The Cost of Your Car

We've all heard that "union agreements" add $X,000.00 to the cost of a US-made car.

But you may NOT have heard that "Lawyer Costs" add a great deal, too:

"In researching this paper, I persistently asked manufacturers what the cost and consequences of the rise in liability have been. In simple financial terms the answers have varied by a factor of ten, ranging from $50 to $500 per car sold." The variance may suggest that the $500 figure is on the high side; but Mackay indicates that the costs seem to be much higher for domestic manufacturers than for importers, which may be why Chrysler sticks to the higher number. Steve Hantler, DaimlerChrysler's assistant general counsel, tells me that the $500 estimate, being 15 years out of date, is itself probably low; he suggests that today's liability cost is closer to $1000 per car.

Think Habush, Habush, Habush...will be advertising about that with their cheesy computer-generated "music" in the background?

HT: OverLawyered