Protect Yourself
The only real concern you should have is about the warranty, and here there are a couple of things to keep in mind.
1) Companies don't put long warranties on things that will cost them money in the long run. If you have a four- or five-year, 160,000 km warranty, chances are you will never need it. Some owners will, because nothing we make is perfect.
2) The Detroit Three have all made gigantic strides in quality and are closing in on the Japanese quite quickly. Their biggest problem is public perception of their product.
3) If the deal is good enough, put a couple of grand aside so you can fix it yourself, like it used to be done by smart owners over 60 years ago.
Business as Usual
Chrysler is in much the same boat, but because it is smaller and privately owned, we hear less about them. Ford is the least likely to go under because they hit bottom a couple of years ago when money was still available (the lucky aren't just dealers).
The ones who take the hit if a company goes into receivership are the shareholders and the bondholders who count on the dividends as well as the workers who are fired and have their benefits limited by the courts. There will be pain from all this and some communities will be devastated, but the financial crisis has already started to play that tune.
No matter what happens, the sun will come up in the morning and there will be those who can take advantage of the deals to be had and the Detroit Three will still be in business (in some form or another).
photo:Jupiter Images
The only real concern you should have is about the warranty, and here there are a couple of things to keep in mind.
1) Companies don't put long warranties on things that will cost them money in the long run. If you have a four- or five-year, 160,000 km warranty, chances are you will never need it. Some owners will, because nothing we make is perfect.
2) The Detroit Three have all made gigantic strides in quality and are closing in on the Japanese quite quickly. Their biggest problem is public perception of their product.
3) If the deal is good enough, put a couple of grand aside so you can fix it yourself, like it used to be done by smart owners over 60 years ago.
Business as Usual
Chrysler is in much the same boat, but because it is smaller and privately owned, we hear less about them. Ford is the least likely to go under because they hit bottom a couple of years ago when money was still available (the lucky aren't just dealers).
The ones who take the hit if a company goes into receivership are the shareholders and the bondholders who count on the dividends as well as the workers who are fired and have their benefits limited by the courts. There will be pain from all this and some communities will be devastated, but the financial crisis has already started to play that tune.
No matter what happens, the sun will come up in the morning and there will be those who can take advantage of the deals to be had and the Detroit Three will still be in business (in some form or another).
photo:Jupiter Images