Wish I could've helped

I've been facinated with the Chevy HHR. I liked the Dodge PT Crusier, but the HHR get's my vote even though I'm a "Ford man".

My girlfriend didn't have a clue what I was talking about when I brought up the HHR in a recent conversation so on our way home last night, we stopped in at RK Chevrolet and I showed her the HHR. As you might imagine, we were approached almost at once by a salesperson. As much as I hated to tell her, I told the salesperson right away that we were not in a position to buy a new car nor would we be for the foreseeable future, we were just looking. We drove past the Corvettes and I drooled, we drove by a white Silvarado pickup and I drooled some more. Having said that, I can't see the logic in buying a car by taking out a load with interest on a product that is only going to lose it's value the moment you drive it off the lot. When you calculate the costs of ownership and what a repair might cost you, it makes a lot more sense to just buy a $1500.00 beater that get's you there and back-when it breaks down, it'd cost less to replace the car than to have it fixed.

But I think now more than ever, any car dealer would really appreciate any business they could get.

It's sad to see what has happened to the American auto industry but I think it'd be dishonest to say they don't have any of the responsibility in the matter and the United Auto Workers union have led their greed translate into a sense of entitlement for many of their employees and labor costs that are leaving the American nameplates unable to compete.  There was even a strike because the autoworkers were caterwauling about their health benefits co-pays for medications were "too high" SOURCE

The increase was from $5.00 to a maximum of $40.00

These quotes are pretty funny in retrospect:

"We are willing to give some relief on health care costs, but we can't go as far as they are pushing," said Dan Donnellon, UAW shop chairman at the Warren plant and a worker there for 17 years. "I think we are fighting over exactly what the Big Three will be dealing with later this year. A lot of other locals have been supportive of us, knowing that."

"We've got a lot of older guys here who built this plant. We are willing to work with the company, but they are gouging us. If health care isn't the No. 1 issue for our union yet, it's going to be," said Frank Stuglin, a UAW servicing representative.

It seems to me that these attitudes were pretty short sighted-I mean given the fact that the big three automakers are all but on life-support and Congress is debating if they should pull the plug or not. I mean, if your not willing to make any sacrafice at all to help the company compete and survive, maybe you'd better think about a career opportunity at Wal-Mart or Burger King because as much as I hate to say it, "the company" doesn't "owe you" a thing and if your labor and benefit costs are so high the company can't compete, it's going to go down and leave you with nothing.

Now, if these companies go out of business the burden of the retired workers will probably fall on-you guessed it-the taxpayers and you know what? As a taxpayer, I don't like the idea of being told to pay more in what I earn to provide benefits to those with the arrogant sense of entitlement that some autoworkers have been noted for.

I also find this "they owe us" attitude pretty offensive in light of the fact that I know many people, and I'm sure you do too, who don't make anywhere near what your average auto worker makes, had no benefits whatsoever for themselves or their children and work just as hard each and every day. These workers are made to work on holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas without time and a half or even a small git card of any kind from their employer.

I remember several years ago, UPS drivers were on strike. I was at the T/A truckstop in Ontario, California talking to several other "long haulers" at the lunch counter and we all agreed-it the UPS drivers didn't want their jobs, all of us sitting at the counter would be more than happy to take them-good pay and benefits already and being home every night?

Sign me up!

So, I'm sure that HHR is still sitting up at RK Chevrolet and it'll probably stay there for a while. I'm not saying that the UAW are the only ones to blame-I mean, it takes a special kind of idiot to arrive in Washington aboard a private, corporate jet and ask for billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to bail out a mis-managed company. If I were the CEO of a major automaker, I think I would have driven one of my own products to Washington, sold all the private jets (if I could find a buyer), sent down an edict that everyone in the company who needs to go anywhere in a 400 mile range drives, everyone going over 400 miles will fly coach and we'd do a lot more cost cutting to get our products costs down. We'd start at the top. No more expensive anything until the crisis has passed and asking the production employees to give up anything would be the last option.

However, if the cars aren't moving off the lot into the hands of the people who wold buy them, it won't be long before the plants would have to be set at idle until demand picked back up.

I hope that they can survive-but I'm not sure if we've passed the point of no return.

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