"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...

On Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:26:46 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:

That may change (and it should), but the point is .... Detroit builds what
people buy.

Right up until they don't.

Detroit made two big mistakes:

1. They thought they could keep pushing profitable big iron forever.

2. They could never figure out how to build a small, high quality,
economical car at a reasonable price. Given the high cost of their
labor content it may have been impossible but they never really tried.

Is there any reason why GM could not have produced something like a
Toyota Corolla or a small pickup truck even if they had to build it
offshore? People have certainly bought plenty of them from Toyota so
we can't claim the demand wasn't there.


It's the margins. The small cars don't produce enough to cover the total
company costs.
Never have.

Build offshore? Now, there's a UAW strike in the making.

Actually, the Ford Ranger has been a very successful product for Ford over
the years. It's really a Mazda.
To a lesser degree, GM's S-10 series has been a good seller. I believe
it's also based on a Japanese platform (Isuzu ?)

Eisboch