Reply #3: Even if GM, Ford, and Chrysler all go out of business, [View All]

[SheilaT]

surely you've noticed that there are a few other car manufacturers out there?

Back during the oil crisis of the 1970's, people very suddenly started hanging on to their cars a whole lot longer. Part of it was the sudden uptick in the cost of gas, but probably the most important factor was that there was not enough of the dreaded foreign cars which were far better made and lasted a lot longer, and people simply kept them. I'm old enough to recall when American cars were quite frankly designed to last about 2 years or perhaps 30,000 miles, and everyone who possibly could bought new every two years. You simply lived with the expectation that your car would break down periodically. Odometers zeroed out after 99,999 miles because almost no cars went that far without being junked. Now, we routinely expect cars to go 100, 200, even 300,000 miles. Even the American cars are expected to get 100,000 miles.

The sad thing is that the American automobile manufacturers have persisted in building gas-guzzling crap, even in the face of exceptionally strong sales of "foreign" cars. While I sympathize with the rank and file workers who have just been doing their jobs, the management is clueless and overpaid.