I bought a Dodge minivan for $28,000 (two years ago) Yet Dodge says they are broke. How can this be?

Question

It's not too bad on mileage, 24 MPG at 60 MPH, and I need the size for business. No choice. Maybe I'm a dinosaur, when I was 22 a house was $18,000 and payments were $45 which was 15% of a months income. A new car was $2.200. A Pantera was $10,000. I almost bought one. LOL! That new Ford version of it is almost $300,000. This just seems insane.

Answer 1

I guess it's because of the gas prices.

Answer 2

GM was going broke, then i heard they got some help, but are on the track to being where they were again. Reason? gas prices.

think about some the cars Dodge is known for making...

Magnum

Caravan

Ram

Durango

Dakota

Charger

How many of those actually get good gas mileage? that would be about none by today's standards. The market for cars that are not good on gas has just decreased so much, Dodge being a company that mostly sells trucks, is not going to be doing so well if gas prices are rising and nobody wants a truck cause its a gas guzzler. Even the charger, the gas mileage sucks! On the flip side you have comparable cars to the Chargers size, like Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, which get good gas mileage.

Coupled with high prices of parts and labor today and the payment of workers as well as this ridiculous $2.99 gas deal they are doing, they're losing money in pretty much every direction.

If i were Dodge, i'd start making fuel efficient cars ASAP. It's the only way to compete nowadays, gas prices aren't going to go down much anymore.

Answer 3

All  the  US  auto  makers  are  in  the  red  ink .

Large  vehicles ,  most  people  own  more  than they  can  afford  now  and  are  switching  to  higher  mileage foreign  cars .

Check  the  Yahoo  finance  page  and  the  key  stats  for  GM , F  and  whatever  the other  one  is .

You  will  see  Negative  earnings   ( EPS ).  .  .

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=F

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Answer 4

Haven't heard that GM is broke.

Profits are in the sewer for US automakers.

You are paying $1500 per car for worker medical, benefits, and retirements.

Parts manufactured off shore are more expensive these days.