Meltdown Of Us Car Manufacturers

[Paradroid]

This has been talked about for years now, but is it getting closer?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment...government.html

The scary quote is GM could run out of money 1/2 way through next year, and they're asking for help of the Govt. Sounds like 2005 in the UK and we know what happened there!

Have the US car manufacturers left it too late to get their act together? GM have a smart sounding electric car coming out in a year or two, but will it be enough to save them I wonder.

[Parthiban]

That really is a shame, if only they'd realised to start making quality cars earlier the story might have been very different. Prime example being the new CTS-V............it shows they can make a great car, just couldn't be bothered to do it!

[Mike_B]

They got fat and lazy, encouraged by a fashion for SUVs that, in part at least, came about because they are built to 'commercial vehicle' safety regulations which makes them far cheaper to design and build. How on earth some otherwise pretty bright people failed to realise that the market for them would vanish as soon as petrol prices rose beggars belief, frankly.

In reality, all US car manufacturers have only been kept afloat for years by massive profits from their financial services arms - GMAC made millions by diversifying into home loans for example. Now that market has collapsed too, the rest of the empire will come crumbling down.

[Scarlet Pimpernell]

I think all manufacturers, other than those making small efficient town cars will get wallopped over the next 18 months or so, not just GM. Companies like Fiat, Pug, Honda and Toyota (not Lexus IMHO) will do OK in Europe, and Hybrids sales in the states will shoot up as the credit brunch snaps it's teeth and the governments push for green technologies...

As you say, had they started to make decent cars they might be in a different place....the basic Cadillac "sedan" is garbage, but that one as featured on TG was well wicked. In some shots from the side, the rear quarters looked a tad like my IS, which was almost exactly the same shade of red...

[Paradroid]

The US was another market that got battered by imports offering better reliability. A real shame because some amazing cars came out of the US motor industry, especially the classics of the 60's and 70's. But when the imports came offering reliability, more efficient engines and better economy, they got hammered. Plus for some reason American car styling seemed to fail miserably past about 1975, the trash they threw out in the late 70's and 80's was unbelievable

The best selling car in the USA has been the Toyota Camry for years, mad when you think how many cars of that class they make in the USA.

What's always amazed me about the UK is that I could never understand how so many people bought French cars in preference to UK cars. OK German cars offer solid build quality (not necessarily reliability), Japanese cars offer reliability, but in the pecking order of car making countries, I would never say French were better than British!

[legendswraith]

The US was another market that got battered by imports offering better reliability. A real shame because some amazing cars came out of the US motor industry, especially the classics of the 60's and 70's. But when the imports came offering reliability, more efficient engines and better economy, they got hammered. Plus for some reason American car styling seemed to fail miserably past about 1975, the trash they threw out in the late 70's and 80's was unbelievable

The best selling car in the USA has been the Toyota Camry for years, mad when you think how many cars of that class they make in the USA.

What's always amazed me about the UK is that I could never understand how so many people bought French cars in preference to UK cars. OK German cars offer solid build quality (not necessarily reliability), Japanese cars offer reliability, but in the pecking order of car making countries, I would never say French were better than British!

You seem to be under the illusion we still have a british car industry :P

Problem is now all the british cars are owned by foreign companies there are very few left that are "all" british only one of note i can think of atm is morgan

[Paradroid]

You seem to be under the illusion we still have a british car industry :P

Yeah you're right, it was the early 90's when we still had Rover, they were producing good competitive cars, and they were still UK owned.

I bought a MG ZS180 new in 2004 (the one with the side fins) and was well happy with that, but even that was a niche car really, was never going to sell in big numbers.