As Gas Costs Soar, Buyers Flock to Small Cars
#11
05-06-2008, 07:56 PM
Re: As Gas Costs Soar, Buyers Flock to Small Cars
You're correct; but if U.S. automakers could respond quickly, they would have done so already. Five years after gas prices started to jump, the big three are still churning out the same old "land barges," while trying to hype new, fuel-efficient models that they plan to build sometime in the future.
Meanwhile, Honda and Toyota remain ahead of the curve, because they developed hybrids five years BEFORE gas prices jumped. They covered all the bases when they didn't really have to, and when the game changed, they were ready.
The Big 3 could have done the same, but like my uncle who recently retired from Ford says, "American car companies aren't in the business of selling cars. They're in the business of selling stock."
When you care more about quarterly profits than quality products, you wind up sacrificing both. But that doesn't matter to the people who run these companies. They jack up the stock prices however they can, then bail out with golden parachutes. And if things get too bad, our trusty federal government will bail them out.
Doesn't matter if it's a car company, an investment bank, or whatever. We're all on the hook for any disasters they create. It's a real gold mine -- they get the gold, and we get the shaft.
So don't count on any turnarounds in Detroit. They're too busy firing people and closing factories to worry about building new cars.
Meanwhile, Honda and Toyota remain ahead of the curve, because they developed hybrids five years BEFORE gas prices jumped. They covered all the bases when they didn't really have to, and when the game changed, they were ready.
The Big 3 could have done the same, but like my uncle who recently retired from Ford says, "American car companies aren't in the business of selling cars. They're in the business of selling stock."
When you care more about quarterly profits than quality products, you wind up sacrificing both. But that doesn't matter to the people who run these companies. They jack up the stock prices however they can, then bail out with golden parachutes. And if things get too bad, our trusty federal government will bail them out.
Doesn't matter if it's a car company, an investment bank, or whatever. We're all on the hook for any disasters they create. It's a real gold mine -- they get the gold, and we get the shaft.
So don't count on any turnarounds in Detroit. They're too busy firing people and closing factories to worry about building new cars.
#12
05-08-2008, 05:33 AM
Re: As Gas Costs Soar, Buyers Flock to Small Cars
You are exactly right and its one of the reasons I really have concern for the dominance of the west going into the future. Our society is so built along individuality, individual competition and shorter term goals and frequent validation of those goals, I really don't see us holding up to societies with a different paradigm. I am skeptical the US can make the transition to a sustainable society this late in the game. There are many variables working against it (demographic, paradigm, built out suburbanization, debasing of the currency), and while in the past innovation has delayed the inevitable, this appears to be one big economic shock.
You hit the nail on the head with that post.
We're in a huge amount of trouble; we're a much poorer nation than we realize and things are about to get a lot worse.
Our preeminence in developing new technologies is being squandered and even crippled. And while this is happening, control over vital strategic resources; oil and gas, are being cornered by state controlled enterprises; Gasprom in Russia, Sinopec in China, Aramco in Saudi Arabia, the Venezuelan government, the thugocracy in Kazakstan, the kleptocracy in Nigeria, etc. The "Seven Sisters" no longer control the worlds most vital resources anymore. Their percentage is down to around 10%. In the meantime, 90% of the world's oil and gas is largely controlled by what can best be described as organized crime syndicates.
These countries oppose our culture and its values and will relentlessly suck money out of our economy. They will get stronger, we will get weaker.
Meanwhile, the two most important things we could do to survive; conserve and develop new energy technologies for export sale, are being discouraged and undermined in every conceivable way possible.
#13
05-11-2008, 10:49 AM
Re: As Gas Costs Soar, Buyers Flock to Small Cars
More likely they will buy them than find them.
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