Until recently, the condition of the Big 3 really hadn't caught my eye. Ever since graduating college and starting a career as an automotive designer the news had been the same. Once a year or so, one of the Big 3 would announce some doomsday forecast, have a wave of layoffs, and then claim everything was better and they would return to making money in the next year or two. This game of musical chairs had Ford, GM, and Chrysler all as participants. As I worked in the industry, I saw how low moral was, how one never knew if they'd be taken out in the next round of cost cutting to please stock investors. In recent years, all but a handful of contract employees were cut, and now the sweeps have headed for the direct employees, and layoffs have occurred by the thousands in terms of the white collar workforce. It hit me in the fall of 2006, and it was perhaps the best thing to happen to me in my life. 6 1/2 years in the industry, I had learned it wasn't for me, I no longer had a passion for the job, perhaps I never did. So here I am with over a year working in law enforcement, feeling like I've got more stability now than ever. Now back to the Big 3...
The Chrysler/Daimler merger came as a shock to me, though at the time, no one really realized that this merger was actually a takeover. In my opinion, Daimler truly was a savior for Chrysler in terms of styling and design. During the Daimler years Chrysler brought some of the best looking products to market in decades. The sign of concern that told me that things were truly getting bad was when the talks of Ford merging with Nissan/Renault started sounding pretty serious. Though that merger never happened, it wasn't long that Chrysler was on the trading block again, and sold to a private investment company. Initially, this sounded promising, as Chrysler was once again American owned, and free from stock holder concerns. The marriage seems to be short lived, as once again Chrysler seems headed elsewhere.
Into the mix this round is GM, the company that seems to be struggling on life support more than the other two, for this round. Talks of GM buying out/merging with Chrysler seem to have died down the past couple weeks, though government aid seems necessary to keep GM, as well as Ford and Chrysler, afloat. I guess I ask "why not?" If the government is going to bail out the financial industry/banks/mortgage companies for their unquestionable stupidity by offering unrealistic loans to people, then why not toss the manufacturing industry a life line?
Undoubtedly, things need to change. Not just for the auto industry, but manufacturing in this country. Consumers need to step up to the plate as well. The number of "Buy American" people in this country has shrunk with each coming decade. Demand for cheaper product by the buying public is partially responsible for our country's current situation. Though corporate greed plays it's part as well.
A federal loan needs to have stipulations, perhaps one being that a GM/Chrysler merger not happen. GM would salvation few things from Chrysler, likely portions of the Jeep brand, the minivan, and maybe even the Challenger for a short time, as it would offer an option to the upcoming Camaro, much like the Firebird did for many decades. After that though, all you have is several tens of thousands of white collar/blue collar workers getting laid off. In my eyes, such a move by GM only buys them time, and in my opinion, not enough time to warrant costing all those people their jobs. It's time the government steps in, offers their help, though takes steps to secure future manufacturing in this country. Too many jobs have been outsourced to other countries in the auto industry, somebody needs to take charge and rein these jobs back in for Americans.
The outlook looks dismal, and though I haven't made much mention, Ford seems headed down the same road these days. While future product from all 3 companies look promising, it's coming down the pipeline about 5 years too late. They needed their future products to fall back on today and it's another example of poor timing and our big 3's inability to see the writing on the wall like their foreign competition did.
While the future looks uncertain, the Camaro is still on track to make it's 2009 debut, thus completing the trifecta of horsepower...consisting of Mustang, Challenger, and Camaro. Whatever happens after that, at least one can say that the Big 3 when out with a bang.
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