[quote=“drvnkd,post:105,topic:35866"”]
the thing is, if the planets alighned and GM cut stateside overhead labor by 50% tomorrow through whatever mystical means required, the price of your truck will not
change much. you don’t charge customers cost +, you charge what the market will bear.
it would be nice to think that tose added profits would be reinvested into the company, but i doubt that too.
[/quote]
^ true.
However, you would likely see a better quality vehicle for the same ammount of money. GM’s efforts can shift to areas of the manufacturing process that are lacking (i.e. engineering, material selection) . They can’t do this now because they are ‘forced’ to pay their union rates and have to make cuts other places.
The majority (if not all) of GM’s Designers and Engineers are not part of any union. When they have to make budget cuts and can’t lower the union wages, Experienced Designers/Engineers are either layed-off or replaced by those who are less experienced and require a cheaper starting wage.
For GM to be a sucessful company 10 years (maybe even 5 years) from now, they need to shift thier budgets to producing a better quality product…not having a vehicle where the majority of the money went to assembly to snap together.
Cliffs:
To be competative with the same vehicle pricing structure, the money needs to shift from overpaid unions to R&D.