American car companies going bust

[Not So Wise]

American car companies are going bankrupt due to globalisation

Seeing that they actually like their fuel guzzling personal tanks over say a European or asian streamlined, efficiant safe car i would say that while globalisation may be a factor, it is the rising fuel costs for the americans is pushing people away from "american" more than anything else.

[planetit]

US customers are now buying more and more far eastern SUVs. Nissans are very popular.

The biggest issue for Ford/GM in their US operations is the crippling healthcare and pension costs for their workers.

[Doddy]

Car costs - an observation

I was in Florida for three weeks late last year and was amazed by the cost of vehicles there - they are two thirds, if not less, of the price they are here. This only applied to US vehicles - if the yanks want to flaunt their wealth, they drive a BMW or Merc, which are more expensive relative to here. From looking around forecourts and listending to radio and TV ads, the average price for a average car or 4x4 truck is aroound 12k gbp.

FYI -
The modest Ford car I had for the duration had a tank capacity of 21/22 US gallons (would cost around £90 to fill here) and only returned an average of 20 miles to the gallon even on the highway, which is ridiculous for a simple family car and would not be tolerated here. the car was also ridiculously underpowered considering it had either a v6 or V8 engine under the bonnet. My Golf diesel out-performed it easily.

Very low fuel costs paired with high fuel consumption on average. This must surely be an artifical situation? If Europe can have better fuel efficiency for the same power, why can't they?

Economics eh.....

[Bagpuss]

The american car industry is failing because the product is rubbish and as people have said the SUVs are thirsty (because they are classified as trucks they escaped the emmissions regs of the 70s/80s). The fastest selling car is the Toyota Corrolla, a couple of years ago it was the european designed Ford Focus.

[Rebecca Loos]

Yes to everything you said

But sometimes the Yanks do make beautiful and mad cars like the Ford Mustang Convertible.
Underpowered, thirsty, probably not-well built, probably gonna die after 5 years, but hey..... cool looks.

[BoredBloke]

When I was out there, and out of the few cars I rented, the Nissan I had was way better than the awful ford Taurus (a really bad Mondeo), pontiac Grand Am and on a par with the Lincoln. However the Lincoln, although nice to drive (3.9l lump up front compared to the 2.5 in the Nissan) needed its own permanantly connected petrol hose. On the trip computer, when you booted it it simply took a couple of miles off the 'number of miles left in the tank' calculation.

The Grand Am was supposed to have a 2.5 litre engine but its speedo stopped at 110.

[Bagpuss]

Yes to everything you said

But sometimes the Yanks do make beautiful and mad cars like the Ford Mustang Convertible.
Underpowered, thirsty, probably not-well built, probably gonna die after 5 years, but hey..... cool looks.

They've made some iconic cars, off the top of my head

1957 Chevy (IIRC it had electric windows and air con, something that UK cars didn't have until the 1980s)
AC cobra
Dodge charger/challenger or roadrunner
Ford Shelby Mustang Mk 1
Chevy Corvette stingray
Pontiac Trans AM/ firebird
Camero Z28

the days of the muscle car are long gone. The OPEC price shock of the 1970s saw to that. Since then america hasn't made many interesting cars.
And even in the 'good' old days the handling was sh1t.

[Rebecca Loos]

I agree, I agree

I've still got a bit of nostalgia for those cars you used to see in 50s and 60s films, or even later like Duke of Hazzard cars etc.... but yes you're right, they weren't that great from a technical point of view, and now they're all dead

[DodgyAgent]

Quote from Channel 4 news - "American car companies are going bankrupt due to globalisation - in the country that invented it"....

General Motors losing $4 billion in a year, Ford laying off 30,000....

Ho hum. Globalisation is a good thing, isnt it...?

The demise of the American car Industry is an example of all the good things about globalisation. It was during the 70s and eighties that the real damage was done when Japanese imports put the large cumbersome crap that the Americans churned out to the sword. US manufacturers believed that they could build cars without making any effort to modernise and the americans would buy them. The Americans have failed to catch up ever since, and it is only through niches (SUVs) that they have survived. Today they are going retro (Camaros, Chargers Mustangs et al) to try and stay in business.

[Spartacus]

As somebody earlier said, in all proper accounting definitions the US motor industry went bust years ago. In any case, there's far too many voters in Detroit for the Fed to stop pumping in tax-payers' dollars to keep the whole thing afloat.