Built like a Mercedes 3636

interesting thread. as i understand it, one of the big cost advantages that the japanese have is simply that their plants are newer and more modern. it costs a whole lot less to come in and build new efficient factories than to rebuild an old system like the "big three" had. we really didn't do anything to help promote new factories by our auto industry either. we sort of sat around watching, playing the violin while this fire burned. in fact, the pressure was there from the politicians to retool the factories (which costs a lot and in the end still creates an inefficient buttembly line) because the politicians wanted their public to see them fighting to keep their same jobs at the same factories. even then, the "big three" have changed their buttembly and quality. my dodge truck has been every bit as reliable as the two japanese cars and one old german car that i have. i think the problem lies in imagination. honda built a car that looked good and people wanted to buy. ford, gm and dc built small cars that looked cheap. seems to me that the ford escape is one of the first units to come along that can catch the imagination of the public, and is a small somewhat fuel efficient car. i don't think the problem has been the work force but rather the management. i mean look at what the gm response was. the japanese hit the suv market with great little reliable cars that got pretty decent mileage for their days. gm responded with the blazer! it had a six in it that pretty much self destructed at 60,000 miles, got about 13 miles per gallon and looked like a cardboard box on four tires. what a great response. in the 20 years since then, what has gm designed to compete with the pilot, cr-v, forester, four runner? i mean come on, they have certainly had enough time to come up with something. they haven't. who in the world is running that place? or better yet, is anyone running that place? but, and tbone makes this point, the cost cutting falls on the worker and not on the management. maybe that is just the way that it is, but it doesn't seem fair. the workers have been out there building cars, it is the leaders, the managers and our politicians that have screwed this up. but that seems to be the norm. i really think that other nations have been able to take advantage of a period when our political leaders have just sucked. it isn't just the auto industry that has suffered. it is just an example of poor planning and poor leadership. then, the fix seems to be to take away the pay and benefits that the workers have. and we buy into that philosophy. look at this thread. we all see it happening and here we are talking about it. what are our politicians doing about it? playing partisan politics to keep thier jobs. other than that, they are doing pretty much nothing, other than making sure that thier pay and benefits are not reduced. this isn't a repub v. demo rant either, they both have been very lacking. that, i believe, is where not only the blame lies but also the answer.