The problem with US car Co.?

Take your pick of one or more...

1) Fat
2) Lazy
3) Stupid, worse then dumb cause stupid can not learn from past mistakes
4) Greedy
5) Short sighted
6) Stubborn
7) Out of Touch
8) Arrorgant
9) Uninspired
10) All of the Above

What is wrong with US Car Manufacturers!

The US car manufacturers have well intentions and they really badly want to sell a competitive product. One of their largest barriers are labor unions. Labor unions have so much leverage that they force the companies shareholders to pay wages over 20 dollars an hour, pay for retirement, and pay for their health care. After all the employees get hired, and payed their wage retirement and health care there is no money left over for much quality and research and development. This is a guess. I may be ignorant when it comes to unions but this is my best guess anyway.

[edit on 3-11-2009 by wiredamerican]

Originally posted by wiredamerican

What is wrong with US Car Manufacturers!

Labor unions have so much leverage that they force the companies shareholders to pay wages over 20 dollars an hour, pay for retirement, and pay for their health care. After all the employees get hired, and payed their wage retirement and health care there is no money left over for much quality and research and development. This is a guess. I may be ignorant when it comes to unions but this is my best guess anyway.

I'd honestly suggest that you investigate labour unions, and the benefits they have brought to the workplace. As opposed to management sending the jobs overseas...

An important point too (that has been mentioned earlier in the thread) is that Americans drive MUCH more than almost any other nationality - including most of Europe and Asia. US cars are built to reflect this, but it lead to the perception in the rest of the world that American's companies couldn't build cars when, in fact, they were simply cost cutting as much as humanly possible in order to make what is, to Americans, a utilitarian/disposable product. Not a luxury item.

In the rest of the world American cars are seen as poor quality and running on archaic technology. The flip side of this is that, in America, European cars are perceived as expensive - which they are if they are intended to fulfil the same function as an American car. The fact is, they are built for different users with different priorities. It's a matter of perception. European cars are, in general (with some notable exceptions!!), undeniably 'better' than US cars, but if you tried to run 50 000 miles a year in a top of the line BMW it would ruin you! Even in Europe! We just don't drive that much.

Originally posted by Dr. N
An important point too (that has been mentioned earlier in the thread) is that Americans drive MUCH more than almost any other nationality - including most of Europe and Asia. US cars are built to reflect this, .... Even in Europe! We just don't drive that much.

This is a factor that is often ignored in the discussion...also when speaking of car size and how much fuel we use. These are big lands, and we are thinly spread out. We measure our trips in hours, not kilometers. The distance many folks commute on a daily basis would get you through 3 countries in Europe...so we are also speaking of the economies of scale.