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Agreed. I remember Chrysler putting out K-cars and Iococca saying that they
were a good product. Going back further, AMC had a major strike in 1970 that
cost therm 36,000 cars. Seems UAW wanted more money. Think about it for a
minute. If each of those lost calender year cars from production, all 36,000 of
them, were, say, a $4000 'low end' Ambassador, think of how much money that
would have been. AMC had just bought Jeep from Willys for $40 million dollars, a
large sum in 1970 bucks so even if each of the 36,000 cars had been a base
$1998.00 Gremlin, still sizable chunk of change.
Years ago (warning, logn dranw out eddie story here, but sort of readers
digest condensed version) back in the 1970s I worked for Levi's Strauss down in
Corpus Christi. There was about 800-1000 employees in this big plant. I made
something like $4 a hour, not bad for low end pay, but managers made more,
something like $8 a hour. Plus lots of benefits us low enders didn't get. Seems
like they always wanted more and more, and one time they threatened to strike
and shut down the plant (we made all types of jeans there) and Levi's simply had
enough and decided to build their plant 200 miles south, on the Mexican side of
border. So everyone lost their jobs, myself included, and the managers at the
'new' plant were not making no $8 a hour, they were making $8 every
3-4 days (maybe $30-$40 week USD) and were happy to have the job. Sort of like
being pushed too far with demands.
I was surprised to see that GM automakers make average of $76 a hour. Not
saying they are not worth it, I am sure they are. However, what is to keep GM
from doing like Levi's did and simply shutting down and moving
operations to a different country where wages are cheap? China? Mexico? India
making Tata's?
Sure have been tons of other companies shiop jobs off overseas in
recent memory.
Back to the cars, I personally don't think the feds should bail out GM,
Ford or Chrysler. To me at least, freedom means freedom to succeed, or freedom
to fail. I can't think of any vehicle from GM I would just 'have to have'
most are uninspiring little boxes. I did rent a Malibu last summer and was
impressed with the gas mileage and interior however. So would consider a Malibu
or Impala! Maybe.
For too many years, GM and Ford have had the Iococca approach to cars. This
is what we built you must buy it even though it is a piece of monkey dung that
will not ever see 70K to 100K miles and your new best friend will be a mechanic.
I don't care for imports and would never own one (maybe a Jaguar perhaps) but
for too long, Detroit simply shoved out shit expecting the American (and other
markets) to buy whatever they shove onto the plate, not realizing that the plate
was ever expanding (or at least the appetizer was!) figuring 'if they built
it, you have no choice but to buy it'.
What a mentality. Sure need to bring back American Motors. It's
amazing how many of their cars, some 20 years after they have been gone from
American market in getting sucked up by Mopar, how many AMC's are STILL on the
road 20 years later. Sort of a testimonial as to how well those were built. Too
bad Mopar didn't learn a lesson (Ford and GM too) from AMC on how to build a
long lasting car, reasonable, on a shoestring budget from clay development
to actual production to showroom. Maybe some of that $750 billion (what
a staggering amount) that each of us and our grandchildren will pay
for should go back to resurrecting American Motors!
And like a stray dog you feed one time, who is to say that the $25 billion
"float" GM and other automakers want, like feeding a stray dog, it will
come back. Again. You can be sure of that.
As I look at these huge full size page ads from the automakers in the
Houston Chronicle over and over (gee, there is massive waste of money on FULL
PAGE ADS) pleading to try to get public on their side, warning of dire
concenquences if just one of them fail, 3 million jobs lost, suppliers, ect, I
just scratch my head. I seriously don't think anything would change if they did
get that sum.
Hopefully none of you are facing pink slips from all that mess. I say let
them fail. Then restructure. Tear up all those contracts, get innoviative with
designs, make cars that last, find out what people really want, don't EVER paint
another damned car SILVER, sick of looking at silver cars, and quit wasting
resources like new Challenger. More flex fuel stuff, as one day gas prices go
back up, electric cars, hydrogen, something, anything. That is, if any of these
automakers survive. Watch for more of what happened today when Ford unloaded
their shares of Mazda after already unloading Land Rover, Aston Martin and
Jaguar
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