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This was surely the weirdest US motor show opening of modern times. The three biggest participants, GM, Ford and Chrysler, should have been using their vast stands to display hordes of new cars and promote the aura of confidence in the future that helps sell them, but the California air was actually full of the car industry's ever-accelerating financial desperation.

In the space of two days, GM sold its share in Suzuki and Ford most of its stake in Mazda, evidently just to keep the lights...Read the full article

I wonder if Colin from w w w . t h e m o t o r . n e t will be there to report ? Oh no. More likely that he's on a business trip in Birmingham reporting on his rented Vectra and calling it an exclusive ! A pale imitation of a car site.

Isn't it interesting that the big three are still spending all this money on marketing when they're running out of cash and have asked the government for cash. I suppose they have to but this must have cost a lot of money. One wonders how much they are spending on future development of models. Reckon it's business as usual there ?

 

Steve Steele:

Isn't it interesting that the big three are still spending all this money on marketing when they're running out of cash and have asked the government for cash. I suppose they have to but this must have cost a lot of money.

From Steve Cropley's report, they are all doing the best to cut the show cost.  They certainly don't seem to be burning money for no reason at all. 

If they hadn't of turned up, I bet there would have been a lot more press attention though, and not of the positive kind.