jujuman13

This little matter of albeit the somewhat paltry sum of $ 25 BILLION seems to have slipped the minds of most Americans.
It is NOT the business of Taxpayers to subsidize the manufacture of any mass produced article and most certainly not automobiles.
So, one may well ask why is the US Government doing just this.
Keeping ahead of Technology is something that most Company's do as a matter of course, because if they fail then usually their business fails and they go bust, this is essentially what is happening in the US, Ford, GM, Chrysler are all just about Bankrupt, their products are old fashioned, they have not kept up with Technology.
They deserve to fail, but this would put thousands out of work, not a good thing at any time, not a good thing in an election year.
So they get subsidies.
This is yet more Taxpayer Money going to Idiots who should have seen this problem coming.
Good God, almost every other Vehicle manufacturer throughout the World saw what would happen.
Why does the US insist on placing fools in charge of such large companies.

P/N

I've been saying for the past 3 years that the US automakers will be no more in the next 10-15 years. People look at me like I'm nuts, but they are starting to see my side of things. The world has surpassed us in quality, price and design. Combine that with the UAW and management at the "Big 3" digging their own graves for years, none of this surprises me. I completely disagree with bailing out the auto industry. Propping up the airline industry is one thing, but the US auto industry is not a necessity.

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chevydriver1123

I figured that the auto industry was next.

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PeteEU

Well companies that make crap should fold... as we call American cars over here.. plastic on wheels.

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PeteEU

donsutherland1

Jujuman13,

In my opinion, as the fate of the three Detroit automakers posed no risk of a systemic nature to the U.S. economy, the loan guarantees should not have been extended.

John1234

They pased that?

I think that is BS.
Obama intends to give the automakers billions to re-tool their plants to make natural gas and electric cars.

Would it not make sense to wait until after the election to start throwing money at gas cars?

If McCain wins, fine... give them their money for gas.
But if Obama were to win, this money would seem to be wasted.

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PeteEU

Actually it does some what.. the cascade effect. If GM went belly up, or Ford, then not only would their employees be out of a job, but so would the employees of the suppliers.

But saying that, it still does not excuse the fact that the US car makers make crap cars and did not have the foresight to make fuel efficient cars and actually lobbied against any legislation that would force them to do so.

They should have said.. sure you can have 25 billion, but then you need to replace all your top staff with non American's or American's that have a clue.

American

What cars are made in Spain?

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It's Obama's fault!

conquer

The problem is that the money won't be given with the correspondent "pre-conditions" or "preparations".

The conditions that the government should ask if for the US car companies to make "good quality cars" after receiving the money.

I saw lately that some of the MD and DC government agencies are using Toyota and Honda vehicles besides the former strictly regulated Ford and Dodge vehicles which mostly beg for repairs after you use them for a little while.

The US car manufacturing doesn't need electric cars, environment friendly cars and similar to increase their sells, Detroit just need to improve the quality of their cars and their current falling should stop.

The bad thing is that the workers in Detroit know that they are producing low quality cars, but they don't protest about it, and worst, they feel proud of what they are doing. Well, their pride is receiving back what it deserves, each day more people stop buying american made cars in order to buy foreing cars.

Currently I won't buy american made cars even if they use faucet water as fuel, because I know that the car will be in the shop right after a few months of use, and such is a pain in the ass. I prefer to buy a foreing car which run at 18 miles per gallon but that will take me whatever I want for tens of thousands of miles and that its performance will guarantee me to forget about mechanic repairs for years.

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Conquer.

American

When did you last own an American car and what was it?