The auto industry is a lot different from the days when Charlie Wilson could boast, "What's good for General Motors is good for the country." Toyota is now the world's #1 car manufacturer. There has been talk of GM declaring bankruptcy. I can't remember when I last bought a car made by a U.S. company.
Now there is talk of GM buying Chrysler. Cerberus, the owner of Chrysler, feels that GMAC, GM's financing arm, is a better bet and wants to own all of it (Cerberus now owns 51% of GMAC). GM, of course, is looking for capital and Chrysler has $5 billion in cash plus there are all the other possibilities of cost-cutting (heard that before) so that GM may last another few years.
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So then there'll be one huge conglomerate churning out crap cars, rather than two slightly smaller ones. The management of both companies want firing. For years they've produced shoddy goods for an uncomplaining US market, while producing far superior vehicles overseas for the more discerning customers. In other words, in Europe they had to compete with VW, Renault, Citroen, BMW, plus the Japanese. Here they hardly had to compete at all, until Honda and Toyota appeared on the horizon. Then, they settled for building gargantuan trucks. Mickey Mouse could see the oil crisis looming, but not Chrysler or GM managements. Now they're weeping into their bourbon. If it wasn't for the thousands who'll end up jobless, I'd be happy to watch them sink.
PS: here's what Britain's top motoring guru thinks of (some) US cars:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/jeremy_clarkson/article4873574.ece
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