R.I.P. General Motors (1931-2006)

Please don't feed the trolls.

 

I couldn't help myself.
Bearman

 

the reason people love their honda is simple..high quality. honda has a
reputation and they strongly keeping it going. their cars and now trucks
will out run and take more of a beating and still run the same compared to
general motors and especially ford. i hope gm survives they do make great
cars. nothing will replace the cadillac or the chevy truck or corvette. its
the union thats totally wiping out their profits. unions nowadays do more
harm than good.

-jeff

 

That was the idea, anyway, until the bean counters took over the company
in the early 90s.

Then their products started a downhill slide that finally even the most
diehard Honda fans couldn't ignore. It started with design, and finally
ended up in engineering when they had multiple designs of transmissions
fail horribly, causing THE SINGLE BIGGEST RECALL IN HONDA HISTORY--$360
million worth.

THREE HUNDRED SIXTY MILLION DOLLARS.

We should have seen news stories of Honda executives committing
hara-kiri over this. Nowadays, however, there truly is no honor.

I say this as one of those diehard Honda fans. Shame on them.

 

1 other reason i just thought of for people preferring hondas and toyotas is
the excellent gas mileage. you just cant beat it. domestic automakers have
that to work on also.

-jeff

 

GM = Goofy Mismanagement

I'm looking at either a Hundai or a Honda right now.

It's ironic enough that Rolls-Royce was bought out by Volkswagen, and
Willys, which built the Jeep (synonymous with WW2) was bought out/merged
with a number of firms, finally part of a German firm (Damler-Chrysler)

I'm gonna sit down for a while. This is fucking with my head a little
TOO much!

"Eventually, we'll all be working for the same five guys." - Pat Oliphant

===unidyne===

 

Unions were a great idea way back when. Unfortunately, now the unions still
want the company to cover their employees from cradle to grave, even when
the cost of health care has gone through the roof, and is now the major part
of the cost of most autos made here under union rules.

As a self-employed person, I either have to pass these costs on to my
clients, or suck it up myself. When GM even tries to pass some of these
costs onto their employess they refuse to share in the cost. The employees
are the greedy ones, the ones who won't give an inch to keep their jobs.
Let's be honest. Japanese manufacturers have no problem finding employees
to work in their plants in the US, with no unions.

Also, the idea of assembling cars in the US is to save money on importing
the cars. It's far cheaper to bring in the parts that are manufactured from
wherever, and assemble them here than to bring the entire car in.

And, the poster is correct. Cadillac has made some awesome changes in their
line, American trucks will still be in demand, and the Corvette is still one
hell of a bargain when compared to any European sports car out there.

My question is: Why is it that the US can't figure out what we want to buy?
Even though American manufacturers give incredible incentives to buy US
cars, we still pay more for the others. Fortunately, Subaru has found a
niche market, and the vast number of people riding around in big SUV's would
do well to buy an Outback, and many of them do. For whatever reason the
Japs and the Europeans seem to make cars that we Americans want to buy. The
US, for the most part, makes cars and then has to convince us to buy them.
They always seem to be one step behind, and GM, with few exceptions, are
always two steps behind.

 

steel plates and grates for manholes, saw one today, Made In India.
Others: Made In China.
hum....

Part of the whole problem is the greedy unions. Others, like the Black
Hills Gold Rush, westerners are definetly greedy and will depleet anything
for the chance at getting rich. We are a horrible people, but just like
everyone else in the world: china too.

To bad the manufacturers won't build a better car for less money: average
mark-up on a SUV last year, before the deep discounts: 15,000... figure from
one of the 3 networks.

 

they are all easily replaced after 3 years since they start falling apart
about that timeframe.
I still own a Merc Marquis '90, and a ClubWagon '97.

 

"we don't need no stinking gas milleage"
"gas is cheap"
oh, that was a few years back, uh oh.

 

Gas is still cheap. It's only gone up a buck-fifty or so since
1976.

 

I'd love to buy an American car if:

it was fuel efficient... the Chevy Aveo isn't nearly as good as the Toyota
Yaris, and.. it feels/looks cheap

also, price.

The Chevy Cobalt SE in comparison to the Toyota Matrix XR is NOT cheap
(Canadian funds) So, well, hmmm...

The only American car I think I'd get (first I have to try it) is the Dodge
Caliber.

Might be neat.

Cheers

 

I think about that often. I 1980, my teen years of driving, I was paying
1.25/gl.
However, has the medium income gone up since then. I heard reported that
the medium income in the U.S. has stayed pretty much level at around 55K
(+/-), while the medium cost of a house has quadrupled. The comparison is
in relation to cost of living. Not sure if the information was accurate, but
it makes me think about that... certainly my income is higher, but then I
buy gas and look for a larger home and seems like I'm still making the same
wage as back in my fries and burger daze... heh.

 

razz,

So it was okay for you to earn a living off of Toyota products, but it's NOT
okay for an American citizen to purchase and drive a Toyota product???
Totally hypocritical in my opinion. If you were the true patriot that you
claim to be you wouldn't have accepted a job working on Toyotas.

Just out of curiosity, if the domestic automobile quality is "no different"
than that of Asian makes such as Honda/Acura, Toyota/Lexus and
Nissan/Infiniti, then why are the Detroit-based 'Big 2.5' continuing to lose
overall market share on a perpetual basis?

Ron M.

 

Razz what you say may be true...but havnt you heard?..America is forsale.
Just ask Vicenta Fox of Mexico, thanks to Bush we are now even owe money to
Mexico and Fox just loves it when Mexicans cross the border and get jobs and
send money back to families in Mexico, Yep Fox just loves that.

 

Rolls Royce is now part of the BMW Group. Bentley is now part of the
Volkswagen Group.

 

Yeah, I remember when Lee Iacocca and others were trying to get us to
buy American and making foreign car driving employees park in a
segregated lot, etc. All while buying up stock in Mitsubishi and Toyota
and Mazda, etc.

hypocrites is right

 

Isn't the Aveo rebadged from a Suzuki or Kia or something?

Carl

 

Enough is enough, when it comes to B.S.
Bearman, get off your soapbox and admit the truth. Don't flatter
yourself. You and I both know that when Mike said:
"> >I guess you are not familiar with the Twin Gouges dam, the largest
in the
you and many more of us did a Google or other search and found that the
dam in China is called the "Three Gorges (or Gourges) dam". So Mike
was essentially right when he said, "Do a search you will learn
something...".

Ergo, you should be thanking Mike for teaching you and others something
that you didn't previously know. So come down off your high horse and
thank him - if you have the cajones. ;-)

 

The Chevy Aveo is made by (GM owned) Daewoo in South Korea.