Due to the fact they aren’t following Europe’s trend and making smaller more fuel efficient cars, or cars of alternative fuels.
Originally posted 2009-09-18 14:06:06.
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How long do you think it will be until GM and Ford bankrupt themselves?
Due to the fact they aren’t following Europe’s trend and making smaller more fuel efficient cars, or cars of alternative fuels.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, they are.
Just not as quickly.
The Chevy Tahoe gets 25 mpg. That’s pretty good for a boat that size.
The “big 5″ have always been in the business of selling iron.
Iron ore is mined in Canada and the US. Japan has to import iron so they have always used raw materials sparingly.
Your observation that GM and Ford are resisting the move to economical cars is correct. They are having a hard time figuring out a way to continue to sell iron, and lots of it, to a customer base faced with $4.00 gasoline.
Plus they have to meet a myriad of government regulations and socialistic labor unions.
The fact they survived this long after Jimmy Carter established the ever-increasing big-government trend is astonishing.
I’d like to be able to “buy American”, but American cars any smaller than their luxury cars are brutal on guys my size. Plus they’re desiged to punish you for not buying their larger car. There’s no place to put your right arm, the sun visor is a joke, the seats are way too close together, they buzz at you in a very annoying tone if you don’t do things just like they think you should and you’re surrounded by plastic.
And body styling appears to be a thing of the past. There’s no such thing as a car with appealing lines anymore. They’re all either so bland you feel like you’re driving your refrigerator, or the styling is so embarassing you’re afraid you’ll scare children and small animals.
For the first time in decades, cars from the pacific rim are actually more visually appealing than the American offerings.
My solution is to drive American cars made 50 years ago, but that won’t hold for long. My wife is getting upset that neither of our two daily drivers is in 100% working order. One needs an engine and the other developed electrical gremlins.
I’m hoping I can hold out long enough to get a compressed air car. I refuse to buy an electric hybrid.
1. They have attempted to lure US buyers into small cars for years. The Escort for example made little or no profit for Ford when they were sold. But Ford continued to offer them because each one sold helped to boost fleet averages. The Escort was a European design so don’t give me trash about the car. Europe found them very reliable.
2. I don’t know what the latest figures are, but Ford did post a profit in the resent past, so I am not so sure they are headed out. If GM goes broke, what a blessing that would be.
Why is it that everyone wants to blame the US car makers? They are only responding to market trends. Look at all the buyers who are ready to line up to buy the new Camero!
As far as European cars, these are the ones that give us a Bugatti that goes 210 mph, and it is not very good on gas doing so.
The bottom line is your research is faulty and your conclusion is based on prejudice.
not soon enough. Any company that willfully and consistently produces a substandard product in its chase for the dollar deserves the reputation it gets.
GM sells many small fuel efficient cars in europe. They are retooling them to sell here. Ford and GM are too big and important to our economy to fail, if needed our government will bail them out.
actually they are moving toward smaller vehicles. Just check the lineup out. Also while they still make the larger trucks and SUVs, they have cut production of them drastically.
The odd, funny thing is is that Toyota and the others are starting to make bigger vehicles now. Have you seen the new full size toyota truck? That thing is a monster-i dont know why anyone would want something that big.
They won’t, the US governments will bail them out. Too many people are at stake…
I think Ford will go bankrupt first and GM won’t
We’ll know for sure when they steal their employees pention like the airline did, trying to save the company.
He he
Hugs
Not in the next 12 years.
AutoOnInfo.net summarizes GM’s situtation thusly, “While GM may have chosen staggering losses over staggering sales declines, it likely will not run out of money in the next 8 to 12 years. GM has $21 billion (per GM) in cash and is hoping for another $25 billion, or so, from the government in this political year, when the state of Michigan is in play in the U.S. presidential contest. This will give it $46 billion, and should the U.S. pension guarantee fund extract $8 billion of it, GM will still have $38 billion left. At its present rate of plant closures and restructuring and operating losses, it should be able to burn through most of the balance in 4 years, in time for another government bailout in what will likely be another close presidential race. While the government may be less generous 4 years hence than now, GM should still be able to extract another $15 billion, which should be enough to do business for another 4 years, when account is taken that the needs of a downsized General Motors Corporation should be less.”
The government may well bailout GM from its financial problems, but AutoOnInfo.net attributes GM’s financial mess to decades of manufacturing very poor quality products, not to the little bump in hybrid and small car sales of the past year or two.
BennyB, you have an impressive collection of solved math problems. Are you a math genius?
I took a look at more of your answers. You are certainly a numbers fellow. Are you a mathematician or statistician?