Yeah, except that the econoboxes are much better than they used to be, and they can produce them in much higher quantity than they used to.

This could be the death knell for GM, Ford.  Dunno about Daimler - don't know why they bought Chrysler - bet they wish they hadn't.

We had this conversation online almost exactly one year ago at Priusonline.com and it raged through the winter.  Many posters were predicting that GM would go into bankruptcy around 2006.  Many others (mostly born after mid 70's) ridiculed the posters that this could happen.

The big three were absolutely trashing high milage cars, especially hybrids.  No one will buy them, they are too expensive, they are dangerous in crashes, the technology is not robust enough, they have no acceleration and are dangerous, and on and on.  

Funny thing though is that the average hybrid OWNER last year had at least one advanced degree and almost all were convinced that gas prices would rise steeply over the next year.  Some consumers were paying attention to energy more than 12 months ago (I put my name in for a Prius Feb 2004) but the big three saw no need for fuel economy until this summer.  People don't scoff at the idea of GM going bankrupt now that their bonds are junk status and they have a huge inventory of unsellable SUV's.  I can see the same thing happening to the housing market and the economy.  This week the MSM and Alan Greenspan are still saying the economy is too robust to be affected by energy prices.  I don't believe them.  

"Those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it"