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Automotive News & Views Automotive News & Views-Archives GM Is on The Offensive. Will it work? 
7057 messages, Last post on Sep 04, 2007 at 8:13 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views-Archives Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: gagrice (Sep 03, 2007 7:20 pm) just a thought, L
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Replying to: m1miata (Sep 03, 2007 7:24 pm)
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Replying to: 1487 (Sep 03, 2007 3:09 pm) I actually think you're way too bright and DO get it. You're just being coy as usual.  Since you claim not to get it, I'll spell it out in detail. It's quite logical, actually. Most people own cars 5-6 years. So their impressions are based upon vehicles that are not one year old, but 5-6 years old. I usually remember my last 2-3 cars, so that covers 5-15 years. In this business the buying cycles for most people are many years apart. Furthermore, given the $$ of a car purchase, people take it very seriously. If my DVD player breaks I go to Circuit City and spend another <$100. I don't care so much about the brand, because it's not worth fixing and it is not a lot of money. As far as the GM truck being designed in the early '90's, you're making my point for me. If it's still on the market in the 2000's and it is 8+ year old design, then of course people will compare the "old design" since they might have bought it in 2000, even if it was designed in the early '90's. It's just old, noncompetitive product. If GM refreshed the product more often in this example, then we wouldn't be comparing to old stuff. Your point about the latest GM products being much more competitive may be true, but the market is going to take quite a bit of time to adjust its perception of GM. It took decades to ruin the reputation and it's not going to come back overnight. Shows the cost of poor quality - it's a big job to earn that trust back.
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I won't get into specific details but with 50-60 million folks uninsured, 5 million manufacturing jobs gone south or over seas, millions of service jobs lost to the 3rd world employed by foreigners living here or over sea's, gas/energy prices, housing costs, personal and business bankruptcy's, home foreclosers, employee benefit cuts in pension, health care, wage/salary, cost of a college education, national debt, personal debt, want me to continue ?????? I like I said stand by my claim. This is the worst economic situation this country has had since the great depression for average middle class american. The stock market's roller coaster ride of the wealthy playing a game of craps or roulette doesn't reflect the true economy americans are living in. The fact remains millions of americans that lost their good paying $40-60K+ job they had in the 90's are now making 30-40% less and Dubya's lips move and say retrain, retrain, retrain, we are in a global economy. The reason why vehicle sales haven't totally hit a brick wall is because people are just financing them longer than ever before. What are we up to now 96 month term ????? Sure we have a bunch of Arm Chair CEO's posting in these forums that are on their next million but the facts and statistics show otherwise for most folks that aren't better off now than they were before.  As far as GM, goes they have a couple of home runs with the 08' CTS, Enclave, Acadia, Outlook. I think the 08' Saab 9-3, will be a strong seller finally just like I think the new Malibu, will sell well. I still think GM, would of been wise offering a manual option on both the 3.6 and 2.4 engines for the Malibu. May be their is hope for the SS, but I doubt it since I see the GXP G6 will be automatic only !!!!!  -Rocky
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Replying to: gagrice (Sep 03, 2007 7:49 pm)  and pretty cool. As for trucks, our family had one, from Uncle Henry.That was way back back when, it was an 1950 truck. Talk about a real truck, that was some steel, with a harsh ride to remind you, you are in a real ranch truck. In the modern GM trucks, the last refresh looks a bit better to me than the previous model. Now as far as steel, I haven't a clue. My wild guess is something like the 1970's (late) or maybe into the (early) 80's are still heavy steel. Only thing I recall is people saying the tail gate works on a GM and the Ford was not as good. But what do I know. No truck expert. That old truck though was kinda fun to ride in -- in the back that is. L |
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Replying to: 1487 (Sep 03, 2007 3:20 pm) I don't know what you are talking about, please enlighten us. What is the press claiming is exclusive to Honda? Do tell. References please, otherwise we'll have to assume this is more excited arguing. Honda is just another competitor and not the dominant engineering force that people make them oout to be Well, Honda was the first car to come up with stratified charge engines in the '70's that didn't need catalytic converters. And Honda had ultra smooth v6 engines well over 200hp way before GM. Let's not forget that Honda has put out variable displacement engines on the Odyssey and I don't recall hearing about any mechanical problems (unlike the V8-6-4 from GM). Honda was one of the first companies with simple, mass produced variable valve timing in their VTEC setup. Let's not forget that Honda sold the first hybrid car in the US, the Insight. Honda also uses active sound cancellation to make the Odyssey and the new Accord quieter. All this while maintaining superior reliability to most other makes. I'd say that's a lot closer to a dominant engineering force than any other mainstream brand. Tell me about other dominant engineering from some of the US nameplates and we can compare who is leading in engineering.
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Replying to: m1miata (Sep 03, 2007 7:16 pm)
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Replying to: tlong (Sep 03, 2007 8:37 pm) L
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Replying to: altest (Sep 03, 2007 8:47 pm) Now I got my 244HP and love it. Will I even drive an i4 again, very much a possibility, as a sports car or coupe. Maybe as a Miata again, if I don't see myself in an inline six Bimmer called the Z3, or a old OHV monster called the Corvette. I think there is room for those wanting to come down from a larger V8 SUV into a car, and the Aura V6 makes sense. The 3.6 mated to the six speed is even fun, with decent gas mileage. This should have been the focus of Saturn with the Aura. They should have made the 3.6 for say $22K, then up two levels for add-ons. And NO base 3.5V6 or the i4, be it hybrid or not. That hybrid MPG ain't that hot. L |
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Replying to: tlong (Sep 03, 2007 8:29 pm) Since I look at cars as more than a 2 or 3 year proposition, why should I make the leap of faith that a new GM is going to age so well when the last one I was in didn't? The Pathfinder ran beautifuly and it was 4 years older.
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Automotive News & Views Automotive News & Views-Archives GM Is on The Offensive. Will it work?
