Folks Know the Stench of Death

Here's the money quote from a recent AP story about the June sales of Ford, GM, and Chrysler vehicles:

Ford is the sole U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy protection and it's the only one not receiving government loans to keep from running out of money.

Bankruptcy is unnerving enough, but buying vehicles from a company that's owned and, effectively, governed by D.C. bureaucrats is something most folks just don't want to deal with. Sure, the government will guarantee the warranty on that new GM vehicle, but expect about as much service as you get from the IRS, Medicare, et al.

People are voting with their wallets, and Ford is being rewarded for standing up to government pressure. I'm glad to see there's some common sense left out there.

Comments

[Ben]

I'm inclined to think that better design, and a stable of cars that people actually wanted to drive accounts for most of the success at Ford. To be sure, the government will run Chrysler into non-existence, and I don't have great hopes for the long term success of GM. Still, to attribute these successes and failures to the rationality of the consumer is giving them more credit that I think they warrant. If consumers were acting truly rationally, Chrysler wouldn't have had a single sale, aside from Vipers, in the last 5 years.