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The Autos and Mentality That Ruined Detroit

I forgot to mention - great article Rick.

The Autos and Mentality That Ruined Detroit

I am pretty sure, that if gas was 1,5 dollars again, GM would build a tank, because the US consumer would really love a "big dog" safe car.

While the rest of the world was thinking about the consumer (how much would a car buyer save on gas), GM thought about how much money it can extort from the consumer (who wanted to drive a panzertank on a road). The theory at GM was: why should we make a fuel efficient car (that needs some f...ing engineering, cost restructuring, price competitiveness), when we can just built a monster truck and put a price of... 200.000 $ on it?

And so they did it. Well, now that f...king engineering must be done by the government, with a bail out. GM, Ford, Chrysler. I would personally bail out Ford, because this car company at least tried to compete in world markets, while GM... did absolutely nothing.

General Motors: Beginning the Endgame?

When I look at American cars from a european perspective, man, it looks like they are some 10 years behind. No style, large, awkward and fuel consuming.

Where is the German perfection of a BMW or Audi, or the classy style of a small, womanish FIAT Panda, or Stilo...

GM had a great electric car in the 80's. Look at the documentary "Who killed the electric car". It was perfect until someone had the brilliant idea to take it away from the consumers. And now the irony is... that the electric car is killing GM. The Toyota Prius and other hybrids are biting into the market share and the SUV's are just getting killed.

Maybe the Volt is the answer. Maybe. I am no mechanic or engineer, but GM looks like a company who needs to rethink WHY SHOULD THEY PRODUCE CARS in the first place.

Two Fight Back - Cramer's Mad Money (9/11/08)

You can go to the Morningstar sites and watch an interview with Miller and you'll see what his position was on Fannie and Freddie. They made billions in the 80's out of them, so he thought the history would repeat itself... and it didn't.