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| Yes | 50% | 53 votes | Total: 105 votes | |
| No | 50% | 52 votes |
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Add to FavoritesThere is no doubt that if U. S. manufacturers build quality automobiles with economy of operation, they will sell. Build quality, particularly for GM, has increased in recent years. Edmunds rated the Chevrolet Malibu as equal in build quality to the benchmark models: the Honda Accord and the Toyota Camry.
Actually, it is a misnomer to consider Ford and Chrysler U.S. manufacturers since Fords primary production facilities are in Hermosa, Mexico and Chrysler builds most of theirs in Canada. The foreign cars, Toyota, Honda, Hundya and KIA manufacture most of their cars in the U.S.
Even in producing hybrids, the big three have targeted their huge SUVs first. Chevy makes a hybrid Suburban; GMC both a Yukon SUV and a truck. Ford has offered the hybrid SUV Escape, in mileage, the best of the SUVs. Recently both Ford with the hybrid fusion and Chevrolet's Malibu hybrid have come closer to the mark, offering 30-35 mile per gallon economy and offering it in a popular mid-size car. This, however does not compare well with the new Honda Insights 41 mpg and falls far short of bench mark Toyota Prius' 50 mpg.
U. S. manufacturers, in order to survive must target their smaller cars for increases in economy. Chevrolet has in the Cobalt a popular smaller car that offers a great platform for a hybrid, but they need first to improve the mileage of their four cylinder engine, making it competitive with Hundya, KIA, and the Japanese offerings.
Hybrids, however, must be looked upon only as transitional models moving us to lesser dependence on OPEC oil. The goal must be to move to non-fossil fuel transportation. Hydrogen power, while a great idea, needs a great deal of engineering before it becomes practical. Solar power needs too great an array of solar panels to be practical at present, but solar panels supplementing a hybrid, might be a move in the right direction. Innovative bio-fuels are being developed and in the future we may be able to use products now considered to be waste, to power our automobiles.
Critical to our solution for the survival of the big three is for them to restructure their manufacturing to provide American manufacturing jobs. Henry Ford understood that his way to great wealth was to build cars inexpensive enough that the people who built them could afford to buy them. Our present management teams need to recapture his vision of the car for everyman, and if the bring in a hybrid priced competively with Honda and Toyota with the same build quality they have, they can survive, possibly even thrive.
Learn more about this author, Norman Weibel.
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No
Hybrid cars can't save the US auto industry. There are several reasons people are buying fewer new American cars, and offering more hybrids will not solve any of them.
The high cost of a new car is one reason the US auto industry is failing. Even the low end of the pricing spectrum is far beyond the means of those who are either jobless or concerned about losing their jobs, not to mention those who are either homeless or concerned about losing their homes. Instead of hybrid cars offering a hopeful alternative to high pricing, they are still a higher initial expense than their non-hybrid counterparts. Rebates, tax credits, and efficient operation narrow the pricing gap, but the fact remains that in order to alleviate the cost problem, hybrids would have to be significantly LESS expensive, not simply comparable in price. In these devastating economic times, people are fixing up their old cars more and more. A potential customer who is concerned that he may lose his job any day is highly unlikely to feel comfortable about committing to five years or more of high monthly payments. When building hybrids successfully solves the employment and housing crisis, maybe it can be considered as a partial solution to the failing US auto industry.
The preference of many American car buyers for foreign vehicles is another reason the US auto industry is failing. It doesn't matter whether their preference is based on reputation, satisfaction, superior workmanship, better pricing, design, or color choices, the cold hard truth is that customers are choosing foreign built autos over the home grown variety in ever increasing numbers. When faced with the choice between an American hybrid and a foreign hybrid, this unfortunate preference remains, which leads to the conclusion that simply building the same type car as foreign automakers will not automatically (or immediately) translate to more sales, and will not thereby save the US auto industry.
Financial mismanagement is an additional reason the US auto industry is failing. US auto manufacturers could build all the hybrids they want in the years to come, but that will not change the fact that among other things, the pension funds have been mismanaged, rising costs of manufacturing have not been controlled responsibly, and research and development budgets have not kept pace with industry needs. Making a decision to build hybrids will do nothing but insure that US automakers will now be mismanaging production of hybrids rather than traditional gas-only automobiles.
Building hybrids will not even begin to address the fundamental problems causing the decline of the US auto industry.The sales slowdown due to a floundering economy and low consumer confidence, the ever-increasing preference for foreign vehicles by American car buyers, gross mismanagement of the US auto corporations, along with a myriad of additional issues, all appeared on the scene long before hybrid cars. Unfortunately for all of those affected, hybrid cars cannot save the US auto industry.
Sources:
http://www.edmunds.c om/advice/hybridcars /articles/103708/art icle.html
http://www.americanc hronicle.com/article s/view/11242
Learn more about this author, Doug Clore.
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