In the Driver's Seat

btw, i've seen a lot of cars but then i've never been impressed much with the exterior specifically with the <a href="http://www.racepages.com/brand/westin.html">westin bull bar</a>. i'm expecting for more stylish exteriors.

What has been written in the above article is all fine and dandy but if Free Trade isn't changed to make it Fair Trade between trading countries which usually gives the advantage to other countries other than the U.S. then all "Step-by-Step" Dorections will not do any good. http://www.freep.com/article/20081222/OPINION02/812220305/0/BUSINESS01

http://www.autoobserver.com/2007/02/toyota-worried-about-quality-wages.html
Where's the benchmark now?

Car czar, drug czar; where does it end? Correct me if I am wrong (and I am not) the term czar is generally described in the dictionary and Russian history as an autocratic ruler or leader. The United States Socialist Republic, it should be fun.

All good ideas. However, how about challenging Detroit to move beyond the old paradigm of cars, cars, cars and into mass transit, into ways to combine cars with mass transit, etc. We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to remake our transportation! Gas will not stay cheap, it will go back up, and all of the concerns about imported oil remain. If we just wind up with the same industry with more automation and lower labor costs and dealership costs, we will not have changed anything that can move us forward as a nation.

If the cure for detroit was so straight forward, why was it not in the past or diagnosed by industry experts. Also can we please start calling these myriad of Czar positions by their more apt name Commisar.

Uhhh..... That laid off woman is collecting unemployment insurance, afraid the 'job bank' will close AND working in her husbands detail shop? Working and collecting unemployment benefits is both illegal and immoral.

Charlie

Whether we really need a car czar or not, very few people including politicians really know about hybrid cars which Toyota and Honda do a better job than big 3. Most of the hybrid cars made by big 3 today (such as Saturn and Malibu) are so called mild hybrid characterized by a big starter motor. These mild hybrid are much less fuel efficient than the full hybrid cars such as Prius and Honda civic hybrid. The fuel economy improvement in the mild hybrid is not as great as Prius. It

A government car czar scares me. We have given MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF TAX PAYER DOLLARS AND TAX BREAKS TO THE FOREIGN AUTO COMPANIES IN THE SOUTHERN STATES, AND HAVE BEEN DOING SO FOR DECADES.

If you want to know, you can google them up in old newspaper articles posted online.

THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT GAVE TOYOTA LOW INTEREST LOANS TO RETOOL FOR HYBRID CARS. Again, another fact that is not spoken about in the press.

OUR GOVERNMENT DID NOT PUT RESTRICTIONS ON HOW MANY AUTOS WE CAN IMPORT FROM JAPAN. CHECK OUT ALL THE LEGISLATION, AND JAPAN'S REFUSAL TO LET THE US EXPORT CARS. Good job with Congress and Government there as well.

Each state is trying for different fuel emissions and gas mileage. Japan doesn't have their government constantly changing their mind, their is one standard.

They also have no retirees. And watch this. As soon as Gm is liquidated, all the rest of Ford and Chrysler will go down. The pay at Honda and Toyota in the US will decrease, and as there will be a shortage of trucks and cars eventually, the price will increase.

Toyota is reducing production at a plant in the US THAT MAKES TRUCKS AND SUV'S. THEY WERE DOING THE SAME THING AS GM AND FORD, AND TRYING TO GET THE MARKET ON THESE WHILE GAS WAS CHEAP.

I don't want a car czar, and I AM TIRED OF EVERYONE TOUTING TOYOTA AS AN EXEMPLARY BUSINESS MODEL. THEY HAD ALL THE SUBSIDIZING AND HELP FROM OUR GOVERNMENT THEY COULD POSSIBLY GET.

Also, the profits from the Japanese auto firms do not stay in the us to help pay for your local fireman, police, schools, medicare and medicaid. All of the profits go back to Japan. The entire United States could have figured that out a couple of weeks ago when Toyota announced a 30% sales decline, and the NIKKEI INDEX WENT DOWN. PLEASE NOTE THIS INFO DID NOT HAVE ANY EFFECT ON OUR STOCK MARKET, AND THAT IS WHY.

Yes, Fareed Zakari, who spoke at Albion College two years ago. I don't want that business model. If you saw ANYTHING of downtown Albion, it has never recovered from the collapse of the steel industry. In the 70's the twon lost 15% of its' work force, and in the late 90's flashed across cnn's television headline for losing 10% of it's jobs. This is what will happen if we appoint a car czar to "help" our DOMESTIC AUTO INDUSTRY. THE ONLY AUTO INDUSTRY OUR GOVERNMENT HAS EVER HELPED IS THE FOREIGN AUTO INDUSTRY.

WHAT GNP WILL WE HAVE LEFT? PUSHING ECONOMIC PAPER ON WALL STREET CAN ONLY GO SO FAR WHEN WE OWE BILLIONS TO CHINA.

HELP OUR DOMESTIC AUTO INDUSTRY GET ON ITS FEET BY REORGANIZING IN THE SAME FASHION LEE IOCOCA DID.

Mercedes Benz is in good shape because they took over Chrysler for their 30 billion in cash, bled it dry, refused to help them with R &D, and made them pay a fee for any idea to use. Then dumped them for sale after using some of the cash, and stashing the rest of it away to put themselves in a good position.

Let's call some spades some spades, and get the real truth out here.

So the Auto bail out is dead because the Republicans wanted Detriot workers to take a big cut on health care and retirement benefits? Are these not the same people who opposed any control over CEO compensation when they gave the banks $700 billion?
As has been so very apparent for so very long Republicans want all Americans to work for lthe same pay as any third world country and they are willing to destroy the country to get it.

Good article puts a bit more light on the subject. With regard to the fact Toyota has no retirees in part we know it's because they have not been around as long, but more importantly; Toyota hires a lot of part time and contract labor neither of whom are paid anv benefits at all. The day will come when these folks are too old to work , then I suppose we'll be hearing about cutting entitlements again as they struggle to survive their last yesrs of life with no retirement or health care.

Forget the conditions, the car czar, the angst, and the bailout.

If we as taxpayers are being asked to pay $25 billion dollars, why should it go to prop up the failed companies? What guarantee do we have they still won't implode 6 months, a year, two years from now? What is the common assumption about giving in to blackmail - once you start paying there's no way to stop?

Nobody can get any credit, so nobody is buying any cars, and there is a glut of cars on the market already. It could take another two years before Americans start buying cars - are we going to bail out Detroit for two more years?

There is no point in propping them up, and no point in allowing them to re-structure via a chapter 11 bankruptcy - if they could have restructured by now, they would have. They have proven themselves incapable of making the hard choices - more money won't suddenly get them to see the light.

Let's give the 25 billion to the state of Michigan instead, to pay for unemployment, worker re-training (someboy's got to build all those new wind turbines and nuclear power plants), housing assistance, etc. Allow the automakers to go into Chapter 7 bankruptcy, rather than 11 - the ultimate fire sale - and let any proceeds go towards pension/health funds and if there is anything left over, pennies on the dollar for the stockholders.

Any assets deemed salvagable will be purchased by some enterprising group of intrepid investors - let them rebuild a leaner auto industry, if that's possible.

The losses are inevitable, and the more we try to postpone them, the more we'll pay in the long run, but at least this way everybody gets something, instead of most getting nothing. Postponing the pain by bailing them out will just be throwing good money after bad, and make the inevitable demise even harder.

To just hand over money to three companies that clearly have run themselves into the ground is absurd.

Who ever they appoint the "Car Czar" better be an auto industry executive who understands the business and not some cronie pin headed politician. I would recommend Lee Iacocca. Another thing, the Unions have to slash wages and benes. If they don't, the bail out will not work. It the Unions refuse to give, let the Big Three file Bankruptcy and reorganize without the Union debt load.

WHO EVER THEY PICK FOR THE CAR CZAR BETTER NOT BE SOME PIN HEAD POLITICIAN AND IT BETTER BE AN AUTO INDUSTRY EXECUTIVE. FOR STARTERS, LEE IACOCCA.

I see the day of a factory worker doing but one unskilled task all day on the line over. Our workers need to be highly skilled in many tasks. This worker needs proper education in skilled areas of production This education may be implimeted in Vo-Tech schools, possibly sponsored by the manufactuing plants that will hire them. When this educated workforce is implimeted, we will become competitive with the foreign builders in this country that already have that worker in their workstations. It is education in America that is lagging behind the rest of the world..

Henery Ford did a wonderful thing with his mass production philosophy. That kind of mass production is dead. Today, the production floor Must have a very skilled workforce, capable of Doing it All. I have seen the Toyota floor in Buffalo, Wv. The work stations are staffed by very skilled workers who are capable of doing a myrad of operations from building sub assemblies to actually doing the Quality Control on their assembled parts. Skill is the key word..Education is the way to bring it about. This country needs to offer a strong Vo-Tech school system, possibly sponsered by the manufacturers, to have the skilled people to man their plants. The day of having a person stand there for 8 hours and put lug bolts on a wheel is over. Only by specialized education can the worker and the plant survive and be competitive.

The big looser's in this as allways is the American worker. We work in a system that is set up by Big govrn ment and Big Business. And when do to geed and corruption that system crashes, We pay for it!!!!