GM has taxi service ready......

[harleygirl]

DETROIT, March 28 (UPI) -- General Motors Corp. has begun firing hundreds of white-collar workers in what employees have dubbed "Black Tuesday."

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060328-095235-2567r

 

[vraiblonde]

Now they can replace them all with illegals at a fraction of the cost. Great idea!

 

[Larry Gude]

Guffaw!

Now they can replace them all with illegals at a fraction of the cost. Great idea!

"Do you speak English?"

"No comprendeh..."

"Good. You're now CFO...next..."

 

[Pete]

I heard on the Wall Street Journal Today thins morning that Delphi, the GM subsidiary that was spun off is bankrupt and is seeking to cut workers salaries as a cost cutting measure.

Get this, they want to cut union wages $5 per hour to $22. Assembly line unskilled labor making $27 an hour? Wow, no wonder they are going under.

 

[vraiblonde]

Assembly line unskilled labor making $27 an hour?

Incentive for Mexicans to get that green card

 

[itsbob]

GM lost touch witht he American Consumer years ago.. remember the Celebrity? Or the 'X' car.. they've been behind other American Manufacturers for years.

Their quality can't compete with the japanese, and their design engineers suck to high heaven.. not an original thought out of that company in at least ten years.


Ford does an AWESOME job with the Mustang.. I'm not a Ford fan, but would buy a Mustang in a second. WHERE did GM come up with their idea for the GTO?? What a loser auto that is... or the new Camaro??

Dodge gets retro with their pick-up trucks.. and even though the quality isn't great, they couldn't keep them on the lots the first 4 or 5 years. Chevy and GMC keep with their same boring design, changing the headlight configuration every other year..

Have they EVER talked to a consumer that MIGHT buy their product, do they have ANY designers under the age of 70??

 

[Pete]

GM lost touch witht he American Consumer years ago.. remember the Celebrity? Or the 'X' car.. they've been behind other American Manufacturers for years.

Their quality can't compete with the japanese, and their design engineers suck to high heaven.. not an original thought out of that company in at least ten years.


Ford does an AWESOME job with the Mustang.. I'm not a Ford fan, but would buy a Mustang in a second. WHERE did GM come up with their idea for the GTO?? What a loser auto that is... or the new Camaro??

Dodge gets retro with their pick-up trucks.. and even though the quality isn't great, they couldn't keep them on the lots the first 4 or 5 years. Chevy and GMC keep with their same boring design, changing the headlight configuration every other year..

Have they EVER talked to a consumer that MIGHT buy their product, do they have ANY designers under the age of 70??

I have to agree about their cars. I love my GMC, rides nicer, more comfortable, nice layout more standard features, and more power than the other manufacturers until Dodge put the huge gas sucking Hemi in their trucks. I had a Chevy but went with GMC because the Chevy designers uglied it up with the square front end.

Quality wise I think the gap US v. Jap has narrowed. The Japanese put together a good vehicle but my GM trucks have been great. This truck has 38K and only problem was a bad motor on the power seat they fixed lickety split. I think the quality gap is a paradigm that is not factual anymore. Sure the Celebrity era was a quality mess but they have shaped up.

Call me a goober or a patriot but I have always bought American and probably always will. I also will cross the street to buy from mom and pop instead of WaWa or Sheetz if I can find one.

GM needs some serious house cleaning in the design shop. I liked the look of the GTO but I was not going to pay $30K for a Grand Prix with a 5.7.

Ford is not in that much better shape. Both have been bent over barrels by the UAW for years and now they are paying for it. When a run of the mill 4x4 pickup truck costs $36K and they STILL cannot make money something is VERY wrong. Parts are parts but when you have to pay the guy who Tig welds a 6 inch section in the windshield frame $34 an hour and another $15 an hour in benefits it makes labor costs the main culprit.

The UAW had better straighten up and suck it up because Ford and GM are both in percarious positions and have underfunded the retirement funds. If they go under there are alot of people who put in 30 years and are going to retire along with people already retired who are going to have empty mailboxes.

These retirement fund will get some money from the PBGIC which is funded by TAXPAYERS and premiums but I doubt it will be what they were expecting.

 

[mrweb]

GM lost touch witht he American Consumer years ago.. remember the Celebrity? Or the 'X' car.. they've been behind other American Manufacturers for years.

Their quality can't compete with the japanese, and their design engineers suck to high heaven.. not an original thought out of that company in at least ten years.


Ford does an AWESOME job with the Mustang.. I'm not a Ford fan, but would buy a Mustang in a second. WHERE did GM come up with their idea for the GTO?? What a loser auto that is... or the new Camaro??

Dodge gets retro with their pick-up trucks.. and even though the quality isn't great, they couldn't keep them on the lots the first 4 or 5 years. Chevy and GMC keep with their same boring design, changing the headlight configuration every other year..

Have they EVER talked to a consumer that MIGHT buy their product, do they have ANY designers under the age of 70??

Just test drove a Ford 500. Nice. I think Ford might make it. But I am a bit biased, as a Ranger owner for 15 years. The first one had 200K...hated to get rid of it but it was only 2WD and I really need a small 4WD. Love my little truck, big 6 banger with a 4:10 rear.

 

[2ndAmendment]

Both Ford and GM were rated as "junk" investments last year. I remember hearing that on the radio.

I also think the "quality gap" is a myth, at least with the Chevy/GM trucks. I have had my Suburban since 1997 and it is going strong at 165k+ miles. Drove my previous Suburban, an '89, 196k miles. "Detroit" does have some "planned obsolescence" issues. I had to replace the transmission in every Suburban I have had since 1976 between 70k and 80k.

Ford, GM, and the old Chrysler made good products in the '50s, and early '60s. Then some college genius had the "bright idea" of planned obsolescence. Cars were designed to break down after about three years, so the the desire of the consumer would be to buy a new one. Now that kind of works with cars costing $3500 - $12000 but not when they cost $20000 - $55000 and more. When the bucks get higher, the vehicle better last. GM and Ford are now paying the price of the short sightedness of their "bright idea" with loss of reputation and market share. It will take years for them to gain back reputation and market share if they ever can. And they will not gain back reputation as long as they design vehicles that are planned to break at a point in time or vehicles that can't have the spark plugs changed without removing major portions of the engine or partially removing the engine from the vehicle (all things that have happened).

 

[Softballkid]

I cant lie, Im a Ford man, but as long as its american, I will buy... I own a 93 Ranger, 3L V6, 150k on it, and my 03 F150 SuperCrew 4x4 only has 12,196 miles on it, but I use it more for show than to drive... that and I wanted it to be paid off, or almost paid off before I really started to drive it, it still blue books thousands over what I owe gotta love it


As for all them gaps, I think every manufacturer has there faults, I know people who have Fords, never had problems, ran them till the wheels fell off, and some who constintly had issues, and the same goes for GM/Chevy, Dodge, Toyota, and the rest...

I think its just so hit or miss anymore, you should just buy what you like, no matter what it is, and if you have problems with it, take it back, get something else...

 

[vraiblonde]

I've always had American made cars. After owning two Toyotas, I'll won't be buying American again any time soon. All you have to do is test drive a Jeep Liberty, then hop in a RAV4 to understand why - the difference in quality is like night and day.

Before we got the 4Runner, we test drove comperable Fords and Chevys, and there was just no contest.

 

[Tonio]

GM lost touch witht he American Consumer years ago.. remember the Celebrity? Or the 'X' car.. they've been behind other American Manufacturers for years.

Their quality can't compete with the japanese, and their design engineers suck to high heaven.. not an original thought out of that company in at least ten years.

Good post. From my limited knowledge of the car industry, it seems like GM focuses too much on market share instead of profitability. They think the way to boost market share is to keep introducing new models and hope that buyers will find them. That doesn't work because new models often have atrocious reliability records. Meanwhile, the established models with better reliability get no updates, and gradually wither and die. That's what happened to the Oldsmobile division. From what I've read, Ford and Chrysler have these same issues to a lesser extent.

A few years ago I test-drove a Chevy Tracker, the mini SUV. This thing looked, felt, and drove like one of those battery-powered cars you buy for kids at Toys 'R' Us.

 

[itsbob]

if you ever want to lease a car, DON'T lease American Made..

For example, you lease two cars both sticker priced for 20K, the American car will probably cost you between 350 - 400 a month, the japanese or German car will cost you 200 - 250 a month. MUCH better residual value at the end of the lease, less you have to finance. I tried to lease a Dodge, the residual value was 35%, which menas DODGE only thought in three years their car would be worth only 35% of it's original sticker price, so I still had to finance 65% over three years I went to Nissan, looked at a Sentra.. residual Value wa 65%, I financed 35% of the original sticker price. My payment on the Sentra was $169 a month, the Dodge would have been $360..