GM asks for an ADDITIONAL $16.6 Bill/Chrysler wants $5 Bill.

[LemonH2O]

Originally Posted by Ruus

The only way they can survive is a complete restructure and overhaul.

They need to create cheaper greener cars, electric or hybrid and there union rules are killing them.

If one of the 3 came out with a purely electric car i'd probably be one of the first to buy it and live to regret it in the future, but at least it doesnt use gas.

+1 for the most part. However, the news said something about with the gas prices lower now, by the time they catch up with these hybrids, electrical, consumers may not be as interested to spend that kind of money to save a bit on gas.

Hybrid technology is still so expensive and hard to mass produce, they wouldn't be able to keep the cost of the cars within reason for consumers to purchase with the whole econ going to shits.

Ford may still make it for awhile, I'm pretty sure they didn't actually get a bailout previously? (may be mistaken?) Ford has improved a great deal in terms of quality inside out. Just look around, the Escape is everywhere, the F-150's are still pretty well one of the best choices for people who NEED trucks.

[Derek128]

this come in my mind

[youtube]OYfvDCSWu3s[/youtube]

[Marco911]

They should let Chrysler go bust. Those private equity sharks are doing nothing to invest in the company. They have no future product road map to speak off.

[thumper]

Originally Posted by PrincessPeiPei

Ford may still make it for awhile, I'm pretty sure they didn't actually get a bailout previously? (may be mistaken?) Ford has improved a great deal in terms of quality inside out. Just look around, the Escape is everywhere, the F-150's are still pretty well one of the best choices for people who NEED trucks.

i have to agreee. of all of them, ford actually seems to have a plan. they sold off a lot of stuff from their PAG, and have been saying before the fallout that they were planning to bring key models from their european lines. all chrysler/cerebus has to say is some vague union with FIAT, that's it.

[Ruus]

I don't understand the long term corporate plans of automakers. They are in the business of selling cars which are powered by gasoline, gasoline might be cheaper now b/c the economy is in the crapper but guaranteed it will go back up in price mainly b/c its a finite commodity and comes down to supply and demand.

Gas won't last forever and will probably be gone within 50 years so they deserve to go bankrupt for being idiots and not seeing it coming, and if they have then they are doing it all for profit and screwed themselves up the azz . For those of you who haven't seen the movie "who killed the electric car" GM came out with an electric car back in 1996 which was super popular by all the consumers who leased them for the short period of time they were on the road until GM said that nobody liked them (lies) and it wasn't profitable enough (more lies) so they confiscated them all and crushed them. wiki/General_Motors_EV1

Things need to change in the auto industry and having 1 or 2 less car companies is probably a good thing, except for those losing there jobs. I would say electric cars are the wave of the future but corporate $$$$$ gets in the way. If guys can turn MR2s and other cars in there garages into electric cars on there own for under $10,000 simply using an electric motor and a ton of old used batteries why can't car companies especially if GM did it 13 years ago. There is now way better technology and a million times the demand.

[Mugen EvOlutioN]

i think their trucks line up are still not selling too shabby considering all my contractors uses it

[LemonH2O]

Originally Posted by Ruus

Gas won't last forever and will probably be gone within 50 years so they deserve to go bankrupt for being idiots and not seeing it coming, and if they have then they are doing it all for profit and screwed themselves up the azz.

Total conspiracy, oil will not run out in our lifetime, or even our kids lifetime. There's so much oil in the Saudi oil reserves they had to slow extraction/production to try to stop the prices from dropping worldwide. When the prices went up ridiculously, it was due to economic speculation. It was not because supply was lower than demand.

[yangwenli]

[Ruus]

Originally Posted by PrincessPeiPei

Total conspiracy, oil will not run out in our lifetime, or even our kids lifetime. There's so much oil in the Saudi oil reserves they had to slow extraction/production to try to stop the prices from dropping worldwide. When the prices went up ridiculously, it was due to economic speculation. It was not because supply was lower than demand.

People could say what your saying is total conspiracy as well, tis true the U.S. and other countries have huge reserves but how do you really know how much oil is still hidden in the ground? did someone crawl down there and check with a flashlight?

The underlying point is that car companies need to move away from combustion engines and evolve like every other type of business in the world has done. We're using early 1900's technology to power our cars and nothing much has changed in the last 100 years. Except we now have navigation systems and gas cars which are no more efficient then they were 50 years ago. They either have some dumb scientist or need to hire new ones