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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bentway who wrote (289188)	5/29/2006 3:24:29 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1572099

General Motors estimates that health care costs add about $1,500 to the cost of each vehicle it makes in the United States. Chrysler claims a health care cost of $1,400 per vehicle. Ford says its burden is $1,100. You keep citing these numbers as if they tell the whole story.......if they did and cost were the only reason why Americans are buying Japanese cars, then I would be the first to say that you are on to something. But the truth be known, a thousand dollar difference in price is not the deal breaker that GM, Ford and you would have us believe. Sure price may cause them to lose sales to foreign companies and would explain a market share differential of a few pts. but we are not talking about a couple of points here in or there. GM alone has lost 20 market share pts since 1980. In light vehicle sales, the big three have seen their share of the market drop from 71% to 58% since 1990. carofthecentury.com GM once had 50% of the American market..........I think its down to 28%. I will never believe they lost that much market share because their cars cost $1000 more than Toyota's. In fact, I suspect "buying American" might marginalize that larger cost to some degree. No, the reality is Americans are buying foreign cars because of their better quality, better design and better technological prowess. Its that simple. Meanwhile, GM et al wring their collective hands over health and retirement costs instead of dealing with the real problem. Their upper mgmt stinks. Case in point......two years ago, Bill Ford vowed to not take a salary or bonus until Ford is profitable again. Suddenly, two months ago, its revealed he got $13 million in stock options last year. Oops! Classic American upper mgmt garbage in the automoble business! Get rid of the deadwood in GM and Ford.....and those with birthrights, and I bet they start taking back market share.