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Automotive News & Views GM News, New Models and Market Share
8500 messages, Last post on Nov 28, 2009 at 6:31 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: m4d_cow (Jan 12, 2009 7:15 am) I did miss that as your point. >GM should've learned the lesson mush earlier The late 70s and through mid 80s GM continued to put out the profit based car rather than redesigning for world competition in some models. The MBAs in charge of things and the shareholders seemed to think the small econobox competition would go away. They got no support from the unions in improving assembly quality either. The econobox competition didn't go away and it evolved into more "normal" cars for the people to buy. >Aztek, Cavalier, The list is doing what I mentioned earlier--it's using blanket blame. I have ridden in Rendevous's. They are nice--not a Lexus, but more than adequate. I know people who bought a second one. Same for Cavaliers: I owned a Skyhawk. Not perfect but I was more satisfied than I would have been with a Honda of the era. The later plastic Cavaliers should never have seem the cost-cutting light of day. BTW my Skyhawk had a 1.8 OHC motor. I've had many of the autos you mentioned as loaners from my Buick dealer through the decades (you missed the Metro, which I think would be great to have now). Some weren't perfect but were adequate. The loaners are tradeins from the dealer's used lot. Typically they had a few years and 70K miles and ove,r but were too good for the wholesaler that picked up the high mileage tradeins. Gem among the cars was a 1995 Park Avenue that started with 90K and last I saw was at 160K. The dealer had maintained it with new struts, etc., and it was doing fine. I saw it later owned by a local person in our area (all the loaners were for sale.) Not all GMs were junk; furthermore some problems are the result of poor maintenance by owners. But GM |
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Replying to: m4d_cow (Jan 12, 2009 7:34 am) Ahhh. That's a different and a good point. That's back to the process of selling the car which includes maintaining it and correcting it during the ownership "experience." Honda and Toyota had that down much better. They also had much better profits per car because of their lower assembly costs and related factors. Agree that GM should have been working to reduce those labor and other costs to allow more working room for the unspoken warranties. |
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Replying to: steve_ (Jan 12, 2009 8:13 am) Honda/Toyota have 3 stars while all GM are 4 stars with the exception of Cadillac/Hummer which got 5. http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/news/releases/pressrelease.aspx?ID=2008250
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A123 announced last week they were opening up a battery plant in Michigan to supply electric car batteries. Today GM said they were using LG. http://gmtv.feedroom.com/ (video should be available Tuesday) Sundays press show is also available today. General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner took the stage again this morning at the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit to announce the automaker’s decision to partner with South Korean firm LG Chem to produce battery cells for the upcoming Chevrolet Volt - and potentially the upcoming Cadillac Converj. Wagoner also announced the automaker’s plans to create a large battery development center, likely in Michigan. GM chose LG Chem over A123, a Boston-based battery supplier, though the automaker says it will continue to work with A123 in the future. Wagoner said that the automaker will add more battery engineers when it opens a 31,000 square foot battery development center in the United States. The center, which will be the largest in the U.S., is planned for Michigan, though a final decision on location has not been chosen. The automaker will also partner with the University of Michigan to create an advanced battery lab and an engineering department curriculum designed to feed directly into the burgeoning battery-electric industry. The battery lab will be located in U of M’s Ann Arbor campus.
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Replying to: 62vetteefp (Jan 12, 2009 8:42 am) Did someone say they are going to offer a Hummer 3 with diesel? 
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Replying to: 62vetteefp (Jan 12, 2009 8:54 am) Don't hold your breath on batteries being built here. I think that LG had the inside track for months. The A123 was to get Congressional support. Those batteries will come out of China or Korea, would be my bet. A123 will soon fold as they will not get any of that money without a contract for the Volt battery. And the research center if built here will just be a scam to get some of that $25 billion in alternative money. GM and Chrysler have already requested $22 billion. Not much left in that kitty, if they hand it out as requested.
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Replying to: gagrice (Jan 12, 2009 9:04 am) And LG will be building the batteries in Michigan for GM. In a major economic development for Michigan, General Motors Corp. will build a lithium-ion battery pack manufacturing plant in the state, GM Chairman Rick Wagoner said today. Wagoner said the batteries GM manufactures will be used in the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, expected to go on sale late next year. Location of the plant has not been determined. "Yes, GM is getting back in the battery business," Wagoner told journalists. GM used to make automotive batteries under the Delco brand. Wagoner said GM has selected Korean battery maker LG Chem to make the individual battery cells used in the packs GM will manufacture. LG Chem has a partnership with Compact Power in Troy to make battery cells.
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DETROIT – General Motors Corp.'s chief operating officer wouldn't say Monday whether GM will need all $18 billion in government loans it sought from Congress, but he said GM's worst-case scenario would require more than the $13.4 billion already allocated by the Treasury Department. I thought just a couple of days ago GM was saying that they would not need more money even in their worst-case scenarios? Funny how that story is changing, but not surprising.
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General Motors, seeking buyers for Saab and Hummer, will be able to follow through with plans to shrink to four core brands, North American President Troy Clarke says. As part of the survival strategy submitted to Congress last month, GM said it intends to focus U.S. product and marketing resources on Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC. Today at the auto show, Clarke said the company will be able to execute the plan, even as the global credit crisis chills merger and acquisition activity. "We have to re-engineer the way we're doing business in many regards," Clarke said. "We're going to be a smaller company." Meanwhile, Pontiac will dwindle to a five-vehicle line, Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said here in a separate interview today. The cars: the G8, G5, Vibe, Solstice and Solstice hardtop coupe. In the viability plan -- submitted as part of GM's effort to win $13.4 billion in federal bailout loans -- GM also said it would consider options for Saturn, without saying whether the line would be sold or shuttered. "We've entered into a very, very open and candid dialogue with our Saturn retailers,'' Clarke said. Saturn, launched 19 years ago, has been successful in terms of brand attributes, he said. But "it just hasn't been a good business for us." Saturn's only annual profit came in 1993. GM will be able to work within state franchise laws as it whittles its dealer count, Clarke said. GM has calculated the estimated costs, he said, without elaborating. In the viability plan it submitted to Congress, GM said it planned to go from 6,600 dealers to 4,700 by 2012. Well it looks like the G6 is gone so look for the Insignia to become a Malibu next year?
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Replying to: 62vetteefp (Jan 12, 2009 7:48 am) I supplied the data? When was this? Can you show me where this was? Uh, it was about 200 posts back, post #3100 something I believe. You said Chevy and Toyota are virtually tied, well I agree and not in a bad way. GM is going up, Toyota's going down, it's that simple. As for top class Honda, I only read and hear reviews from customers or potential customers (fairly, only from WA, CA, FL, OR, or MA where I can get infos from) who mostly rate Honda as much superior to Toyota in service quality. Also from my own experience as a customer. Toyota's falling service quality can be found all over the newspapers since 2001, you can easily find them on reader's letters section. |
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