Obamessiah's Auto Team drives imports!

Auto team drives imports
Fed task force has few new U.S. cars
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The vehicles owned by the Obama administration's auto team could reflect one reason why Detroit's Big Three automakers are in trouble: The list includes few new American cars.

Among the eight members named Friday to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry and the 10 senior policy aides who will assist them in their work, two own American models. Add the Treasury Department's special adviser to the task force and the total jumps to three.

"Detroit's Big Three" will continue to be in trouble until they start building cars Americans want to buy.

Detroit's big 3 are not the only 3 companies that have American built cars.

That is correct. But Toyota and the others are building cars that average Americans will actually buy.

Ford and GM are starting to get there. The Cobalt is actually a nice car as is the Focus and the F 150 remains the #1 selling vehicle.

My point is, Ford, GM and Chrysler are no longer the "American" auto industry. Most automakers build in the US, including Nissan, which makes almost 100% of the cars they sell in the US right here in the US.

Meanwhile, GM, Ford and Chrysler are only surviving because of their production in Europe as their US operations are losing money hand over foot.

So unless the author of the article can actually show that specific models were made overseas, the title of this thread is incorrect.

And this is a sentiment held by those on both side of the political spectrum as both TerryH and Sodbuster have called the Big 3 the American auto industry and imho, both are wrong.

Yes, Cobalt and Focus are both nice cars. Neither is being marketed really strongly though- perhaps because they are not as profitable as trucks and SUVs.

I am surprised at the relatively low cost of Cobalt. Some frineds of our bought a Focus a few months ago. They love it.

I agree that, as you said, GM and Ford are startng to get there.