Originally posted by Fmr12B: If you allowed the engineers to make finance decisions you would end up with a $30,000 Focus that no one would buy because it was priced too high.
The Finance Dept. has to keep costs in line with the exepcted Sales price of the car. Can't afford to make a car that continually loses money unless it pumps your CAFE ratings up.
I'm not saying that you should give anyone a totally free hand in designing the car and specing it. There must always be compromises, even on Jags and Benzs.
However, I feel that American car engineering gets a bum rap. People always blame the engineers for engineering a crappy car, and that just isn't the case. The beancounters win both ways. They do the easy thing when it comes to the Unions, and they cut costs on the cars to make money. They get the praise when the company even breaks even. When times are bad, they let the engineers take the [censored] and blame the loss on a substandard product.
