How Detroit Drove Itself Into A Ditch By: Zoocks (Alison Garbash, Noah Graham, Ronald Grzybowski, Matthew Hampshire)

The Ever Shrinking Detroit Detroit's car companies are shrinking while foreign car manufactures are growing. GM, Ford, and Chrysler have been losing billions since 2005 when the economy was healthy due to car sells plummeting Can’t cut costs fast enough to keep pace with the evaporation of their revenue. Due to missed opportunities, disastrous decisions and flawed leadership

Emerging Foreign Cars Honda, Nissan, and Toyata began coming over seas and creating competition for the big three. Foreigner car makers have made mistakes just as their American counterparts but have forged an alliance with their American workers While American auto makers have had to deal with unions making their factories much more difficult to manage

Mistrust American auto makers during the 70’s were not taking into consideration design flaws and consumer safety. The Ford Pinto will live in infamy as the poster child for corporate callousness. The Pinto’s gas tank was prone to explode if hit in the rear. In 1978 three Indian girls burned to death when their Pinto was hit in the rear and exploded Ford became the first company to be inditced for reckless homicide but was acquitted although still guilty in the publics eyes.

Hit and Miss Designs

UAW and Foreign Manufacturers More and More factories are being opened in the U.S. by foreign car manufacturers, there are currently 16 assembly plants and many more that build engines, transmissions, and other components. UAW has not organized many Unions with these plants unless grandfathered in. This caused Detroit's oligopoly was broken and the UAW’s monopoly in the auto industry. The big winner was the car buying public

Assembly line in a factory

Comeback In 1984 Chrysler made a historical come back from near death by creating the mini-van. In the 1980s Ford reestablished Detroit’s lead over imports with the production of the Taurus. In the mid 1990s all companies profited from the SUV boom.

SUV Boom

DEATH Short lived and by the turn of the century all three companies were losing profit. In 2005 gas prices soared and as a result SUV sales dropped. Without a merger GM is going to have to ask the government for a bailout or file for bankruptcy.

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