CNN iReport

What is wrong with this picture?  The lead photo shows GM's sales pitch (from their website) comparing their Chevrolet Cobalt with the Toyota Corolla and the Honda Civic Coupe.  Not shown in the photo above is a long list of some 30+ specs that all show the Cobalt leading its other two competitors, sometimes by a narrow margin, but always at least slightly better.  Here's what's missing, and what GM and other US automakers have not been able to conquer in three decades of trying: product quality.  Let's try not to argue small details, and let's stick to the best staistical data available to me, the Consumer Reports ratings.  I'm going to keep this simple, so there's lots of data that I won't present.  However, the flavor is all the same.

Honda Civic gets a road test score of 82; the Cobalt gets 49.  How about owner satisfaction?  Cobalt: solid black spot, much worse than average; Civic: solid red spot, much better than average.  How about documented reliability?  The Cobalt has only generated enough data to be rated over the past three years (true of many GM models because GM seems to think it has a better idea every 3 years).  The record for Cobalt: 8 black spots, much worse than average, in the past 3 years.  Honda Civic: 2 open circles, average, and the rest all better than average or much better than  average for a 5-year reporting period.

So, where the GM product falls short is that their cars are not reliable, not long lasting, and not satisfying their customers compared with its competitors' cars.  I'm picking on GM here, but the other two large US automakers would fare little better.  Similarly, there are a number of other Japanese and Korean automakers who are turning out products that also beat US cars in these same areas.

I will mention one other specific case.  Remember Ford's "Quality is Job 1" slogan?  It seems to have had some effect on some models.  The Ford Taurus, over a five year reporting period has accumulated "only" 10 1/2-black spots, worse than average.  Significantly better than many other US models (including other Fords), but still short of most Japanese or Korean models.

I won't address the reasons that I see for this miserable performance record.  I might or might not tackle this later.  For now, let's just look at the bottom line.

With this fundamental and deep-seated problem, why should we bail out any of the big 3 US automakers?  Are we thinking that anyone in the US who supports this industry should be rewarded for losing out to the competition, over a 30 year period?  Are we thinking that a hugely expensive bailout that might involve subsidizing the monthly losses for 10 months is going to "fix" an industry with a long-term poor record?

I'm not convinced.