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Japanese automakers worry about fate of GM, Chrysler

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Japanese automakers worries are genuine and they will have sleepless nights even if GM and Chrysler are finally bailed out.

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Back in my teens, I and just about everyone around me had the thoughts or dreams of getting that first car. Got to work that part-time job to pay for those car and exorbitant insurance payments. Need a job because I need a car and need a car because need a job. How stupid I think of it now. But it was in our culture. Today? It still is in our culture but it's really changing. If I were in my teens or college today? Screw it! I'll gladly take the bus with my laptop or iPod full of videos. Got to get a date? Then hook up with myspace. It's not just GM. It's all the car companies that face this danger of today's changes and technology. I love cars. But I really love the freedom of not needing one. Cars will continue being important but the days of one for each member of the family 16 or over....is over.

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nishikat, cool post thanks that was worth reading. yeah sadly the big three are no more. More and more small niche manufacturers will move into the market. Tesla as a case in point.

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gotta read between the lines. are they afraid of nationalized automakers, or the crippling of the partsmaker network which has remained in the background?

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Well, I guess they are just part of the few remaining bush loyalists who actually MISS the worst president ever, from the get-go, and don7t realize that President Obama's brilliant plan to make himself the CEO of GM is a stroke of brilliance, and said stroke might even SAVE Japanese automakers(whose tv commercials played all during the WBC and Ichiro's absolutely disgusting antics) from a similar fate. Anyways, my friends, it is safe to say that if GM fails it will be bush's fault, and of course the LDP supported him, so really Japan has no one to blame and should have listened to foreigners like me who can often see Japan AND America even more clearly than citizens of said countries.

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Yes, thanks be to Obama and his brilliant business foresight! Team up with Fiat, that workhorse maker of fine automobiles. I wonder if he would consider taking over my sat TV provider, the service really sucks for the price I am paying.

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You mean Fix It Again Tony (FIAT?). Well, when you look at Chrysler's build quality you'll have to agree that the two are made for each other.

What surprises me about the whole auto maker debacle is the contrast with the way the banks are being treated. We can argue all day long that the UAW members make too much (at least 2x of their Japanese US factory peers) but these guys will not be able to find another job easily. That's something like 140,000 people out of work if GM closed. They aren't getting much help from the government, are they.

By contrast the banks have been handed hundreds of billions with no strings attached and no accountability. Oh, there is that little bit about $165M of bonuses, but that is 2% of $700B. No bankers have been forced to give up their jobs by the government. Bankers who leave will be highly likely of finding jobs elsewhere as their skills can transfer.

I had imagined (hoped? believed? trusted?) that the current administration would try to take action to mitigate the effects of the actions of the filthy rich bankers on the workers who have no hope or recouping what they loose. Instead the bankers are handed cash while the little guys are screwed.

Not only that, the ripple effects of a "big three" slowdown or closing will affect many thousands more workers who only have their $50k a year jobs between themselves and personal disaster. This will help deepen the recession further and the effects will even be felt by the McD's workers.

I did not vote for the rich bankers getting free government money while the people get crushed. So much for change. I'm starting to think Obama is just Bush in a different suit.

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Yeah, Obama opens his mouth and says back to the drawing board GM and Chrysler and the Dow sheds 300 points. Maybe we should only allow him to make canned speaches about hope. Anyway as for the matter at hand Chrysler is DOA, someone may buy Jeep. GM and Chrsysler may be forced to merge as I can't see Fiat buying a stake in Chrysler essentially at gun point. The latest gossip in auto circles is that Fiat buys Saab from GM for pennies on the dollar. All Fiat really wants is a sales channel not Chrysler's factories or products. Ca1ic0cat: I agree with your analysis of where the bailout money is spent and I too am shocked that the Whitehouse actually pressured Rick Wagoner to step down. When are we going to see some of the banking CEOs pushed out? I am not a fan of bailouts for any industry but really the double standard we are seeing is shocking. Obama doesn't care about manufacturing jobs he's just another elitist like the last goon we had but from a different party. The question everyone needs to ask is when the big three are gone who is going to build our tanks and bombs the next time we get into a big war? Maybe if we ask the Chinese really nicely they can do it. No foresite, no leadership, and no vision of the big picture. I wonder how all the UAW workers feel about the "change you can believe in"?

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m010: I'd have to say the Japanese are afraid of the supply chain for US operations being crippled if GM and Chrysler fail. They are equally afraid of nationalization as it will mean unfair competition in the market place.

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Obama. Complete disaster.

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teleprompter what would you do? spend more and more public funds supporting uncompetitive producers? Auto makers are reaping the returns of poor business skills.

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I think the only reason Japanese auto manufacturers would worry about the fate of the big three is because they will be accused of causing the damage. It's a well known fact that the Japanese have been targeting the US market for years, all the while keeping it's own markets closed to open competition from every corner of the world. When was the last time you saw a Kia or Hyundai on the streets of Tokyo ? GM's ? Forget it, all kinds of silly excuses but none of them valid. Now the Japanese have ruined the US market much like their own by overselling without any consideration to market absorption mechanisms. Lets hope the US has learned their lesson and "encourages" the Japanese to seek more business opportunities in Europe ! I see a revival of the big three with the distribution of their own electric and hybrid models, no need to have Toyota and Honda around !

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