(fark thread reply, 2005.05.06)
neofonz has the right general idea: GM is such a big mess, there’s more than enough blame to go around. Unions are neither the sole or the worst cause, but come on, even the most pro-union people have to see some culpability here. And the health insurance mess is certainly part of the problem, but GM isn’t the only company who deals with this issue and all the other ones didn’t suddenly go to junk bond status. Shortsighted execs who have for years let the bean counters have dramatically more say then actual design engineers, resulting in a generally horrible product line (with some exceptions, sure, but mostly, yuck) also deserve a big chunk of the blame, too.
There is no one single, simplistic cause–ALL of these factors have been brewing for years, and it’s finally come to a head. Frankly, I’m surprised its taken this long; I’ve been expecting this since 1991 when I drove literally everything in GM’s entry-level (non-truck) lineup and without exception, they all sucked badly. GM didn’t give a rip about good design or build for reliability then and I haven’t seen (much) change since.
The one group I would NOT blame, though, is the U.S. consumer. For most consumers, a car is the second-largest purchase made besides a house. Why should consumers shelling out five figures of their own money be required to buy an obviously inferior product? (This might not apply to trucks, I don’t know, but for entry- and mid-level sedans, GM has been producing an incessant line of crap for years.) To maybe save the pension of some anonymous factory worker who makes $25/hour for putting on screws and lives a thousand miles away? What’s that factory worker going to do to save my job if its threatened? Do any UAW-protected employees shop at Wal-Mart? I think the whole “buy American” thing is just an attempted guilt trip by GM/Ford to try to get American consumers to accept products they know to be worse. I’ll spend my money on what I think is the best use of my resources for my family, thank you very much.