CougTek
Hairy Aussie
I've watched a TV report on the state of the big three car manufacturers in North America. Their situation is trully ugly. Two years ago, many thought Mitsubishi motors wouldn't survive, but now it looks like Ford will need nothing short of a miracle in order to avoid closing doors by this time, next year. GM isn't doing well, but at least there seems to be possibilities in their future. I see none for Ford.
According to the TV report, social benefits cost GM, Ford and probably Chrysler too, around 1300$ per sold vehicles. Those benefits only cost asiatic car makers around 300$ per sale. Ford has more than a million new unsold vehicles and they have to rent parkings to store them. Ford lost 13 billion last year and they had to put their plants, their administration buildings and even their logo at stake in order to get funding to continue their operations. Otherwise, their safes are empty.
With Ford's current vehicle lineup, it's obvious they'll post another huge deficit this year. But they have nothing more to put in warranty to get additional financing. And since Toyota's plants are mostly in Conservative states while Ford's plants are mainly in pro-Democrate states, don't count on Bush to re-route money from his beloved war against Terrorism to help Fix-Or-Repair-Daily.
Ford's toasted after 2007 IMO. Tens of thousands jobs will be lost both because of the failure of its leaders to match the efficiency of asiatic car makers and because of the voracity of the ass-grabbing union cry babies.
It's too late for Ford, but in the hypothesis that GM and Chrysler could improve the efficiency of their plants and focus more on vehicles that customers want (small, safe and fuel-efficient cars), they could get out of the pit. The US government should pressure Japan, Corea and China to open their market to US cars. The way I see it, the battle is only fought in North America because on the other side of the Pacific, foreign cars aren't welcome. Unfortunately, I believe that if the US assministration interfeers, they'll simply try to tax japaneese and corean to make them less desirable to US customers. That would (will) be stupid because it won't force the remaining big two to get their head out of their ass to improve their methods and become more competitive by themselves. It will only delay the crisis by a few years.
But no mather how good GM's and Chrysler's future cars are, they'll never be able to compete against the car makers of the rising sun if they don't stop giving unreasonable benefits to their employees. I heard that GM has two and a half retired employee to sustain (with full med insurance) for each active employee. That's insane. I mean, you have thirty years of active life to make your pot and then retire. If you're too stupid to save a few hundred thousands in thirty years of work at 25$/hour, then you deserve to spend your old days like a poor bastard. Any fat ass employee that doesn't agree with this either lives in a bubble when time stopped in the 80's or doesn't realize that it doesn't work that way in any other segment of the industry.
According to the TV report, social benefits cost GM, Ford and probably Chrysler too, around 1300$ per sold vehicles. Those benefits only cost asiatic car makers around 300$ per sale. Ford has more than a million new unsold vehicles and they have to rent parkings to store them. Ford lost 13 billion last year and they had to put their plants, their administration buildings and even their logo at stake in order to get funding to continue their operations. Otherwise, their safes are empty.
With Ford's current vehicle lineup, it's obvious they'll post another huge deficit this year. But they have nothing more to put in warranty to get additional financing. And since Toyota's plants are mostly in Conservative states while Ford's plants are mainly in pro-Democrate states, don't count on Bush to re-route money from his beloved war against Terrorism to help Fix-Or-Repair-Daily.
Ford's toasted after 2007 IMO. Tens of thousands jobs will be lost both because of the failure of its leaders to match the efficiency of asiatic car makers and because of the voracity of the ass-grabbing union cry babies.
It's too late for Ford, but in the hypothesis that GM and Chrysler could improve the efficiency of their plants and focus more on vehicles that customers want (small, safe and fuel-efficient cars), they could get out of the pit. The US government should pressure Japan, Corea and China to open their market to US cars. The way I see it, the battle is only fought in North America because on the other side of the Pacific, foreign cars aren't welcome. Unfortunately, I believe that if the US assministration interfeers, they'll simply try to tax japaneese and corean to make them less desirable to US customers. That would (will) be stupid because it won't force the remaining big two to get their head out of their ass to improve their methods and become more competitive by themselves. It will only delay the crisis by a few years.
But no mather how good GM's and Chrysler's future cars are, they'll never be able to compete against the car makers of the rising sun if they don't stop giving unreasonable benefits to their employees. I heard that GM has two and a half retired employee to sustain (with full med insurance) for each active employee. That's insane. I mean, you have thirty years of active life to make your pot and then retire. If you're too stupid to save a few hundred thousands in thirty years of work at 25$/hour, then you deserve to spend your old days like a poor bastard. Any fat ass employee that doesn't agree with this either lives in a bubble when time stopped in the 80's or doesn't realize that it doesn't work that way in any other segment of the industry.
We have a lot of great product now and more in the pipe. Next time you're in the market, just give them a look if you have been reluctant past. Maybe you will find something, mabe not. But, I will tell you we have come a long way in improving our executions. As stated by Bozo, quality gaps are 99.9% just customer perception and opinions based on the past at this point. Especially with more recently introduced products from all the manufacturers.
