Plan 9 From Outer Space

[G B.]

Get this. The official plan for GM's financial recovery, according to the CEO, is to "sell more trucks". I am not making this up.

HELLO GM! IS ANYONE HOME? THE TRUCK THING IS OVER!

On what planet does this jackass reside? Now the best part: he will get a base retirement salary of $4.6 million A YEAR, FOR LIFE, when GM finally dumps him!

Let me get this straight. GM dealerships will be pushing gas guzzling trucks and huge SUV's next year? The fat 'n happy UAW is "outraged" at the tiny FUTURE plant closings that GM announced? (After all, the workers will only get 95% of their pay FOR NOT WORKING while in the "Jobs Bank"!) The failed executives are entitled to lavish bonuses and golden parachutes so they will STAY at GM? (Is there is a successful business that would want to hire them away?)

I cannot think of another large company that so thoroughly out of touch with reality. From top to bottom it is staffed with arrogant, selfish idiots who are not willing to face the truth.

Adios, GM.

[Donald B.]

Re: Plan 9 From Outer Space

"Is there a successful business that would want to hire them away?" - unfortunately I've seen many instances in which these "losers" are actually hired away. My opinion is good - let someone else take them - hopefully a competitor !

[Wayne K.]

A good example of......

something that gets so good it goes bad. Maybe these guys should run for president. The sad thing is they probably could win.

[Donald B.]

Re: Plan 9 From Outer Space

I worked for a large Savings & Loan and it basically went bankrupt. The CEO's approval was on all the large loans that went bad. He left with a million dollar severance package (a lot back then for Bank Execs). Another large East Coast bank then hired him - for all things - Chief Credit Officer. Absolutely Unbelievable !

[Chris H.]

Re: Plan 9 From Outer Space

I do not want to defend them but why do you think trucks are dead?

They are down only 1% for the last 11 months which includes a time when gas went temporarily over $3. Trucks were down almost 10% for November but trucks still outsold cars in November. Gas is now down under $2 and still going lower. Trucks in the long term will probably go down but only because the crossover replacements will be phased in and hopefully they will replace the utility of the trucks that is needed by many.

Sorry but a sedan just does not meet my lifestyle, and most of the people I associate with, need. I need to be able to put 4 kids in rear seats with all the luggage the kids of today have. Probably when I retire I will be able to use a sedan?

[G B.]

To be more precise

GM can no longer make a big profit on those sales. The "fad" ownership of trucks and large SUV's is history.

Those who need these vehicles, like me, will still buy them. But, the tennis moms who had to have a Suburban or Hummer to "fit in" at the club are over it. Most young people now want a small foreign car, not a pick-up, for their first vehicle. Do you still see children driving around with "YO" or "SS" painted on their tailgates? I don't, and I certainly live in the center of Hicksville. If kids in this town don't crave pick-ups, then that fad must have died at least 20 years ago.

How GM missed this market change is completely lost on me. Buy a damn vowel, Wagoner. You can afford it thanks to GM!

[Chris L.]

Re: To be more precise

Don't understand how they can continue to produce the vehicles that they have to give away to make some one buy them! THey should make a few thousand more Z06's and increase their bottomline. GM has too many "loser" vehicles that no one wants. Maybe they need to talk to Lee Iacoca!!

[Brandon Metzger]

Re: To be more precise

What kills me, and I live in MI, is that Ford, GM and Chrysler are wandering how to sell more cars and compete with Toyota. ...... Here is a clue....Build a car that does not need to go to the shop every month. Had a Lincon Continetal that was literaly in the shop every month for one problem or another. Then I bought a Toyota Siena '98, put 180,000 miles on it and only change the oil and tires. Had the alternator go out at 175,000 miles. Just bought a Chrysler Town and Country Limited had to take it back with in 15 hours and only 60 miles and have the transmission rebuilt. YES, 60 miles and needed a trans rebuild. Needless to say I am going back to a Toyota after this lease.

All the truck pushing-insentive giving-plant shutting-and layoff are not going to do a darn thing if they don't build cars we want to drive and can last more than a few months without needing to go to the shop for repairs.

My two cents......Although I still realy want a new ZO6....think I am going to have to wait a little while...perhaps when the '72 is completed.

Brandon

[mike cobine]

What they need is a '62 Chevy Impala

In 1961, they sold roughly 426,000 Impalas.

In 1962, they sold 705,000.

In 1963, they sold 833,000.

Obviously, they knew a good thing. 1962 nearly doubled '61.

The cars had styling. They had room for more than four squeezed tightly. They offered several engines, from economical to pavement burners. They didn't all come in brown or beige. I don't even know if they allowed those colors then.

You could own one if you had four kids - they actually fit.

[Norris W.]

Re: Plan 9 From Outer Space

I thought the domestic car builders, ESPECIALLY GM, would be in BIG trouble years ago, and have been amazed that it's taken this long. Their decisions have been one bone headed move after another. First they've caved to the UAW about a hundred times too many. Second, with very few exceptions, like maybe the Corvette, they've apparently let the bean counters make all the decisions on car lines instead of car people. The selection from GM in particular is truly dismal. In the case of Chevy, they discontinue the Astro Van in years of spiraling energy costs, yet build whatever that new PT Cruiser wanna be is. How many of those could they possibly sell? The day I was told by a dealer that I couldn't get an Astro work van (discontinued for '06) to replace a totaled unit in our fleet of 5, I counted 37 of em in moderate traffic in a 40 minute/35 mile trip from the office. I don't remember the exact number of full size Chevy/GMC vans on the same trip, but it was less than 10. The Chevy retro pickup truck falls in the same category (SR5??) They run the price of the Camaro/Firebird up until it's not competitive with the Mustang, then kill it and replace it with that import GTO thing that looks like a pregnant Mazda. All the decent rear wheel drive cars are gone from GM. Wouldn't the same money spent on these late model retro things with very limited market potential have been much better directed at the Camaro/Firebird platform to make it knock a hole in the Mustang market somehow? These people can't grasp the fact that folks who don't live in snow country don't have any reason or desire for the most part to own front wheel drive and they just doggedly continue to ram boring vehicles into the market, and as somebody else already mentioned, their dependability is somewhat lacking and the attitude when contacting customer service (outside contracted non-GM employees for those that don't know) is nothing short of outrageous. In a nutshell they're spinning out of control in a fog and seemingly completely out of touch with the market.

While I'm on my soapbox, another aspect totally broken is the marketing technique of the dealer network itself. First, I think the products cost too much in percentage of income of the average working class family. On top of that, the car business has now resorted to downright dishonest games to not only put people in higher priced cars than they can reasonably justify, but to milk every single penny they can in the process through a series of stages from sales, to management, to finally the F & I guy that puts the final stake through the heart with additional fees including the now common Doc Fee which is the final screwing. The end result is selling people vehicles that they're buried alive in for much longer than the life expectancy, and after 3 or 4 such upside down trades in sequence, there has to be a correction somewhere, and I think it's what we're seeing now.

For those with AOL, this link is an interesting read. http://aolsvc.edmunds.com/advice/buy...2/article.html For those that don't have AOL, it may be findable under Edmunds.Com. and was titled "confessions of a car salesman". Although it's long, it's interesting to see how the dealer antics on the west coast are exactly the same ones practiced on the east.

[Mike McKown]

It was called Fawn Beige, in and out

You couldn't afford to buy that same car today for what it would cost to manufacture in that state today. Matter of fact, if you had a brand new one, you would probably be very PO'D about the lack of refinements and quality appointments.

But, truth be known, I just WISH I could find a bare bones model like this today. That's all I need. Don't need all this whoop-ty-doo stuff. Electronic gadgets, accesories, etc. Don't need it.

If I had to pick a new car today that I wished was still built, I'll tell you what it is. It's either a '65 two door Chevy II or a two door Chevelle. with a 283, standard trans, FM radio, heater and AC. That's it. Matter of fact, I wish I had my old '71 Pinto back. 1600cc engine, radio/heater. That's all. Best car I ever owned.

[Mike McKown]

Re: Plan 9 From Outer Space

Norris:

Everything you say is exactly on target as far as I'm concerned. Expecially as far as FWD is concerned. But, you have to remember, the FWD platform is cheaper to build than RWD so not too sure they have the customers wants in mind anyway.

Your thoughts are also correct in my estimation about the Camaro/Firebird. That car was probably superior in every way to the Mustang except price and maybe interior appointments. But where does GM think they're getting their new customers from? Selling Buicks?

[John Daly]

Re: Plan 9 From Outer Space

Jerry
I think you're dead wrong with your opinion on the truck market. Fullsize trucks,including crossovers of all sizes, SUVs, and premium market entries will continue to be the largest, fastest growing, and most profitable in North America. GM's plan for recovery includes much more than the redesigned trucks due out in 2006.

I am proud GM employee who has survived two plant closings and can assure you there's nothing "tiny" about living through the anguish and uncertainty of losing your job whether you are hourly or salaried.
Many of us feel Rick Wagoner is the best hope right now to deal with the major issues facing our company. This includes dealing with the current issues with Delphi GM's largest supplier,getting the UAW to agree to increased payments by it's members for healthcare, and addressing some of the issues you mentioned in next years contract negotiations.

I can assure you we're not all arrogant selfish idiots......

JD

[Mark H.]

Re: To be more precise

Toyota and Honda have the rest of the car makers beat because they have designed and built cars that even at a premium price people want to buy. Ever heard of anyone lining up to buy what is coming in on next week's truck of Impalas? The simple fact is that GM needs to start competing on something other than price. Like quality. Or styling. An GM better watch that truck flank. Now that Honda has a p/u, all bets are off....

[Jack U.]

That's more of a goal and not a plan

Not that I have a plan either.....

Back in the early 1960's, there was only "the big three", a miniscule amount of european imports, and gas was cheap.

I'm more inclined to agree with the assessment of Dave Hill made in July and partially reprinted in the NOV/DEC 2005 "America's Sports Car" magazine by the NCM. ("Key to Corvette's Success") It's a model worth expanding upon.

With the number of what was previously seen as imports being made in the U.S. now, it is exponentially more difficult to compete today.