Big 3 - Thumbs Up or Down?

This failure is crystal clear to me. Hybrid technology can be an expensive upgrade to make a vehicle reach new absolute improvements in mpg or Hybrid technology can be an expensive addition for a relative improvement on a horribly poor performing mpg vehicle. Only one of the above applications seems to make market sense.

On a seperate note, please keep contributing to Prius Chat. Your views are very welcome, if not total popular at times. The impending Detroit disaster will punish the innocent and guilty.

In the 1970s, Emission control technology insertion into cars showed the same US/Japan variation. The US cars spliced the new devices (e.g. catalytic converters) onto existing engines while the Japanese designed new engines compatable with the needed devices. So while US autos had degraded performance, the Japanese engines did not. (e.g. The higher back pressure from the cat converter degraded US engine perfomance)

The BAS approach shows the exact same short sightedness. AARRRGGHHH.

 

HOW TO SAVE A MAJOR AUTOMOBILE COMPANY

 

Distilling the Big Three to One Could Save Detroit | Newsweek Business | Newsweek.com

The notion of three powerful U.S. automakers is already an anachronism. These companies are husks of the mighty institutions that once ruled the road. Now they control less than half the U.S. auto market and will lose a combined $30 billion this year. Collectively they are burning through nearly $6 billion a month, and General Motors and Chrysler warn that by the end of the year they'll be broke. They'll head back to Washington this week (ideally by car pool) to beg for a bailout.
But Detroit actually has parts worth saving. Melding them into a single entity could buff up its best brands, like Chevy, Ford and Cadillac, while leaving the clunkers (Pontiac, Mercury, Saturn, et al.) by the side of the road. It would take a healthy dose of Nietzsche's "creative destruction," but that's preferable to total destruction, especially when you're talking about an industry that supports 2.5 million jobs. Other major American industries have undertaken calamitous consolidations to survive. Why should Detroit be spared from market forces?