On Dec 1, 6:57*am, terry wrote:
Item, somewhat tongue in cheek, on radio here.

Executives of the big three auto companies are going to Washington
again this week to lobby the government for a bail (hand?) out.

In view of the bad publicity they engendered last time by flying in
individually in their private company jets they will drive.

Fortunately the Toyota company has enough fuel efficient vehicles on
hand to lend them for the trip.

There that seems to say it all. Eh?

If General Motors et-al *want to survive they should make Toyotas.
Other companies around the world have done similar things. From China
there were numerous cheap versions of older model Toyota pickups, with
four cylinder engines, for example, running around Middle Eastern
countries.
Costing a few thousand dollars they are cheap and efficient in
countries where gasoline can cost as little as the equivalent of 50
cents per US gallon!

India is starting to produce cars that will cost between $2500 and
$5000 in various versions. The antics of the Big Three would seem to
have ignored the needs of those and also the needs of the European
market?


Hopefully they can enter bankruptcy instead of getting a bailout.
Under bankruptcy they can right-size the company; re-write supplier,
dealer and union contracts and move on with higher profit margins to
compete better with the more efficient companies. But they need to do
it before cash reserves dwindle, so they can re-org properly. Now
that gas is cheap, the trucks and suvs should sell again as a start.