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

Jeff,
Believe it or not, I agree with you. All car companies focus on earning as
much money as possible. The difference is that most foreign car companies
such as Honda and Toyota have learned that the best way to earn lots of
money is to make vehicles that have quality built in. GM and Ford (for the
past 20 years) believe the best way to earn money is by producing vehicles
with the cheapest equipment (eg alternators) without worrying about
quality. If you don't understand my point, you need to read "Wheels" by
Alex Haley. He explains it much better and in greater detail than I could
ever explain it. Another point: The top people at Honda and Toyota have
long range plans e.g 20 or more years. On the other hand the top people at
GM and Ford have short range plans eg. 5 years or less.
Jason

 

Will Viagra save and make GM rise?

 

Has anyone done any research on recalls and TSB's to determine the
quality offered by both the domestics and imports...

 

TSB's are not necessarily an indication of good or bad quality by domestics
or imports because many are informational, i.e. specifications, service
manual corrections, owner's manual corrections, paint codes, key codes,
mid-year production changes, etc. One would have to read every TSB to
determine if it was issued for a fix instead of for informational purposes.

As far as special service campaigns ("recalls"), the research is a pretty
daunting job as well, and the information is difficult to interpret. An
engineer's definition of "quality" is adherence to the design
specifications. If a production run of parts all comply with a design
specification that turns out to be bad, the production run's quality is
still 100% compliance with the specifications. If it takes many years for a
problem to show up with a design, the number of vehicles recalled to fix the
problem may be very high if the design is used over those many years. If an
automaker uses more than one supplier for a particular part and does not
keep track of which supplier's part goes in which vehicle, then the
automaker has to recall all vehicles in order to determine which supplier's
part is installed in a particular vehicle.

To use SSC's as a measure of quality in assembly, component manufacture, or
design, one would have to determine how many of the recalled vehicles
actually needed a repair as opposed to an inspection and then calculate the
number of vehicles needing repairs as a percentage of vehicles produced.
Automakers do not publish this information.

IMO, the best way to measure which vehicles have the least number of
problems during the warranty coverage period is by studying warranty parts
and labor for new vehicle sold (PNVS). Back when I was studying such
things, Toyota's warranty expense PNVS was about 1/5 of the domestic
nameplates. This was over 15 years ago so I do not know if this ratio is
still valid or not.

 

Obviously Gosi went to a good one.

Yes everyone is affected, but the USA more than many other countries.
Oil is priced in USA $s. Time to look outside the USA.

Since the USA $ has been going down compared to most other western
countries, gasoline in the USA has increased a higher % than in many
other countries.

Many other products the USA imports from Asia are from countries that
tie their money to the USA $.
So the USA sees no price change due to the dropping USA $ from these
countries,
but many other countries have seen a drop in product prices from these
countries, due to the dropping USA $.

There is no shortage of oil, there is the fear of a shortage and the
main problem in NA is a shortage of refineries.

 

It might put some spark in the dulled management.

 

Oil will soon be priced in Euros
The dollar is losing
China has USA by the balls

 

Or an excess of demand.

As for there being a real shortage of refinery capacity in NA, I have
heard it both ways. If NA refineries are all running flat out,
wouldn't that tend to depress the price of oil compared to what it
would be if we had more capacity?

How much refined petroleum do we import into NA?

 

Actually, the Chinese banking system has the integrity of a house of
cards in that China is fostering a weak currency to keep its products
price low. Sooner or later, something is going to give...

JT

 

There IS a shortage of oil and it will get even worst in the next
10 years. Every day, thousands of new cars are sold in China and India.
Those people that are buying those new cars in China and India
have never before owned a car. That means that China and India
will be buying thousands of barrels of oil every day.
In other words, the oil now in ground will be used at an even faster
rate than any of the experts predicted that it would be used.

 

Well, I bet the secretaries won't be sneaking Viagra into the coffee. They
probably have enough to do already. But, the management won't be as dull.

Jeff

 

GM is trying to become stronger by buying Viagra

GM spends $15,000,000 on Viagra for its active and retired healthcare
beneficiaries

Will it wake up the dead?

Viagra is no permanent solution

The real question is will GM be able to celebrate 100 years

It is very doubtful

Noone - not even GM - can fight the illness of bloodletting every day
and getting thinner every day

If there is no blood left no Viagra is going to make anything rise

It is not enough to have the will if there is no way

 

Gosi,
I agree with you. I found these figures in the May 2006 issue of
Motor Trend magazine (page 26).

GM's fourth quarter losses were $4.8 billion. It's cash reserves
are $20.5 billion plus a $15.3 set-aside for long term health-care
costs. In three years, GM will run out of money--unless they can
make some changes such as selling more vehicles.
Jason

 

Oil reserves are based on profitable recovery based on current oil
prices. With the higher oil prices more oil is recoverable from current
fields and new oil fields will be explored.
An example of this is the huge reserves in Alberta's oil sands, where
production is currently limited by available labor. At current oil
prices recovery is very profitable.
If the higher oil prices stick many newer fields will be explored in
northern Canada.

It is true that the rapidly developing Asian countries will consume an
increasing amount of oil, but unfortunately the west is consuming an
increasing amount, particularly in NA because of our excessively large
vehicles. In Europe much higher gasoline prices limit vehicle size.
Obviously gasoline isn't expensive enough yet in NA.

 

There is a limited amount of oil in the ground. Each year, millions of
gallons of that oil are pumped out of the ground. Some of the oil experts
are of the opinion that the amount of oil in the world has now "peaked".
On a bell curve, the peak is the very top center of the bell curve. In
other words, we are now on the wrong side of the bell curve. Only God
knows when the last barrel of oil will be pumped out of the ground. We can
only hope that alternative fuels are developed within the next 20 years.
It's my opinion that we have enough oil to last at least 20 to 40 years--I
am only guessing.
Jason

 

Yes you are guessing and so would anyone because the amount of oil we
get out of the wells is related to the selling price of oil.
It has to sell for a profit or it won't be pumped out. The more
difficult it is to pump out the higher the delivered price must be.

The alternatives you mention will happen. Looking at the history of
fuels the alternative has become more common well before the current
fuel has run out.
Lots of coal for fuel left in the ground!

So let the price of gasoline rise and we will have fuel for some time.
Tough on the big three automakers who did so well selling those monster
SUVs. <

 

I hope that it does not end up like the "Mad Max" movie. Which of the
alternative fuels will solve our problems? I know that it will not be
hydrogen fuel cells. I read an article about that subject and found out
that it is NOT cost effective since it cost so much money to make
hydrogen fuel cells. I do believe that we need more Nuclear Power
Plants but the environmentalists will not allow it.
Jason

 

They will probably change their minds when the eventual lack of
energy impacts their ability to live their lives as they want to.
That's a big variable as some people can live with less energy than
others, but it will eventually impact everyone if alternative fuels
are not developed. As for when that will happen, I don't know.

BTW, I agree that fuel prices in NA are still actually very low vs
world standards. I'm not saying I like them where they are. I'm
just facing the reality that we've been getting off easy for a long
time. That's part of the reason that people continue to buy those
big SUV's in NA when the rest of the world doesn't due to the MUCH
higher fuel proces.

 

Many of the folks I know that own an SUV also own smaller vehicle for when
they do not need the capability of their SUV. The folks that must cut back
on their fuel consumption as prices rise are the folks that can only afford
to buy little cars or used cars. I doubt the folks that a laying out
$75,000 or more for a new Lexus or $55,000 for a Cadillac SUV are concerned
too much a about $2,000 more a year for the fuel to run them. I personally
would not ride around in an unsafe underpowered little car just to save
$2,000 a year


mike hunt

 

Underpowered and unsafe are your opinions. Here's mine: Many
people who drive SUV's don't really need them. They might be trendy
and offer some level of serviceability (capacity and possibly
off-road) not as obvious in smaller vehicles -- and although it's
certainly an individual choice of course, actual need is what I'm
talking about. Of course, people who own $75,000 cars don't actually
need them either.

So what am I saying? I'm saying that SUV's are not really needed by
many who have them ... and with fuel costs being what they are and
are moving toward, they may not be a prudent choice. I'm also
saying that as many people grow more and more tired of the high fuel
costs and eventually become unable to pay them, the US auto
manufacturers will lose even more market share -- making an already
bad situation worse.