Doug Henwood
Steven L. Robinson wrote:
>But don't the competitors in Germany and Japan have high labor costs as
>well? Isn't Mercedes owned Chrysler doing better than the big two?
More the other way around - Chrysler is dominated by Mercedes - and yes they're doing better than the other two. And the European and Japanese companies are doing better than Ford and GM. I don't know enough about the auto industry to explain why, but it sure looks like Ford & esp GM are fucked. ___________________________________
Well, this might be the simplistic view, but GM's and Ford's products suck. It has been this way for so long that it has become an article of faith among consumers. Except for SUVs and fleet sales, they can hardly give the things away. Watching the World Series I saw an ad for Mercury's new SUV (it looked like a piece of rubbish) I thought "Mercury? They still make Mercurys?" It sounded as archaic as an ad for Packard or LaSalle.