VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION General Discussions What's next?

What will GM look like come Monday? Although I have driven many different vehicles, I've always been a true man. Maybe we should buy GM (the shares are just pennies) and produce hydrogen, electric and RETRO cars! :vcca:

It seems likely that Chevrolet and Cadillac are going to be the only brands left. That is the current trend in the industry. Toyota and Lexus, Nissan and Acura, Audi and Volkswagen, etc.

I like the retro comment. Most people identify with a tried and true style that has set it mark over the years.

Electric? I not so sure about that. We would have to depend on burning coal again. Ethanol, propane, or natural gas seems more likely to me. Then again, if we tap our own oil reserves we might be able to tell the Middle East to go take a hike!

I say work on the internal combustion engine unitl you find horsepower and great mpg's. These wiz kids today can make it happen!

This may be happening now, but if Detroit wants to get serious about the auto industry MIT and some of the other outstanding Collages should set up a think-tank engineering camp, and don't come out until they find an internal combustion engine that can get us though the next 40 to 80 years. Talk about retro, it would be sort of like the Manhatten Project of the 1940's.

As of Monday, GM will probably be called "Government Motors"....so at least they still get to keep the "GM" logo.

Mr. Dog, right on again!! Just heard on 9pm news, local station, calling it the Government Motors.

If we could just remove the "greed", what a great place this would be.

In 1973 when first gas crunch hit, Sen Howard Baker came on national news and stated that he had just looked at all the geological maps and that we had enough oil in the United States alone to keep us supplied for another 100 years.

The ol' combustion eng is still a great unit, but would like also to see it powered with natural gas. Ethanol too expensive to produce and lp-propane is by product of refining oil.

Gonna be interesting, to say the least, what happens in the next 5 years.

Jim.

Yep, greed and very bad management was part of the downfall of General Motors (Government Motors) and many other corporations around the country as well. With all of the greed now being promoted by Greedbay (eBay) they could be next.

Ethanol is garbage, and I would like to see that stuff go away completely.

Bankruptcy filed about an hour ago! Done like dinner.

Yep and GM Europe and GM Canada are doing just fine. Doesn't that tell ya something about the way we handle big greedy business here?

Germany sunk some money into Opel and GM of Canada has the parts business so they should be OK.

They say 60 to 90 day turn around until we see the New GM without Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer. Kinda surprised me to see that Buick stayed onboard, but it makes since to fill a middle nich. GMC of course keeps the truck only division. I'm still curious if Chevy will carry only light trucks while GMC handles the heavy ones.

The new guy "Fritz" said today that the Camaro and Malibu is currently Chevy's marketing draw and they are an insight to what is GM's future along with hybrid and electric vehicles.

Like you say, it's going to be an interesting summer!

All I know is at seventy-five cents a share it looks GREAT. Now is the time to buy! Look at GE WOW! BUY NOW

FYI Buick is one of the largest selling cars in China.

Also The big three have been involving all the major engineering universities on projects for grants for many years. When my son was looking at Penn State and Virgina Tech they were both boasting about a huge grant from GM to get 40 MPG on the Surburban, if you look at the new models the rake of the A pillar was reduced. They have been taping into that free think tank for years and they also use it t find the best new prospects. Most of the money problem with GM was with GMAC.
John

Ya, kinda sorta makes you wonder doesn't it? Since the Camaro (and Firebird for that matter) has been and is a marketing draw why did the CEO at the time and his greedy counterparts decide to get rid of the Camaro (and Firebird) in the first place? It was many stupid decisions like this (along with the greed and the egos) that led GM to where it is today.....no where!

They got rid of the line because it was not selling. If they were hitting the projected sales figure they would not have dropped them. The sucess of the retro design of Chrysler and Ford were the reason of bringing the Camaro line back. Lets face it is the Impala really and Impala? It is a small car by the Impala standards we have grown to know.
The Pontiac Solstice is a real cool looking car and if it were a Chevy they would be all over the place. That car was never marketed well at all. Shame on them....
John

Yep, GM discontinued the Camaro because, as they claim, it wasn't selling. That totally could be true, but there were thousands of those things sold up until 2003. Still see tons of them on the road. If the Camaro wasn't selling (or selling up to their expectations), do they really think that the new Camaro is going to outsell the last Camaro....especially the way the economy is today? It's probably too little too late.

The retro design of the Chrysler vehicles might have been the deciding factor in bringing back the Camaro......but.....retro design or not......Chrysler is also bankrupt, so it seems that their retro design didn't help them much. I really hope that the new Camaro is a big success....but we will have to wait and see.....especially since General Motors is now Government Motors and you know how the government runs things.

Yep, I agree.....shame on them.

The problems with General Motors and Chrysler are not so much with the vehicles that they make and sell but the cost to manufacture them. Basically they have ~30% higher cost due to inefficiencies, labor cost, retirement cost, guaranteed pay for those that don't even work and other costs. Essentially GM officials and the UAW negotiated themselves out of business.

The rest of the US is on course to do the same thing unless we all realize that labor is much less outside the USA and that is the true competition.

Great idea, lets just get rid of the middle class.
The labor cost of the car is only between 8-15% of the total cost. If the total labor package were $15 an hour do you think they would lower the price or increase the profit?
The money paid when they are not working comes from a fund that is part of the hourly package, part of that $48 an hour we hear of.
The root of the problem is that maybe doctors get paid too much, if they take a pay cut then medical insurance could drop and that part of the package could come down. But it is better to pick on the blue collar guy.
I am pretty sure the $100 a barrel of oil had an impact and then the market crash tearing up GMAC had much more to do with this problem then a known 6% annual labor increase
John

On my local news tonight along with the announcement that GM has filed bankrupt was the statement that the Australian branch (GMH) is fine and untroubled by the American troubles and thinking of an expansion as a result of the US downsizing.
Tony

Set aside the wages. I believe it is the work rules that runs the cost up. There are so many lines between job descriptions that make it take several different people to do what one well trained person could do. I have experienced it.

Everything said here is true and we all know it! So why wasn't anything done about ahead of time? Oboma Motors will not make it because the core issues and problems have all been retained! GM has not gone into bankruptcy, it was taken over. Unions now run it, Gov,owns it and WE all will pay for it. No expected reboot here!
I have several cars to restore and I am applying for my bailout now! HA...HA.

First it was General Motors. Next it was Generous Motors. And now it is Government Motors.

....and soon it will be Gone Motors.

Gone Motors.....man, that's a good one!

Actually, in between Generous Motors and Government Motors, wasn't it also Greed Motors?

Right again Mr. Dog. The only reason this country is in the shape today that it is, is purly greed!! This starts with the oil companies and spread like a disease. Have seen this happen since early 80's when Reagan introduced the "trickle down theory". Didn't work than and will not work now. Now the corporations and big business are taking advantage of the bad times by closing plants, laying off people whom they think are making too much, than opening plants elsewhere and hiring slave labor, but still charging mucho dinaro. We haven't hit bottom yet and it is not looking good for younger generation.

I wonder if the big boys and government have figured out yet that the poor and rich don't pay taxes and when they have finally stomped the middle class down, who is left to pay the taxes that runs this country. The money that they print won't be worth the paper it's printed on.

Jim.

Don't forget about the greed of the unions.

Oh man...I fell out of my chair this morning after reading the headlines that Hummer has been sold to a construction equipment company in CHINA!!!!!!!!!

That is the ultimate insult to the US auto industry! A Commie country buys us out...no doubt with freshly printed phony money.

Pack your bags boys, it's over. China will eventually own this Country and we will all be planting rice and paying them back with our labor. You need a job to pay your taxes? China will hire you! ...for 3 cents an hour!

Backroads,
The greed of the unions, you mean the people who brought EVERYONE such greedy things as a 40 hour week, overtime, minimum wage, pensions and medical insurance. Do you think if the cost of labor to build a vehicle was $3.00 and hour the price would reflect it? It is the greedy union who built your collector Chevrolets. I have never had a problem with any of my new cars that were related to the people who built it, but rather the people who designed it. It is a lot easier to say the blue collar guy makes too much. How come nobody ever says a doctor makes too much? After all if they were making less then medical insurance might be less, and then the hourly package would be less.......

John
PROUD TO BE A UNION MAN