kramtrah

Word was out today about how bad the "Big 3" did with auto sales in November, and while yes they were horrid, across the board, every manufacturer is hating things right now. The Japanese, who once seemed immune to such things, have been hit just as hard. Prius sales declined 48%, and that's no joke. Chrysler's sales were just plain ugly, but GM is looking far worse. We'll see who makes it through, but I'm certainly glad to have contributed to one sale, a truly fine automobile.

November Car Sales

mopar2ya

Wow... not good... not good at all.

I find it to be absolutely mind-boggling and truly maddening that American consumers... in light of this nations economy... have chosen to widen the gap of purchasing foriegn autos over domestics. Looks like we as a nation are going to continue the trend to pull the rug out from under ourselves... pretty pathetic... [:@]

Will we figure this out before it is too late..?? Time will tell...

JJMPB

the big 3 need a joe biden Dad speech right about now come on champ

deranged

What's really amazing is something my wife and I noticed last summer while touring Michigan. The amount of foreign manufacturer cars on the road. Yeah I know that alot of these cars are made in the United States but driving them in Michigan.........they're cutting their own throats!

RLSH700

This would be the right time for the Big Three to do what they don't want to do, but need to do. File for bankruptcy and heal. They execs whine and complain about this option. They complain that it will hurt consumer confidence, yet they made unreliable products for years without a care or effort to what that did to consumer confidence. They complain that it will take a lot of time to get this option to work, well time you have as the economy is not going to be in functional shape for a while, besides this how many years did they have as a warning sign that they were in trouble and yet it has done nothing to inspire them to make the hard decisions. Their plans are unrealistic with the loans, they honestly think that if they just have to wait until May and things will be hunky dory, they are gravely mistaken. The problem goes deeper than the economy and the sooner they get their minds around that the better.

I frankly find that sick as well that the areas like Detroit and often employees drive the foreign competition's models, but the truth of the matter is it is the Big Three's fault for not keeping their customers by building them what they wanted. The Big Three need to learn how to compete and they need to do it without further exporting labor.

Albeeno

Just wondering - How many educated consumers out there do you think will purchase a car from a bankrupt car company? I am guessing not many...

Bankruptcy of any of the "Big 3" would send this economy into a tailspin not seen since the 1930's.

Dodge Favre ever

If one of three files for bankruptcy buy stock in NAPA, AUTO ZONE, ADVANCE AUTO, SUMMIT, SEARS. There will always be someplace to get parts. Plus all of the mechanics working at dealer sevice centers.

RLSH700

An educated consumer understands that filing for bankrupcty doesn't mean out of business. On top of this, why would a consumer have to worry anyways? Repair parts for Big three products are very plentiful by third party companies. If there is a demand, there will be a supply for the parts. There will be a sales freeze for a while out of fear, but can you ask for a better time than now when they can't get rid of the cars they have already produced.

You don't seem to understand that doing what the Big Three want the Government to do is closer to what caused the Great Depression continue as long as it did. There is no guarantee that a loan/bailout will work which means we have to pay for their mistakes AND have them file for bankruptcy later, this happened with a British car company back in the 1970s and it failed miserably. The supply of money that they are asking for will only get them to May 2009 and the problem is if they don't make the dramatic changes THEY NEED TO MAKE it will only prolong the inevitable. We've heard the plan Chrysler has and frankly it will not resolve the problem. On top of this, the problem is costs of workers at all levels and everything associated with it is simply too high. They need to take advantage of the situation right now when there aren't going to be many sales due to a slow economy and restructure themselves and by the time they get their act together, the economy will be ready.

The issue is that we need to become realistic on the fact that sometimes companies fail and we are all going to feel the pain from it. The idea that we should do anything and everything to prop them up and use a pipeline to flood water from a rapidly sinking ship into another ship, instead of fixing the hole is illogical. The solution is to eliminate the aspects of the problems that are adding to this problem. They need to eliminate a lot of the regulations that make the Big Three uncompetitive.

Another problem with doing this is it encourages more companies to do that same things that lead to these mistakes as well. I frankly am sick of seeing that we have to save people who were fools. I believe in letting nature take its course with this situation.

tommyroadrunner

Right on, RLSH.....

Bankruptcy is the ONLY intelligent option available: void labor contracts, restructuring of retiree health care and pension obligations, elimination of 40% of the Big Three dealers, complete new management teams. These steps will put the Big Three on an even playing field with Honda, Toyota, Hundai etc etc. If the Big Three cannot then compete effectively, the hell with them.

The only effective and intelligent thing Congress can do is eliminate CAFE standards, drill, refine and nuke. These idiot CAFE standards basically attempt to force all the car companies to produce underpowered tin can deathtraps, and Americans will not buy them in any significant numbers. Keeping energy costs low by increasing domestic energy production will benefit all Americans significantly in multiple numbers of ways, and, as a pleasantly heartwarming aside, trash the cash flow of Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia. What a lovely development that would be for the betterment of of mankind.........

Asking Congress to do something effective and intelligent is like asking a fish riding a bicycle........Pathetic.

As Mark Twain said: America has a native criminal class: politicians.

Unknown source: It is an indictment of lack of character, ethics and morals to aspire to be a politician.

Andre@Edge

I thought this world was based on Survival of the fittest?

Adapt or die big 3!

The problem is still the same even after we save the jobs, and bail out the auto makers…
Still cant get a new car to the consumer because no one is lending, yet they will still spend our tax dollars?
You cant finance a car, but you can be forced to purchase a failing automaker?
Many cant buy a home, but we are forced to bailout those who did?

How many of us will get a say in how our money is wasted?

Perhaps we should start where it will do some good. If the government wants to give out money, perhaps they should be giving rebates to Americans, who buy American?
We need to sell cars to save the big 3, not reward the automakers for a job poorly done.
Do you really think anyone works for 1.00 a year, and has no back door incentive to do so?