[What'saCobra?]

New nominal automobiles sell for variously $15K to $25K dollars per ton. Super-quality costs perhaps double. Exotics treble+. Assemblers in Detroit earn about $75 per hour.

Four-place new Aircraft cost variously $300K to $500K per ton. Assemblers earn about $35 per hour.

Aircraft are far more complex and require far more specialist skills to assemble correctly, which skills require considerably more effort and time to acquire.

Admittedly, aircraft do not have transmissions, axles and water coolant systems, very complex designs and frequently subject to failure. But, aircraft have propellers that change pitch, wing and prop de-icing systems, landing gears that fold in and out, very complex operating instrumentation, very complex navigation instrumentation that changes quicker than goosed lightning (all made of goldinium) and most importantly, much larger labor-hour content and skill requirements.

It is very upsetting if a bolt/screw falls onto the floor under the dash of our new Buick; but, it might be life-threatening if it happens in our new Beechcraft Bonanza G36.

It is a pain in the buttinski to pull-over in the slush to clean the ice off the frozen-solid windshield wipers of our new $30K Fusion; but, you are indeed in deep horse-pucky if it happens in your $6M Super King Air 350.

i love the automobile design and mfg business. Ditto in aviation, including repair, rebuild and operation.

Aviation wages are very competitive with other businesses and frequently not union, certainly not UAW, but often IAW (International Machinists and Aerospace Workers). New methods and new skills are regularly revised, reversed and eliminated as necessary, far more easily and comparatively cheaply.

The point? Aviation, though demanding far more skill requirements, pays just over half the wages of automobile assemblers, in order to compete with international competitors. Since most of the aviation companies have been bankrupt at least once, allowing the re-birth with less burdened fixed costs, there are not a large number of retirees that add thousands of dollars to the price of each airplane.

Accordingly, American aircraft exports are one of the very bright spots in our trade balance. Many foreign operators happily believe America builds the finest and safest aircraft in the world... at any price! Yet, we remain fleet competitive around the globe, even in military aircraft.

While labor wage rates and work-rule flexibility are not the whole story, particularly at the moment, it is an important part of aviation's very successful mfg and business model.

Yet, automobile design, manufacturing, regulation and marketing are so different it is hard to clearly comprehend how we can be so successful in one and so marginal in the other.

(However, do not forget the complete failure of both French, Spanish and Italian auto sales in the USA (except for a very few exotics). They are burdened with similar wage and rule and overhead problems in their auto industries.)
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Ps: Watch Japan now invest in Chinese factories, to build cars for US importation... VERY cheap and very advanced efficiencies.

Pss: Having said all that, new automotive engine/transmission/hybrid designs are indeed getting VERY complex, now, at last, faster than aviation hardware (if not electronics).