Quote:
Originally Posted by cleanspeed1
To be incompetent implies that you don't know what you are doing. To be evil implies malicious intent. There is no way with the decisions being made by these automakers who have been in business for as long as they have, that there hasn't been collusion with other business sectors.
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I'd expand your definition of incompetence quite a bit. An incompetent could, for instance, be ok at what they're doing, but suffer from "confirmation bias", which is the tendency to give much greater weight to information that supports your opinions, and less to information that contradicts it. So the automakers build their big gas guzzlers, and the fraction of the customer base (and automotive press, etc) that likes that sort of car forms a cheering section. The automakers hear the cheering, think "Oh, we're doing a great job, let's make next year's models even bigger!", and ignore the ever-larger market segment that's taking its checkbook to the Honda & Toyota dealers.
As for the conspiracy, remember the Dortmunder family motto: "Quid lucrum istic mihi est?", which translates to "What's in it for me?" So if the automakers join this big conspiracy, what's in it for them?