just watched on the news that gm has the following plans for the bailout
- phase out the hummer starting in march 2009
- keep saturn division until at least 2011
looks like they are shaking things up a bit
hummer fan’s prolly wont be happy
hummers suck anyway. well not all of them, I’d love me an old style hummer h1 ftw:)
When GM bounces back, they will probably bring Hummer back.
As for Saturn, it’s to bad they are not selling because they are nice cars. I’d take an Aura over a Camry.
The problem with Saturns is that they’re just rebadged models of other cars that GM offers. The Aura is just a Malibu. The Outlook is just a Traverse/Acadia/Enclave. That’s been one of GM’s biggest problems, they have to advertise 4 different models of the same car.
Could’nt agree more their idiots and dont know anything about business.
Yeah you guys are right GM are idiots and know nothing. … They are only the biggest automakers in the world and their Saturn line ““Opel”” is dominating in Europe.
Come on guys, if automakers where to start shuting down, rest ashure GM would be the last one standing. They are backed up by the US government, anytime they need funding the US government dishes it out to them. GM and Ford are the pride and joy of US auto makers.
Thats because their all they got…horrible cars
Uhhhh…I smell a fanboy.
Anyways, GM probably won’t be the last one standing, it’ll be Ford. I don’t like ford typically, but they are in the best financial situation of the US automakers right now. They’re also releasing a bunch of new models in the next while, so they are going to be doing ok I think. They did say that they’re going to be in deep shit if Chrysler/GM fail, because their suppliers will all go under.
GM has plenty of good products out there, but they always spread their dollar too thin and didn’t focus enough on small cars, and so the market shifted in a bad direction for them, and they weren’t ready for it. Their small cars have always sucked, but their Sports cars and Trucks have been great. My sister’s sunfire is a massive money pit, but my mom’s Trans Am was a damn trooper.
I want to get one of the V8 pony cars down the road, and I’m hoping it won’t come down to just a Mustang =/. Their focus has never been on power, but the Camaro is/was. I’m hoping it lives for a while.
That has to be the blindest statement every stated!
GM is introducing 5 new vehicles in the next few weeks. It’s all over cp24
Explain. It’s a pretty widely held opinion about GM and its multiple brands. Buick is hurting bad because their buyers are literally dying and not being replaces. Saturn has a few good cars, but brand perception is low, and they can’t realistically throw enough money at it to make it change, because they’d be taking it away from someone else who needs it, which brings me to pontiac. Pontiac is supposed to be “driving excitement” but they’re all just rebadged chevrolet cars, minus the G8, which is doing poorly based on the fact that apparently advertising has sucked for it, and it has a V8 (which immediately makes people who know shit about fuck cringe like bitches). Pontiac Wave, holy shit excitement. G5 Pursuit, I just wet myself. Every single one of the buyers for these cars would have just bought the equal chevrolet model if the pontiac one wasn’t available. The Outlook/Acadia/Enclave/Traverse thing is dumb. None of these models differ enough to really justify their existence, they could get away with a Chevrolet and Cadillac version.
Notice how the most successful companies at the moment tend to have 2 brands (a common and a luxury band)? Toyota/Lexus, Honda/Acura, Nissan/Infiniti.
Giving consumers too much choice is a bad thing. Then they can’t decide. Consumers are generally stupid. They need to feel like they have a choice, but they can’t have too much or they get confused and then buy something else. I work in Retail (sadly) and see it happen all the time. Like, put a PS3 and Xbox in front of someone, and they usually take a few minutes to decide what one is best. They take 20 minutes to think about it, then say that they’ll have to think about it some more and go home. If I only had the Xbox, they would have bought it right there and then.
Simply because there is options. Can’t blame GM, Ford, Chrysler, Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi…no one for that.
Even if every manufacturer has ONE car…you have a choice…therefore a dilemma.
I dont care who you are or what you think…every company has it’s problems and every car has it’s flaws. It’s a matter of how you deal with them with the consumers.
Once you get into the vehicles thoroughly, there is MUCH difference. HUGE. Maybe not visible and may not be the obvious. Yet trust me it is there.
how ever, i do completley agree that GM should only have a common/luxury line. Yet again, there are multiple “brands” to appeal to multiple “genres” “age groups” “ethnic’s” etc etc etc. They went way the fuck over board…then again, who has not. GM’s game plan has ALWAYS sucked donkey balls. Yet, they are still going. Maybe not strong. Yet if they were complete shit. I’m sure the bail out would not include them.
I’m tired…so much of that probly made no sense what so ever. Sorry.
I drove the Opel Astra, it sucked, the Saturn Astra will be just as bad.
i’ve never heard anything about the japanese and import manufacturers, how are they faring through these financial times?
Their sales have declined quite a bit as well, usually just as much as the US manufacturers. Difference is that they were in a better financial situation going into this slump, so at the moment they haven’t run out of money.
This will answer everyones questions as to who is doing what.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/collections/coll_display.php?coll_id=20078
Nissan is cutting 20,000 job positions!!!
One of the biggest problems for the north american car companys is the fact that they has THOUSANDS of retired workers still on the payroll. Anyone in any of these companys that has retired and had 10+ years recieves 486$ - 96$ in Tax per week for sitting at home. Now on the flip side…Toyoto had there FIRST canadian employee retire less then 5 months ago. The amount of money that the japanese automakers are saving to this is a huge bonus to them that they will have to deal with 10-15 years down the road.
This is first hand experience from a manufacturing/Die Cast plant perspective only does not include dealerships.