GM Facts and Fiction

[Salvatore]

If I am not mistaken years ago when the import surge started hitting the US it was a fact then that the Japanese Govt. was helping any of their car companies out just to beat the Americans. I think when it comes to beating us they team up with their Govts. to knock us out. I am also for a general fund for these foreign car companies to throw money into a retirement plan for the big three. The foreign companies have no pensions to pay that is dragging them down from making money. Want to do business in America.....then you have to pay a little. JMO

[Late BrakeU2]

Robots don't need a pension,make workmans comp claims,get hung over or have quality control issues. This has been twenty years in the making.
I say if the big three dissapear,massive tariffs are in order,immediately! It's not the fault of the foreign auto makers,they just need to pay heavily the piper if domestic mfgs dissapear because they will have 100% of a market on foreign soil. Almost like UAE and oil.

Paying unskilled labor $77 an hour to install dashboards has taken it's toll. A strong arm union coupled with corporate arrogance has gotten it to this point. Tough call as to what the correct soulution is..gonna be like the old Fram pay me now or pay me later scenario either way.

[x Baldwin Motion]

A similar post was shown to me yesterday at the local GM dealer;


This is an article found in the Detroit News
************************************************** **

Myth #1: Nobody buys their vehicles.

Reality: General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC sold 8.5 Million vehicles in the United States last year and millions more around the world. GM outsold Toyota by about 1.2 million vehicles in the United States last year and holds a U.S. lead over Toyota of about 560,000 so far this year. Globally, GM in 2007 remained the world's largest automaker, selling 9,369,524 vehicles worldwide -- about 3,000 more than Toyota.

Ford outsold Honda by about 850,000 and Nissan by more than 1.3 Million vehicles in the United States last year

Chrysler sold more vehicles here than Nissan and Hyundai combined in 2007 and so far this year.



MYTH #2: They build unreliable junk.

Reality: The creaky, leaky vehicles of the 1980's and '90s are long gone. Consumer Reports recently found that "Ford's reliability is now on par with good Japanese automakers." The independent J.D. Power Initial Quality Study scored Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ford, GMC, Mercury, Pontiac and Lincoln brands' overall quality as high or higher than that of Acura, Audi, BMW, Honda, Nissan, Scion, Volkswagon and Volvo.

Power rated the Chevrolet Malibu the highest-quality midsize sedan. Both the Malibu and Ford Fusion scored better than the Honda Accord and Toyota Camery.


MYTH #3: They build gas-guzzlers.

Reality: All fo the Detriot Three build midsize sedans the Environmental Protection Agency rates at 29-33 miles per gallon on the highway. The most fuel-efficient Chevrolet Malibu gets 33 m.p.g. on the highway, 2 m.p.g. better than the best Honda Accord. The most fuel-efficient Ford Focus has the same highway fuel economy ratings as the most efficient Toyota Corolla. The most fuel-efficient Chevrolet Cobalt has the same city fuel economy and better highway fuel economy than the most efficient non-hybrid Honda Civic. A recent study by Edmunds.com found that the Chevrolet Aveo subcompact is the least expensive car to buy and operate.


MYTH #4: They already got a $25-billion bailout.

Reality: None of that money has been lent out and may not be for more than a year. In addition, it can, by law, be used only to invest in future vehicles and technology, so it has no effect on the shortage of operating cash the companies face because of the economic slowdown that's killing them now.


MYTH #5: GM, Ford and Chrysler are idiots for investing in pickups and SUVs.

Reality: The domestic companies' lineup has been truck-heavy, but Toyota, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have all spent billions of dollars on pickups and SUVs because are a large and historically profitable part of the auto industry. The most fuel-efficient full-size pickups from GM, Ford and Chrysler all have highers EPA fuel economy ratings than Toyota and Nissan's full-size pickups.


MYTH #6: They don't build hybrids.

Reality: The Detroit Three got into the hybrid business late, but Ford and GM each now offers more hybrid models than Honda or Nissan, with several more due to hit the road in early 2009.


** They were still not giving cars away or offering the usual cut throat deals I am famous for getting. I think they will soon.

[Keith Tedford]

Back in the sixties a family member bought nothing without consulting her consumer reports. I started reading them too. Then the 70 series tires came out. The design was so bad that you couldn't get 10K miles out of them. Too much tire pressure, the centre wore. Too little and the outsides wore. When Consumer's Report gave these tires a rave review, I never read another one of these magazines. Still don't. Many magazine articles today appear to be nothing more than infomercials for products, just like the tv car shows. American magazines are starting to acknowledge that the American/Canadian cars are good. Up here the big three are still getting knocked. Reality doesn't seem to matter.

[Kim_Howie]

Most Jap cars have a 3yr 36,000 warrenty. Take alook at the GM,Ford & Chys warrenty.100,000 10 yr. Who backs there car!!!

[P.J.]

Did you know that the big three wages account for only 7% of the cars value. So how could the wages of the union members be the problem.The theiving bast---s who were allowed to create this financial melt down,and the oil price gouging and the white house all conspired in the name of capitalism at its worst.
Do some of you remember the 70s when we had to line up for 5 gallons of gas!! The world was running out of gas, the sky is falling, the sky is falling. well we all fell for it
gas prices went through the roof and shortly there after
we had a recession thanks to the oil manopoly and the white house who let it happen. So all of us workers then want to blame the union member for creating this problem for the car companies???????
Dont let them get away with it this time
blame the people who did it and put them in jail. If a union member had created this meltdown what do you think they would do to him or her EH
PJ

[Salvatore]

WOW Keith, we must be neighbors. I used to always read consumer reports. It seems to be they do alot of bashing of American goods. I know what they said about my Chevy Astro van of the eighties but we got 136,000 out of my 1986 and 134,000 out of my 1994 Astro van, carting 4 boys around too. I am sure CR does not really care for my 1998 GMC pickup but after 178,000 miles I changed the motor because I did not think a leaky head gasket was worth doing with that many miles. Other than that NO problems. But I bet that got a bad write-up because maybe the lighter did not work or the door pins needed to be replaced. No matter what you have you have to take care of things. There are some really junkie products out there but not just from the USA.

[Late BrakeU2]

[ QUOTE ]
WOW Keith, we must be neighbors. I used to always read consumer reports. It seems to be they do alot of bashing of American goods. I know what they said about my Chevy Astro van of the eighties but we got 136,000 out of my 1986 and 134,000 out of my 1994 Astro van, carting 4 boys around too. I am sure CR does not really care for my 1998 GMC pickup but after 178,000 miles I changed the motor because I did not think a leaky head gasket was worth doing with that many miles. Other than that NO problems. But I bet that got a bad write-up because maybe the lighter did not work or the door pins needed to be replaced. No matter what you have you have to take care of things. There are some really junkie products out there but not just from the USA.

[/ QUOTE ]

I had a 1990 GMC 4X4 that went 500k with pretty much zero failures.. couple of trans rebuilds never took a valve cover off in sixteen years.. didn't burn any oil!. We make good powertrains,fit and finish is another story but bottom line our products have been built well for quite some time but the stigma remains.

We didn't catch the memo about plant modernization. Robotics have been around for decades,domestic mfgs were nappin on those same as the looming CAFE standards that are coming due.

There's one word that can sum up this whole deal-from the auto execs ,mortgage industry,hedge funds,UAW and UAE. It's called greed,and it's killed this country in the short term. When these SOB CEO's are effectively sucking their golden parachute funds from retired people's 401k's it's no wonder we are at this point. Do unto others than split.

[ORIGLS6]

If you believe everything the "Media" tells you, you're a fool. All facets of media, be it TV, radio, newspapers, magazines (even CR), are businesses. Businesses compete for customers. To get customers, they tell you what you want to hear.

Hiding in the bait is a hook!

And BTW Keith, this IS NOT directed toward you, or any ONE person in particular.

[Chevy454]

Our rural mail carriers went through an "Asian" phase for a while...if it didn't say Toyota or Nissan on it, then they wouldn't own it. But, they all learned after having to do the same maintenance and fix the same trouble spots on the foreign trucks that *just maybe* it was the 6-days a week, 100+ miles per/day, backwoods, gravel road, start/stop mail routes that was the problem and not the "crap domestic vehicles" as they'd originally thought! I think they're all driving S10s/Rangers, and a few of them drive '80s model Caprice/Impalas/LTDs...

BTW: isn't it *funny* that Congress cut a check to the banking industry for $750 BILLION without even so much as a whimper, and yet they're beating up the reps from the Big3 on Capitol Hill, talking about stipulations/strings attached/restructuring/etc, all over $25 billion?