No Happy Ending for U.S. Auto Industry

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | April 9, 2006 | Jack Markowitz

[jospehm20]

Southwest pilots are in the pilot's union, the flight attendants are also unionized as are the mechanics. Southwest is unionized all the way down to ramp agents who make $8.75 an hour. That seems pretty unionized to me. Here is a link to their career page that states it is a union position and ramp agents have to pay union dues:
http://www.southwest.com/careers/ramp.html
The Buy French Now website at: http://www.buyfrenchnow.com/buy.html
lists Nissan as being majority owned by Renault.

[OKIEDOC]

Well I usually agree with SamAdams76 on many of his posts.

However, I do not fully agree on this particular thread about American companies.

I for one want to see a strong American auto industry owned by Americans for America.

Right now I am considering changing one of my vehicles.

Last year I bought a 2005 Chevrolet Trailblazer and have really been impressed with how solidly built and comfortable the automobile is to drive.

This year I am thinking about trading my 2003 foreign built auto for one of the new Ford Fusions.

My friend who lives in the condos down the street just traded his Toyota for one and is ecstatic with the car.

He says that Ford has finally built a car to compete with the big three foreign auto makers.

After church today I will drive over to the Ford dealership and take a test drive.

If anyone knows any thing about this car I am open to comments, good and bad.

[TheOracleAtLilac]

The enthusiast mags rave about the Fusion

[Porterville]

The death of the largest union for a couple of companies having to restructure themselves.... I'll take it.

[street_lawyer]

So if GM moves it manufacturing facilities to Mexico or China all will be well with the company?

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

We are witnessing just one more economic disaster thanks to collectivism and its enablers in corporate America.

[Felis_irritable]

"I do not remember ever sitting on the side of the road waiting for AAA in any of my American cars."

Good for you. I have *2* local tow companies plus AAA programmed into my cell due to my shoddy Fords. Bought a Tundra 3 years ago and haven't had anything but scheduled maintenance since.

[Jorge]

An AMC Pacer, an Oldsmobile '88, a Ford Escort and a Ford Tempo. All four of them were absolute nightmares. I can't count all the times I had to call AAA to have myself towed and I constantly was getting repairs to the tune of hundreds of dollars per visit.

I owned a Ford Escort and was amazed that anyone could build such an inexpensive, reliable, trouble-free car. It was a great car.

I now own a 99 Tracer (same as an Escort, by Merc)and am having just as good luck with this car.

These cars are rated at the top of their class by comsumer reports when it comes to customer satisfaction.

Looks like you got a few lemons!

[OKIEDOC]

What dealership in San Diego county has the best reputation dealing for autos?

I understand the Fusion gets 34 MPG which suits me just fine since I paid $3.39 for gas last night.

[bert]

.....surely you can't think that 13% of the workforce is responsible for the wholesale plant closures ......

The numbr you cite is fallacious. It includes current dues paynig members. You forgot about the humongous group of former union members and retired union members and their extended families. Unionism is a contagious disease with no cure. It is caught by mothers and daughters and sisters who infect their nonunion families.

Southwest Virginia has only a few nonunion miners left, but the UAW mentality infects the region like a plague.

[BikerGold]

"IMHO, GM and Ford are deliberatelty letting their U.S. product lines go down the toilet in order to kill the union parasites and are investing in the Japanese companies where they don't have to be exploited by the greedy union types."

No opinion, just commonsense. Don't forget Korea and China [India].

[TheOracleAtLilac]

IIRC, Drew Ford in La Mesa is the volume leader

Check the Sun U.T. for the loss leaders (to shop next FRI before the ads hit)

[jospehm20]

I personally like American cars and trucks and have had very good luck with them. I buy them because I think they look good and I am happy with the use I get out of them. I gave my daughter my 1996 Intrepid ES a few years ago after I put 150K miles on it, she now has over 250K miles on and it still looks and runs well. I put 130K problem free miles on my 2000 Concorde before I traded it in on a new truck in 2003. I bought both of my sons Dodge Rams for their first cars about three years ago and have not had any problems with either one. My wife bought a new Tahoe last year and absolutely loves the thing. She is in real estate and spends a lot of time in her vehicle, she will not put up with one that doesn't work. I am anticipating buying a new Silverado once I leave Iraq. I hope that is still possible next year.

[SMM48]

They do have lots of glitzy fundraisers for liberal Democrats though.

WHO? WHERE? WHEN?

[jospehm20]

I can't speak from experience on Fords. I have never owned one. I have owned a few GM and Chrysler products that worked very well for me. If I had one that drove me to program tow company numbers into my cell, I would buy something else too.

[NorthernTraveler]

Having grown up in an automotive family in the Detroit area I've watched what has happened all my life.

In the 50's and early 60's the good times were rolling and everybody was making lots of money and were happy.

The '67 riots tore that tranquility apart and started an adversarial relationship - not just in society, but also in the factories.

The gas crunches in the '70's exposed the lack of nimbleness and innovation in management and product planning.

During this period there was also an increased emphasis on short term profits without consideration for the long term consequences.

When I was getting a management degree in the mid '80s, one of the things pointed out about the auto industry was the fact that the Japanese had only 10% of the labor content in a car compared to the Americans. Regardless of how productive a workforce is, that is an insurmountable difference.

The Japanese were able to do this by highly automating their factories producing cars that were designed from the ground up to be assembled by machines. Using automated assembly also improved the build quality by reducing the variations of hand work.

The US manufacturers were unable to do this because of union constraints.... thus sealing their fates.

As somebody previously pointed out, employment in the US auto industry is at an all time high.... due to lack of automation and union contracts that do not allow the manufacturers to downsize or move their workforce.

GM has a few THOUSAND workers that they are paying not to work in Lansing Michigan alone. Why? Because the union held them up. GM closed a plant because the plant was uneconomical to operate, because the union work rules didn't allow flexibility, because they didn't allow automation, because the cars weren't selling.... because they were overpriced and crappy. So GM had to agree to keep paying them - even though their jobs had gone away - to keep the union happy.

It's somewhat the union workers fault, but much of the blame can be laid at the feet of the union leadership..... and it's once again the short term view over the long term outlook. They are once again killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

And yes, we the taxpayer, are going to get stuck with the bill. You think not? Look at what happened with the steel industry..... Government backed pension insurance picked up the tab... retirees got about 1/3 of what they were promised, former top execs still had their 'Golden Parachute' as they were long gone, the companies no longer had those hugh liabilities for pensions so they were able to regroup and go on.

New hires at GM DO NOT get the same benefits as older workers... even the union figured out that that couldn't go on forever.

Why do you think that 401k's are the benefit of choice in the US today? Because the companies liability is defined and paid at THAT moment in time... no defined benefit plans to be hanging over their heads forever. It's better for the workers too in that the money in a 401k is YOUR money that you can move around NOW, not something promised to you by somebody else at some time in the future.

[Malsua]

I would think with the financial trouble they're in, they'd need to just forgoe massages entirely.

[hinckley buzzard]

My dad rented one while skiing in Utah, it snowed the entire two weeks he was there and he never so much as spun a tire.

I had the same experience, went skiing in Utah, wanted to rent a vehicle to get up into the mountains. The local boys said "Rent a Subaru. They just do it right." That was over twenty years ago. They were right.

[OKIEDOC]

Well best of luck and stay safe.

From 1993 until 1998 I bought 4 Chevrolet pickups.

I really enjoyed driving those vehicles and felt safe in them.

I did not have a minutes trouble with those trucks.

In 2001 I needed a pickup for a short time and bought a used 1999 Silverado Super Cab.

I miss not having that truck as it was free of problems and I put a little over 180,000 miles on it and just traded it last June for the 2005 Trailblazer.

However, I would not take for the Trailblazer it is a fine vehicle.

[Mr. Blonde]

I was amazed the first time I went out there to see that every other car out there seemed to be a Subaru. Here in Oklahoma you hardly ever see one.