McCain or Obama? Who would be best for the auto industry?

4 million guarantee to retool the auto industry?

If it was that easy/cheap, the domestics would have already done it.

I have worked for Chrysler for 25 years.I think McCain wants to pass the buck By letting each state set there own. didn't know each state had an auto-expert...with Obama..he is ambitious, but I don't think 4 mill would do it...Just have to wait and see.

Personally, i believe government has no place in the auto industry. Let capitalism do what it does best, and let the automakers decide what to make and when to make it. If they misinterpret the market, such as the big three a few years back, they will pay the price. People/companies learn best from their mistakes, so the big three (if they all survive) will be all the better for it. If i had to choose between proposals, I would have to go with McCain. Obama wants the impossible from the automakers, and then offers billions in aid. Where do you think the money comes from? I will give my money to whichever automaker I feel makes the best car for me (GM). I dont want to be forced to pay even more for some politicians wild and ultimately stupid ambitions. I am already forced to give half of my income to the seemingly useless government, why should i pay even more than that absurd amount. Besides the automakers will surpass his goals anyway while actually making a profit on it, if thats what the market demands. Let capitalism and the market tell the automakers what to do, not an incompetent government.

"If they misinterpret the market, such as the big three a few years back,"

Yea, unlike Toyota.

About a year ago, Toyota was bragging about having more SUV's than any competing line. They still have more SUV's than Ford.

Less than a year ago, Toyota was the driving force behind bigger and badder full size pickups.

I'm not knocking Toyota, but I think it's short sighted to constantly accuse the domestics for being short sighted. Toyota would have loved to have been deeper in the truck & suv market, but they weren't there yet. Same goes for Honda and Nissan. They have been trying to break into the truck & suv market for years, but haven't been successful. That failure happened to benefit them.

It's dumb luck.

Well 4 million dollars is nothing, so there's really no change there. And letting California enact it's own mileage standards certainly isn't new either. So it seems to me neither has a great idea in the works.

So, domestic automakers couldn't figure out what to build, and neither could Toyota. But I think we'd all agree our government would probably be even slower to react than either of those. So perhaps we should let the free market do it's thing (it seems to have worked pretty well the last 75 years or so.)

"Toyota would have loved to have been deeper in the truck & suv market, but they weren't there yet. Same goes for Honda and Nissan. They have been trying to break into the truck & suv market for years, but haven't been successful."

The Pilot and CRV have always met or exceeded (CRV) Honda sales expectations, I wouldnt call that unsuccessful. Honda has never been about domintating a certain segment or about #1 in sales. As long as the product meets their sales targets and is a competitive vehicle Honda is happy.

Honda has stated that they never had the desire or saw the need to go into the FULL SIZE truck/SUV segment. They didnt need to as they have remained EXTREMELY profitable without those types of vehicles. That careful planning and patience has paid off.

Just in case you didnt know Honda sales rose 6.7% in July. Accord, Civic and Fit sales are up compared to this time last year. Of course the rest of the Honda line is down in sales due to the current demand of the market.

Fit July 2007: 6343
Fit July 2008: 12,266

Civic July 2007: 30,345
Civic July 2008: 32,565

Accord July 2007: 37,402
Accord July 2008: 41,385

"Less than a year ago, Toyota was the driving force behind bigger and badder full size pickups."

Not really, Dodge was really that "driving force" when they re-introduced the Hemi some years back. As for Japanese manufacturers, though, Nissan's Titan was also pushing that type of image nearly four years ago. Toyota was late to the full-size game and unfortunately they have yet to meet sales expectations for their first-ever truly full-size truck.

As for the $4 Million, that is almost an insult. Re-direct that amount to some effort that will actually make use of the money.

The link for the Obama plan says $4 Billion, not Million. Please fix the summary. And bring back the edit feature so people can fix their comments. :-)

$4bil is great, but look at GM's losses last quarter.

I'm not sure that's the right way to address the issue.

GM just lost 15.5 billion.

I'm not sure how 1/4 of that is going to fix things.

I think the question here is: Who would be the least harmful to the auto industry? Because neither one will be good for it.

Personally, i believe government has no place in the auto industry. Let capitalism do what it does best, and let the automakers decide what to make and when to make it. If they misinterpret the market, such as the big three a few years back, they will pay the price. People/companies learn best from their mistakes, so the big three (if they all survive) will be all the better for it. If i had to choose between proposals, I would have to go with McCain. Obama wants the impossible from the automakers, and then offers billions in aid. Where do you think the money comes from? I will give my money to whichever automaker I feel makes the best car for me (GM). I dont want to be forced to pay even more for some politicians wild and ultimately stupid ambitions. I am already forced to give half of my income to the seemingly useless government, why should i pay even more than that absurd amount. Besides the automakers will surpass his goals anyway while actually making a profit on it, if thats what the market demands. Let capitalism and the market tell the automakers what to do, not an incompetent government.

You speak the truth here, no wonder the two party system sucks today.

I'm sick of big government telling us what to do with our lives.

A government protect its citizens. How to increased federal economy standards protect anyone from anything? It's a political move calculated to capitalize on the fear generated by high fuel prices. One plan further bloats Big Government, the other plan does not. If this were the only issue, I know who would get my vote.