GM Bailout Plan

[Duke41]

Originally Posted by Mr. Sandman

IMO the quality of similar priced cars is roughly the same these days. I am 52 and owned both Fords (3 explorers), a few GMs (chevy(3), cadi(3), GMC yukon xl(2)) toyotas (land cruiser(3), seinna(3) minivans), volvos(2), saabs(1) and a mg (1). IMO in general quality has improved nearly every year some more than others but in general they are all very reliable and far better than in the 70's. In my experience it is more expensive to repair foreign cars than domestic and I have had slightly more problems with foreign cars but the worst being volvo (pre ford), but never had any super-major problems with any of them.

Holy cow I am 47 and am on my 4th car in 22 years.

[Swimmer]

Originally Posted by Duke41

Holy cow I am 47 and am on my 4th car in 22 years.

I'm 57 and have had four cars since I was 24. One vette, it sucked. One GM van, what a fishing wagon. One f-250, what a tank, and a ranger. Sandman must be on more mailing lists than Carter has liver pills. A good resource though.

[Joe]

Had a used 78 Grenada - worst car ever. Died of engine failure. Never would buy an American car after that. One time, I went out once with this bitchy girl who told me that my car, "Made a statement about me." I told her her fat as_ made one about her.

Had a used 78 Toyoata Corrolla that I bought for $500. Good car. I had that from 1986-1990, sold it to an immigrant with 120,000 miles on it and would see it on the road as late as 1998

Had a 89 Toyota Standard (what they called the Tacoma later on) Pick Up - that I bought as a leftover, new in 1990, for $8,000
I had that until until 2003 - it had 217,000 miles on it when I sold it. Great truck.

I have a Honda Element now - but I don't go anywhere.

[TheSpecialist]

As for the unions, I don't blame them for holding their ground as any concessions they make now will open the door for more concessions in the future. Problem is there will be no future for them if they don't drop their pants now and go into survival mode.

SO what are the CEO, Cfo, and every other management type going to concede?

It seems to me that without the autoworker you have no product to sell.

Who needs all the upper, and midlevel management?

What they need to do is structure new contracts to get away from pensions funded by the company, and go to soley 401k's with corporate match for any new employee, and give a cashout incentive to current employees to leave the pension now.

Why does everyone want to stick it to the working people all of the time? They didn't ruin the company, the people at the top did, they agreed to everything the unions asked for.

While the companies' efforts are aimed primarily at appeasing lawmakers and overcoming bailout fatigue among many Republicans and some Democrats, the managers are also sending a signal to the United Auto Workers union. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said recently that the union would consider new concessions to save the industry but only if other parties share in the sacrifices.

It seems that the Union is willing to make some concessions as long as management does the same..



http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...TO01/812040373


Here is some interesting stuff to chew on..

http://www.uaw.org/auto/12_02_08auto1.cfm

[Mr. Sandman]

I am including my wife's vehicles too. I also had a live in nanny for 10 years when the kids were young and had to buy them a car and leased that thing for 2.5-3 years. (minivans).

[Back Beach]

Originally Posted by TheSpecialist

SO what are the CEO, Cfo, and every other management type going to concede?

It seems to me that without the autoworker you have no product to sell.

Who needs all the upper, and midlevel management?

They should be the first to go, IMO. Its proven they can't run the company.
Ford did get a bit ahead of the curve by selling off some assets and raising cash in anticipation of tightening competition and slowing economy.They seem to be in the best shape of the three.
GM, heretofore known as "THE BLOB", did what blobs do best....nothing.

You want to read a good story about large scale corporate turnarounds, get "Who says elephants can't dance" by Lou Gerstner. Its about another "BLOB"(IBM) that got its head out of its ass and changed for the better. Should be required reading for the fools in management at the big three.