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2030?

WE bailed the unmitigated morons out in 2008 with less due diligence than required for a car loan. Then they moved as much production as possible to slave-wage countries only to ship that shit right back here so we can purchase the overpriced garbage. Take "Lincoln" for example. I have been seeing those "cars" on flat beds, broke down on the side of the road and with a ridiculous number of recalls. Plus, the five models for sale only sell less than 30,000 units per year. Remember the Wixom (MI) plant where "Lincolns" used to be built when they were actually Lincolns? Back when they were wrecking Lincoln, they were also planning to move most Ford production out of the United States. Ford took advantage of the 2008 debacle, closed Wixom and quit building "Lincolns" as we knew them. Then, they tore it down insuring that no more union workers would ever build Lincolns again. A perfect example of destroying a business model and then tearing down the plants so that no more union workers would work there again.

As for 2030? About 100 years ago, a car guy said that all car companies were 1.5 years from bankruptcy. He figured if you didn't have new models every 1.5 years, your customers would go somewhere else. Now these unmitigated morons said 20 years ago that "driverless" cars were right around the corner and that we would be on the moon in eight years. They also said that the entire industry would be electrified by 2024. Unless the American auto industry can survive by supplying law enforcement with $120,000 cop cars, none will even exist by 2030.

Ptg0
Highland Park, Michigan



NEO-NO.

NEOLUN is a mashup, excuse me, a portmanteau consisting of NEO: Greek for new and LUNa: latin for moon, and was inspired by Korean moon jars, according to AI. Sounds like a concoction that Jimmy and Sonny over at Fu-King Motors would come up with, and the car makes about as much sense.

Chris Blanchard
Prescott, Wisconsin



GM.

Great Rant today. While I agree that Washington is doing no favors for the domestic auto industry, I want to mention a YouTube video that focuses on Detroit's own shortcomings. The commentator listed a few choice decisions by Mary Barra of GM. She oversaw the rise and expensive collapse of Cruise; the massively expensive program of going all-in on electrification and writing off billions even though the American people didn't ask for it; and the collapse of GM in the largest auto market in the world... China.

Mary Barra's response? "I have no regrets."

A) What's up with GM's board?
B) GM was doing a fine job destroying profitability all by itself, even without the poor decisions from Washington.

I realize I've written nothing new and that Peter and his readers already are aware of the above, but I wanted to vent.

Thank you.

Hal Griffiths
Detroit, Michigan

Editor's Note: Yes, Peter has covered these subjects extensively, especially the serial incompetence of GM's Board. -WG



The Little 3.

The folks at the "little 3" predicting great and glorious new products "any day now" had better bend to the task of getting their assembly quality and vehicle durability issues resolved and fast. If they don't, they can predict anything they like but the reality is they're not going to be able to give the stuff away let alone sell it and make a profit doing so.

DJV
Wilmington, North Carolina



How much bigger?

The reliance on giant trucks and SUVs leads to the one question I always have, and that is how do they park them? In the middle of nowhere I can imagine it's easy to find a space to park a vehicle the size of a minibus, but in cities? Surely that's going to be hard? The vehicles we have are fairly compact simply that we don't think we can drive anywhere in DC with a larger vehicle. There's got to be a point that this, along with the high prices, leads to a contraction in size?

PaulG
Silver Spring, Maryland