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ShnickyShnack wrote:

radarman wrote:

Tallgeese wrote:

I've never heard a Toyota or Nissan owner complain about this.

Really. To my knowledge, there is only a single Toyota, and a single Honda, dealership in my town. The next nearest ones are 30 minutes away. I've compared costs with my dad, who lives near Little Rock, AR - where there are at least three Toyota dealerships, and at least four Honda dealerships. I pay more for service, and would pay more for a new car, than he does.

And yet Toyota and Honda are stubbornly refusing to go bankrupt.

Don't get me wrong. GM and Chrysler are using bankruptcy court as an end-run around a lot of state laws that have annoyed them for years. They are taking this opportunity to shave off a lot of dead-wood, which is one of the purposes of bankruptcy.

I was simply pointing out that the end result will be decidedly less advantageous for car buyers.

Considering how much competition is out there, with more to come via Fiat and possibly Opel, I think it's fair to say that consumers have plenty of selection -- possibly more than at any time in history.

And anyway carmakers overlap so much that I tend not to draw sharp lines between carmakers. There's so much sharing of parts and platforms nowadays.

Tallgeese wrote:

ShnickyShnack wrote:

Considering how much competition is out there, with more to come via Fiat and possibly Opel, I think it's fair to say that consumers have plenty of selection -- possibly more than at any time in history.

I don't think it is. When you look at the range of makes just from the Big Three, plus just the domestic automakers that have gone bust or been absorbed, the selection in the middle of the 20th century was greater.

I dunno ... when you think of all the different import-type models available now that weren't then, including Hyundai, Kia, Saab, Nissan, Mitsubishi and so on, plus companies like Ford are going to start selling their Euro models here. Yes there were more domestic carmakers then than now, like Nash, Willys and Studebaker, but still.

Anyway, regardless of whether today's consumers have THE MOSTEST CHOICES EVAR, they still have a lot of choices.