jazzme

How Auto Bailout Is Punishing Ford

For a gut check on the roughly 80-100 BILLION $ that the US taxpayer/gov't virtually gave to GM and Chrysler the question is.
What would we have said if Japan or Korea had funded Toyota and Nissan or Hyundai and Kia who compete with us in the auto markets?
Another question is if Ford earned a little less that 1 billion in this quarter and hypothetically GM finds a way to follow suit (very unlikely) how long will it take for GM to repay the 60 or so billion $ to the US taxpayers? It ain't gonna happen folks!
Another question is if Chrysler is such a good and viable company how much cash has Fiat or the Italian Gov't invested?
I spent 37 years in the auto industry at the retail level and even a trench soldier can see this debacle.

Automakers: Bailout Arguments, Pro and Con

After 37 years of retailing both imported and domestics cars here's the perspective put simply.

If the domestics build say a really crummy ugly color that won't sell...they keep it for a year and tell the retailers (dealers and salespeople) that they don't try hard enough.
If the Japanese do the same...a running production change usually is made to either drop the color or change it within 6 months. They listen to the people on the retali fromt lines and learn from them.
Who deserves to survive? Who is less liklly to repeat the same mistakes?