GM Chapter 7 ??

[rpn453]

quote:

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Originally posted by Jason Troxell:
BMW and Porsche are quite profitable. Not sure if there are any others

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Toyota is the most profitable car maker in the world though. I can't picture a bright future for GM at the moment.

A surprising stat I read the other day: In Canada for the month of May, Mazda sold more Mazda3's than Ford's entire car sales and Chrysler group's entire car sales.

 

[bulwnkl]

quote:

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Originally posted by Bamaro:
Ch 7 is out of business.

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Or even more accurately, liquidation.

 

[brianl703]

quote:

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Originally posted by rpn453:
In Canada for the month of May, Mazda sold more Mazda3's than Ford's entire car sales and Chrysler group's entire car sales.

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I wonder if Mazda's sales would've been that high if more people knew that Ford has a controlling interest in Mazda.

 

[srivett]

You guys should see the scrap yards when GM upgrades equipment. Instead of selling it they have it all shredded. It's pretty neat to see what they use but it's sad to see the electronic gear get crushed with the steel.

I have to wonder if selling the equipment really would be a bad business idea.

Steve

 

[Colt]

My '02 Grand Prix will be the last American badge I will buy.
Thank God I took the GM extended warranty.
The car is a POS.
Screw GM.

 

[Kernel Potter]

quote:

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BMW and Porsche are quite profitable. Not sure if there are any others [LOL!]

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Of the many companies I probably missed, Porsche is one of them. In the early 90s they were on the brink of collapse or buy out. They came up with the Boxster and brought the Japanese in to show them how to run a their company.

 

[jason07-1zzfe]

That's the past, they are doing well now. At least they knew what to do when they were in trouble.

 

[rpn453]

quote:

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Originally posted by brianl703:
I wonder if Mazda's sales would've been that high if more people knew that Ford has a controlling interest in Mazda.

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What I wonder is if Ford's sales would be better if they sold their European Focus here. Ford won't be selling the "Mazda3" Focus in N.A. until 2007 or 2008!

 

[brianl703]

quote:

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Originally posted by rpn453:
What I wonder is if Ford's sales would be better if they sold their European Focus here. Ford won't be selling the "Mazda3" Focus in N.A. until 2007 or 2008!

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I wonder if the reason that they're not selling the European Focus here is because of what happened with the Contour/Mystique.

Not that it's a GOOD reason, though..but a possible reason.

 

[XS650]

quote:

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Originally posted by brianl703:
I wonder if the reason that they're not selling the European Focus here is because of what happened with the Contour/Mystique.

Not that it's a GOOD reason, though..but a possible reason.

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The Contour/Mystique is one of the very few Ford products that I would have considered owning in the past 40 years. (I confess I had a 95 Mustang I inherited in early 96 and sold as soon as I could, a 57 Ford was my last Ford that I aquired by choice).

If a Ford appealed to me, it obviously wasn't going to appeal to Ford's customer base.

I also wouldn't have minded a European Escort in the mid 1990s. I rented one for couple of weeks in G. Britain and it was a real decent car to drive at speed and on twisty roads. Totaly unlike a US Escort.

 

[TomH]

quote:

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Originally posted by rpn453:

quote:

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Originally posted by brianl703:
I wonder if Mazda's sales would've been that high if more people knew that Ford has a controlling interest in Mazda.

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What I wonder is if Ford's sales would be better if they sold their European Focus here. Ford won't be selling the "Mazda3" Focus in N.A. until 2007 or 2008!

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Considering that the Focus in Europe is referred to as an upscale mid-sized car that sells for over $30K, I doubt we will ever see it over here. I honestly can't see anyone here in the USA paying $30K and over for a Focus, even the turbocharged AWD RS model, when you can get an EVO or STI for less. And Ford doesn't want that kind of competition over here that would take sales away from their "halo car", the Mustang.

 

[Kernel Potter]

Tom H,

Where do you get your prices from? I just looked on Ford and Mitsubishis' UK sites. The top of the line Ford Focus Titanium, though not an RS(I didn't see them on the web-site) was $27,557.

The starting Mitsubishi EVO 8 was $41,628.

Not a whole lot of EVOs are sold in the US for about $30,000. How many do you think would sell for $41,000?

 

[TomH]

quote:

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Originally posted by Kernel Potter:
Tom H,

Where do you get your prices from? I just looked on Ford and Mitsubishis' UK sites. The top of the line Ford Focus Titanium, though not an RS(I didn't see them on the web-site) was $27,557.

The starting Mitsubishi EVO 8 was $41,628.

Not a whole lot of EVOs are sold in the US for about $30,000. How many do you think would sell for $41,000?

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The rough average, translating the Euro into Dollars, would make the average cost of a Euro Focus over here around $30K. I'm sure that the RS model would sell for quite a bit more than that which would make it a tad more expensive than our Evos and STIs.

 

[lobo11]

I hope you'all didn't think I was putting blame on retirees, I wasn't just stating that contiual job reduction is a two edge sword. The real answer is a gain back in the market share. I have had nothing but quality GM products so far. Am I lucky, I don't know, but I have owned 5 GM's and only 1 had any real issues, and a lot of that was due to poor diagnosis at the dealer. My 2002 Buick has yet to have a single problem, and is approaching 60K miles. I plan on buying GM when I purchase my next vehicle, they do good things for folks here in Michigan, and have yet to sell me a problem.

 

[Kernel Potter]

TomH,

So you basically converted the top of the line Ford Focus price(non-RS) in Europe, relative to here, while keeping the Japanese cars prices as face value in the USA to compare?

 

[Ray H]

Any company's biggest corporate loss on current employees and vested early retirees is in the form of medical insurance until Social Security kicks in at age 65. However, companies have found that it's quite possible to drop medical insurance entirely for retirees. (Makes sense - they're old and more subject to illness - dump 'em!) As far as pensions are concerned, when a vested employee goes out the door, the company takes the money that has theoretically been set aside and purchases an annuity to pay the retiree's pension obligation - or writes a check for a one-time lump-sum distribution for the retiree to make his own arrangements. (There can be serious tax and penalty consequences if the employee isn't carefull, here.) Regardless, at that point the company is off the hook - it's the annuity company's problem or the former employee's. The problem in the U.S. is that many companies have overcooked the books in how much they've actually set aside, and under the Reagan, the former Bush, and the current Bush administrations, the Pension Guarantee Trust Fund hasn't done squat to police the situation. The situation under Clinton wasn't much better. With baby-boomers hitting retirement age in droves, many are going to find themselves S.O.L. - lucky if they receive 30 cents on the promised dollar if employers default. Management's newest tactic for underfunded pension obligations is simple: elliminate pensions for some current (those who've not vested) and all future hourly employees. Simple problem, simple solution.

But, my inapropriate sarcasm aside, at least we'll always have Social Security as a stable backup, right?

 

[vwoom]

Audi(DKW/Horch/Wanderer) was long, long ago a VW. Lamborghini(under Audi), Bentley(taken away from RR c/o BMW), Bugatti, Seat & Skoda during the '90s Ferdinand Piech's(grandson of Dr.Porsche) era became part of VW.

There is talk that the Malaysian brand Proton will be taken over eventually by VW(now currently in joint coop)..

 

[TomH]

quote:

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Originally posted by Kernel Potter:
TomH,

So you basically converted the top of the line Ford Focus price(non-RS) in Europe, relative to here, while keeping the Japanese cars prices as face value in the USA to compare?

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How else would you do it? Since both the EVO and STI are sold here, and the Euro Focus isn't, it's kind of hard to make a direct comparison.

 

[FowVay]

Since you guys are going to the United Kingdom web site keep in mind that they don't trade in Euros but rather they still trade in British Pounds.

From Ford's German web site:

base prices for the three models offered are

Focus Ambiente = euro 14,500
Focus Trend = euro 15,675
Focus Sport = euro 18,075

Multiply these numbers by 1.25 (approx) to get the dollar prices. They're nowhere near $30,000.

The UK prices will be higher due to the price of the Pound.

 

[TomH]

quote:

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Originally posted by FowVay:
Multiply these numbers by 1.25 (approx) to get the dollar prices. They're nowhere near $30,000.

The UK prices will be higher due to the price of the Pound.

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The current exchange rate is 1.82 US Dollars for every British Pound, not 1.25.

EDIT. Misread the post the first time, didn't see the "German" at the top. The Euro to Dollar rate is currently 1.21 USD for every Euro.

Doing the conversion from prices on the UK website, the cheapest Focus sold over there would run about $20,500 sold here.

[ June 16, 2005, 10:37 AM: Message edited by: TomH ]