Autos go to Washington

As if the auto companies don’t have enough problems of their own, now Washington’s lawmakers are pledging their help. When politicians get involved, look out.
Heads of the Big Three U.S. automakers met with lawmakers who promised to help the industry compete against foreign carmakers.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in an Associated Press report the Congress members and auto executives were confident they could work together to ''bring back the American automobile industry where we think it should be and they think it should be.''
''We recognize that there are problems and we are going to work as partners with them,'' Reid said. ''Perhaps in the last many years we have not worked together as well as we should have.''
General Motors Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, Ford Motor Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Ford, and Tom LaSorda, president and chief executive of DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group, held a series of meetings with congressional leaders.
Reid said it was the first of many meetings to develop a better partnership between government and industry, according to the The AP report.
Sen. Carl Levin, a Democrat who represents auto workers in Michigan, said the nation needs to be aggressive ''in giving them support to level the playing field.''
While the auto industry needs as much help as it can get, the main thing U.S. automakers need to do is eliminate the perception the foreign car makers are making a better product. As soon as U.S. carmakers can prove they make a quality vehicle that won’t fall apart after a couple of years, then their problems will start to go away. It always comes down to ensuring the company has a quality product. How can Washington work on that?
Talk to me.