GM has to comitt to building vechiles that are the most refined and most durable and longest lasting with out failure or they will never make it! They have to be better then Toyota,Honda,BMW etc...Until then they are just the loss leader with greatly discounted products! They can do it but probably will not see it in my lifetime! They would need to get bought out and privately owned with no share holders longer enough for the needed changes to take place or people willing to take a shorterm loss for a longterm gain which does not happen in America when share holders have their say! In fact when I was in college a lot of Prof.'s ahd worked for GM for a long time! In ever case GM was used as an example of what not to do inspite of them still being a large and at the time profitable company.
Which division(s) should GM kill off? Why not GMC
- Thread starter mrsilv04
- Start date
- Status
Originally Posted By: HM12460
i'd pick the buick any day over a lexus/acura/whatever. you see, i'm an american, and i'll drive a car/truck made by an american manufacturer for as long as i drive, and i make sure it was made in this country too. i've owned several buick's and dollar for dollar, were an excellent value. gm has a lot of different problems now and made many mistakes. it's gonna be very difficult for them to address these issue's in the period of time required. i believe they will rise to the challenge and return to profitably in the near future. wished i could say the same for chrysler. if gm has too drop a few name plates (most likely) hummer, saab, saturn should be the first ones to go. something needs to happen with the light/heavy duty truck lines to combine chevy and gmc. pontiac should get the axe next if this fails to put them back into the black ink. time will tell. i hope the uaw will co-operate as much as is reasonably possible with gm to achieve success.
And it is people like you that have been sucked in by the inferior domestic brands with the emotional handcuffs of patriotism, and such. Your behavior has only enabled the domestic brands to make inferior products. I would imagine you might be the type of parent to bail out your son who is guilty of drunk driving or other crime. Enablement keeps the son and the car companies stuck in failure.
Better to practice and apply tough-love. You need to tell the domestics "hey, since you're being eclipsed in quality by foreign brands, I am NOT going to reward you. I will NOT buy from you, nor even consider your products until you earn my business".
To continue to buy inferior products is to make the statement "Hey, I love the shiiit products you make, and I do not deserve the best". Is that really what you want to say to GM, Ford, and Chrysler? I don't think so.
Since you're trying to tie patriotism to buying domestic products I will counter your argument with another patriotic argument which I feel is more objective, fair, and realistic:
1. It is UN-American to make inferior products.
2. It is UN-American to buy inferior products.
3. It is UN-American to reward domestic companies which make inferior products.
A true American will practice tough-love with any and all domestic companies, and that means BOYCOTTing them when they do very UN-American practices, like making inferior products. To reward such companies is to enable their inferior practices.
Don't fall for the patriotic manipulation any longer. The domestics must save themselves, and it is not the American people's job to save them.
Being an American, I feel profound shame for most of the products the big 3 domestics make, and how any true American can love such products is beyond reason, logic, and sound thinking.
I purchased a 2007 Toyota Yaris because none of the domestics have a product that provides better gas milage, can compete in price, and can offer a product that matches the Japanese car in quality or much less surpasses it. Being American means I want and deserve the best.
So in conclusion, who is the UN-patriotic Americans? Those that buy Foreign cars, or those that design and build domestic cars?
I say the later, and NOT the former.
i'd pick the buick any day over a lexus/acura/whatever. you see, i'm an american, and i'll drive a car/truck made by an american manufacturer for as long as i drive, and i make sure it was made in this country too. i've owned several buick's and dollar for dollar, were an excellent value. gm has a lot of different problems now and made many mistakes. it's gonna be very difficult for them to address these issue's in the period of time required. i believe they will rise to the challenge and return to profitably in the near future. wished i could say the same for chrysler. if gm has too drop a few name plates (most likely) hummer, saab, saturn should be the first ones to go. something needs to happen with the light/heavy duty truck lines to combine chevy and gmc. pontiac should get the axe next if this fails to put them back into the black ink. time will tell. i hope the uaw will co-operate as much as is reasonably possible with gm to achieve success.
And it is people like you that have been sucked in by the inferior domestic brands with the emotional handcuffs of patriotism, and such. Your behavior has only enabled the domestic brands to make inferior products. I would imagine you might be the type of parent to bail out your son who is guilty of drunk driving or other crime. Enablement keeps the son and the car companies stuck in failure.
Better to practice and apply tough-love. You need to tell the domestics "hey, since you're being eclipsed in quality by foreign brands, I am NOT going to reward you. I will NOT buy from you, nor even consider your products until you earn my business".
To continue to buy inferior products is to make the statement "Hey, I love the shiiit products you make, and I do not deserve the best". Is that really what you want to say to GM, Ford, and Chrysler? I don't think so.
Since you're trying to tie patriotism to buying domestic products I will counter your argument with another patriotic argument which I feel is more objective, fair, and realistic:
1. It is UN-American to make inferior products.
2. It is UN-American to buy inferior products.
3. It is UN-American to reward domestic companies which make inferior products.
A true American will practice tough-love with any and all domestic companies, and that means BOYCOTTing them when they do very UN-American practices, like making inferior products. To reward such companies is to enable their inferior practices.
Don't fall for the patriotic manipulation any longer. The domestics must save themselves, and it is not the American people's job to save them.
Being an American, I feel profound shame for most of the products the big 3 domestics make, and how any true American can love such products is beyond reason, logic, and sound thinking.
I purchased a 2007 Toyota Yaris because none of the domestics have a product that provides better gas milage, can compete in price, and can offer a product that matches the Japanese car in quality or much less surpasses it. Being American means I want and deserve the best.
So in conclusion, who is the UN-patriotic Americans? Those that buy Foreign cars, or those that design and build domestic cars?
I say the later, and NOT the former.
i don't believe a new buick to be of inferior quality for a minute. it's a shining example of what gm is capable of.
Clearly, there is more wrong with GM than there is right.
Drove by the Chevy dealer today. Miles of pick up trucks in his inventory....miles and miles and miles and miles......
Last edited:
GM needs to go bankrupt but first move it's assets to a holding company that re-forms into "The Automobile Company Formerly Known as GM", like Prince did.
If GM were a horse they would have shot it a long time ago. So many mistakes, from investing in Saturn, to denying defects, to letting their cars rot on the vine in favor of SUVs. They recently started producing decent cars, starting with the new Malibu. The interior is actually pretty nice and a far cry from the GM interiors from only a few years ago, especially the 00-05 Impala and the Blazer.
Originally Posted By: HM12460
i don't believe a new buick to be of inferior quality for a minute. it's a shining example of what gm is capable of.
I've driven Mercedes for 10 of the last 11 years, all of them 7 years old or more, and while sometimes expensive to maintain or repair, they were all superb vehicles. (Well, maybe not the '97 C230; its transmission went out at only 89K miles.) Fun to drive, anyway.
The Buick Park Avenue feels much like the W126 sedan to drive, is a pleasure to look at inside and out, and gets much better mileage than the W126's V8 (and only about 10% lower mileage than the C230's 4-cylinder!).
I'm sure there are more superb American cars out there. The trouble is, the American public has this perception now that anything foreign is automatically better than anything the Big Three produces, or can produce. It will take serious reliability/quality, and a major public relations campaign too, to overturn this trend.
The right PR campaign can do this. Look at how most people view smoking now, as compared to 40 or even 30 years ago. Relentless PSA bombardment changed people's minds to the point that they instituted the draconian anti-smoker laws we see now.
Until the '70s, Mercedes were thought of as (a) stodgy old rich men's cars, or (b) just the cars that James Bond villains drove in the movies. MB instituted a major ad and PR campaign as they tackled the American market. By the end of the '70s, their image was the glamour-puss one they have today: Even though loads of them trudge around as dusty taxis in Europe and the East, Americans are willing to pay scads of money for them.
It can be done. The quality and reliability will have to be there first . . . but then the image of American cars will have to regain its glamour. Somehow.
i don't believe a new buick to be of inferior quality for a minute. it's a shining example of what gm is capable of.
I've driven Mercedes for 10 of the last 11 years, all of them 7 years old or more, and while sometimes expensive to maintain or repair, they were all superb vehicles. (Well, maybe not the '97 C230; its transmission went out at only 89K miles.) Fun to drive, anyway.
The Buick Park Avenue feels much like the W126 sedan to drive, is a pleasure to look at inside and out, and gets much better mileage than the W126's V8 (and only about 10% lower mileage than the C230's 4-cylinder!).
I'm sure there are more superb American cars out there. The trouble is, the American public has this perception now that anything foreign is automatically better than anything the Big Three produces, or can produce. It will take serious reliability/quality, and a major public relations campaign too, to overturn this trend.
The right PR campaign can do this. Look at how most people view smoking now, as compared to 40 or even 30 years ago. Relentless PSA bombardment changed people's minds to the point that they instituted the draconian anti-smoker laws we see now.
Until the '70s, Mercedes were thought of as (a) stodgy old rich men's cars, or (b) just the cars that James Bond villains drove in the movies. MB instituted a major ad and PR campaign as they tackled the American market. By the end of the '70s, their image was the glamour-puss one they have today: Even though loads of them trudge around as dusty taxis in Europe and the East, Americans are willing to pay scads of money for them.
It can be done. The quality and reliability will have to be there first . . . but then the image of American cars will have to regain its glamour. Somehow.
Well, I had the pleasure of having three LeSabres in the family in the 1980's and I can tell you that the Buick's quality was not that bad compared to imports of that era. All cars were in pretty bad shape back then. The difference seems to be that while imports made leaps in refinement in the ensuing 20 years, GM just went along at a slower, more evolutionary pace. Truthfully, my aunt's 78 LeSabre was the best put-together in the family, compared with my mother's 82 and my grandmother's 85. I had neighbors and family who had Euro and Japanese cars at the time, and while they were smaller and many times more economical with regard to gas, they were in the shop hardly any less than the Buicks. Heck, my first car, a used 320i was nothing but hard plastic on the inside as well and packed with shoddy electronics. But the Euros and the Asians made leaps in interior fit and finish while the Americans kinda languished until recently. There's no reason NOT to buy an American car now, given recent improvements and their low cost-except, maybe fuel efficiency!
Originally Posted By: Audi Junkie
GM needs to go bankrupt but first move it's assets to a holding company that re-forms into "The Automobile Company Formerly Known as GM", like Prince did.
They should change their name to "Fannie Mae Motors". Then they are sure to get bailed out by the Feds.
GM needs to go bankrupt but first move it's assets to a holding company that re-forms into "The Automobile Company Formerly Known as GM", like Prince did.
They should change their name to "Fannie Mae Motors". Then they are sure to get bailed out by the Feds.
GM (re)develops brands' images
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080720/COL14/807200542/1014/BUSINESS01
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080720/COL14/807200542/1014/BUSINESS01
- Status
