Those looking for evidence of how utterly pathetic that the American auto industry has become need look no further than this Reuters headline: “Ford sees plug-in hybrids in 5-10 years.” A great many Prius owners have managed to convert their cars to be plugged in and charged at night, using off the shelf parts, but Ford thinks it’ll take them until 2017 to pull off the same feat? This is right up there with Chevrolet announcing the Chevy Volt, only to confess that the “then a miracle happens” step — the necessary battery — does not actually exist, and they do not intend to make any efforts to develop it. On an unrelated note, I’d like to announce that I’ve invented cold fusion. Other than the tricky bit of the cold fusion itself.
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It sounds like clear evidence (in my opinion) that American Auto makers are in bed with the oil industry.
Or maybe the unions, of which the Democratic Party is a wholly owned subsidiary, are the problem.
And, perhaps, it is a bit of both.
Really? Because I’d blame it on things like the Ford Taurus and Chrysler Sebring. All the dastardly union plots (you know, like NAFTA and CAFTA) and deep oil conspiracies can’t measure up to the damage that shitty cars can do.
That old saw about the labor unions costing the auto industry too much money is tired and completely disproven at this point by the simple fact that Japanese auto plants in the United States, both unionized and non-union, continue to do very well here.
I’m with MB on this one – it’s the cars. Shitty cars lead to shitty sales, and shitty sales hurt the bottom line.
Oh, I am sure the burden of pensions and high salaries does not help, but the bottom line is you’ve got to be competitive to survive in a capitolist society, and the big three auto makers from Detroit have not been competitive since the 1970s.
As a conspiracy theorist I want to believe that the auto companies are in bed with the oil industry, but we keep missing any real evidence. I think it may just be un-happy cirmcumstance. Motive and opportunity do not prove the crime of collusion, you must have evidence as well….
I see this as being many things all wrapped into one:
It’s my understanding (and I’m far from an expert on the matter) that American auto companies have a whole lot more in the way of pensions to pay than the Japanese-company American factories do, despite the fact that they’re both unionized. The Japanese-owned factories haven’t had a Unionized workforce for as long, so there’s less overhead there.
Shitty cars? Well, sure, but I think that has a whole lot to do with Ford putting all its eggs in the SUV basket, which basically means all their R&D for years was going in the opposite direction of where they need to be now (hybrid tech & efficiency). This also means that they were working very well on building up brands that are not associated with what the market now wants (when you think of a pick-up, you may think of Ford or Chevy, but when you think of an efficient car, you may very well think of Honda or Toyota). Lastly, it means that they ended up with a whole lot of unsold stock in SUVs and trucks that cost them a lot of money.
Finally, while I don’t know much about Honda or some of the other competitors, Toyota is one HELL of a smart company, and it’s not hard to see how Toyota might be ahead of the curve, especially coupled with the above problems for American manufacturers.