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Gm treated better than Toyota

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by Molly David, Sep 17, 2015.

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  1. Molly David

    Molly David New Member

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    Why has GM been treated less harshly than TOYOTA over their ignition switch problems. Is this nationalistic favoritism? It seems like another example of unfairness to overseas companies. Just like BP's very harsh treatment over the gulf issue, bad though they were. Exxon got off relatively lightly over EXXON VALDEZ, IMO.

    Its time US regulators started to act in a balanced and fair way to overseas companies in this increasingly world competitive market. One might argue it is an unfair barrier to trade with US. It might be fairer if GM cars were or are half decent vehicles for the money compared with their competitors.
     
    Molly David, Sep 17, 2015
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  2. kreo

    kreo Well-Known Member

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    GM has unions, Toyota does not.
    Unions are pro government, that is why government treats GM better.
    This is a soft style of government corruption.
     
    kreo, Sep 17, 2015
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  3. Oxymoron

    Oxymoron Well-Known Member

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    Last time I checked we still live in a sovereign nation, and the interests of the American people should supersede "fairness" to foriegn companies.
     
    Oxymoron, Sep 17, 2015
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  4. RichT2705

    RichT2705 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Everyones mileage will vary, (sorry for bad pun). Myself I like GM cars. I only buy American and wouldn't care if we tarriffed the foreign stuff right outta here.
     
    RichT2705, Sep 17, 2015
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  5. Doug_yvr

    Doug_yvr Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Have you got a link or something to support this?

    The two events are hardly comparable. BPs spill was 600 times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill. If you want to take costs per gallon spilled it works out like this:
    BP: $128/gal
    Exxon: $507/gal

    Exxon didn't get off lightly.
     
    Doug_yvr, Sep 17, 2015
    #5
  6. Lee S

    Lee S Moderator Staff Member Past Donor

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    I doubt our President, who is the ultimate head of the regulatory apparatus, likes our country enough to favor American corporations over foreign ones. I am pretty sure he sees American corporations are the source of all evil in the world so the notion that he would have a tendency to favor American Corporations over foreign ones seems out of character. In the case of GM (Government owned Motors), the recalls should be a huge source of embarrassment to an administration that the company is run so incompetently after the President installed his handpicked lackey to run the company so I am thinking the administration would try to downplay the recalls as much as possible. Hanging Toyota is a vindication of the GM debacle so it was played up.

    As for Exxon versus BP, I respectfully do not believe your premise is correct. The Exxon corporation was savaged by the media and was hit with the maximum fines that the law would allow.at that time. Corporate executives (who weren't drunk while piloting a ship through a narrow sound) were investigated for criminal wrong doing. BP wasn't hit with every single fine the government could dream up and no one at BP faced criminal investigation. The President was particularly harsh on BP but I don't think it had anything to do with BP being a foreign corporation, I believe the President was politically embarrassed, having made ludicrous assertions that the best government scientists were on the job and the leak would be fixed in a matter of hours. When the President is embarrassed, someone else needs to take the blame and there was a faceless corporation involved. It was just the easiest target. I am sure the President looked for a way to blame Bush and the Republicans and when that failed the focus group, he was left with BP as his requisite object of scorn.
     
    Lee S, Sep 17, 2015
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  7. Molly David

    Molly David New Member

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    Interesting thought, seems possibly plausible, butI hope we have become more wordly. Maybe thats a vain hope.
     
    Molly David, Sep 17, 2015
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  8. Molly David

    Molly David New Member

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    Well that ain't going to happen. Look at how BMW, Mercedes and the Japanese have shown GM how to make and sell cars. It took an Italian company to improve Chrysler. Only Ford seems to be learning from its overseas experiences, with a nice product line. GM still stinks IMO.
     
    Molly David, Sep 17, 2015
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  9. Marine1

    Marine1 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Chrysler is keeping Fiat afloat today. Chrysler's biggest problem outside of the union debt, was not having a small competitive 4 banger engine that could et 40 mpg.

    The foreign automotive giants had a huge advantage over the domestics. Still do, but not as bad as it was.
     
    Marine1, Sep 17, 2015
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  10. Pred

    Pred Well-Known Member

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    Toyota does make A LOT of cars here. They might be based in Japan, but they're building more and more here every year. And NO UNIONS!!! Don't need them when you treat your people fairly.
     
    Pred, Sep 17, 2015
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  11. Marine1

    Marine1 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Unions sure didn't treat the American auto companies fairly. Though it's nice that Toyota makes a lot of cars here. Billions of dollars in profit leave the U.S. every year and goes back to Japan to help create more jobs there and less jobs here if that money had stayed here.
     
    Marine1, Sep 17, 2015
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  12. Jack Links

    Jack Links Well-Known Member

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    They do NOT treat people fairly. I have a relative in Kentucky, and spoke with someone who works at the Toyota plant. Long hours with few breaks. They need a union there. It would be better than the government setting more regulations.
     
    Jack Links, Sep 17, 2015
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  13. Professor Peabody

    Professor Peabody Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I'll still buy a Toyota over any GM, Ford or Chrysler product. I drove my 1982 Honda Accord to the junkyard with 310,000 miles on it. I bought it with 69,000 on it and made repairs to stuff that just plum wore out. When GM, Ford or Chrysler can build a car like that, I'll buy one.
     
    Professor Peabody, Sep 17, 2015
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  14. RichT2705

    RichT2705 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    No, you're right it isn't going to happen unfortunately. Anyway, you are entitled to your opinion. Not everyone loves GM/American cars. Myself I love them, having alot of fun in my Stingray right now.

    Gives alot of the overpriced foreign sports cars a run for their money for a fraction of the cost.
     
    RichT2705, Sep 17, 2015
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  15. Marine1

    Marine1 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Rare praise: Consumer Reports gives Chevy Impala top rating




    www.cnbc.com/id/100912711








    CNBC




    Jul 25, 2013 - In a rare move, Consumer Reports has rated a large sedan from a U.S. ... said Jake Fisher, director of Consumer Reports automotive testing. A score of 95 makes the new Impal... a among the highest rated vehicles CR has ever reviewed. ... In a summary seldom heard about Chevy cars, Consumer Reports
     
    Marine1, Sep 17, 2015
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  16. Marine1

    Marine1 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    2015 Chevrolet Volt (Chevy) Review, Ratings, Specs, Prices ...

    www.thecarconnection.com › New Cars › Chevrolet › Volt


    rating: 7.6/10 - ‎Review by By John VoelckerMay 4, 2015 - The Chevy Volt has the highest customer satisfaction rate of any car GM has ever built. More important yet for GM is that a majority of Volt
     
    Marine1, Sep 17, 2015
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  17. Marine1

    Marine1 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Marine1, Sep 17, 2015
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  18. Professor Peabody

    Professor Peabody Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Guess they paid the most.
     
    Professor Peabody, Sep 17, 2015
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  19. Marine1

    Marine1 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Consumer Reports takes no money from corporations. Is it hard to imagine since the playing field is now more level with the imports that American manufactures can now put out a much better product? They couldn't before.
     
    Marine1, Sep 17, 2015
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  20. Deckel

    Deckel Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The BP oil spill was much larger because the Obama Administration didn't want the "optics" of a giant oil spill and refused for an ungodly amount of time to let them rip that well head out like BP wanted to do in the beginning, thereby forcing BP to try a bunch of stuff that had never really been done successfully as to eliminate all other possible solutions. It wasn't about national favoritism though. It was about running a White House PR campaign.

    As for Toyota, it was already answered--GM has a union and a disproportionate amount of influence in Washington on both sides of the aisle.
     
    Deckel, Sep 17, 2015
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  21. Marine1

    Marine1 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    They may also taken in consideration GM's huge debt they still have and didn't want to force them into a position like they were in before.
     
    Marine1, Sep 17, 2015
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  22. Deckel

    Deckel Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Maybe, but at the same time, they were different issues. The GM switch problem mostly kept other safety features like the air bag from deploying in some crashes. It was not causing the crashes themselves unlike what the Toyota uncontrolled accelerations were doing.
     
    Deckel, Sep 17, 2015
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  23. Professor Peabody

    Professor Peabody Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Till the UAW no longer exists, the playing field nor the product will ever be "level".
     
    Professor Peabody, Sep 17, 2015
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  24. Pred

    Pred Well-Known Member

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    Well, I've visited the plants many times. They don't look very unhappy.
     
    Pred, Sep 17, 2015
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  25. TomFitz

    TomFitz Well-Known Member

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    The real reason that Exxon was allowed to get off relatively scott free is because nobody in Washington was willing to stand up to them. They delayed and delayed, and eventually found enough sympathetic courts to make sure they paid practically nothing in compensation or restoration.

    Obama went after BP right away, and brought the government along behind him.
     
    TomFitz, Sep 18, 2015
    #25
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