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Automotive News & Views What if you were in charge of GM?
874 messages, Last post on Oct 28, 2009 at 10:20 AM
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Oct 18, 2009 4:23 pm) By the way, I'm not anti-union--some actually serve a purpose other than lining the pockets of the leadership. |
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Replying to: fintail (Oct 18, 2009 8:01 am) While I agree that the short-term focus of most American businesses is a serious problem, to say that GM sold "undesirable cars" for the last 30 years is ridiculous. GM sold more cars than any other automaker in the US until last year. Somebody must have desired those cars...Besides, much of what was wrong with GM's offerings can be attributed to all the cost-cutting required to offset the UAW contracts. Any business that pays high school grads as much as engineers is doomed to fail eventually.
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Replying to: vinnyny (Oct 18, 2009 6:17 pm) What is the cost per vehicle for admittedly bloated UAW perks?
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Replying to: vinnyny (Oct 18, 2009 6:17 pm) I say "somewhat" weak because it is true that an ornery union can harm a company, but I don't think they can bring down a healthy one any more than 1000 squirrels can bring down a water buffalo. But they could be *very* annoying and take him off his feed... 
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of what you build. Do something that 20 other car companies aren't already doing! Want to do take a gamble at success, rather than wallowing in failure, try something like this. http://www.aptera.com/ The tail-lights kind of remind me of an old Buick Riviera.  How about vehicles like this for Buick?
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Replying to: fintail (Oct 18, 2009 7:33 pm) As to the UAW's added cost per car, I've seen studies that put the number anywhere between $1200-1800 each. However, I don't think that captures the full cost--like significantly lower productivity due to absurd union work rules.
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Replying to: vinnyny (Oct 20, 2009 6:00 pm) The actual average hourly wage of a UAW worker is $28.78. GM says it costs $70 an hour to employ a UAW worker, but that includes many expenses any employer has to pay, like SS, workman's comp, unemployment, Medicare, etc. Toyota's cost is claimed to be $53 per hour for 'everything'. However, the UAW will cut the costs $8 per hour in 2010 by agreement of taking over retiree health costs at that time. So then the wage gap will be $9 an hour between GM and Toyota---not too drastic really.
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Replying to: vinnyny (Oct 20, 2009 6:00 pm) They did sell millions of vehicles to fleet buyers. Pontiacs especially were dependent upon such purchases, along with many models from other nameplates. Did any private customers actually buy a Grand Prix from 2006 onwards? Who buys an Impala today? I won't argue the UAW has much blame in this, but the cars being lacklustre is very much a part of poor styling, poor ergonomics, and cost cutting while execs continued to become zillionaires. Bad planning, unskilled management. There too often seems to be a lot more than an $1800 difference between a GM car and its competition. |
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| So Pontiac is dead, Saturn is dead, Hummer has been sold to the Chinese, and Opel might be going to the Canadians (Magna Corp). I wonder when this will end? | |
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Oct 20, 2009 8:09 pm) A U.N. study done in 2007 says that US workers lead the world in productivity, in terms of wealth produced per year. Part of that is due to the fact that we work longer hours than most, but also due to the fact that amount of work done per hour is higher. So it's a tricky number but it genereally stands up to scrutiny. I'm sure that US workers are more productive than those in Botswana. However, I'd submit that our workers are more productive IN SPITE OF the UAW rather than BECAUSE OF it. Our workers have better equipment, education, nutrition, health care, climate control, and a thousand other advantages over all of the third world and much of the western world. So, are they really more productive because they carry UAW cards in their wallets? I don't think so. The actual average hourly wage of a UAW worker is $28.78. GM says it costs $70 an hour to employ a UAW worker, but that includes many expenses any employer has to pay, like SS, workman's comp, unemployment, Medicare, etc. Toyota's cost is claimed to be $53 per hour for 'everything'. However, the UAW will cut the costs $8 per hour in 2010 by agreement of taking over retiree health costs at that time. So then the wage gap will be $9 an hour between GM and Toyota---not too drastic really. Assuming that foreign auto makers do nothing to improve their cost curves, the $9 per hour difference is still more than 17%. ANY company forced to carry a 17% handicap versus its competition better pray that the competition is unabashedly greedy or it is doomed to go the way of "old GM". By the way, $28.78 per hour is almost 50% more than the average US worker ($16.75/hour in 2006). Why?
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