Would you purchase a vehicle from a company that was in Bankrupcy?

I never knew that you were a Dodge person... grins. My dad was a Ford person... He used to work for Ford Aerospace as a facilities planner and used to love those Mercurys. I can still remember how excited he was to get his Lincoln Continental. I am with you in thinking that the car prices should come down for the consumers and that the car quality should go up. I am also with you in thinking that the Unions are needed and should remain unbroken. I am in support of the Unions as I have read elsewhere that the non Union shops cause their workers to have more injuries and just dump their workers on the local governments to take care of as they do not cover them after they let them go... There are also apparently a lot of part-time workers and contractors being hired by these companies as they are trying to avoid having to give benefits. There is no excuse for a large company to treat employees this way or to slough off their responsibility to take care of their employees onto the community at large, translate this to mean... They are transferring the responsiblity to care for the workers to the taxpayers and with the increased rate of injuries due to the exploitation of these workers, that is a lot of additional costs that the taxpayers would not have to otherwise bear..

After reading the words of the experts who looked at the industry and also the words of the car companies...In regards to what caused it... 1.) Look to the Federal government, the poo pooing regarding the need for energy conservation, the poo pooing regarding the need to have less polluting vehicles, the poo pooing regarding the need to have better cars... 2.) Look at the Federal tax code which gave a $25,000 tax break for the purchase of SUVs used for work but gave only a $3,400 max tax break for the purchase of a hybrid car or a fuel efficient car... and you know why the car companies continued to build these cars... The demand for these cars was artificially inflated due to these tax breaks on the SUVs... so the Federal Government can be said to be a big culprit in this area. 3.) In addition, you have the failure of Bush to meet with the Big 3 auto companies enough and his devaluing of them; And the majority of those in Senate and Congress were not interested in changing the tax code to keep the jobs here rather than letting them go overseas. 4.) the distain that many Americans have had for purchasing American products and also unfortunately the fact that there is a long history of the car companies building the cars to fail after awhile rather than building these cars to last, the protectionism and unfair markets overseas which give other car companies an advantage... Planned poor quality. 5.) the fact that our car companies are saddled with the cost of health insurance and in other countries the governments pay for health insurance 6.) the fact that the car companies are now administrators of the pension plans for the retired and injured workers... and unfortunately it is not just the rank and file workers that are being covered by this pension plan but also the overpaid CEOs who continue to get outragious pensions even after they led these companies into the ground. 7.) The failure of the CEOs and management excutives to guage the needs and wants of the people and their stupidity in believing that the artificially induced demand for SUVS would continue. 8.) The failure of the CEOs and management excutives to actually build the cars that we want... The companies spent a lot of money in research and design but did not apparently come up with things that we like to purchase and that we can afford to purchase. 9.) The lack of innovation in the industry... There was a tendency toward repetition rather than exploration in the whole industry regarding the development of alternative fuel sources or better engines, better motors and better batteries.

My first car was a 49 CHevy then we got a ford 54 ford the freeze plug kept faling out so then I went to Pontiac the first brand new one we got was a 72 pontiac Then we have gone back and forth on Chevy PUs and Dodge PU vans and now I have a SUV I liked the style I saw one pullin ou of the Chey place and we had been looking I didnt like any design till I saw the Durango. And Your right the car companys have been run wrong for along time! I go for the Unions for my hubby was a lineman in the I.B.E.W out of Nashville but we traveled all over the states for work He really didnt want to stay working for TVA al the time. The hybred cars are not good for the long hau; for long trips and thing they are more for towns. Think I heard this on our news . Who wants to buy a hybred sounds like we are making a farm of hybred foods lol. Thanks for all the info hugs

Thanks for bringing the dealership perspective here... so financing from the car company would be an issue for some people perhaps but I have seen many dealerships handling their own financing and a lot of people getting their financing from their banks and credit unions prior to purchasing their cars... I am wondering how many times the auto companies directly handle the financing of cars. The issue of the warranty is a problem... If they can guarantee that the dealerships would still fix the cars and also insure that there is parts availability for all cars, then it would be okay. I agree. If you could get a "killler deal" then going for it would be great. I am wondering about the bailouts... If they do not come through and the Big 3 go bankrupt, do not survive it and die, is that going to be problematic... Do you think that they would survive a bankrupcty? It seems like this is the age of the anger at the CEOs... Justified anger, I agree, as these bozos have indeed been running the companies into the ground, failing to insure good products that are affordable, failing to care for the line staff, and failing to care for the environment, the world community and this Nation... I think that they are great targets for our rage. They probably would though disagree. grins.

I appreciate the Canadian perspective as your Country has had some plants which have closed down in the past, if I am not mistaken and borders Michigan as well as just because Canada is a wonderful neighbor and that I like Canadians. I am hoping that the car companies will get some assistance... Yet I am meeting people who comment a lot on the poor product quality in comparison to the cars of Toyota which tend to last much longer. I have heard that these quality problems have been remediated but am wondering if they have been... This quality issue comes into question because the people here seem less likely to want to preserve companies if they believe that they are not providing a quality product... The fact that the leaders of the car companies flew in their private jets to ask for governmental assistance did not endear them to the Congress and Senate. I am imagining that you heard about that... grins... It seems that we are in a waiting game to see what bailouts will be given and to whom. I thank you for providing the information regarding the finance companies and for correcting an error. I appreciate your post.

Dear mariposamom... That was a dyslexic typo... mind was saying "car" and fingers typed "oil"... grins... It happens sometimes... You are the first person to notice that mistake so you get an "A+" for observation skills. I think that you are quite right when you say that people are afraid of the high employment... Yet I am not sure yet if they are afraid enough to give the companies a bailout. There is some question about who was at fault for their building of the SUVs as the Federal Government was granting $25,000 tax breaks for their purchase to those who said they used them for work and was only giving $3,400 to those who purchased the economy/hybrid cars... the demand for the larger vehicles was thus artificially increased by the government. The fact that the oil companies were joining the government and still to this day people like Rush L. in saying that there was no need to build economy cars and that there was no global warming and no oil crisis, did not give the car companies good information... In other words, at every turn they were set up by these folks. I think that they should have really been asking people what they wanted... And making cars that were economical and yet stylish, practical and safe for the families... They were purposefully misguided by others... and blindfolded so much by these others that they could not use their vision. I think that perhaps they deserve some assistance from the government as the government sabatoged them. I think frankly that the oil companies should have to cough up a bit to prop them up as well as they were the ones who really have caused their destruction as they kept them from going for alternative energy sources and then had the gall to raise prices too much for the consumers to want to invest in the cars.