[Len_A]

Originally Posted by SamIam

The fact that the CEO's are showing up on private jets, costing $20K to fly them toWashington, where they are asking the government to write them a blank check, leaves me speechless. After seeing the public outcry over AIG and their spa visits, their travel mode is either the height of arrogance or stupiditiy. Either way, it seems they are the executives to lead this turnaround.

Also, in regards to "the way we've always done it", it seems to me that a private jet fleet is a very large non-vehicle related cost. If you are going to run out of money in a few months, don't you think the fleet should have been gone long ago?

I personally don't like the idea of them going bankrupt, but you also can't throw money at companies with leaders who don't understand the message they are sending when they show up in private jets. One of the reasons that Iacocca was successful in the Chrysler reorg was that he understood not only the organizational changes needed, but also the PR/political effort needed. When he came on TV and talked about what they were going to do, he drove sales and confidence that he had a plan. Rick Waggoner could never pull that off, especially now.

I also sell to T1, T2 and T3 suppliers. I understand the way that the Big 3 have leaned on them to drive costs down. I don't see suppliers being able to make up the difference in production costs needed to make the Big 3 competitive. They've got to get out from under union agreements and real estate contracts that are driving up costs. And repeatedly showing the Volt doesn't prove that they have a plan to become profitable.

I agree, someone who has led a turnaround is needed at each of the Big 3. Waggoner has been a failure at GM, Nardelli almost bankrupted Home Depot. Mulally of Ford, I don't know much about, but he's been there for, what, 3 years, and things haven't seemed to improve much.

That's my .02.

The three CEO's had the collective PR skills of a turnip. Nardelli in front of the Senate committee, and Mulally in front of the House, barely touched on how inter-dependent all of the automakers are with the suppliers. Nice sales job. Not.

And things just got worse. Henry Waxmam unseated John Dingell, a long time auto industry ally, on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.