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Apparently they're going to get their loan, whether its $25 or $50 billion, and I am conflicted about it. On the one hand I understand that times are tough, circumstances unusual; that an already weakened country can't afford the additional stress of a failed auto industry. But the incompetence of the manufacturers really pisses me off, and I can't understand how it got to this point. I can't believe there is something magical about building decent midrange cars, at the very least and for the sake of the survival of their companies why can't they copy the assembly and layout of other more successful cars like the Honda Accord or Toyota Camry. I know they know exactly what makes the import cars so successful on a mechanical level, they can't not know. They must have taken apart plenty of Accords, Camrys and other successful cars to see what makes them tick. I have a feeling cost is the issue; it would cost them too much to engineer a decent car from scratch, what else can explain it given the level of knowledge and sophistication of American engineers - who can send men to the moon and back in spaceships but can't apparently for the life of the company build a simple, reliable, affordable car.
Maybe they should be allowed to go into banckruptcy, but maybe the strain would be too much for too many people. The historical precendent of Chrysler taking on a government loan and paying it back 7 years early thanks to competent leadership says to me that loans might work in 2008, but what if they don't?
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