Danfrphils

Should We Really Bail Out the Big Three Automakers with $73.20 Per Hour Labor?

Toyotas and Hondas being better quality than the Big 3 cars is NOT a myth. It's a fact still. It's proven out in all quality studies. Go to Jdpower.com and look at initial quality as well as used car quality ratings.

I agree that American cars have closed the gap some, but only because they were so poor a decade or so ago. But people flock to foreign brands for more than just quality & reliability. Japanese and Germans just make more desirable cars.

A foundation of free market economics is that uncompetitive companies should perish. So let them. Truth is, Ford & GM will survive in a bankruptcy although Chrysler is probably done. But those two will emerge with a leaner, more competitive cost structure as a result.

But UAW will get bloodied, which is why they are pouring millions into Pelosi, Schumer, and Frank's pockets to get a large additional gift (over the $25 billion already received) from the taxpayers.

NO MORE BAILOUTS!

On Nov 13 06:20 PM ted from nj wrote:

> Thank you Turi for your comments on the current build quality of
> US autos. (If anyone missed it go back and read it now). I've been
> amazed at the number of people posting here who voice the (uninformed)
> opinion that Detroit automakers are designing and producing crappy
> cars. The truth is they are at least as reliable and as high a quality,
> and in many cases superior to any foreign made vehicle sold in this
> country. Many years ago (in the early 70's), when the Japanese auto
> industry was just starting to expand it's exports to this country,
> Toyota and Honda took extra care to insure that their export vehicles
> had no detail defects or Q.A. issues by rigorous final off-line inspections
> for form & fit prior to shipment. This was not done for cars
> sold in their domestic market BTW, and Japans' automakers also received
> government subsidies for every vehicle they exported. They also paid
> their U.S. dealerships an additional fee to prep. all vehicles carefully
> prior to sales and encouraged their sales force to emphasize the
> need for frequent routine maintenance. U.S. automakers at the time,
> under pressure from high wage and benefit demands from the UAW, were
> much more concerned with productivity and cost reduction to remain
> competitive than quality, relying mostly on their dealerships to
> find and fix the detail defects that got by their on-line Q.A. inspections.
> Their final inspection amounted to no more than starting and driving
> the vehicle off the line. If it rolled it shipped. Since most customers
> balked at paying "dealer prep." fees, dealerships made very little
> effort to find or fix any but the most obvious defects in the cars
> they were selling (prepping a car usually consisted of just running
> it through a car wash). This lead to a lot of unhappy customers and
> the myth that Japanese manufactured cars were superior in reliability
> and quality to U.S. made cars. It appears that this myth persists
> to this day. The fact is, even back then the "superior quality" of
> Japanese cars was largely cosmetic. Given the same level of maintenance
> most US manufactured vehicles were equal or better than Japanese
> cars in reliability and frequency of repair. Unfortunately, first
> impressions stick and when the service engine soon light comes on
> as you drive off the dealer lot, or the headliner starts to sag the
> next day, or the hubcap falls off the on your first left turn, you
> tend to remember those things rather than the thousands of trouble
> free miles you've driven.
>
> The early 70's, as some may remember, was also the time of the oil
> embargo when the demand for smaller, more fuel efficient cars was
> high and Detroit was caught without a car that competed with the
> VWs, Civics or Corollas. Ford rushed the Pinto and GM the Vega to
> market and they were truthfully not as polished or as reliable for
> the first couple of model years as their foreign competition. Consumers'
> bad experiences with these cars also contributed to the general perception
> that Detroit makes inferior cars in many peoples minds.