Beyond Detroit: On the Road to Recovery, Let the Little Guys Drive:
"...auto writer Warren Brown. 'Detroit makes good cars.'
Alas, so does the competition. One month after the Fusion came on the market, Honda launched a new version of the Insight, a five-passenger hybrid with almost the same fuel efficiency as a Fusion—and a base price of $19,800, about a quarter less than the Ford's $27,270 price tag..."
and further in the article...
"A similar fate may well await GM's forthcoming plug-in electric car, the truly innovative Chevrolet Volt, which unlike typical hybrids uses its gas engine only to charge and extend the range of its heavy-duty battery, drastically cutting fuel consumption. The problem is that "the rest of the Volt is just an ordinary family sedan, for which they are charging more than $40,000," says Michael Cusumano, a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management. "If they sell more than a few thousand, I'll be surprised."
Those price tags did not come from a greedy union; they came from a top heavy industry that has never seen an innovative idea they didn't hate.
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