Velociman on the Big Three

And he rips Salon to shreds, which is a bonus.

I noticed, by the by, that Mr. Lind never states the blindingly obvious: Detroit isn't bankrupt because of a few automobile plants in the South. They are insolvent because their business model is as putrid as Gacy's date in a crawlspace. The combination of managerial greed, union greed, and insufferable government mandates combined to slay an industry that has been essentially producing unwanted junk for 35 years anyway. These Yankee protectionists need to take the buggy whips out of their collective asses and throw them upon the bonfire of history. It's not broke, idiots: it's fucking dead. And unless the next CEO of General Motors is Jesus H.M.S. Christ it will stay dead. Unless the Corkers of the Senate have their way, and the industry is reborn with a foundation of economic viability, shareholder oversight, and viable product offerings.

I've said for years that I would buy a Ford Truck, because those actually have a history of, well, working. But I wouldn't touch any domestic cars if my life depended on it. And I'm not just talking about my ass - I've owned and operated both the so-called "foreign" and domestic cars, and damn near each and every time the Japanese car has out-performed and out-lasted the domestic. My Nissan truck, which has gone through several different kinds of hell that no automobile should ever be asked to do, is still running with over 220,000 miles on it. It starts up every single morning.

The last two rental cars I had were both Chevy's, and in both cases I had to get the Rental Car company to come pick them up, because they were not working. New cars. Non-functioning new cars.

How much you want to bet that if I'd gotten a Nissan or Toyota, that bugger would have worked?

Tossing money at the Big Three isn't going to do jack shit other than push that problem down the road for a couple of months. Ford, Chrysler and GM are going to collapse unless they fundamentally change the way they operate. Since they're not going to do that, they will go bankrupt.