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To say General Motors is having a few problems is to bask in understatement. I’ve written about this before:
[O]f all the US manufacturers GM most slavisly reflects Bushian economic philosophy: spend your money lobbying Congress not to legislate fuel efficiency rather than voluntarily adopting it yourself, reward yourself and other top level employees lavishly, pin the blame for your poor decision making on the unions and expect the working class to pick up the tab while you wrestle Oprah for $6,000 handbags at Hermes.
The comparisons to BushCo. still seem apt:
One Wall Streeter deeply familiar with the company recently stated the challenge starkly: "I would say that turning GM around is a harder logistical and managerial task than the invasion of Iraq."
This same Wall Streeter is not kind to the GM generals charged with the rescue job. Describing the company as a "sclerotic bureaucracy," he says a good remedy might be firing the top five people and replacing them with outsiders. A less acid form of criticism has been laid on by the camp of Kirk Kerkorian, whose Tracinda Corp. owns just under 10% of GM’s stock. In January, Kerkorian’s advisor Jerry York, a turnaround veteran himself (at Iacocca’s Chrysler and Lou Gerstner’s IBM), gave a long luncheon speech at the Detroit auto show that accused GM’s executives of lacking "urgency" and "sense of purpose."
[]
In product design, it lost the magic long ago. "They need irresistibility and head-turners," says one car buff, "and they haven’t had them." The man now on that case is product-development boss Bob Lutz, 74, who, after retiring from Chrysler, was hired by Wagoner in 2001. Tall, elegantly dressed, and outspoken, he is treated like a rock star at auto shows, often attracting more attention than his cars. At the Detroit show in January, touring GM’s space with reporters, he was pleased to point out classy-looking car interiors–"some of GM’s used to be grotesque," he said–and a level of fit and finishes that he judged superb. A reporter needled him: "Bob, I miss those bad fits, those gaps, that you had a while back. I used to store my quarters for tolls in those."
This is the management group, after all, that brought you the Aztec:
The penny-pinchers demanded that costs be kept low by putting the concept car on an existing minivan platform. That destroyed the original proportions and produced the vehicle’s bizarre, pushed-up back end. But the designers kept telling themselves it was good enough.
“By the time it was done, it came out as this horrible, least-common-denominator vehicle where everyone said, ‘How could you put that on the road?’ ” the official said.
Sales never reached the 30,000 level needed to make money on the Aztek, so it abruptly went out of production last year. The tongue-in-cheek hosts of National Public Radio’s “Car Talk” named it the ugliest car of 2005. “It looks the way Montezuma’s revenge feels,” one listener quipped.
And now they have hired as their spokesperson: Sean Hannity.
Let the drain circle continue.
(image courtesy fark.com)
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frist!
Kobe!
Pervy Republicans!
Vote Dem even if you have to hold yoyr nose. 0?
Squeeze quickly, but only while wearing safety glasses. You don’t want to get any dullness in your eyes.
Lutz says what GM needs is MORE HUMMER VARIANTS.
They deserve to go bankrupt.
I’d rather be tortured by “Like a Rock” for another 15 years! I wonder if that was in the bill?
Lutz needs to break his meds in half.
Is Dodge GM? We had a Neon & it sucked. Honda all the way now.
no, Dodge is Daimler Chryler. GM is the Odious Cavalier.
GM is a lumbering dinosaur, it’s dead, but it doesn’t know it yet.
It’s almost ten years ago now, but I had a consulting relationship that never took off at one of the GM brands. To say these people were mind-numbingly incompetent and bureaucratic is to give them too much credit. It was the organization I’ve sort of worked with that I most hated, back when I was with my old company, and if they called me today I’d hang up the phone. I don’t work for people I can’t help.
…a GM bankruptcy would devastate the many UAW-GM retirees pensions and health benefits. Indiana was a major auto state – we have so many GM retirees here.
Scary…
Recently, my friend was having lunch at the Beverly Hills and there was a back up at the valet so a bunch of people were waiting around for their cars. Suddenly someone pulled up driving a HUMMER and when he got out the crowd actually STARTED TO BOO him.
It was a great moment.
Remember when someone caught Hannity with an open mic during l’affaire Schiavo? He was coaching some women just before they were to go on-air and someone he was talking to (probably someone he knew kinda well because he gave a straight answer) asked him how he could do the Schiavvo schtick with a straight face and he answered he didn’t believe any of it, it was all political theater and part of his job.
Credible spokesman? Not much.
Ignoring momentarily that I’d never buy a GM vehicle of any nameplate because they are 1000% piece of sh*t in quality for design and workmanship, I’ll add this to the list of reasons to avoid them.
PeteCO, Dodge is Chrysler.
In other news: , Man writes message on plastic baggie calling the head of the TSA an idiot, TSA supervisor tells him “You can’t write things like that.”
“The supervisor told Bird he had the right to express his opinions ‘out there’ — pointing outside the screening area — but did not have the right ‘in here,’ Bird said.”
Good old fascist TSA overreaction. When was the 1st amendment repealed inside airport security zones? Perhaps TSA employees should be notified that it hasn’t.
I’ve heard it’s one of those organizations where you merely have to be competent to survive.
American cars confuse me.
American Honda. Toyota. Best cars ever made. They should of followed the innovation of those 2 companies instead of trying to shortcut there way out of their situation (via lobbyist, etc.) and this would of never happened. But, they didn’t and deserve to go the way of the Model T along with Ford. F**k em’. The free market has spoken. This latest stunt is infuriating but it show how desperate they are. They are history, a “boutique” builder at best.
As Click and Clack would put it, someone needs to give GM a “dope slap”.
Ford is not much better. They all spend time deperately clinging to and lobbying for the status quo. Chrysler is not so bad, more furriner influence.
Can the UAW-GM retirees pensions and benefits be outsourced? Perhaps it would be cheaper to just outsource the retirees.
All we need is a smallish car that does good mileage and doesn’t break. Oh look, a Honda Civic!
We have a ‘91 GMC van we bought new and now use for camping and river trips. The paint job, fer cripe’s sake, has been recalled – twice! All the interior plastic piece-of-shit door panels have cracked and come off, the electrical system has always been dotty, I hate it and won’t buy another GM car.
Ever.
Jim Webb’s puttin’ a foot in Macaca’s ass.
How’s that combat boot taste Felix?
Mommybrain @ 25
In contrast, I bought a 91′ Toyota pickup used with 34,000 miles on it. It had been in an accident of some sort. It’s still going, with minimal care on my part. Poor thing really deserves a better owner, in fact. Anyway, it’s been my everyday car ever since then (mid ’90s), and I’ve put almost 150K miles on it.
While I agree with the disdain for American cars, perhaps we should find more euphemistic ways of explaining ourselves.
‘American cars suck ass’ will only fire up the base. Yeah, all 25% of it.
O/T, but you have to ask;
What is it with these people?
http://www.coloradoconfidentia…..iaryId=749
cleanup needed on the last thread . . . @4:05
* * *
Many thanks!
American auto companies figured for years that they could offer customers cr*p and the public would buy and then along came Toyota. And it really is the automakers and not the workers’ fault. Toyota has American plants and they produce quality cars with American labor. It’s the executives that never, never get it right. If there is a curve, they always are behind it. If there is a new idea, they are always late to it.
Regarding American cars. A lot of other countries have this quaint little notion that it’s function before form that counts. Americans have no one to blame but themselves (we demanded suvs, Hummers and the like) for the state of the auto industry. Not to mention the high price of fuel.
I have had a couple of Fords, and have had no complaints. Minimal service issues, both are over 100K in mileage. Styling ain’t knocking anybody out though. I would definitely buy another, if the styling caught my eye.
I can see I’m going to have a problem here. First, a disclosure: my spouse is an executive in a business whose largest customers are the Big Three. Second, I’ve worked for GM early in my career. Neither my spouse nor I own any automotive stock, though. /disclosure
The problems facing American automakers are numerous, but the two biggest are these:
1) idiot buyers who continue to buy their products; why do you folks think Waggoner says what he does? He can’t sell Hummers fast enough, and they don’t have to spend a bunch of capital setting up new capacity to make more.
2) stockholders who continue to let idiots like Waggoner run the company. Yes, American stockholders. They are the bosses of this thing.
But that’s just for starters. The unions also have a large role to play in this; they do not understand business fundamentals and refuse to grasp that a business like GM cannot compete with companies overseas if their workforce cannot and will not become more productive in response to the threat. The workforce has had 2-plus decades to respond to this threat and they haven’t.
There’s more. Much more. It’s going to take a 3-parter to get this out.
Is it perhaps the case the GM wants flounder around until it can break the unions and move to Mexico? I have friends in Flint, MI where Michael Moore did “Roger and Me”. One fellow I knew would punch-in in the morning, go out and ride his dirtbike all day, and return to punch out – there just wasn’t any work for him to do, but they wanted to keep him on the payroll anyway. Another friend got an early retirement at 55 and a reduced pension. Those guys were a lot luckier than the people in Moore’s film
We have a GMC Safari which works for us – except for the $1229 fuel pump replacement.
Twisted Martini @ 4:09 pm (#26)
From that article:
Questions should have arisen about his intellectual prowess at the same time, but we’ll take what we can get in the way of journalistic curiosity these days.
Wow! Someone finally noticed the connection. At least, someone who wasn’t commenting or writing in a blog.
I drive a ‘97 F-150. A few problems over the years, nothing major. I have 345,000 miles on it and it still get the same mileage as when I bought it new. I wish that it got better mileage but I use it for both work and personal travel.
Sean Hannity — I guess GM doen’t want to sell cars to the majority of Americans.
NED fans know Sean: http://thumbsnap.com/vf/8tOHxFP6.jpg
In this household, we and our Japanese-owned-company’s hybrid (which we LOVE so much) laugh in GM’s face!
Too bad so many American workers get screwed sideways by their pathetic “managment” as they sink like Chevy’s slogan, “like a rock.”
This is going to be a bit long–my apologies for that. But, I spent over a decade working with spun-off GM design, and have some perspective on the way the system there worked.
One of the really salient points here that is often lost is that GM has a system that invites intellectual corruption, and that was, and is, the “not invented here” syndrome. That encouraged GM leadership to think that everything GM does is unique–and therefore, worthwhile. It goes beyond simple pride in product to infect the thinking of just about everyone in the process.
And yet, GM knew that its design methods weren’t working–fifteen years ago. One Saturday morning in early 1992, there was spot on NPR about a study from the Transportation Center at the Univ. of Michigan, commissioned by the UAW. Then, as now, GM was blaming its lack of competitiveness on the unions (now, they’ve sort done that by stealth in claiming that their health care costs were too high).
The Transportation Center looked at two Japanese manufacturers, GM and Ford, and came to some conclusions of which GM would have been greatly advised to pay some attention. The first was that the labor force employed by GM was essentially the same as that employed by Ford. There was a constant shuttle of workers between manufacturers as plants closed and reopened. And yet, at the time, productivity was much higher at Ford, and at the Japanese plants. As a raw baseline for productivity, they looked at one major measure–how many worker hours, by manufacturer, were required to assemble the same equivalent model, similarly equipped.
One of the Japanese manufacturers was Toyota, the other requested to remain anonymous, but from the description, it certainly sounded like Mazda.
The unnamed manufacturer had an assembly time of 16 hours per unit. Toyota’s time was a little over 18 hours. Ford’s, using essentially the same work force pool as GM’s, was 16.5 hours.
GM’s assembly time? 44 hours. The Transportation Center determined from the available data that it wasn’t the workers at GM, or the assembly lines, that were the problem. It was, rather, a matter of how GM designed its product–the car took longer to produce because it simply took longer to put it together because of the way it had to be put together.
Of course, that complexity ripples down through the whole production, sales and service system. The more complex the assembly, the more chances of new vehicle problems and higher warranty costs–which has an impact on the bottom line. If one has to remove more stuff to get at what needs to be repaired, after-warranty repair costs go up, the likelihood of errors increases and long-term customer satisfaction goes down, which then has an impact on future sales.
The problems GM has are, indeed, ingrained and structural. If a similar study were done today, it would probably uncover problems that look remarkably like those found nearly a generation ago.
Cheers.
PeteCO @ 29
I noticed he was a 1996 graduate of the Republican Leadership Program, KKKarl Rove’s alma mater. Like the Hitler Youth, it spawns sadistic, perverted, twisted people.
By the way – can you imagine what those kids going to Camp Jesus are going to be like when they grow up?
I once was a ‘Buy American’ consumer. Then I bought my first brand new car, a Ford Pinto. . .
I have never owned any other Detroit iron.
Honda Subaru Toyota
Hannity shilling for GM. That is bizarre. What’s next? Limbaugh as the spokesman for Vicodin? Well, now that I think about it, Rush does have some expertise in this particular area. But Hannity and cars?
I’m not so sure American consumers demanded SUV’s, they were pushed as the “thing to have”, and the auto-buying public ran with it.It seems like they were just taking off when I moved here in 95. Cheap gas, big, wide-open roads, your own personal tank to drive from your exurban house to your exurban job. SUV’s are the automotive embodiment of the late 90’s boom years.
Where GM & Ford are failing is continuing to push that trend in a “post 9/11, oh crap we’re dependent on foreign oil and yes global warming is real” world.
As stupid as it sounds, it sort of makes sense from a marketing perspective IF, and you have to include the IF cause it’s the important part, you’ve given up trying to market your products to the majority of the country.
The only people who you could attempt to sway with a Buy American themed campaign would be those allegedly true blue Americans who listen or watch Hannity – and in addition to hiring Hannity GM is getting rid of “Like a Rock,” replacing it with something like “America’s Truck,” which means GM is now scared of losing its truck franchise to the Japanese – and it, and Ford and Chrysler lost out on cars a long time ago.
Of course, on the flip side, there is the vast majority of the country who don’t abide by Hannity’s views and who the campaign will piss off (those would be among the people GM has presumed they’ve already lost). The thing is, and I don’t have research handy to prove it but I believe it, I, and a lot more people, are less likely to buy a GM product b/c they’ve hired Hannity than I believe a Hannity fan is likely to buy a GM product b/c he endorses.
Which points out a basic rule of marketing – don’t hire a divisive figure as a spokesman (there are exceptions, but not for basic cars), so unless my first paragraph is true, they’re morons in all respects. They may be morons anyway, but this is especially moronic.
It is incredibly short sighted and means they’ve given up.
Impeachment Happens – For the past year or so me and my biz partner have been looking at buying auto dealerships in So Cal. Basically, you can have an American franchise for “free,” or pay a big premium for a foriegn one. It is not pretty in CA for domestic brands, whether they guzzle gas or not, and Ford, which recently anounced it wants to close 600 dealers, most likely isn’t the only American franchise that will be trying to close a lot of outlets, and most of those will be on the coasts, but particularly CA.
OT, Josh Marshal at TPM says ” Foley (R-FL) may be prosecuted under child sex predator laws he helped pass.”
Now if only Bushie could be interrogated under rules he set for interrogation.
Cujo359 @
27
My dad had a red ‘68 Chevy pickup that held up for almost 20 years and well over 100,000 miles until it overheated on the way back from a visit to Cornell. It was clunky and got like 12 mpg and smelled like gasoline, but we loved the damn thing.
So I guess they weren’t *always* completely godawful…
Evil Parallel Universe @ 45
Clinton’s fault.
Alternatively, it could all be part of some big conspiracy to destroy one of the last bastions of unionism in the United States – but I’m not a conspiracy theorist and only offer this theory for the amusement of conspiracy theorists.
Part 2 — but a question for hpschd upthread: the friend that went dirtbiking on the clock – was he employed because of his union, or was he kept on because of GM? And then why? This information is critical to understanding the automotive industry mess.
The other bits going on that most of you who are not familiar with the industry don’t understand is that there have been attempts to restructure the business model, costly ones. As I’ve said elsewhere:
In other words, it didn’t have to be this way. But the Big Three have gotten some horribly mixed messages from their customers and from the government.
Gas prices have plummeted this month; want to bet that Hummer sales actually went up? Or that test groups have actually said they’d love to buy SMALL Hummers, no matter the price of oil? Are these test groups also showing that the Republican base is their most regular buyer?
Hence the moron Hannity as spokesperson.
Take note, too, that Martha Stewart, a consistent Democratic donor, is also a spokesperson. Is this because marketing surveys have found the mommy group that watches Martha Stewart is responsible for more than half of all automotive purchasing decisions?
And the Bush administration keeps chipping away at unions — has this sent a signal to the automakers, too?
I think I can see where Jane is going with this one. So lets see if I’ve got this right.
GM = The Democratic Party
Steny Hoyer
Rahm Emmanuel
Chuck Shumer
etc.
= The Executives
Bill Clinton = Bob Lutz
Democratic Congressmen/women
= The Barely Completent Management
GM cars = Democratic Policies
Pontiac Aztek = Recent Democratic Policies
GM employees = Democratic Voters
Pach = ?
Balrog – Isn’t that inherent in what I wrote ;-)
People will buy whatever is being jazzed by their blitz marketing campaigns.
Don’t tell me the Big 3 couldn’t figure out a clever, sensible, hip way to market environmentally friendly vehicle. I don’t believe it for a second.
The mark-up on the SUV was just amazing. They love their IMMEDIATE bottom line. Short-term thinking gets you long-term idiocy.
If they’d gotten a head start on all kinds of hybrid technology and other similar bright ideas, I can’t help but think they would already have good plans for *larger-sized* energy-efficient vehicles in place.
MSNBC poll:George Allen loses lead in VA Senate race
http://tinyurl.com/hlxsd
Why is FDL the only thing I can get now on my computer?
John Forde @ 46
Good thing I wasn’t drinking hot liquids when I read that.
GM Products – Not for Panty-Waisted Liberal Pinko Commy Islamofacists! Hannity endorses Gas Guzzling Keep-Us-Dependent-On-Middle East-Oil Warwagons!
Yup! That will be some campaign!
Twisted Martini @
26
YaY and speaking of Macaca and Hannity:
Hannity is fundraising for the racist and I believe it is tonite.
I worked for Ford for 10 years. I watched them roll out crap year after year.I finally had it when they brought out the redesigned Cougar. P.O.S. Re skinned Contour/Mystique.That was the year that FOMOCO decided they needed to save one billion dollars in one year.No good mOtherf*ckers took it right out of the mechanics back pockets. They slashed their warranty op codes so you couldn’t claim a lot of the work you did.
I filed for a warranty op revue on a fuel tank recall they had on the Contour. You had to take the filler pipe out to replace these chicken sh*t hose clamps. Major pain in the *ss and took a lot of time they wouldn’t pay for.
Their reply,” we have reviewed this procedure and will not be ammending it , as removal of the filler pipe is unnecessary”. B.S., you couldnt drop the tank without doing that. This just one example of many./rant (for now)
Sorry folks we were down for a bit, we’re back up now.
whew
angie @
58
I thought maybe I did it…
angie @ 62
You may have.
Gore did a great job in An Inconvenient Truth of connecting the US automotive industry’s refusal to use higher fuel efficiency standards, with global low sales. It was a stunning correlation and put the lie to the industry’s constant whining that higher environmental standards would make its cars more expensive and the US less competitive.
The US auto industry has dug its own grave.
and… it’s back. Whew, was worried there for a bit.
PeteCO @ 18
I’ve heard that you have to be incompetent to get promoted.
John Forde @
46
I’m expecting a mass Republican exodus if a Democrat somehow gets elected president in ‘08.
I once bought an American automobile.
A Ford Pinto, back in the 1970’s.
Never bought another domestic auto.
welcome back!
glad the tubes let y’all loose…
Average price for regular gasoline 9/29/06 in 50 states and DC
$3.00 plus 1 state
$2.90 plus 1 state
$2.80 plus 0 states
$2.70 plus 6 states
$2.60 plus 2 states
$2.50 plus 5 states
$2.40 plus 2 states
$2.30 plus 10 states
$2.20 plus 11 states
$2.10 plus 11 states
$2.00 plus 2 states
Average national price: $2.332, down $.010 from yesterday
Down 48.3 cents from same time last year.
Highest recorded national average price: $3.057 9/5/2005
Highest average price: Hawaii $3.113
Lowest average price: Missouri $2.037
http://www.fuelgaugereport.com/sbsavg.asp
Nymex Crude Future $62.91, down $.01
Dated Brent Spot $61.35, up $.35
WTI Cushing Spot $62.91, up $.15
Gas prices decline but the rate of decline may be slowing. Oil has nowhere to go until something happens.
Who Killed the Electric Car?
GM, among others.
dipper @ 55
Odd that. I had just the opposite for abt 25 min.
Boy, one of the few times that gas prices are sort of on topic and WordPress crashes. Bad karma somewhere, or is that bad carma?
And who can forget the great Jose Lopez, who single-handedly destroyed any thought of partnership between GM and its suppliers. He pioneered the Gambino/Republican purchasing strategy of “Fuck you pay me.”
I think Joe Lieberman tried to hack this site.
bdu @ 11
Following Jane’s analogy, I hope we’ll soon get our chance to say the same for Bushco.
Ack…spth…aieee…thanks Jane for the visual!
My name for these things is “Clown Cars” . *G*
I always expect bizarre-looking folks with bright fuzzy red hair, size 56 shoes and polka-dotted pajamas to leap out of the critters.
The Great American Motto: GM Cars – Designed by Clowns for Clowns.
Dover Bitch @
75
Or maybe KKKarl
Hugh @
73
Argh!!
Evil Parallel Universe @
49
Don’t be so sure! US Airways basically played a pat hand into bankruptcy, and the biggest thing accomplished in Bk was shredding union contracts.
FWIW, I’ve owned only American metal, and gotten good service out of them all. I keep an 89 Grand Wagoneer (200,000 miles) for off-road, and it’ll outperform modern domestic and foreign SUV’s.
John Forde @ 46
I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.
American automakers loved SUVs and large pickups because they made per unit sold. It was like the good old days for them and, par for the course, when gas prices rose and the market fell out on them they had no plan B.
If we had been serious about having a real energy policy we would have forced automakers to include these vehicles in their CAFE standards. As it is, SUVs will not be included until 2011 and large vans and pickups probably never.
EvilDrPuma @ 81
John Forde @ 46
I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.
See? Soft on terror.
Part 3 – with a reply to Mrs.K8 first –
Sure, GM could have produced a hybrid, but by the time the market was turning around and getting interested in them, the sunk costs into R&D for a fuel cell auto were ENORMOUS and they were desperate for profits. Remember how very quickly the entire economy and market tanked between 1999 (when GM had already blown 2B on fuel cell cars) and 2001? Two years — and people all of a sudden decided they wanted small, fuel efficient vehicles.
GM can’t turn around that fast. Neither can Ford or Daimler-Chrysler (article on NPR this morning about D-C specifically on this very issue). They need more than 2 years to respond to consumer sentiment, from beginning of design to final commercialized production.
And then the American market place was wishy-washy, buyers’s sentiment highly dependent on gas prices and on tax credits. Yes, tax credits; the biggest single reason why Hummers were initially so damned popular even through the 2001 slump was an ENORMOUS tax credit for them if you bought one and used it for business purposes (buyers claimed it under a Farm business credit). Hummers kept GM afloat. And then the tax credit was yanked…
And GM couldn’t respond fast enough again.
But neither can the unions. As montag mentioned above, automakers pointed to union workers’ healthcare as a reason why they can’t compete; it’s absolutely true this is an issue. U.S. automakers are expected to compete with foreign companies whose workers’ healthcare is subsidized by the government. GM paid out more than $5000 per vehicle in healthcare costs in 2002; at the time that was more than the cost of the steel content in the same vehicle. How does an American automaker find 5K in costs to cut per car? Unions knew this was an issue; any of the union employees and their reps that I spoke with knew this figure cold. But the unions did nothing to encourage proactive, preventative healthcare among their rank-and-file; their leadership didn’t give a rat’s butt.
And at the same time, other expenses for the auto industry began to skyrocket. The cost of steel rose at double-digit rates month-over-month during 2004, primarily because of Chinese demand for steel. How does a behemoth like the Big Three respond to this and quickly?
I despise Sean Hannity. I am going to be annoyed every time I have to see his mug on my television plugging cars. But just like the DNC’s 50-State Strategy, the Big Three can no longer afford to leave any buyer unapproached.
That means Democratic Martha plugging GM on her program and elsewhere, to the chagrin of people who hate her, as much as I hate Hannity.
And lastly, GM is currently in discussions with Nissan-Renault; a tie-up with GM would help get GM a different management (not unlike Daimler-Chrysler’s deal in 1999), while getting Nissan-Renault more marketshare — via goopers like Hannity and Democratic mommy-types like Martha. What we’re seeing could be ground work for this next step; if it ultimately saves the retirement and jobs of many of my Michigan neighbors while preserving much-needed American manufacturing capacity, so be it.
I’ll just have to keep the remote handy when Hannity’s f*cking ugly mug appears on my TV.
EvilDrPuma @ 76
Well, here’s a nice big toast to that! I hope one follows the other.
Just able to see this. Were the servers down? I got all sorts of WordPress error messages…
But back to the topic at hand. I’ve driven a Civic Hybrid for 3 years (on a lease, I don’t trust new technology all that much) and have loved it, enough that when the lease runs out in March I’m gonna run back to the dealer and buy me a new one. I laugh my ass off at the SUV morons, and the guys in the HUGE, big-ass trucks. And I can’t tell you how many people have asked about it.
OT Just got off the phone with a rep from the DNC (located in Denver) looking for more donation $.
Asked her why I should donate more money to DNC to support my NJ Senators Menendez and Lautenberg when I might as well just give to a Republican if I wanted my Senators to support Republican positions?
Clearly this was not the first she heard this as she had a very nice script directing me to the contact section of the democrats.org website.
This may be a venue for letting the Dems know that the time has come to become vertebrates.
Wow. This guy is gonna be easy to zap.
Have everyone call GM and ask them if GM approves of domestic spying on U.S. citizens.
Find out what GM’s policy is on spying.
Have fun with GM.
Rayne @ 84
So it’s the union’s fault that US healthcare costs are spiralling upward unchecked? If this is really a giant problem for GM, they’d be better served to lobby the government for universal healthcare rather than to break the backs of the unions.
Unhealthy workers can not match productivity with healthy workers. Lack of health insurance ensures an unhealthy workforce. And I highly doubt the insinuations that workers are “overusing” the system to cause the high costs of healthcare…
I’ve got some real stories about the kind of shit health insurance companies have been pulling lately, but my wrist is hurting, so I’ll have to bow out for awhile.
A long time lurker.
I worked for GM in the early 1980’s after four interviews and hired away from law school in a best and brightest move to get out of their 1950’s mindset. I told them after six months to shove their job because I thought they were too vested in corporate lobbying rather than pursuing quality products in the changing market. I have bought Toyota ever since. They suck!
off topic
raw story is telling us about some whistle blowers that say they were ordered to install unauthorised “patches” in 5000 machines in secret for the 2002
I meant GM sucks not Toyota
I have noticed in the last week or so a lot of stories in the media downplaying and pooh poohing the idea that gas price declines are politically motivated. I’ve even seen it on the local news. And tonight on Washington Week there was an economics reporter saying, “People think that George Bush can just pull a lever and gas prices will go down.” All of this strikes me as “Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.” Now in a large system that has even minimal oversight it would be next to impossible to sustain price increases in the face of declining fundamentals but in a large complex system it is dead easy (even without an overt cartel) to massage timing and rates in the direction a market is headed. I have a few ideas what that Washington Week reporter can do with his lever even if he did have a few sensible things to say about the housing market.
On thing that I have not seen mentioned yet, even in the amazingly clear and well-informed comments (Thanks, Rayne!) is that fact that shit like the Hummer was tax-subsidized. I recall getting repeated mailers offering the doctors in my practice practically free Hummers through some sort of tax write-off combined with a “business use” scam. (One of them, not in my practice but a private client of mine, actually fell for it and still drives a Hummer. But, then again, he’s referred to as The Prince Of Darkness and once closed his office for the afternoon so he could go to a Cheney fund-raiser. Trust me, I charge him BIG!)
Rayne, or anyone else out there in the know, am I remembering this correctly???
Good gravy, there’s a part 4.
Twisted Martini mentions one of the worst things that ever happened to GM and the rest of the automotive industry: Jose Ignacio Lopez.
Unethical scumbag of the first water. Before “Iggy” became the god of purchasing at GM in the late 1980’s (and thereby an enormous influence on purchasing at Ford and Chrysler), GM had implemented a strategy tied to continuous improvement; I was working for a vendor at the time that was required to develop a quality management plan in order to remain a supplier. The continuous improvement plan also encouraged preferred partnerships, wherein vendors that provided high quality products consistently would be offered regular contracts.
That all went out the door with Iggy at the helm of purchasing. Iggy’s policy was to put it all out for bids, award the bid, then demand a discount after the vendor had already sunk itself into the contract. If the vendor didn’t cooperate, they would never, ever do business with GM again.
And the other two of the Big Three caught on and adopted the same.
This strategy made shareholders very happy; it required no additional expenditures, compared to the quality management systems. Easy profits. It also didn’t demand anything further of union workers, unlike an end-to-end quality system. A win-win for everybody, all of it based on shoddy ethics.
And the other component of this mess that I’ve forgotten is the prime rate. Yeah. Interest rates directly impact auto consumption. More people bought those f*cking nasty Hummers when gas was cheap AND financing was cheaper.
Was that GM’s fault? Ford’s or Daimler-Chrysler’s?
Or is this entire mess we call the American autmotive industry a perfect example of a system that’s gone awry — just like our political system?
It ain’t just GM. It ain’t just Rick Waggoner and the rest of management. It ain’t just Hannity and his RNC mothership. It ain’t just the guy buying a Hummer. It ain’t just the shareholder or the union shop rat on the line.
It’s all of them.
By the way, bdu, on the matter of lobbying — have you seen anything recently that indicates the Big Three have been successful with any of their lobbying efforts?
The Repugs have written them off for dead, along with their union workers. Repugs don’t make money on the industry; they make money on military and petroleum. Take a good hard look at where the action has been for the profiteers.
EvilDrPuma @
81
John Forde @ 46
I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.
I sure as hell would… He wants to use “special methods?” Let him try them out first-hand.
Marion in Savannah @ 96
After all, if it’s not really torture, it shouldn’t be all that bad. I’m sure he went through fraternity hazing at Yale.
Rayne @
95
Wal Mart is no different. When you are the 800 pound gorilla customer, you own the supplier.
GM’s problems boil down to the fact that the bean counters have a choke hold on everything that goes on within that company, including things that they shouldn’t control, like R&D and product design.
Once in a while, a “car guy” is given the helm. For an all too brief moment, fresh air and sunshine filters into the design studios and promising things start happening. Then the bean counters reassert their control, and the “car guy” is on his way out.
I have a recent GM product – a Saturn VUE. It’s an altogether crude and unrefined vehicle, but I got it because it was cheap and roomy, and the financing was right. But mostly because it has a HONDA engine and drivetrain.
I would say that a lack of any real energy policy except the one that favors fossil fuels is seen as a plus by US automakers.
Eli @
97
I may have go take a break and Google it up, but there was something I read somewhere that quoted him, as a senior at Yale, saying that hazing with a branding iron was “like a cigarette burn.” Well, maybe before I Google I’ll just go barf…
UPDATE: Foley’s “instant message” communications with yet another underage boy, circa 2003, have now been posted by ABC. They are horrendous. I cannot believe that Denny Hastert knew about Foley using the Net to chat-up underage boys a year ago and DID NOTHING
AmericaBlog
Marion in Savannah @ 101
Yep, I saw that yesterday too. *Someone* on my blogroll had it, but I don’t remember who.
Eli @ 97
He’s into branding with redhot wire hangers.
Say what you will about Deadwood, but his book questioning Chimpco on Iraq made the local news – and not in a good way. And that is no bad thing.
windje @ 102
Yeah, the first article I read just had him asking the kid what he liked, and for him to send him a pic. Maybe a little inappropriate, but not something to resign over. And then I read the AIM transcripts. Jebus.
AZ Matt @ 104
Maybe the Chimp was meant to be a pimp.
“…and not in a good way for TEAM LOSER….”
Just in case there were doubts.
windje @ 102
GOP = Groping, Oafish Pederasts
AZ Matt @
104
This is not the cite I was really looking for, but it lets us know that the information is out there, for the Googling:
http://worldofwonder.net/archi…..eating.wow
The Caligula of Crawford is reigning supreme over the most corrupt government in US history while wrapping himself in the banner of patriotism and religiousity like no other has done before.
The big lie is working so far.
-GSD
The jig is up though.
GM is the best performing of the Dow Industrial components so far this year.
Not trying to play devil’s advocate or anything, but the crappy car company may have bottomed.
OT, but did anyone have trouble accessing this site about an hour ago? All I got was the Word Press site.
Eli @ 106
Hastert knew about this and did nothing. A new low. Just when I thought we had gotten to rock bottom.
GSD @ 111
The scary thing is, the wide-ranging corruption is the *lesser* problem.
Slothrop @ 112
What that may suggest to me is that it’s time to rethink the Dow Industrial. I mean, after all, is there any industrial America left at all? It’s not called the rust belt for nothing… Just asking…
Hugh – you need to talk with people in the industry. They know the industry is going to DIE here in the U.S. if fossil fuels aren’t replaced.
Henced the enormous amounts of money the automakers have already spent on fuel cell R&D.
But that’s all sunk costs, carrying development of technologies in which every single American has a vested interest. We should be using tax credits targeted specifically at the development of fuel cell and other alternative fuels, offset by progressive taxes on fuel consumption.
And I also believe that both the government (that’s US, our aggregate power) and the automakers should be thinking very differently about demand. Like buying up older, less fuel efficient and polluting vehicles and crushing them for recycling, using increased licensing fees to pay for the program.
Americans will whine about this, Republicans especially.
But some countries discourage auto consumption aggressively. A friend of ours just moved to Singapore, was required to buy a car for company business. The figure I heard was staggering, still can’t wrap my head around it, something in excess of USD100,000 to buy the vehicle above the cost of the vehicle; if memory serves, they don’t permit the sale of used cars, either. Jeepers, if that doesn’t discourage cars and the carbon footprint…
Margot @ 113
You bet, Margot. You’re not alone!
If Christy the Red is out there rading to blog tonight: What is the Federal LAw on what Foley did and its reporting requirement to law enforcement? An example – Under the Native American Child Protection Act, if you suspect or believe a child has had something happen, molestation or other things, you are required by law to report it. The police do the investigation and make forward their report to the appropriate authorities. Does anyone know what the requirements are?
Marion in Savannah @ 116
I seem to recall someone in the Bush administration toying with the idea of classifying burger assembly as “manufacturing” to make those employment stats look much, much better.
Marion in Savannah,
Thanks! Thought maybe my connection was quirky or something.
Slothrop @ 112
or…the U.S. manufacturing sector long ago hollowed out….
but hey, globalization worked great for the DLC and the Rethug leadership and funders…
Eli @
120
This works right in with the “ketchup is a vegetable” crap that we got from the Great God Reagan… (Let’s not even consider the sugar and sodium in ketchup, which makes it even worse… Mrs. Heinz-Kerry is probably to blame for that, isn’t she???)
AZ Matt @ 119
Link (to Foley’s own website)
Evil Parallel Universe @ 105
Yep. Tim Russert said on NBC Nightly News tonight that Woodward had interviews this weekend, will be on 60 Minutes Sunday Night, and interviews lined up for the next week. His focus on “Bush is in denial, and even his wife and Chief of Staff couldn’t get him to change” will play for a week.
And I think that leaves Barney as the last holdout supporter who hasn’t been publically exposed.
i’m a car person and am a close auto industry watcher.
GM is most certainly on the road to recovery, no thanks to wagoner whose leadership has been spotty at best.
they are not the technology leaders they should be, but then, they never have been; they’ve always been about mass production. in a splintered-taste auto world, however, that hasn’t been a strength, resulting in erosion of share over the last number of decades since a 1960s-era high.
but new vehicles are turning things around for them, including the SUV line which is arguably the best in the world, value-wise (whether you hate them or not, they are excellent vehicles) and their collaboration with various mfrs on fuel cell and hydrogen technology. corvette remains the best value in sports technology worldwide, and the new camaro will be a great vehicle for them, averaging 100K units a year (big numbers).
even smaller vehicles in the GM line are getting better, though they still lag their japanese counterparts.
also, lutz is a huge asset to GM; he was a direct force behind the resurgence of Chrysler Corporation, ultimately leading to its merger-acquisition by Daimler-Benz (now Daimler Chrysler).
the sean hannity thing is just atrocious. i hate that f-ing prick.
how GM marketing could have done this, i’ll never know.
by the way, i’m mostly a Chrysler fan, as an owner of a 1970 dodge charger. but i do appreciate GM’s place in our culture.
they must reverse this decision.
Just noticed, there’s new stuff happening upstairs…
This works right in with the “ketchup is a vegetable” crap that we got from the Great God Reagan…
I had the exact same reaction.
It’s so refreshing when one of their ultra-transparent attempts to game the system fails. Of course, they succeed the other 99 times…
scarecrow @ 125
Bear in mind that Barney’s been dropped on his head a few times too many.
windje @ 124
Interesting question. I’ll bet Hastert’s and Boehner’s attorneys are checking on that tonight.
Case study on Jose Ignacio Lopez:
http://64.233.167.104/search?q…..980003.pdf general motors + “jose ignacio lopez”&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4
He’d have fit right in with the Republican Party today.
Wow, a CAR thread, how wonderful! I was up-top with Jen on the Foley thread, but I gotta say this here:
Lutz has brought cool cars to GM. The new Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice could each be GM’s Miata. Cadillac’s completely turned around its quality, performance, and customer experience. GM can survive, and thrive, but its Achilles Heel is having opposed HillHealth in the early nineties. If GM had recognized fifteen years ago the advantage universal health would now give it over its competitors, the playing field with foreign car corporations would be level. And, as a bonus, we’d all have universal health care!
Yet another reason not to trust America’s public policy decisions to corporatists: they’re likely as not to work against their own long-term interests. As well as our own.
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Had Enough?
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Jim in LA — too bad about Chrysler, really; they were doing quite well before Daimler.
Cannot stand the “Dr. Z” ad series, they’re a complete joke. Anybody who knows Daimler understands they are trying to promote German engineering as an improvement over Chrysler’s U.S. engineering — all the while the Mercedes Benz products have sucked for quality for the last decade.
Hence the crappy nostalgia ads Daimler used a year or so ago for Mercedes; they couldn’t sell them on quality, only on brand nostalgia.
In some ways, the “Dr. Z” ads are the exact opposite of Hannity-as-spokesperson — I’d put money on this being the underlying rationale, next to trying to capture a repeat market segment (like the NASCAR dad market).
Wonder how much the Bush family oil portfolio has increased in value since 2000?
scarecrow @ 130
windje, thanks for the link. His legistslation pertains more to known sex-offenders(of which is going to be joining). What I would like to find out is if you suspect something is happening what are the initial reporting requirements. With school personnel, for an example, they are required to inform the police if they suspect abuse or neglect. They have no choice in the matter. It becomes a police matter.
The Congress has committees that supervise these pages and if they knew this was happening, did they report it? The committee(s), it would seem to me, would have that responsibility. I would think they would be liable. The congressman of one page from Louisiana knew it happened, and Hastert knew it happened.
Mad Dogs @
77
I always wanted to get an Aztec, paint it pink, park it at Ocean Beach, put a striped pink-and-white awning on it, and do a Glamorama Barbie Drag Show.
Anyone that think GM (or Ford) is on the road to recovery is delusional. They’ll always have the same 34% that are immune to FACTS. But, other than that they are finished. They have no new small vehicles in the drawing board and its going to kill them. It’ll take them years to make something on the value, reliability, price of a Civic or Corolla, and that’s if they even WANTED to, and obviously they don’t. They are content to peddle more gimmicks, and as gimmicks goes this is Terri Shivo territory!!!!
Honda, Subaru, Toyota (not talking about luxury vehicles) have been killing them and its only going to get worse. They make better vehicles, end of story. Only the 34% authoritarian follower amongst us just can justify buying GM or Ford anymore. Its unjustifiable by any logic to buy that junk, only blind faith can justify buying such in inferior product.
Rayne, I really appreciate your insights on this. Can I say, though, that a Nissan-Renault merger with GM terrifies me? Think of the interiors!
Hugh @
93
On the other hand, we don’t know what Cheney’s gimme was in those Energy Policy Task Force meetings in 2001, do we?
Such a genius AG we have! He is sooo smart, just like George! I just love how he wags his fingers too. Keeping us safe from “activists” judges. I just sleep better knowing he is here, under all of our beds!
From the WaPo:
“Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is defending President Bush’s anti-terrorism tactics in multiple court battles, said Friday that federal judges should not substitute their personal views for the president’s judgments in wartime.
He said the Constitution makes the president commander in chief and the Supreme Court has long recognized the president’s pre-eminent role in foreign affairs. “The Constitution, by contrast, provides the courts with relatively few tools to superintend military and foreign policy decisions, especially during wartime,” the attorney general told a conference on the judiciary at Georgetown University Law Center.
“Judges must resist the temptation to supplement those tools based on their own personal views about the wisdom of the policies under review,” Gonzales said.”
GM’s cars are so bad I won’t RENT them.
They’re designed by accountants and ad men, not engineers.
I dunno – may be there is some logic to this.
When I read the news release, it sounded like it was limited to radio and only to Hannity show – “Great American” cart give-away and all that! Where else would it click? So GM must have figured that its base is the right wing, mouth-breathers. Yes, if it works, Hannity’s contract may go to other radio shows and ultimately TV. GM also knows that Hannity may bring some wingers, but also repels a great majority. SO GM will work in that narrow margin and see if it works.
They will never make Hannity their national spokesperson.
I have wondered why Toyota or honda or GM/Ford won’t sponsor air america shows. I think that’s where the buying power is.
TeddySanFran @ 138
And the Renault/AMC relationship worked out so well, right?
I got a laugh a couple of years ago when the guy running GM said, at an auto show, that hybrids wouldn’t be competitive until gas was over $1.50/gallon. At the time, it was running around $2/gallon in Los Angeles. You’d think an automaker would pay attention to things like that.
Of course, this is the company that would lease electrics (EV-1), but only if you were making at least a six-figure income. That made it a PR stunt instead of an actual try at a market.
(Full disclosure: I bought a Japanese hybrid in 2002, no tax break, and it will be paid for next year. It’s a pleasure to drive, and the mileage is (while not up to the EPA estimates) plenty good enough. And it can go up the Grapevine grade fast enough to pass semis.)
Marion in Savannah @ 96
Nietzche had any number of things to say that I disagree with. The bit about looking into the abyss is not among them.
Rayne @
131
Let’s not forget that Lopez is not the only head-to-toe asshole that GM ever hired. Roger Smith did more than his share twenty years ago to set the stage for recent years.
As for some agreements and rebuttals on other points (not all of them directed to comments of yours, mind you), yeah, health care’s an issue, and the union is responsible for some of that–not because the system is overused (that’s just an RNC talking point to keep insurers happy), but, rather, because, by contract, they run some of the health care plans, and those for-profit operations are pumping money into the pension plan. It’s another way for the unions to redistribute some income.
On the other side of that equation, if they’re still designing cars like they were twenty years ago, their hourly labor cost is going to be double that of anyone else. That means more workers per unit to maintain production rates, and the health costs will be higher as a consequence.
That said, GM, despite having an excellent reason to lobby the government for a single-payer system, hasn’t. They’ll lobby for other things–relaxation of EPA standards, etc., and anyone who thinks they don’t lobby effectively will have to explain to me why there’s no action on global warming and that there’s been no substantial change in CAFE standards in twenty years.
It’s not just the oil companies complicit in those things. “Resistance to change” is the motto of the Big Three. For what it’s worth, exactly the same thing happened to them in the late `70s. They simply did not believe that oil costs would remain high for any appreciable time. In fact, they never went back down to pre-`73 levels again. They kept building–and trying to sell–land yachts that got 9 mpg. That’s exactly why Chrysler went into bankruptcy, and Iococca could see what the problem was–no small, high-mileage cars. He solved a production problem by buying the drive trains from VW Rabbits, and immediately set to work duplicating the engines and transmissions and mounting points on his own production lines. In a little more than a year, he no longer had to buy from Germany.
Today, that same syndrome is expressed in SUVs and trucks. They’re very profitable, because they share both chassis and running gear and those items haven’t changed substantially in many a year. They have the highest profit per unit of any models, and they ran with them–even though gas prices were headed up. Now they can’t give them away. This latest business with Hannity is simply a short-term marketing ploy to take advantage of temporarily decreasing prices. It’s an appeal to the NASCAR dads to get hooked up to a seven-year note on $40K worth of boat anchor (or so it will seem when gas prices climb again).
The other thing that the U.S. automakers don’t give a fig about is that the middle class on which their profits depend is shrinking and its income is, too (not to mention that there are other so-called necessities of life that are competing for a slice of the monthly take-home pay pie). There’s a reason why there have been so many extended-year loans and leasing deals offered in the last ten years, even the Fed interest rates have been traditionally low. Car prices are outstripping the public’s ability to pay them on traditional terms. That’s Wall Street talking. As investors demand higher and higher returns, quarter after quarter, it inevitably leads to bad marketing strategies and an insufficient degree of money devoted to R&D. European manufacturers solved part of that problem by technology-sharing. Audi, Porsche and VW jointly fund R&D facilities and share in the results. That sort of arrangement would be heretical to the likes of GM.
It’s a big industry, and its problems can’t be reduced to one thing (it’s all the union’s fault, or it’s all management’s fault), but like a lot of American industry, it’s also not very good at apportioning and accepting blame.
There’s also one other thing I’m not sure anyone has mentioned, and that’s the tax structure, particularly capital gains. Once the graduated tax was effectively destroyed in the `80s, the wealthy went after the capital gains rates. There’s now not much difference in the long-term and short-term rates, and that’s encouraged speculation. That means there’s no incentive to hold investments through periods where very big industries in competitive markets can’t possibly adjust to changing conditions. And, as we’ve seen, as GM’s profit margins declined, so did their stock price. That, along with some other factors, began to affect their bond ratings, which made it more difficult to finance GMAC, which needs those bonds ever more in an age when loan terms are extending ever more. A significant change in long-term and short-term capital gains taxation rates would help all industry in this country. If we were to institute, say 48% on less than one-year holdings, 38% on 1-5 year holdings and 18% on investments held over five years, you’d see overall capitalization of large industry climb and stay there.
Cheers.
Pontiac Vibe.
Made in Northern California at the joint Toyota/GM plant in Fremont.
Same as the Matrix only with sold with steep GM discounts.
PeteCO @
24
Sean promoting a French Car?
Sacre Blu!
TeddySanFran @
138
Many good points, montag.
One thing I would quibble with is the example of Audi, Porsche and VW; they each have entirely separate market niches, not in competition with each other, and they would all of them put sustaining German business above their individual need to compete. (You didn’t include Daimler in that R&D consortium, ja?)
bdu misinterpreted my point about unions and healthcare; I don’t believe they “overuse” them, but I’ve worked in the plants and I’ve been shoulder-to-shoulder with them. They are unhealthy as hell; their experience rate is what drives up the cost of healthcare, not “overuse”. If unions made a stronger effort to discourage smoking, were more aggressive about substance abuse and weight management, along with encouraging healthy eating and exercise, the experience rate of the workers would fall, they’d be more productive and competitive. (And even have healthier retirement years; one of my buddies is a 61-year-old UAW retiree, a former rep; he’s had 2 heart attacks in 5 years, has to use a special breathing apparatus at night. Jebus.)
I guess I believe that unions needs to evolve as much as the car industry needs to evolve; what does it take to become the preferred labor provider for an increasingly high-tech manufacturer? Unions needed to be more like guilds in this respect — but they aren’t clueing in. I got an email about a degree program that a union was launching; I thought it was a great idea and a revolutionary one at that, right up until I read the prospectus. The program concentrated on labor organizing; what company would hire a person with those credentials? How would they add value to the company? How would this degree help a company be more competitive? Stupid waste of time and resources, and I honestly don’t know if the average line person would understand exactly what a rip-off this was.
Excellent point about the capital gains and industry capitalization; this goes back to the shareholder as key driver. Because they can move their money elsewhere so rapidly without any negative repurcussions, they can get nasty and demand quarter-after-quarter double-digit yields and then flee when the company can’t deliver. I think one of the other problems here is executive compensation as well, along with stock options. At one point in time I would have subscribed to the importance of management being vested in the company, but not if there are disincentives to staying for the long-haul and investing in both the equipment and the people. It disgusts me that CEO’s can flee with golden parachutes at the drop of a hat, shareholders can dump stock or boot a CEO, but the workers are stuck…
In the scheme of things, Hannity is a short-term annoyance. Perhaps an indicator, but we already knew the lay of the land.
Mack #143 — Ghosn is surely a better bet than Waggoner. Not the same as sloppy Renault joining dorky AMC, both of which had crappy management.
Laying in late and haven’t read all the comments and this might already have been mentioned, Bush has not been meeting with the top execs. He has avoided this problem but asked to meet by Michigan Republicans.
“Now if only Bushie could be interrogated under rules he set for interrogation.”
Wow is that great. If a dem is preznit in 2008, s/he can declare the bushliar-criminal an UEC and disappear him and his criminal regime-mates without all those messy court proceedings. And here I thought the torture-constitution destruction bill was letting the bushliar-criminal go scott free when in reality, it has hastened their corporal punishment.
.
HEY! I happened to like my Aztek. Yes, the look wasn’t for everyone, but it had good space, a quiet ride and was comfortable.
Don’t rag on the Aztek!
America’s Least Wanted
Rayne @ 49
This fella had some real skill at diagnosing and reviving those cars that were born dead at the end of the assembly line. The problem was that is was an expensive limited production model (don’t remember which) and they had supply problems so that very few of this model actually made it to the end of the line. He basically had one full day of work a week. He was a very skilled machinist and his foreman was afraid to let him go or transfer him.
I tried to post this earlier and the server was down.
Hey, wait a minute I own an Aztec.
Rayne @ 149
I think the auto companies deserve to die out, as sad as that sounds. I read on another blog that Ford has basically shut down the assembly line. They can’t even put together a car today!! But what they are doing according to Ford employees that have spoken out is REPLACING American workers with ILLEGAL mexicans AFTER THE ELECTION! That to me sounds like it fits with Hannity trying to get people re interested in GM products. If no one wants to buy a GM made by ILLEGALS AKA Bush’s guests, then they NEED Hannity to make a pitch to the Scarlet R loyality. Perhaps the elite will now drive the Fords made by the illegals. Most other Americans won’t I don’t guess. We won’t have the cash to fill em up.
And as you say, the GM top brass have rewarded themselves so handsomely over the years that the future of the company is really immaterial to them.
Rayne @
84
it’s not Nissan-Renault, it’s Renault-Nissan.
Renault owns a 44.4 percent stake in Nissan, which in turn owns a 15 percent stake in Renault. Nissan was on the brink of bankruptcy when Ghosn was dispatched by Renault to lead the Japanese company in 1999.
The boss’s office is in Boulogne-Billancourt.
I already informed GM Corporate that I will not contiue to purchase there products if Hannity will be their spokesperson and that I intend on trading in both my Sierra and Yukon. (It’s time to get vehicals that are more in line with my conscience anyway.)
Don Quijote – It’s all about Ghosn. The rest of Renault sucked.
Doesn’t really matter to me what the make-up of ownership at this point, since both Nissan and Renault are heavily dependent and interdependent upon the vision of this one personality, Carlos Ghosn (who hasn’t always been at Renault).
It really is quite unfortunate that so much of the auto industry is personality-driven.
I failed for some reason to screenshot this, but someone at CNN was having fun with the headlines yesterday. The front-page link to a story about GM needing to concenrate on their most popular lines was listed as “GM Execs: We Need More Hummers”.
Thought you might want to see the email I just sent to General Motors…like it’s going to get read LOL!……at least I feel better. Hard to believe they would hire that hate filled moron Sean Hannity. Unbelievable.
TO: GM
I am an owner of a GM vehicle and I can tell you right now that if you go ahead and allow this right wing bigot and extremely offensive big mouth to be a spokesman (read loose canon) for GM, I will NOT buy another GM product. He is a nut and an extremely polarizing figure, at a time in our American history when we truly need spokespersons who are truly uniters and not dividers. With all the troubles GM has had lately you would think the last thing you need to do is to alienate millions of people. This is unbelievable – I’m sure glad I don’t own any stock in GM right now. Here’s an idea…why not up the ante and have Ann Coulter stand alongside Hannity and be a model for your new line of cars. That would really put an exclamation point on where your head is at!
A sad and dejected Saturn owner, Jim
In reference to the "Iacocca Chysler turnaround" I feel compelled to say that # 1 Chrysler was bailed out with a government loan & #2 The Minivans that raised Chryslers marketshare & profitability, ie the Dodge Caravan & the Plymouth Voyager were & are pieces of junk. The minivan idea was clever, but Chyslers execution of it was terrible.
Fact check needed here. Chrysler was the recipient of a government loan guarantee, not a government loan. There is a substantial difference. The federal funds were never touched and the entire amount of private financing was paid back by Chrysler.
That Aztec was one ugly SOB. Pity the fools who bought one. That Avalanche is a POS as well. The black plastic bed cover bleaches out to white plastic in the sun after a couple of years. Don’t buy plastic cars.
I used to work for an NHL team and when the Aztec came out on the ice first intermission, the crew would always say “there goes the Homer Simpson car”.