I'll try to avoid the Union debate but I'll ask this.
How does any domestic auto maker compete fairly with a variance of over $20. per hour per plant employee?
This nearly always ends in a debate of foreign VS domestic so, I'll give you something to really bash away at me with so get your keyboards out, your facts straight and then fire away.
Today's domestic autos are equal or superior in almost every way to anything produced anywhere on the planet. I'll give you some simple examples from my personal garage that anyone who wishes to debate can have their own personal festival with:
* I drive a Chevy truck that is incomparable to anything foreign made. It's a new GM Crew Cab Duramax Dually. We've had three of them. They get well over 17 MPG in town and up-wards of 20 MPG on the road and they will out-pull, out-tow, out-muscle, out last any truck ever massed produced outside the US.
* We have two new Corvettes. They will also out-perform most any other production car on the planet in up-wards of a dozen categories at a fraction of the cost. Oh, by the way, my average MPG on this beast is currently 28.4 average over the past 7000 miles.
* We have a number of 30+ year old Chevys as well. Everyone has been well kept and maintained and some have been reasonably restored. Without exception, every one will sell at an open market price of many multiples their original purchase price from the dealer. In essence, they have been paying us to own them.
* I could go on for hours but I'll close this book with this one. My son Buzzz's first vehicle was a '75 Blazer. He still has this truck. It has over 500K miles and would sell well above it's original purchase price but the most valuable domestic-exclusive characteristic is it's full frame structure. At the age of 18 he fell asleep at the wheel after a very long hard weekend and hit a telephone pole directly in front of the driver at speed. Not only did the solid framework of this vehicle not crush, collapse and fold as the foreign automakers of the day were touting but it maintained it's structure sufficient to cut the pole off at the ground, knocking a 20 ft.+ section away. He was able to not only operate the truck thereafter but only a bumper, hood and grill was replaced to restore it's beauty. He and his passenger came home safely without a scratch. There never has been, and I doubt there will ever be a foreign vehicle that could have withstood such an impact and return my son to me unscathed as this Blazer did. As a result, my wife drives a new Suburban to this day and always will.
You could show me the wonders of the foreign auto makers until the cows come home but I'll respectfully pass on ever owning a foreign car. I'll also understand if you disagree.
Which foreign auto makers can stake these claims?
