. The cars also lack cutting edge technology by a fair shot, especially in engine development, though that appears to change atm. Too little, too late, though.
Nevertheless, on a personal level, I've always been quite fascinated by US cars. Big, powerful, raw. And as stupid the new muscle cars are from every POV common sense provides...darn, they are hot! I love these brutes with a passion. Were ressource conditions not what they are, I'd buy a new Challenger in a heartbeat! The chemics just fit.
GM declared without government help they won't survive this winter. But even with this help the problems probably are too big to save them. Pensions, a lacking model palette and lacking high techology these cars are simply 10 years behind their time.
When I was in the US last time two years ago, I got myself a Cadillac CTS to drive around. Great car on first glance, good acceleration ad lacking these übersoft suspensions typical of older cars I really grew to hate, but when I dropped a CD during unpacking, got down to get it from under the drivers seat...there were cables whereever you looked. It made the impression of beeing only half finsihed, with cables just hanging around freely. Like a childrens room where al the playtools are just shoved under the bed.
Selling by GM broke by 45 percent just this year. They lack any basis of beeing competetive in todays world. 100.000 to 200.000 would have to be fired by GM alone just to get back a healthy company size=profit relationship, something US unions are obviously unable to accept, not to talk about all the hard working ppl, some of them beeing in the company for the second or third generation.
What is to be done about this? I personally do not want to see the american car industry go down. They perfected the manufactoring of a german invention, produced countless classics and still have a reputation. Maybe I am just nostalgic, I already considered the downfall of the british car industry a great loss, but maybe dinosaurs are just bound to go extinct someday.
What is your opinion on that? What is a realistic way to solve this problem. And can it be helped at all? Are there any new upstart car companies giving some hope on the horizone?
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