Idealy, I'd like for GM to overhaul itself and become a well-managed company. That seems unlikely. Two other scenerios:

1. GM survives, but steadly loses market share by insisting on overmarketing land barges of lesser technology. To keep prices competive, many of the components are offshored.
2. Toyota builds more plants as they gain market share. To prevent US government action, they make sure a substantial of Americans are employed.

I'm starting to believe the second scenerio is the lesser of evils.

 

Ford seems to have embraced it... they have the hybrid Ford Escape now with many hybrids coming soon.

 

Only after seeing how well hybrids were selling.

Perhaps the Big 3 CEOs should be fired and younger CEOs put in place. I think younger CEOs are more likely to look at new tech instead of letting them sit on the shelves, as someone mentioned they were, in this thread.

 

I wouldn't exactly say Ford has embraced it. Maybe more like a limp, flaccid handshake. Ford could have easily developed an extensive hybrid program by now, complete with their own hybrid tech and several mainstay lines of HEVs. Instead, they have one SUV (two if you count the Mariner) in which they have acquired all of their hybrid components and technology from overseas. Sure, Ford is the lesser of three evils, but to suggest that they are American pioneers of the hybrid car doesn't seem right. That said, somebody had to start somewhere, and Ford is to be commended for at least taking the first steps. It's just that they clearly had the resources and the wherewithal to do so much earlier than now.

I, too, am upset at the American auto industry. But I don't want to see them flounder and fail, because like challenger1 said, that's something no one really wants. The big three are like errant family members - sure, they're screwing up, and causing strife and pain in the family (that's our country), but deep down we really want them to succeed, because we're all family, and our fates are interconnected. Maybe they need to be sent off to military boarding school for a while.

 

Just to try to set the record straight....

Toyota and GM did work together on hybrids for quite some time. Toyota might even grudgingly admit that they learned a lot in the process. GM let the JV expire rather than renew the co-operative effort in order to pursue focused development of the Two-Mode Hybrid system that will launch on the next generation Tahoe. I know this to be a fact because I used to work for one of the key people involved in the original collaborative effort.

I work at GM and can easily within the next 5 minutes call 10 people that THINK they know what the company's direction on hybrid products is and get 15 different answers. It's a big company and not everyone is tuned in on every aspect of the company's strategies. I know the GM hybrid strategy because it is part of my job. On the other hand, don't ask me about what we're doing to implement new radio strategies. I could give you my opinion on radio strategy and pass it off as fact, but that would be wrong and you'd have no way of knowing the difference. I've seen several things in the press quoting GM employees on hybrid direction that I know to be wrong or maybe just out of date. That is part of the reason my signature is what it is. I refuse to put myself in that situation. If the member you quoted was accurate in reporting what they were told, that would imply that GM will not be in the hybrid market until 2013 (10 yrs after the 2004 model year). GM will have hybrid product in 2006.

Peace,

James