GM to Reduce NASCAR Funding

[harvick#1]

Sweat shops would be a common thing if it weren't for unions. It's not rocket science.

I work in a sweat shop and I am union : nothing better then sweating off 2 gallons a day in the heat

[Sparky1329]

I work in a sweat shop and I am union : nothing better then sweating off 2 gallons a day in the heat

You're also a smartazz kid.

[gshevlin]

...are now suffering from the cumulative impact of their failure to focus on smaller car and powerplant engineering for the domestic US market, and their past failures with build quality and reliability.
I sat and watched the same process unfold in the UK in the 1970's and 1980's with the British volume car industry. After nearly 20 years of producing mediocre, over-priced vehicles, the industry got its act together in the 1980's. However, despite demonstrating much better reliability, the perception that British cars were unreliable was impossible to overcome in time to prevent loss of market share, which eventually drove the British manufacturers out of business or into the arms of foreign companies.
Ford, GM and Chrysler may not be able to survive in the medium-term. The debates about the roles of unions are really a sideshow, much like the debates about the roles of unions in the demise of the UK car companies. The bottom line was that in the UK, the companies produced over-priced sub-standard vehicles lacking in imagination, and that, more than any day-to-day union issues, was the major contributor to their demise.
The biggest mistake made here was when the Carter administration exempted light trucks from car fuel efficiency standards, which gave the auto manufacturers the ability to continue with their use of existing drivetrains and building methods. SUVs and trucks were a cash cow until fuel prices eliminated those models as major revenue sources. This is analagous to the airline business model, which for many years relied on business people paying high dollars for walk-up fares. Once the business folks realized that they could use Orbitz etc. just like anybody else, that business model became a quaint relic. Ditto the current Big Three business model for the US, which was based on older vehicle and drivetrain packages. They need to rapidly create smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles (which some of them could bring in from elsewhere in the world). It's adapt rapidly or die time.

[RaceFanStan]

If ANY of the (American) Big 3 (GM, Ford or Chrysler) reduce their participation in NASCAR ...
Toyota will eagerly pump in plenty of money & factory support to the abandoned teams

I understand that the sales by the (American) Big 3 are down ...
but now would be a bad time for them to implement cut-backs in NASCAR ...
IF ANY of the Big 3 fumble the ball, Toyota WILL pick it up & score big

(Toyota now has a strong hold in NASCAR, can Honda be far behind ?)

[call_me_andrew]

Its wierd how Ford have a bad rep in the states for being unreliable. I read a little while ago that in the states Ford came 4th or 5th in a pole asking about reliablity. Where as here in the UK Ford came top. Wierd?. Maybe Ford US need to look at Ford Europes line of cars. although the line of cars arent that much different these days are they?.

Well the thing to remember is that it was a poll that measured opinion. J. D. Power and Associates ranks Ford's build quality very highly. They base their information on the number of times a vehicle is serviced in a given number of miles. They base their results on fact rather than opinion. Reputation is more of the problem than anything else.

20-30 years ago, Americans usually considered imported cars to be of lower quality. American brands knew this, so they decided to get lazy. They cut back on quality because they knew people would buy their cars because the name plate had good reputation. Now the tide has turned and they're playing catch-up. Ford has recently announced it's going to start selling some of it's European cars in the U.S., mostly as a reaction to rising fuel prices.

[Jonesi]

If ANY of the (American) Big 3 (GM, Ford or Chrysler) reduce their participation in NASCAR ...
Toyota will eagerly pump in plenty of money & factory support to the abandoned teams

I understand that the sales by the (American) Big 3 are down ...
but now would be a bad time for them to implement cut-backs in NASCAR ...
IF ANY of the Big 3 fumble the ball, Toyota WILL pick it up & score big

(Toyota now has a strong hold in NASCAR, can Honda be far behind ?)

Not only will Toyota up their participation, but Honda will probably jump in too.

[Sparky1329]

Not only will Toyota up their participation, but Honda will probably jump in too.

I agree with you both. They play to win.

[harvick#1]

You're also a smartazz kid.

I can, I'm union :

[Sparky1329]

I can, I'm union :

You got it!

[ms0362]

To much marketing towards low mileage vehicles and not enough time to re-tool. Thanks to our fine congress (Pelosa and Reid) gas prices are through the roof. No one's touching trucks and SUV's. Ford and GM have to many eggs in that basket.

Look for some tight times with race teams. I think we reached our peak about to years ago, now it's time to trend down. Less spectators, less teams, less development dollars, less cars in the field and probably less races.