I remember hearing about a metrology equipment vendor last fall who had delivered an order to one of the Big Three automotive manufacturers. When the payment came in, the car maker had arbitrarily chopped 10% off the invoice amount, and basically told the vendor that was all it would pay for the equipment. Though angry and exasperated, the vendor was reluctant to protest too loudly, for fear of being cut off from future business by the car maker.
Reports of heavy-handed cost cutting by U.S. automakers are nothing new, of course, not only on factory equipment, but especially on parts and components. Back in the early 1990s, for example, former GM purchasing czar Jose Ignacio Lopez made big headlines for his controversial supplier price-squeezing tactics that some considered to be out-and-out bullying.