Is Buick and Pontiac Next?

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

I have faith in Lutz, and no matter how many days he gets on a yacht, I wouldn't want his job!

[12bolt]

My money is on Buick taking the dive. even Tiger Woods cannot save them. But that Hot Black Chick surrounded by Candles,Dancing to Aerosmith's "Dream On", might give it a Boost! given what they did to the GTO (Bringing it back to life in Name only) maybe it should be Pontiac that gets CUT! ahhhhhhhh! Its kind of like Deciding to Kill Dodge or Plymouth! The Bottom line judging by advertising dollars spent, They want to keep Buick alive. I am back to neutral on this. It is a Sad day in all of our lives anytime a Big Automaker dies.

[hvychev]

Well instead of all of us sitting and shaking our heads about it actually try and DO something about it and BUY AMERICAN!! I know it is hard to pass up those Hondas and Toyotas but there is more than a car on the line here. The auto industry is a HUGE part of the economy and think of all our fellow Americans that rely on GM to feed their familys.

[budnate]

Frank settle down...most of us Run American rigs for drivers...Gm is where they are at because they are building Crap and also building stuff nobody wants...I thought there truck was coming around and my Cousine and I just went through this not three months ago He bought a loaded Duramax..well guess what he started it two days ago and was letting it warm up in the driveway...he was fiddling around in the driveway with something turned around to see the truck on fire under the hood...it had some kind of electrical fire and smoked the entire engine harness and the mainbody harness..gets better GM does not have a main body harness in the Country and has no idea when one will be availible...so how would you feal if ya dropped 40K cash on a rig and it does this to you..now you have a rig you married and have to drive it around after some monkey digs through the hole rig to replace the wiring...thats gonna be a nice quite interior after that...not...

[Xplantdad]

I can see Frank's point about supporting American companies...as way too many businesses are going overseas for cheap labor, etc., but I also know what Bud is talking about.

From 1979-1983 I worked at an Oldsmobile-Honda-De Lorean dealer in Southern California. The Oldsmobiles were CRAP! GM had the great idea to convert the 350 into a diesel...and those engines weren't worth a $hit. Those year cars were built to fall apart after 3-4 years...In fact, one of the selling points that DeLorean had in marketing HIS cars was the fact that HIS cars were built to last...not engineered to fall apart(so that the consumer would have to buy again in that time frame)

Unfortunately for Delorean, the engineering on his cars sucked, too! We had SOOO many people get stuck in their cars when the inner door handle latches broke off(in their hands, no less)when trying to open up the doors. Some people had to wait up to 3 months to get replacement parts for their cars...

Honda's on the other hand, were cheap, got great gas mileage, ran forever with regular oil changes and had great resale value!

Is it any wonder that Ford realized that "Quality is Job #1"? That wasn't just a marketing ploy, they figured out that the American consumer wanted a good value for what the paid for...and they weren't getting it(at that time)!

Finally, in defense of the American auto makers...they are "light years" ahead of where they were in the 80's. I own a 2003 chevy truck...and I'm happy with it. But it pales in comparison to our BMW528it wagon...in fit, finish, quality and reliability.

Bud...tell your cousin to get a hold of the zone rep for Chevrolet. Have him tell the rep to get a harness off of a truck that's on the new car lot, so he can get his truck running again. Have your Cousin stay on top of the rep to make sure that he gets what he needs. The squeaky wheel gets the most grease!

[budnate]

I was gonna call but he was still smoking around the collar when we talked two days ago..he knows how to get things done but when we talked the other day the dealer kinda told him we are doing the best we can but cant install a harness they dont have...fairly bad if they dont have a part in the whole Country not on a rig...the harness must be wound up overseas???

[Born30YrsLate]

[ QUOTE ]

Unfortunately for Delorean, the engineering on his cars sucked, too! We had SOOO many people get stuck in their cars when the inner door handle latches broke off(in their hands, no less)when trying to open up the doors. Some people had to wait up to 3 months to get replacement parts for their cars...


[/ QUOTE ]

Wow - that's a long time to be stuck in a car....sorry, had to say it....been a rough week at work.

[Xplantdad]

I hear ya...crappy day at work for me, too!

Actually, most of the time, we had to break the side door glass to get the people out. The inner window was the only part that rolled down. See picture!



The average wait time for parts to repair the cars was 2-3 months...as the parts came from Ireland, through customs and then to a big warehouse in Irvine, Ca...and then to the dealerships!

[MikeA]

We have a '98 Regal and a '01 Venture. Both cars have givens no problems. I can not complain about the General so far!

[scuncio]

IMO, the quality of the GM cars today is because we've got 20-25% of the staff doing 99% of the work. There is an unbelievable amount of dead weight at this company. There's also a lot of job assignment transfers, usually someone who's unfamiliar with the new area he's assigned to, so at any time there are a bunch of technical staffers who are ramping up their skills and can't really contribute much to product development in the meantime. Suprise of all surprises, another issue is the near-universal lack of interest in cars themselves among the staff (obviously this doesn't include myself). GM's recruiting is missing the boat big time by not hiring enough people with an interest in its product. I wouldn't touch most of the GM cars today but I do like my 04 Silverado!