Car Buyers Continue to Punish Bailout Companies

From Mickey Kaus:

“GM’s sales are down 45% from last September (when sales were already bad enough to drive the company into bankruptcy). Chrysler is down 42%. Ford is only down 5%. Car buyers are clearly punishing the two bailout recipients brutally. Robert Farago of Truth About Cars predicts that GM and Chrysler will both ‘go down by the end of next year’ without a second, new federal bailout. The only question, he says, is whether the two bailed out manufacturers will need the cash before the 2010 midterm elections.”

I think there's also some union-bashing going on with the car buyers. They saw the unions get handed these companies on a silver platter without having to take the kid of cuts in their compensation packages that were warranted, so the buyers (or more properly 'non-buyers') are cutting their compensation for them.