The mighty can fall too

I never liked American cars anyway... I realize I do drive a Ford, but mostly because it was expedient at the time to get it... and it's not bad, but neither is it great in the face of a similar Toyota or Nissan. If I had my way and less limited funds, I'd be driving something German. I wish I'd never driven any of those foreign cars... then I might still like mine.

Anyway, this is the chickens coming home to roost for the American Big Three... I like it when a car sweeps me off my feet, as the British built Mini Cooper did, but I'd like to at least see American companies make something that doesn't suck. The only place they do that is in the truck segement, but now with even Honda making trucks... very good trucks (if butt ugly in the case of Honda), the Americans are getting eaten for lunch. Uninspired design and lackluster construction are only part of it, though.

I believe that the UAW is actually a large factor in the decline of the American auto. They have made it impossible for Americans to compete with foreign companies by demanding benefits that are not just unreasonable, but impossible to pay on. GM has something to the tune of 31 billion (31,000,000,000,000) in unfunded retirement benefits. Delphi, the largest maker of auto parts and significant contributor to American automotive industry, has about 4.3 billion (4,300,000,000,000) in unfunded retirement benefits... That's what happens when a retirement plan of a guaranteed sum as opposed to guaranteed contribution is implemented...

Now, I don't what all else is hamstringing American auto makers, but I suppose it does not matter. Between the high cost of doing work here and the eclipsing of the native product by ones engineered elsewhere, the Big Three, once considered immovable, are sinking. I hope they learn from this, recover, and get back on their feet.
However, I, for one, will never buy another American vehicle unless there are some pretty spectacular changes... I would hesitate even to buy one built here for a foreign company.

I guess some good new for the autophiles is that recently, GM sold its 20 percent share of Fuji Heavy Industries (makers of Subaru) to Toyota... hmmmmm... I think I like that.