Do Your Part, Help Save The Big 3

I had the same experience looking for a truck a few years ago. All I wanted was a work package 1/2 ton with a 5.3 and a manual transmission, and a few other things that were on the option list. I went to 3-4 different dealers, and no one would order me one. "Oh, we've got lots of 4x4s, and automatics on the lot ..." FFS, when the dealers won't even sell cars ... yeah, time for new management.


As for 'helping to save the Big 3', I'd amend that to just 'help save GM'. Ford's probably fine and supposedly Chrysler is okay too. GM has shafted consumers for the last 20-30 years and it sounds like, from what Wagoner was spewing in front of Congress, that he still hasn't figured out that they, not the market, screwed up. I wouldn't consider buying a new GM vehicle until Wagoner and the UAW are gone, and they purge their dealer network of idiots.

Yup, GM didn't police their dealers or hold them to a code of conduct. They need to flush the entire company (as in rinse out with great torrents of figurative water, as opposed to "down the toilet") and then chop about 6000 of their 7000 dealers. Honda has about 1000 US dealers. Toyota has, IIRC, about 1500. The remaining dealers need to be few enough in number that they are easy for corporate to police but numerous enough that they have to fight over every customer. They also need to say "screw you Detroit" and move their HQ to some place that isn't in the "rah rah American carz are da best you betcha" belt so they can *really* see what people want, what people are *really* buying, and be able to hear real criticism of their products.
 
They need to flush the entire company (as in rinse out with great torrents of figurative water, as opposed to "down the toilet") and then chop about 6000 of their 7000 dealers. Honda has about 1000 US dealers. Toyota has, IIRC, about 1500... They also need to say "screw you Detroit" and move their HQ to some place that isn't in the "rah rah American carz are da best you betcha".

There are about 5-10 GM, or GM brand dealers within 20 miles of my house. You're exactly right.

As far as relocation of HQ, how about a place of progress, Silicon Valley??
 
There are about 5-10 GM, or GM brand dealers within 20 miles of my house. You're exactly right.

As far as relocation of HQ, how about a place of progress, Silicon Valley??

With California's prohibitive business taxes? That's not a great idea. Besides, even leaving that out, putting it in SV means that all GM would make would be Prius clones and that's no good either.

I'm not suggesting Texas, before you ask. The business climate is good, but we buy a lot of trucks and we need to get them out of the habit of relying on those. They should, however, move their truck design center here.

Maybe follow VW and Nissan and move to Tennessee? The best of their US plants is there, it's an open shop/right to work state, and the locals buy a mix of everything.
 
Yup, GM didn't police their dealers or hold them to a code of conduct. They need to flush the entire company (as in rinse out with great torrents of figurative water, as opposed to "down the toilet") and then chop about 6000 of their 7000 dealers. Honda has about 1000 US dealers. Toyota has, IIRC, about 1500. The remaining dealers need to be few enough in number that they are easy for corporate to police but numerous enough that they have to fight over every customer. They also need to say "screw you Detroit" and move their HQ to some place that isn't in the "rah rah American carz are da best you betcha" belt so they can *really* see what people want, what people are *really* buying, and be able to hear real criticism of their products.

Agreed. I know that in my house in Sacramento, there are at least 10 chevy dealers within 50 miles of my house, and at least that many ford and chryslers too.
 
I wonder how much I could pick up a Solstice for next June...
 
I wonder how much I could pick up a Solstice for next June...
A dealer would probably go down on you just for getting it off the lot.

So, the more everyone talks about these millions of jobs being lost, and the more I hear about excess baggage that GM has (dealers, workers, etc.)...

The GM bubble. It's aburstin'.

Most of these jobs that are going to be lost, in all reality, should have never even been jobs in the first place. Just add this "bubble" to the list of other bubbles that just burst this past quarter (financial market, gas, etc.).
 
Most of those jobs are held by long-time UAW workers that should have been replaced by automation years ago; said people are usually *proud* of the fact that they're too dumb to retrain and didn't jump at the buyout offers in the last couple of years.
 
Most of those jobs are held by long-time UAW workers that should have been replaced by automation years ago; said people are usually *proud* of the fact that they're too dumb to retrain and didn't jump at the buyout offers in the last couple of years.
I actually got really confused when I first read about the jobs bank once upon a time. These are people they're paying because they couldn't retrain them into other jobs? How fucked up is that? ANY other company, and they would have been like "you are no longer useful to us, here's some money, go away" OR "you are more useful to us in this position, here's some money, go do that instead".

GM has basically been rewarding ineptitude and a lack of foresight for years now, and now what a surprise, it wants us to do the same for it.
 
Well, remember, the only reason there is a Jobs Bank is because that was the only way that GM could get the UAW to accept *any* automation - to guarantee pay and employment to someone who had been replaced by a robot, or surplussed through market reasons.
 
That was my point, albeit not very well made. These people are so useless to the company that they're being paid simply to exist. You'll notice that while everyone is harping about these "millions of jobs" that will supposedly be lost, nobody is defending the Jobs Bank, which will displace tens of thousands of people once it goes away.
 
Personally, I think they should just shut down GM USA for a couple of years, relocate everything to the South, tell the unions where they can go, build new plants and then reopen. In the meantime, get Congress to waive the long testing process and fill the showrooms with rebadged Euro and Aussie product.

If that screws the union employees and the North, so be it. They should have thought of that when they were loosely screwing my former Jeep together. The union droids thought that the day of reckoning would never come - well, guess what, it's HEEEEEEEE-RRRREEEEEE!
 
2007 Saab 9-3 Aero...

Oh wait that is made by GM. Love GM. I hope GM makes it. It sucks that they have all these good products, but because they made shit in the past (even I will admit that) and because the World Economy is messed up right now they might not make it to 2009. (That of course is my own opinion, you can hate GM, what ever)
 
I like how the current Camry and Accord look. :dunno:

Well, I'm not entirely sure if you guys get the same cars as us. I know the Euro-Accord is 10x better then the fugly thing we're stuck with.

I also think Toyota and Honda might be becoming complacent with their success. They're no longer the bullet proof reliable cars (and trucks) that they once were.
 
I also think Toyota and Honda might be becoming complacent with their success. They're no longer the bullet proof reliable cars (and trucks) that they once were.
I'm not going to be an apologist for them about this, but part of that could have to do with increased safety and emissions regulations, and just putting more shit in the car in general as time goes on. The old Honda Civic's circa MCMLXXXVII were as bulletproof as they were because there were only nine moving parts to them.
 
Well, I'm not entirely sure if you guys get the same cars as us. I know the Euro-Accord is 10x better then the fugly thing we're stuck with.

I also think Toyota and Honda might be becoming complacent with their success. They're no longer the bullet proof reliable cars (and trucks) that they once were.


I sort of agree with you on the quality issue, newer Hondas have been having issues with the paint. Even the new ones are bad, the paint started peeling off the bumper of my mum's new Accord.

Their warranty service was good, they acknowledged it was a cock up and fixed it for free. Something GM is exactly well known for.. :lol:
 
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