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While I agree about the Jeep Compass, I do not agree with the Cavalier or the minivan comments for sure. My first new car ever was an '88 Cavalier when I graduated from college. I absolutely LOVED that car. I was driving 40 miles each way to work and it was one of the best on gas then. It was the perfect entry level car. I ran it into the ground. When it finally died, I had just had a baby so I decided I had to "mom up" and go for the mini-van market. I bought a used Pontiac Transport and THAT van was awesome. I really didn't like driving a mini-van so when the air conditioning needed to be repaired on the Transport, I decided to get another Calalier.. a '99 this time. Again, I loved it. It was the newly designed one, amazing with gas mileage and a really solid little car. The biggest problem I had with it was that a viaduct jumped in front of it one very icy afternoon and things were never quite right after that. That wasn't the car's fault though. Blue book on it was $7200 and the damage estimate was $6800 so I had to get it fixed but seriously, it should've been totalled. I'm convinced the frame was bent because I had to replace the rack (of the rack and pinion steering) for three years in a row after the accident. That shouldn't have happened and I'm sure it was related to the accident somehow because the front end was so messed up.
In any case, I keep hearing the auto companies getting slammed for selling SUVs but that is what the consumer wanted at the time. The demand was sky high. Moms didn't want mini-vans anymore. Dad's liked them better than pick-ups because they could still fit things into them and still use it for the whole family too. They were, and still are, great vehicles for a lot of families. I can honestly say that I don't know a single family who doesn't have at least one SUV. Shoot, after driving baby cars (two Cavaliers and an Aveo) most of my adult life, I bought a crossover SUV (Saturn Vue) just this past December. I absolutely love having all that extra room, not having to reach into a deep trunk to get the groceries out, being able to go to Home Depot and buy a door or something big like that and have room to haul it home. There's so much more cargo space. Until gas prices went crazy last summer, people were loving their SUVs. They were building what the consumers wanted. That desire fell so sharply when gas prices skyrocketed last summer and everybody freaked out. Now that gas prices are down again, I see more trucks and SUVs on the road than anything else.
As far as Hybrids go... I seriously contemplated getting the Vue hybrid but after researching hybrids in general, I decided it was a no go. The damage to the environment with the junking of lithium ion batteries outweighs the emissions advantages. The increased cost of a hybrid outweighs the cost savings on gas. There is little cost savings or fuel savings if you drive mostly on the freeway, because you're using gas then. And when that lithium ion battery goes? You're talking about $8000-12,000 to replace it. You can buy a brand new Chevy Aveo, which gets 38 mpg highway for $13K, so why??? I think the technology on the Chevy Volt is actually a better way to go. E85 engines are also better, if they would sell the gas anywhere. GM had been doing extensive work on a hydrogen cell fueled car that holds a lot more promise in the "green" arena. Hybrids are not the "be all, end all" green cars in the long run. They also don't save you money.
I think the most difficult thing for the auto-industry is that the consumer's choices can change on a dime (like when gas prices skyrocket) and the expense and time in changing over a line that is designed to make one vehicle is astronomical because so much of it is automated now. They use less people to make cars, but the machines for each part are so specific. The more that is automated, the harder it is to switch over a plant from making SUVs to making compact cars, etc.
I talked with some people who have been at GM for 20 years and they were all really upset about Rick being asked to step down. They were swearing up and down that he had done a lot to change GM and that if he hadn't been at the helm, the company would've been in this place much, much earlier.
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