USA Today readers weigh in on domestic automakers

Five letters addressing domestic automakers’ troubles graced the Opinion/Editorial section of USA Today online. The hand-picked letters were picked to offer a microcosm of popular opinionon American automobiles and their fortunes.

Reader Brooks Keogh suggests that the American consumer is the source of the remaining Big Two’s current problems, being fickle in segment allegiance and failing to acknowledge domestic advancements in quality. Ron Auerbach counters, stating that the differences in quality between the Big Three and foreign automakers is a tangible, measureable thing, and that greater efforts need to be made to achieve parity or superiority.

Viswantha Jayaraman maintains the source of Ford’s trouble is its employees, with their demands for unreasonably costly health benefits while threating to strike if they don't receive them. Reader Jack Lohman takes an even broader view, suggesting that the domestic industry would recover with the advent of national healthcare, which would relieve substantial financial burdens.

Finally, Jim Cain of Ford public affairs seems to take the newspaper to task for suggesting that the Blue Oval "... is not committed to its SUV business and the Explorer" in an article on the SUV's sales slide and worker uneasiness at the Louisville plant.  Cain points to the raft of CUVs and SUVs that Ford has in the pipeline as proof of their commitment to the marketplace.