By Paul Losch
About this blog: I was a "corporate brat" growing up and lived in different parts of the country, ending in Houston, Texas for high school. After attending college at UC Davis, and getting an MBA at Harvard, I embarked on a marketing career, mai...
(More)About this blog: I was a "corporate brat" growing up and lived in different parts of the country, ending in Houston, Texas for high school. After attending college at UC Davis, and getting an MBA at Harvard, I embarked on a marketing career, mainly in the Bay Area with different companies. My former wife went back to medical school after we had been married a few years, and we moved into married student housing at Stanford, had our two now adult children while she was a medical student, and moved into Palo Alto when she started her Residency. Been here ever since. As my kids were going through the Palo Alto schools, I was actively involved in their activities, most notably head umpire for Palo Alto Little League and 9 years as a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission, among other activities. My kids both are grown, my son teaches 5th grade locally, and my daughter, fluent in Mandarin, is working in China. I sold the business I owned and ran for 8 years in 2012, worked on the Obama campaign, and am consulting for non-profit organizations, which gives me a nice, flexible schedule. Lots of stamps in my passport, and for fun, I like live performances &emdash; theater and music - and of course the Giants!
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I fervently hope that this program is having the purported positive impact on car sales and the general economy that led Congress to add $2 billion before they all went home to be shouted at by people around the health care matter.
I am skeptical that it is more than a short term program. If it helps for the next few weeks or months, great. But the real test is how the restructuring of GM and Chrysler will pan out for these very troubled companies.
The cynic in me notes that one of the guys who lost out at the GE CEO job, Bob Nardelli, subsequently flamed out at Home Depot and then at Chrysler. Darwin applies to people, companies, and to species.
On a more personal note, I have a lady friend in San Franscisco who needs to get a new car. She told me that getting her clunker qualified for the program was very confusing, and did not work in her case, as best as she could tell.
But, she also perceived that she was treated a certain way as a woman by herself trying to get another car. She told me that it was like there was a script for a person who fit her profile.
So here are my questions:
Are GM and Fiat/Chrsyler, shed of the obligations that made them uncompetitive with the likes of Honda and Toyota, able to compete and win in the marketplace?
Why is it that a woman trying to buy a car is poorly treated?
