Shouldn't the "american" auto makers be encouraged to make better cars?

Christiane Cattano: First of all, Chrysler is an American company. It is owned by and American investment firm called Cerberus Capital Management. Even when Daimler owned Chrysler, it was still considered American because the Chrysler headquarters were in the US, the US was where they were founded and their primary market.If you don't own any American cars, how do you know they are really that bad? So much of the negative reputation of American cars is based off of long since fixed issues from the late 1970s and 1980s. I currently drive a 1995 Chrysler and it is one of the best cars I have ever driven (right behind an 02 Suburban and 08 Impala). If you had to blame anyone, you should blame the UAW. The union demanded wages well above anything Toyota, Honda etc pay, thus making the cost to buy American higher than it should be. Starting income for unskilled labor for a UAW member is something like $17/hr. If a UAW worker is laid off, he can get 19% of his income for just ! staying at home and not quiting. If he goes to the union hall or the facotry, he can get his full wages for not working at all. The UAW is unreasonably taking as much money out of the Big Three as they can. You can also blame the credit crunch. No one can get loans to buy the cars, that is why all car sale are down. Finally, you can blame the slow switch over to compact cars form trucks when gas got expensive (but that has nothing to do with the quality of the product).This is also the first time the GM and Ford have even received a bailout (Chrysler got one in 1979). The current bailout also comes with some conditions that are designed to help increase sales so that the Big Three won't need another bailout....Show more

Kris Bozelle: No, stipulation will and have been made

Zora Mazzie: the american car companies r making amazing cars that can pratically drive themselves. GM and ford should charge more for their cars and come out with other models to get more mon! ey

Josefine Weekey: Until they get rid of the union, the! ridiculous pay rates, benefits and pension stuff...no matter what the govs do, they are wasting taxpayer's money. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out that they (carmakers) need to make good money to reinvest in everything to make better cars. Huge investment and reinvestment. But all the money they've made just been flowing into paying their unionized worker's skyhigh pay. Go figure.