Why GM, Ford and Chrysler are bankrupt and Toyota, Honda and VW prosper?

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There ought to be a reason.

Economic crisis affects all automakers in the same fashion.

Workers are the same American workers. If anything in Detroit they must be better due to long time tradition of car making.

Nancy Pelosi wants us to believe that management have made mistakes. But CEOs have same education and experience. One CEO can be bad apple, but all three CEOs? And Detroit companies under-perform for decades, under dozens different CEOs the result is the same. All of them cannot be incompetent, can they?

And to think about it, in 1998 Daimler Benz purchased Chrysler for $30 billion. One might think that under superb and competent German management Chrysler would build high MPG safe reliable cars and become profitable. No such luck. In 2007 after 10 years of fruitless attempts Daimler Benz managed to offload Chrysler to Cerberus CM for $3 billion. I mean DB PAID to Cerberus $3 billion to get rid of Chrysler.

So what could be the reason that Detroit automakers are dead
 
It is a combination of factors which include poor management, executive packages which are far too generous, labor costs and union demands, and last but not least, failing to produce quality, safe, cars that are fuel efficient and meet the goals of the 21st century driver.

I own a 2001 Ford truck, my wife has a 2006 Acura. The Acura is by far, a much better vehicle than a similar 2009 Ford model (which I've been looking at).

Sad but true.
 
GM, Ford and Chrysler are union,
VW, Toyota and Honda aren't.

Hourly wages and benefits for GM, Ford and Chrysler workers is at $72.00 per hour on average.

Hourly wages and benefits for workers at VW, Toyota and Honda average at $34.00.

The answer is simple. The UAW has killed its host.
 
Overpaid CEOs and overpaid UAW workers are killing the American auto industry.
 
Actually, I know for a fact that some Honda plants have unions. I've been there and have friends who work there. The difference is that they don't sign outrageous contracts with their unions. They treat their employees good and give a fair wage and benefits but they expect people to work and be efficient.

Yes, the quality of Hondas, Toyotas and VW are better. Even a quick look at Consumer Reports or JD Powers will tell you that. Since I've worked in the field of quality in auto parts factories I can attest to a wide difference between the specs of these auto companies and GM and Ford. People want reliability for the high prices they pay for a vehicle. They want the best quality they can get for the price.

The Big Three are capable of competing. They choose not to.
 
/foreign companies are not hamstrung by unions and govt tax codes and benefit plans that suck out the money. GM spent 14 million dollars on Viagra for its employees in 2006. How ludicrous!
 
I read the Unions in the US agreed several years ago to packages basically similar to those for workers in Asia.
The reason US car manufactures are failing is the same as for banks and other wall street companies - greedy, incompetent leadership in their board rooms.
CEOs in other countries would be ashamed to get the kind of pay and bonuses the do in the US - especially when doing such a horrically poor job.
 
Part of it is the CEO's certainly, and market research in general. I mean by your logic, Apple and DEC should do just as well as microsoft and if they don't it has nothing to do with the choices that CEO's were making. When ford, chrysler and GM looked at the market they decided we need to make big SUV and gas guzzlers, when honda and toyota looked at the market they came up with a much different idea. Another reason is the issue of tools that are available in the US vs other nations, which has hurt us.
 
Foreign cars are known to be better. They're more reliable, more efficient, and better looking. Buying an American car to save money is a bad idea, cuz it'll be in the shop more than your garage. Good thing Obama wants to mandate better fuel efficiencies and parts standards here in the U.S.
 
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