file bankruptcy and get it over with. Why are they being rewarded for not pursing hyrid technology and hydrogen technology 15 years ago? Honda, Toyota, and Nissan should the new american companies of the future.

Let them go under, They have let the unions make them a non-viable commodity. Shut their doors, FIRE the unions, reorganize and rename, reopen NON-Union, and welcome the profits. I drove Chevy’s all my life until a few years ago, and would like to again but I will not buy a union made car. They have outlived their usefullness.

Stop asking the Big 3 to go bankrupt.  Why are the Big 3 singled out as the bad guy when it is the politicians and investors who got us in this mess?  A bankrupt Big 3 will have a ripple effect throughout the auto industry (affecting foreign car companies as well) and the entire economy.  Be careful what you ask for ... a bankrupt Big 3 will literally lead them to their end, which ultimately means less competition and higher car prices down the line.  And sooner rather than later, the US will be flooded with Chinese-made cars.  And we know how their quality stacks up.

GM and Ford are on the right path to recovery and profitability, so give them the loans (not a bailout).  The quality of Ford cars can match against Toyota and Honda, and GM isn’t far behind.  GM will revoltionalize the auto industry with the Chevy Volt, and Ford has several nice-looking models coming over from Europe.

What has long plagued the Big 3 is the union and their ridicuously high salary and healthcare.  How can you expect a car company whose union workers earn 79/hour, compared to 47/hour at Toyota, to compete?  How can you blame them for making SUVs when the demand for them was high, which brought in huge profits to offset the excessively high union costs?  It’s just not profitable for the Big 3 to make fuel-efficient small cars when the cost to make them (thanks to the union) is so high that it makes no economical sense.

If you favor allowing the Big 3 to go under, be fair and let the financial institutions like AIG, Citigroup, etc. fail too.  The auto industry is just as vital and bankruptcy of the Big 3 will lead to disastrous results that should not be underestimated.

We can all agree that there is plenty of blame to go around in the current dysfunction in the Big 3. It’s shocking to hear “let them die” there in Detroit.I think that attitude is short sighted and demonstrates that some of you have no concept of what so many Americans losing their jobs would really look like.
LOAN them the money with guidelines then get out of their way! We need to keep this manufacturing base here. Post World War II Detroit ushered in an whole era of prosperity for all the rest of us to use as a base to build our lives on, enabling us to reach further.
Post 9/11, post Katrina, the Detroit auto manufacturers helped strengthen the national economy offering 0% loans to keep all of us going.

Now we need to keep them going. Buy American, demand the cars you want and shame on all the media who continue spread myths about inferior quality or engineering of Detroit cars. It’s time to show some loyalty and encourage progress already being made, the intellectual capital is already there.

One more little know fact worth considering: Millions of state and federal tax dollars have already been spent to attract foreign car companies to set up factories here (think of tax incentives, tax breaks, land donations, financing to build plants, etc). I’m not saying that was a bad move, but it doesn’t make sense to hold up foreign companies as holier than the Big 3.

At first I didn’t think we should help the Big 3 due to them flying private jets and living on HUGE incomes a year, while innocent hard workers all over the world were losing their jobs and wondering how they were going to feed their families. BUT everyone deserves a second chance and if their willing to go down to a $1 a year and get rid of their private jets that has to speak for something. Maybe their not so high and mighty after all! So they financially messed up SO have I and I am sure so has everybody else! I believe the Humility they have learned through this will teach them a long hard lesson. Maybe it will teach us all something. Bailout who we can so that when the time come we ourselves may one day be bailout as well!

Chinese made cars?  GM has a bigger market and more manufacturing capability in China than it does here!  No wonder they are going bankrupt.  The head needs to be cut off.

I’d love to see the Big 3 crash and burn.  Horrible products.  I don’t care if the competition is gone and it drives the prices up of those who can survive.  I’ll gladly pay double for a Honda.  I know it will last and be worth repairing in the future.

1992 Accord with 250,000 on the original engine and it runs like new!  No wonder the Big 3 can’t sell.  Show me a late 80’s or early 90’s vehicle from GM that hasn’t had a transmission or engine put into it, without plastic parts falling off the enterior, and just a general “unsafe” feel while driving it.  You’d have better odds winning the lottery than finding that car.

Off with their heads!

Using taxpayer dollars to “bail out” the American car industry is not the answer. It would be like investing in the typewriter industry on the eve of the PC revolution. The next wave is electric cars, and the infrastructure to power those cars. We should be using taxpayer dollars to invest in battery swaps/electric power stations along highways/ and other innovative ways to cut the oil addiction. The Big 3 took billions of dollars from our government to invest in hybrid/electric cars years ago—they used the money to make gashog SUVs. I don’t know the right answer, but I vote for my tax dollars to go to the future industry, not the past.