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Automotive News & Views United Automobile Workers of America (UAW)
16705 messages, Last post on Nov 25, 2009 at 6:56 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: gagrice (Dec 26, 2008 7:46 pm) Whose idea was it to make an unsleeved aluminum motor and put it in a Vega? Yeah that would go back about 30 years.
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Replying to: wheelman (Dec 26, 2008 2:21 pm) Largely true. However, if I'm management making decisions about parts quality, and my competitors are eating my lunch because my costs are much higher due to union contracts and benefits, I have to cut somewhere to be competitive in cost. I can't cut the union costs because that is in a contract. So I cut parts quality and squeeze my suppliers. Yes, the management should not have agreed to the contract terms, but the entire company was hemorrhaging money during the strike. It was a short term vs. long term decision and I as the upper management chose the short term answer - end the strike by agreeing to the terms. So now I cut costs elsewhere and guess what? The public can see the difference and I continuously lose market share to my competitors. So I blame BOTH the management and the union. They're in this together but have been so busy being adversarial that their competitors are passing them by. |
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Replying to: dallasdude1 (Dec 26, 2008 8:50 pm) The UAW doesmn't get off the hook here. The Lordstown assembly plant where the Vega was built was notorious for labor unrest and became a showplace on how NOT to build cars. I'd say engineering, management, and labor all share equally in the fiasco that was the Vega. What a shame. It was kind of a nicely styled car for a subcompact - sort of a mini Camaro. It was certainly prettier than a Pinto, Gremlin, or the many anonymous rusty tin boxes Japan Inc. was producing at the time
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Replying to: 62vetteefp (Dec 26, 2008 7:26 pm) You are correct and there are probably lots of commodity parts that are the same in a Toyota as a GM. But there are also many specially made parts for certain vehicles, and the car company defines the design and specification. So we can't assume that quality will always be the same, even from the same suppliers. I read a post on Edmund's recently where a supplier had been complaining about how picky the J3 are with their parts. |
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Any part may look exactly the same, but have different life expectancy depending on tolerances, materials and/or QC. They will of course have different cost as well. It's not hard to set up. In fact, we can see same thing as consumers in certain home appliances (lawn mowers, floor cleaners, pressure washers, etc.) when commercial grade equipment is set to last 10 times longer than consumer grade with cost approximately tripple cost. I don't actually know it it is happening, but it would not surprise me if it did. |
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Replying to: 62vetteefp (Dec 23, 2008 10:36 am) -Rocky |
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Replying to: lemko (Dec 23, 2008 1:01 pm) I as I've told you many of times thank-you for "getting it" lemko!!!  -Rocky |
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Replying to: lemko (Dec 23, 2008 1:18 pm)  My ultimate car is a 05' or 06' STS AWD but we will see. My boss likes me a lot thus he probably will be a little flexible with me and because I prefer to drive pre-owned vs. new I might get what I want. I have a married couple over night in a Aura XR-4 and it looks good. I've lost a few saturn deals but did keep em' in the suburban collection family and most of those are pending. Well I better hit the rack!!! I would read more but it's time to hit the hay!!! Hope all of you had a good Christmas!!! "The Rock" |
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Replying to: rockylee (Dec 26, 2008 9:18 pm) |
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