[Wayne Maybury]

Don't forget that the Big 3 have been building cars for a very long time. During the post war period right up until some 15 or 20 years ago, they were very profitable and they agreed to some very expensive union contracts. Since they have been around so long, they all have lots of retirees that are benefitting from the lucrative times and contract benefits. The off shore car companies have not been building cars all that long therefore they do not have nearly the retirement load that the Big 3 has.

I saw an estimate where GM has something like $1700 of benefit costs in each unit they sell whereas Hyundai only has $57 per unit sold.

While the Big 3 are building big SUV's and pickup trucks, the size of their vehicles have not increased nearly as much as the Jap cars & trucks over the past 5 years. Honda, Toyota, and the others are building SUV's and pickups just as big as Ford or GM these days.

Wayne