Even if such stories were just legend, this price down culture blind of actual costs has done great damage to everybody. Now I fear that there are many auto OEMS who truly have no idea what it COSTS to make things, only what the prices have been.

When the price of doing business is driving ones self out of business, it seems that the price and costs must get reach parity; the end of the auction process and rebuilding trusting relationships with suppliers is a step toward doing that.

One factor hurting our automotive industry is blowing wind is the fact that every other automaking country in the world has a base market for high-fuel-efficiency cars. Gasoline is expensive in those places. But not in the USA. We prefer to send our money to OPEC, rather than to tax gasoline and invest the proceeds in fuel efficient technologies (like CFL’s).

CFL’s are efficient and a smart investment regardless of any mandate or subsidy.

You say, “we need to take a step back and take a breath before just going along.” From my perspective, we need to get going, because we have a lot of catching up to do.