Is the Traditional Detroit 3 As We Know It A Thing Of The Past?

That's a well written article in my mind. Fairly pointed out who saved whom, and reminded that American owner Cerberus didn't take care of Chrysler as well as Italian Fiat "seems" to be. I have never liked Chrysler products but having said that, I must say that Chrysler was the best American car mfr at making iconic cars (Viper, Neon, Jeep, Crossfire, PT Cruiser). It's too bad that it is difficult for companies to survive on these small volume cars. Chrysler reminds me of Lancia and Alfa Romeo.

Its very unfortunate that Chrysler is lost to Fiat of all companies. Germany is a nation of 80M and has VW, BMW & Mercedes, all growing in their respective markets. Japan has Nissan, Toyota & Mazda... with 127M people. The people in those companies are no better than US counterparts so whats the missing link?

Clearly the US companies have not been as globally focused as their competition. The others focused on the #1 market (US) and better positioned themselves globally. GM & Ford were not well integrated & Chrysler basically pulled out of global markets in the 80's All 3 focused on the US really until perhaps the mid 1990's. But to lose a company with the history of Chrysler, when 16 yrs ago it was the most profitable car company in the world. http://money.cnn.com/1998/05/06/deals/benz/

Who has the answer?

when you use materials as cheap as they did back then its not hard to be most profitable. When I see most profitable I see two things, wither it is extremely cheaply made, or very over priced.

Do you know who owns Ray-Ban now? Italians.

Do you know who owns Jeep now? Italians.

Do you know what the rich Americans prefer? Anything European.

There is no country for Made in the U.S.A. because there is no such thing anymore.

The Europeans care about history. The Americans do not.

The European countries have a better standard of living. America has....no comment.

The Europeans know how to produce luxury products. Japanese know how to make cheap stuff, but quality is usually very high.
The Americans mass-produce cheap stuff, and usually Made in China quality.

The United States itself is a very cheap country, with many cheap people. No wonder no rich American would even want to associate themselves with those Average Joe Americans, meaning they do not want GM, Ford or Chrysler junk. And not even Japanese as well.

What they want, is a uber status symbols like Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Lamborghini, Bugatti, etc. How do they want to spend the day? Drive a German car, wear Swiss watch, wear French shoes and go to Italian luxury restaurant for dinner with girlfriend.

How do the Average Joe Americans spend the day? Play World of Warcraft, wear Nike, drive Cadillac Cimarron, go to McDonald's, come back home and use your Windows to go on Twitter and maybe play some WoW again.

Actually that Average Joe kind of sounds like me to be honest. But do I want to live like the rich Americans? No.


By the way, population has nothing to do with anything. It is about history. Why can't the U.S. have the brands like Toyota and such that could be quite successful in the U.S.?

Because GM, Ford and Chrysler only care about making unreliable pieces of junk that no one wants to buy. That is the American tradition. Just make garbage, and sell, because some idiots would buy those anyway.

And the idiots like xjug1987a wonder why the Americans can't have good brands like Toyota or Nissan.

And I'm sure this idiot doesn't know that Toyota is actually not even really making a lot of efforts in the North American market. Toyota has really great cars like Mark X, Crown and Century which are pretty much only sold in Japan and some Asian countries. I do not know why Toyota is not serious about bringing such amazing vehicles here, but Toyota is clearly not too serious about the American market. But they seem to focus more on the Japanese market.

And this idiot actually thinks GM, Ford and Chrysler actually focused on the U.S. market. When? They have been mass producing garbage since 1980's.

FCA is all about making Fiat an AMERICAN company given that Marchionne made no bones about moving headquarters to the USA. German ownership was a financial rape last time by Mercedes. VW is arguable more clueless about the American market. At least Fiat LISTENS. Fiat could build its products here and ship to Europe. Better quality. Lower cost. Granted that comes with the idiocy of the UAW, but that's less than the psychotic idiocy of the Italian unions.

Haha but I guess I am still an idiot. I still buy Ford trucks, though..

I really wish this country came back to normal. Nowadays, it's just, insane. This is not what America used to be.

Check your facts...GM and especially Ford are not producing unreliable junk. THAT honor goes to VW, BMW, and Mercedes.

BobM you are completely right. The big 3 has such huge legacy costs the cars they built simply were not competitive at the price point. They could have built more expensive, better cars but they would have been priced out of the market. They shifted away from cars because Trucks & SUV's were areas they could be profitable. They created the SUV but it could only sustain for so long. Labor is the most expensive component in mfg and the Big 3 were strapped.