Amercan Automakers Now Asking for Buckets...

So now the 'big 3' are asking for bailout money. They say that they need it to survive. I say this... make better vehicles. Now some may argue that American cars are good cars... but let me sum up my personal experience with the different vehicles I have owned since I was old enough to drive.

1. Chevy Sprint - American - nice small car, great gas mileage, it only had a 3-cylinder engine. It only lasted about 60,000 miles before it was in such bad shape that I could only sell it for $500. Personal Verdict - it cost me alot of money to keep it running and resale value was terrible. Oh did I mention that it was an automatic transmission and was stuck in 4th gear for the last 30,000 miles that I owned it? I had to go manually from low to 2nd, to drive just to get any type of giddy up on the highway.
2. Chrysler Lebaron Blacktop Convertible (1990) - I really liked this car despite it's issues. It had a V6 engine which was like all the power in the world compared to the Sprint. I bought it used when it had 75,000 miles on it. A month after I bought it, I had to spend $2000 on a new transmission. A week after I got it from the transmission company, the engine blew out costing me another $1500 worth of repair. A year after that, the 'new' transmission began slipping again requiring yet another $1000 repair. I owned that car for about 3 years total and put into it more money than I would have making payments on a new car. It was retired back in 2001 when I destroyed it in a car accident.
3. Toyota Celica Hatchback (1991) - this was probably my favorite car. I was hesitant at buying a used car with 160,000 miles on it, but I got a great deal on it. I am a Toyota fan for life because of this car. I ran it to a total of 260,000 miles with the original engine and transmission and only had one major repair - an ignition coil. After all that, I sold the car for $500 more than I paid for it.
4. Toyota Tacoma Prerunner (2003) - my current vehicle. I've crashed it twice and put a ton of miles on it. I bought this vehicle new and plan on having it run for me for a long time to come. After 2 accidents and 70,000 miles, it still books for about 50% of what I paid for it new. After my 2nd accident in the truck (an accident that happened at highway speed on black ice), my insurance adjuster approved repairs without even looking at it while making the statment, 'it takes an awful lot to total a Tacoma, they're just too tough to break'.

I will never go back to a vehicle made by a large American manufacturer. When they argue that it costs more to make an American car because they don't have cheap labor, it just isn't true; Toyota vehicles are made in America, by Americans, who make American money and benefits. In fact, I have a friend who left the assembly line at GM years ago just to go work at Toyota because they paid him more money and offered better benefits.

The American automakers don't need more money. They need better vehicles and an open mind to new ideas. If it was your money, would you choose to invest in a company that has a business model that's designed to lose money on every product they sell? Oh wait... it is your money... our money... it looks as if we probably will be paying for cars made by the 'big 3' whether we drive them or not, whether we like it or not.