I'm sure there's just as many stories of Toyota's, Honda's and even Benz' autos that were complete lemons. None of them are representative of the overall statistics though.
Excuse me, Mr. Adept at Missing the Point, the "race" is for cheap(er) labor. Once that commodity runs out, then what?
I rather doubt it was the likes of Harvard or Princeton, most likely, some inner-city community college. Of course, you're going tell us he went to Auburn and played football against his American cousin every year, the winner got a box of chocolates, is that it?
It's pretty damned easy to be competitive internationally when you're using government-subsidized labor. That German labor would be a hell of lot higher, and their industry much less competitive, if it was fully-burdened by the private sector as it is here in the States. "Health" is cyclical when it comes to economies.
A couple of ways: 1) Restricting job descriptions. A Union worker will stop working if his machine breaks until the designated union repairman fixes it. Japanese owned plants have workers fix their own machines with expert assistance if required. 2) Layoffs and recalls of Unionized employees are based on seniority not ability and work ethic. If you have slugs with seniority they are the last to go and the first to come back. 3) Union employees health care costs can continue for months after a layoff, meaning even though they are layed off your costs for that line worker continue. 4) Retirement costs for defined benifit pensioners with healthcare add a considerable sum to every car made. 5) Strikes. Witness the recent Boeing strike and the cost to BA and suppliers. Need more?
I had 2 Grand Cherokee Limited's a 1996 and a 1999, both new. Both couldn't make it to the scheduled 3,000 mile oil changes without something requiring repair first. Driving a Jap now and they have to remind me to come in for the 6,000 mile oil changes. Over 3 years now on da Jap and nothing has been done except oil and filter changes, and they do it in an hour compared to the repais/oil changes requiring full days or more (and a rental at my cost) at our wonderful American dealerships. I had a new beemer also and spent way too much time in their service department. Toyota & Honda are your best bet for reliability. Do I blame GM, Ford Management, somewhat. Do I blame US autoworkers unions? You betcha.
Yep, the reality is you can blame management but the UAW has put management in an impossible situation. Even in this last round of "buy downs" the amount of money the company had to pay out is absurdly out of line with any other business, not to mention "buy outs". The UAW isn't stupid either though, they will just hold the line until US auto makers go under then the government will be on the hook for all the promises that have been made to them.
...and the enabling management. the interests of management have not been aligned with shareholders. management is interested in their jobs and their perks and current benefits. management had no vision for the lt(long term). this is one of major faults of current american style capitalism.
1. Most GM workers are from those community colleges. Maybe the top managers are from elite universities and they made stupid decisions at GM, no hedge against high oil prices and they made the same mistake twice. 2. Many of the Harvard etc. graduates went to Wall St. They are just more capable at destroying the investment banks they are working for. So bragging about the Harvard etc does not help.