Other Industry Collapses?

[Tuckerfan]

@slaphead

Damn straight. If only a few high-cost, uneconomic, value-destroying producers would go bust. That would clear out the overcapacity and allow those companies who can make decent cars efficiently to earn an economic return. Instead we’re heading for the same state the airlines are in - an entire industry of zombies, lurching from loss to loss to bankruptcy to resturcturing to more losses, with the odd quarter of profitability every now and again.

There’s one difference between the airlines in the US and the Big Three, as I understand it: Airlines have traditionally always been a money losing operation in the US as a whole. The auto industry in the US has been a tremendous cash cow for most of its existence.

[dolphinboy]

I start to scratch my head when I hear the old 'over capacity" argument since as far as I know nobody points a gun at the CEO’s heads and forces them to build more cars than they can sell.

If car makers get locked into contracts that require them to employ people to produce cars that nobody wants to buy exactly who’s fault is that?

[Tuckerfan]

@dolphinboy

I start to scratch my head when I hear the old 'over capacity" argument since as far as I know nobody points a gun at the CEO’s heads and forces them to build more cars than they can sell.

The problem is that they have more plants than they need. As of right now, the demand for cars is shrinking, which means unless people start buying cars, plants will have to be closed. This includes ones ran by both foreign and domestic automakers.

If car makers get locked into contracts that require them to employ people to produce cars that nobody wants to buy exactly who’s fault is that?

Even without contracts, it is a difficult, time consuming, and expensive process to close down a plant.

[dolphinboy]

I think I heard on NPR that Honda just opened a new plant somewhere in the US. We need to stop making excuses for why US car makers can’t compete with the rest of the world. If they built better cars they would be much more competitive. They continue to build cars that they want to build and then they seem surprised when a foreign competitor takes market share away from them.

BTW, Tesla motors, a US company, has just introduced a new line of electric only cars… so either they think there is demand for **their **cars or they are also adding to the over capacity problem.

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

Clarksville Tn, gets new factory, 500 jobs.
http://www.newschannel5.com/global/story.asp?s=9522909

Hem-Lock has been eyeing a new site for manufacturing poly-crystalline silicon, a product used to make solar panels and other high tech electronics.

[Least_Original_User_Name_Ever]

@friedo

Good. Michigan deserves it.

The people of the great state of Michigan thank you.

Edited to add : echo, echo, echo, echo…

[Tuckerfan]

@dolphinboy

I think I heard on NPR that Honda just opened a new plant somewhere in the US. We need to stop making excuses for why US car makers can’t compete with the rest of the world. If they built better cars they would be much more competitive. They continue to build cars that they want to build and then they seem surprised when a foreign competitor takes market share away from them.

Toyota puts new Prius plant in Mississippi on hold. Peugeot and FIAT consider merger to try and stay afloat. Honda cuts production at its US plants. Six foreign car makers pull out of the Detroit Auto Show (one of the big auto shows) citing the downturn in the economy.

BTW, Tesla motors, a US company, has just introduced a new line of electric only cars… so either they think there is demand for **their **cars or they are also adding to the over capacity problem.

So far, they’ve built 100 cars, of a type that no one else in the world makes, and these cars sell for the low-low price of $110K, with a bargain basement sedan model coming “sometime in the future” for the rock bottom price of $60K. Tesla is a pet project of a group of internet billionaires and is in no way comparable to a carmaker like any of the Big Three, Japanese, or Germans. Ferrari, Lambo, or Mazerati would be a better comparison.