Breaking: GM Oshawa closing all operations

[Kjmack]

Originally Posted by irv

Originally Posted by Garak

If this does come to pass, I wouldn't doubt that the cost of electricity in Ontario were a major factor. Sure, it's not everything, but I'd hate to see the monthly power bill for that plant. GM and other automakers are clearly changing their lineups and have to shuffle infrastructure, but when you tick off the boxes that add up to a lot of expenses, a certain factory winds up on the chopping block.

That is one, if not currently, GM Oshawa's biggest expenses! Not to get all political but the Liberals Green Energy Boondoggle and Trudope's carbon tax scheme, among other things, are 2 huge reasons why GM is packing up shop here. They simply can't compete here due to these crazy extra costs and the Liberal Gov't is largely to blame for a lot of those.

Watch out my thread got locked up for speaking the truth .

 

[4WD]

Originally Posted by Snagglefoot

Originally Posted by ZeeOSix

Originally Posted by Bjornviken

7 factory and 10k peapol have to go world wide. Sad news!

I heard on the news today that is was 5 plants ... 1 in Canada and 4 in the USA. And GM stock was up today over the news. Said they were going more into electric and self driving cars. They might be in for a surprise IMO.

I agree. Too much money into the electric car and self driving car hype may hurt them. GM is drinking the purple coolaid.

Well … the consumer just like the voter is always free to criticize leadership … but US citizens of are never "seen" as part of what happened … They just jump back in and criticize leadership again … and the press helps mightily … Korea played a huge part in the take down … and I do say that bad trade deals were part of that. (several years back). I lived there for two years and can tell you they buy Korean - big time. The US is nothing like that … good, bad, indifferent … I'm just saying that's a factor that goes unnoticed …

 

[E365]

Originally Posted by Kjmack

Originally Posted by irv

Originally Posted by Garak

If this does come to pass, I wouldn't doubt that the cost of electricity in Ontario were a major factor. Sure, it's not everything, but I'd hate to see the monthly power bill for that plant. GM and other automakers are clearly changing their lineups and have to shuffle infrastructure, but when you tick off the boxes that add up to a lot of expenses, a certain factory winds up on the chopping block.

That is one, if not currently, GM Oshawa's biggest expenses! Not to get all political but the Liberals Green Energy Boondoggle and Trudope's carbon tax scheme, among other things, are 2 huge reasons why GM is packing up shop here. They simply can't compete here due to these crazy extra costs and the Liberal Gov't is largely to blame for a lot of those.

Watch out my thread got locked up for speaking the truth .

The "truth"? No. The truth is Oshawa makes 2 poorly selling large sedans and one obsolete truck model. Holy cow, many of your are WAY overthinking all this.

 

[dave1251]

Indeed there will be more closings darn new millennials do not want to drive.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted by dave1251

Indeed there will be more closings darn new millennials do not want to drive.

I don't blame them.

 

[Mr Nice]

GM trying to compete with Tesla for high tech vehicles will be a disaster.

 

[Kjmack]

Originally Posted by StevieC

Originally Posted by dave1251

Indeed there will be more closings darn new millennials do not want to drive.

I don't blame them.

You don't blame them for not wanting to drive ? Why is that ? Myself I like to drive . Millennials got their faces stuck in a cell phone or computer screen most of the day . They need to get out of the city once in a while and feel the sun and the open road .

 

[HemiHawk]

Originally Posted by StevieC

Originally Posted by dave1251

Indeed there will be more closings darn new millennials do not want to drive.

I don't blame them.

As an older "millennial", I don't blame them either. Driving on these congested roads is terrible. Watching the news is interesting regarding the GM news. They are making a business decision, and the outrage is really something else. I see it as a good thing (of course not that people are losing jobs, but thats business). GM is positioning themselves to be in a good way when the next recession hits. Last time they got caught off guard, and had to borrow money. Maybe they are doing the right thing. Some of the essential raw materials they need to build cars have recently gotten much more expensive in the US as well. Why would they stand by and take that?

 

[emg]

Originally Posted by HemiHawk

GM is positioning themselves to be in a good way when the next recession hits.

Maybe with these specific factory closures for poorly-selling vehicles, but I can't help but feel that another recession would lead to more people wanting cheap cars than expensive trucks and SUVs. And electrics aren't likely to be cost-competitive with cheap ICE cars any time soon.

 

[KrisZ]

Factories can be re-tooled to make different models. This plant is obviously being shut down because GM no longer wants to run it. There is probably more than one reason, but the overall cost to run this plant and produce vehicles must be higher than GM execs would like it to be, so it is being shut down. If the cost was reasonable, it would keep going and be re-tooled to make a more popular model. Electricity costs are a big part of running a plant of this size.

 

[Mr Nice]

If another recession hits, will people be buying $30-50K vehicles ? I seriously doubt.

 

[wings&wheels]

Originally Posted by Mr Nice

If another recession hits, will people be buying $30-50K vehicles ? I seriously doubt.

If the pull back is similar to the last one, no. The very high end will slow just a little, maybe, but the middle segment, as you noted, will be mostly affected as these buyers will either keep cars longer or buy down market when necessary. This is where GM will have risk with their remaining product mix. Hope they have an as yet unannounced strategy to address this situation.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted by KrisZ

Electricity costs are a big part of running a plant of this size.

It doesn't help that over the years the union has fought so hard to get these guys big hourly wages too. They shot themselves in the foot in the long run with that.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted by Kjmack

Originally Posted by StevieC

Originally Posted by dave1251

Indeed there will be more closings darn new millennials do not want to drive.

I don't blame them.

You don't blame them for not wanting to drive ? Why is that ? Myself I like to drive . Millennials got their faces stuck in a cell phone or computer screen most of the day . They need to get out of the city once in a while and feel the sun and the open road .

The ridiculous costs of owning a depreciating purchase, the gas/insurance/repairs and the fact that in 10 years they are ready to be scrapped and the ever increasing traffic and bad drivers. If they don't need one to get through life then why buy one when they can rent or borrow as needed? Example: My brother who is in the millennial bracket has a car but it's a beater and sits parked more days than its run. He gets everywhere he needs to go on transit because traffic and parking is a nightmare where he lives. And they have a young kid as well. My sister has a car but the only she does is because transit doesn't run where she needs it to go in the country she lives in. (Also a Millennial) I'm in-between the Boomers / Millennial. I wouldn't have a car either if I didn't need it for my job. I would just borrow/rent as needed. If you add up the actual cost and depreciation of keeping a car on the road it's ridiculous and we do it out of convenience.

 

[javacontour]

Wrong topic...

 

[PimTac]

Originally Posted by StevieC

Originally Posted by Kjmack

Originally Posted by StevieC

Originally Posted by dave1251

Indeed there will be more closings darn new millennials do not want to drive.

I don't blame them.

You don't blame them for not wanting to drive ? Why is that ? Myself I like to drive . Millennials got their faces stuck in a cell phone or computer screen most of the day . They need to get out of the city once in a while and feel the sun and the open road .

The ridiculous costs of owning a depreciating purchase, the gas/insurance/repairs and the fact that in 10 years they are ready to be scrapped and the ever increasing traffic and bad drivers. If they don't need one to get through life then why buy one when they can rent or borrow as needed? Example: My brother who is in the millennial bracket has a car but it's a beater and sits parked more days than its run. He gets everywhere he needs to go on transit because traffic and parking is a nightmare where he lives. And they have a young kid as well. My sister has a car but the only she does is because transit doesn't run where she needs it to go in the country she lives in. (Also a Millennial) I'm in-between the Boomers / Millennial. I wouldn't have a car either if I didn't need it for my job. I would just borrow/rent as needed. If you add up the actual cost and depreciation of keeping a car on the road it's ridiculous and we do it out of convenience.

You paid how much for your van again? Maybe your transit is safe and clean. Ours is full of transients shooting up and other things I won't mention here.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by PimTac

You paid how much for your van again? Maybe your transit is safe and clean. Ours is full of transients shooting up and other things I won't mention here.

Yup, I wouldn't do public transit if you paid me, yuck!

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by Kjmack

Originally Posted by StevieC

Originally Posted by dave1251

Indeed there will be more closings darn new millennials do not want to drive.

I don't blame them.

You don't blame them for not wanting to drive ? Why is that ? Myself I like to drive . Millennials got their faces stuck in a cell phone or computer screen most of the day . They need to get out of the city once in a while and feel the sun and the open road .

Maybe if there was a social media system built into the cars where they could get "Likes" from other drivers for good driving, they might then want to take up driving.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by wings&wheels

Originally Posted by Mr Nice

If another recession hits, will people be buying $30-50K vehicles ? I seriously doubt.

If the pull back is similar to the last one, no. The very high end will slow just a little, maybe, but the middle segment, as you noted, will be mostly affected as these buyers will either keep cars longer or buy down market when necessary. This is where GM will have risk with their remaining product mix. Hope they have an as yet unannounced strategy to address this situation.

Remember what happened the last time gas prices went up to $5/gallon ... people were trying to trade in big SUVs like mad on smaller fuel efficient cars. Maybe GM thinks fuel prices will jump way up in the not too near future and everyone will want a hybrid or pure EV. Thing is, can you imagine if the number of pure EVs shot up dramatically what it would do to the draw on the electrical grid? Guess people charging over night might not be so bad (lower grid usage), but I'd think it would eventually have an impact on the price of power going to your house. And all the revenue lost from gas taxes for roads, etc would just shift over to some kind of "use tax" on electric cars.

 

[Dallas69]

You mean theDexos money grab that GM pulled didn't pad their pockets enough? Guess they will now be begging the taxpayer for more money to bail them out so they can better position themselves.