I agree. It will take lots of changes. There is much more on the horizon.

E

No doubt that individual dealerships make a difference. My first 4 cars (3 as a single person and 1 as a family man) were all GM products and they were fine for about 4 years.

Back then with a very young family and usually buying a 1 year old car, the warranty of 36/36 was killing me. We needed to have reliable transportation at least until the 5year note was paid off.

Once the car began to nickle and dime us to death before being paid off caused a huge strain on the budget.

All GM had to do was provide a product that fit the needs of the up and coming generation. They did a good job with my parents generation with the '50 Buick, '66 Bonneville, '72 duece and a quarter and their last car '76 Coupe DeVille.

Re: Big GM shakeup...
 

Thank a union:mad: If you aren't selling your product, you can't keep paying high union wages & benefits. Unions didn't budge, people were laid off. Sad but true:(

Come, now. How can you say that? This is anything but boring!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1132728364.jpg

Yeah, really...
http://us.autos1.yimg.com/img.autos....06_450x225.jpg

http://www.evotuners.com/albums/element/element00.jpg

http://www.dpccars.com/photos/04-20-...nz-R-Class.jpg

Those guys just darn wrote the book on excitement...
:rolleyes:

BTW, I found this next to the dictionary definition of boring:
http://a904.g.akamai.net/7/904/506/v...TJ046651_1.jpg

I dunno, I think GM is on a turnaround. Call me crazy (or drunk), but I think the new models from Pontiac and Saturn are going to do pretty well. They are finally putting out cars that Im actually interested in! Cases in point:

Saturn Sky / Pontiac Soltice
Pontiac Torrent

I really like this Torrent, it really looks nice and the price is perfect. I think the Sky/Soltice platorm is going to sell like hotcakes too.

The Honda Element is an inflamed boil on the ass of automotive design.

No way dude! I love that thing. Slap some decent wheels on it and its transformed. The Aztec on the other hand is quite the "piece"...

For the first time in years, a new car (that I didn't recognize) was parked outside of a dealer last Sat. when my girlfriend & I were out running errands. I actually turned around, and went back to check it out....turns out it was the new Pontiac Solstice. It didn't have a sticker on it, so I assumed it was pricey, but checked it out on the net later on...approx. $20K. I don't know about the build quality (and performance), but I bet that little roadster sells very well.

edited: Here's a link: http://www.pontiac.com/solstice/index.jsp

The major difference is GM probably built 2M Pontaic Asstecs and has only sold 80. Subaru probably built far less to meet far lower demand. Every car company is guilty of making disasters. Porsche had the front-engined water pumpers in the early 80s. :eek: :p

I think this year's production run of the Solstice was sold out before a single one was delivered. I think next year's run is significantly pre-sold too.

GM has done a few things very right with the Solstice:

1) They designed a great car. It looks good. From all accounts, it drives well and is well engineered. People want this car. Did you know that the first year's run was available only with 5-speed manuals? (Gasp.)

2) They designed it to be profitable at 20,000 units a year. If it's just a fad that wears off, they will still be making money.

3) They have been very proactive in preventing any dealership shenanigans. The price is the price, end of story. Some dealerships have been disciplined for various things. GM does not want anyone to have a bad experience buying this car. They have a hot car that is bringing people to dealerships, and they don't want anyone to ruin the experience.

Where's that middle-finger smiley?

That used to be true, but not even close now. In fact, at the moment, Toyota is outselling GM; it's about to REPLACE GM as the world's larges car manufacturer.

The only GM 'divisions' making money are Ditech (home mortgage) and GMAC (auto financing). It's like they're only building cars to keep GMAC rolling.

Boring gets you 200,000 miles of trouble free service with one timing belt change, a few sets of tires, lifetime exhaust system warrenty from a Toyota dealer + knobs and switches 10 years later that are better than ANY new GM car.

Boring is the #1 car sold in the USA..

You've got to be kidding, right?

US auto/light truck sales in 2004:

Toyota (incl Lexus) 2,060,048 units
Honda (incl Acura) 1,394,398 units
GM (incl Saab) 4,665,459 units

US auto/light truck sales YTD 2005:

Toyota (incl Lexus) 1,887,352 units
Honda (incl Acura) 1,223,812 units
GM (incl Saab) 3,792,989 units


E

Who's kidding?

Toyota to put GM in rearview mirror
Report: Japanese firm to lift output to 9.2M cars in '06, topping GM as No. 1 auto manufacturer.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/26/news/international/toyota_gm.reut/

Worldwide.

Kind of. Depends on how you count. The numbers could go either way.

Toyota Camry sales YTD 2005: 368,672

Chev Impala sales YTD 2005: 201,238
Pontiac Gr Prix sales YTD 2005: 106,313
Buick LaCrosse sales YTD 2005: 79,159

TOTAL GM W-body YTD 2005: 386,710 (18,038 more than Camry)

By the way:

Toyota Tundra sales YTD 2005: 100,005

Chev Silverado sales YTD 2005: 599,578
GMC Sierra sales YTD 2005: 196,374

TOTAL GM pickups YTD 2005: 795,952 (427,280 more than Camry)

The best selling 'car' in America is a truck, by over double the closest car. You can see why GM (and Ford) have invested so much effort in light trucks.

E

Worldwide? True for 2006 projected production totals. Which would be the first time ever that Toyota led. Partly because GM is decreasing production.

My original comments were about the US market.

E

kaisen, are you some sort of GM apologist?

I'm getting this vision of the Iraqi information minister saying, "GM makes GOOD cars! GM is a BIG, IMPORTANT company! Toyota is NOT eating our lunch! Japanese cars will NEVER be accepted in this country!" :D