by Carson Margedant

Created on: December 03, 2008   Last Updated: February 08, 2010

The end of days is near and we in America find ourselves at a crossing of train tracks. I said train tracks instead of crossroads due to a lack of control. The stock market moves up and down, which for all the laymen knows is the will of Illuminati. Jobs are down, housings cheap and gas is on vacation awaiting the news to see which of the car companies will sputter and die and how may we best leave the sinking ship. I will make a startling assumption right here and now; none of the big three will fall. People actually like Ford (NYSE:F), General Motors (NYSE:GM) is a linchpin holding a good chunk of the economy upright and as for Chrysler, (owned by Cerberus Capital Management, no stock symbol) there will always be a Charlie Brown out in the world that thinks he can make that three points.

If it was a question of who "should" fail I'd have to say GM. General Motors is a starfish bureaucracy, each separate branch must have each needed organ lest the branch dies if rendered asunder from the whole. The problem is that in the natural world that's a means of reproduction, in the GM world you just end up with one huge starfish. Even Saab (born from jets and then separated from them by about twenty years of ownership) makes cars that wow only those of us with a GM discount. There is no need for SUVs that define utility as utility draining, two completely identical truck lines , or for that matter a trans-am replacement that looks like a mid-line Mazda. Pontiac must be drinking itself stupid remembering bygone days when it's freak flag ran high with outrageous screaming chickens and front ends who ate all Challengers and Chargers in their path. Really, is there anything more hated in this country than mediocrity?

Who of the three would most likely fail? Unsurprisingly, Chrysler takes that trophy home. They price wrong, as a whole they get marginal to just plainly terrible gas mileage and they seem to propagate an ideal of entitlement within their marketing that could make an oil sheik cringe. Yet I can not bring myself to hate them. For all their drunken stumbling and stupid statements they are trying. It is just hard for me to bring ire down on those whose grasp extends beyond their reach.

Ford's sins are General Motors sins except lesser. They will survive and they may in fact thrive after all this unpleasantness is done. Let's move on to the world at large.

Now let's turn are attention to the world at large. The next one to be spoken of is Volkswagen (VLKAY.OB). Volkswagen has a problem with regression. Ever since the introduction of the new beetle it has been subtly going backwards through the 90s (guzzling gas along the way) starting with the strangely boxed in Jetta, the SUV Tuareg and finally the minivan Routan. I fear we shall see the birth of the Volkswagen and Hitler receding from Poland soon. Another foreign automaker that may see trouble ahead is Hyundai (
HYMLF.PK). Hyundai is marketing itself as the superior counterfeit to Lexus, Mercedes and the like and I wonder if people want to be reminded of their financial deficiencies. Then there is of course Toyota (NYSE:TM). Toyota's is big problem is that they must serve the two masters Tundra and Prius which tend to nullify each other.

So who wins? I'd say Ford, Nissan (NasdaqCM:NSANY), Honda (NYSE:HMC) and Mitsubishi (NYSE:MTU). Ford is just plain old mundane competence, Despite it's shy nature Nissan has got itself a nice grove next to the ranger pushing Chevy to the sidelines. Honda has a line of cars that are innovative and affordable. Mitsubishi has successfully latched itself into Japan's economy in such a way that removing it would cause a hemorrhage. Overall though, the players are the same and we'll all make it through.

Learn more about this author, Carson Margedant.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.