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

[n5hsr]

Howard,
Great post. Do you know whether or not GM places engines made in Japan in
some of their vehicles? I once purchased a mini-pick up (RAM 50) with the
word DODGE written on the outside of it. However, it had an engine that
had the word MITSUBISDHI written on top of the engine. Does GM do this
same sort of thing?
Jason

Yes, at one point there were Chevrolets that were rebadged Isuzus in the
truck division. Dodge was selling rebadged Mitzubishis as far back as
1979. Ever heard of a Dodge Colt?

Charles of Schaumburg

 

[Grumpy AuContraire]

If you are saying that GM circa 2016 will still exist in the same way as
which AT&T still exists in 2006 then you might be on to something.

SBC bought the struggling remains of AT&T and chose to rename itself
AT&T due to the higher consumer brand recognition for the AT&T name.

John

Bingo!

JT

 

[Grumpy AuContraire]

The last thing you would buy GM for is the name and reputation

Howard

ROFLMAO!!!

Well, maybe if one is into recurring nightmares...

JT

 

[Grumpy AuContraire]

AT&T still exists. Its long distance and some other operations exist
under SBC management (who also took on the AT&T name). Its cell phone
business now exists as part of Cingular. Its two cable companies ...
lost track of who has all that now. Its NCR division now operates
profitably.

Eastern Airlines and Pan Am became part of ... again I forgot who
took them over. TWA - did that become part of American? TWA's St
Louis hub - did that become an American Airlines hub? So yes, if a
company is only its management, then you are right - none of them
exist. But those companies still exist as part of other companies -
and that is my point. Why are those operations successful again?
Because the only reason for failure - bad management - was replaced.
Look at GM to discover a same problem.

Wrong! EAstern and Pan Am were liquidated.

 

[Grumpy AuContraire]

My dad worked for W. T. Grant shortly before I was born and predicted its
demise after he left their employ because of their overextending of credit.
Lo and behold, when I was 19 W. T. Grant went out of business because it had
overextended credit. . . . I predicted that eventually the corporate
attitudes of Kmart would cause it to fail in 1981. Well, where is Kmart
today?

Charles of Schaumburg

There is a "slimmed down" version of K-Mart but they sure closed a ton
of stores (as did WT Grant at first). They totally pulled out from
here, (Austin, TX), about four years ago by closing a half dozen stores.

My view is that the whole country is living in a house of cards of
overextended credit and sooner or later, it's all going to collapse.
Those of us who have no debt will probably survive OK but the
remainder... Will probably be screwed.

JT

 

[rantonrave]

One of the Japanese car companies might buy the stuggling remains of GM
and keep making the best selling models--however, those cars will have the
same sorts of engines that they use in their Japanese cars. In other
words, the same sort of thing that happened to Chrysler MAY happen to GM.

It made sense for Damlier to do that because they produced no
lower-priced models, but the Japanese car makers already have several
models that compete with those from GM. So I say only smaller Japanese
car makers that have little market recognition in the US or that don't
have a full line of models will consider taking over GM, but I still
don't rule out a takeover by parts maker Magna Int. or Hyundai.

 

[Mike Hunter]

The irony is that Cingular is now part of the new AT&T LOL


mike

 

[Paul Elliot]

Yes, my 2004 Saturn Vue has a Honda-Acura 3.5l V-6. Great engine. The GM
engine that it replaced was not all that bad, but the Honda engine is
smoother and puts out 50 more hp.

Howard,
Great post. Do you know whether or not GM places engines made in Japan in
some of their vehicles? I once purchased a mini-pick up (RAM 50) with the
word DODGE written on the outside of it. However, it had an engine that
had the word MITSUBISDHI written on top of the engine. Does GM do this
same sort of thing?
Jason

--
PC Paul
89 PC800
77 R100RS

Trip pics at: http://photos.yahoo.com/paul1cart

"To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to
society" - Theodore Roosevelt

 

[Grumpy AuContraire]

It made sense for Damlier to do that because they produced no
lower-priced models, but the Japanese car makers already have several
models that compete with those from GM. So I say only smaller Japanese
car makers that have little market recognition in the US or that don't
have a full line of models will consider taking over GM, but I still
don't rule out a takeover by parts maker Magna Int. or Hyundai.

I would see a big obstacle with a Asian automaker purchasing the
assets/liabilities of GM based on fixed union contracts. The whole
culture on how Asian businesses operate flies in the face of such a takeover.

JT

 

[Grumpy AuContraire]

Cingular is 60% owned by SBC (er, the "new" at&t) and 40% by Southern
Bell which incidentally is the "new" at&t's next target for acquisition.
The deal should be completed by the end of the year.

JT

 

[Jason]

I would see a big obstacle with a Asian automaker purchasing the
assets/liabilities of GM based on fixed union contracts. The whole
culture on how Asian businesses operate flies in the face of such a takeover.

JT

JT,
They would probably close down all of those factories and lay-off all of
the workers. They would build factories in foreign countries such as
Mexico--I think that GM already does that. I know for a fact that lots of
cars are manufactured
in Mexico. The car companies do it due to avoid paying "union" wages.
Jason

 

[Jeff]

nor is the sun renewable

But solar energy is considered renewable, because you can get more tomorrow
without additonal resources.

I was speaking of building more nuclear plants and having them charge cars
on the grid overnight.

Excellent idea. Unfortunately, even with nuclear power, there are no free
watts availble in the power grid.

Jeff

 

[Charles U' Farley]

What the heck are you talking about (in the realm of auto sales)?

None of the brands that are seriously kicking Big-three butt are made in
"low wage" countries. The Japanese brands are mostly made in the U.S. or in
Japan where prevailing wages (high) are paid. The European brands are (with
the exception of VW which does manufacture a good part of it's U.S.offerings
in Mexico) made in the U.S. or in Europe where prevailing wages (in Europe
mostly BIG wages/benefits) are paid.

The single notable exception is the few Korean brands and even they are
building plants in the U.S. where UAW-level wages are paid.

GM's problem is too much capacity, largely mediocre designs of mediocre
reliability, too high legacy costs, costly UAW contracts (beyond the wage
package), and huge legacy costs. You can argue that the loss of market share
and excess capacity result is partially as a result of very capable
competition, but the rest is all self-inflicted.

You also need to remember that all those successful import brands are
involved in spirited competition, not just against our Big Three, but
against each other. If anything, more so, because while a Toyota customer
will not likely consider a US branded car, he will consider a Nissan or a
Honda or a Subaru or a Euro import if he wants to spend too much.

 

[Jeff]

You can hear the president of GM on public radio's "Market Place" program on
many public radio programs, airdate: 4/5/06.

The program should be available on 4/6/06 at www.soundmoney.org. Click on
the marketplace tab.

Jeff

 

[Eugene Nine]

What the heck are you talking about (in the realm of auto sales)?

None of the brands that are seriously kicking Big-three butt are made in
"low wage" countries. The Japanese brands are mostly made in the U.S. or
in Japan where prevailing wages (high) are paid. The European brands are
(with the exception of VW which does manufacture a good part of it's
U.S.offerings in Mexico) made in the U.S. or in Europe where prevailing
wages (in Europe mostly BIG wages/benefits) are paid.

The single notable exception is the few Korean brands and even they are
building plants in the U.S. where UAW-level wages are paid.

Your thinking making and slapping parts together is all it takes. There is
so much behind the scenes stuff that goes on for even the simplest product.
Market research, design, testing, supplier management, project management,
etc. Then you add in all the levels of management, HR, Accounting,
payroll, etc you have more behind the scenes jobs as the assembly plants.
Those jobs are higher skill and in the US higher pay, but not in the other
countries. When all of those jobs are outside the US and the corporate
headquarters is outside the US they save so much they can afford to overpay
the assembly line workers.
So many people are blind to the rest of the world and believe the "made in
the US" marketing from those brands without knowing how small a part of
"made" there really is.

 

[rantonrave]

(e-mail address removed) wrote:

I would see a big obstacle with a Asian automaker purchasing the
assets/liabilities of GM based on fixed union contracts. The whole
culture on how Asian businesses operate flies in the face of such a takeover.

So does a corporate chairman named "Carlos," but that worked out well
for Nissan.

I doubt that any takeover of GM will be a hostile one because GM is
simply too weak to fight.

 

[R Sweeney]

But solar energy is considered renewable, because you can get more
tomorrow without additonal resources.


Excellent idea. Unfortunately, even with nuclear power, there are no free
watts availble in the power grid.

Jeff

actually there are discount watts available on the grid at night

nuclear power remains the lowest generation price per kw-hr of all power
generation

but they don't like to be throttled up and down, so that limits their
usefulness during the day. But, if the night base load can be increased by
hungry cars, those extra nuclear kw could be very cheap and many many
nuclear plants can be build to take over both a higher percent of the day
load AND charge cars at night.

 

[Grumpy AuContraire]

JT,
They would probably close down all of those factories and lay-off all of
the workers. They would build factories in foreign countries such as
Mexico--I think that GM already does that. I know for a fact that lots of
cars are manufactured
in Mexico. The car companies do it due to avoid paying "union" wages.
Jason

If a takeover were to occur, that's probably the route that they would
take. OTOH, GM's current selections are not all that popular so why buy
a failed operation?

JT

 

[Grumpy AuContraire]

So does a corporate chairman named "Carlos," but that worked out well
for Nissan.

I doubt that any takeover of GM will be a hostile one because GM is
simply too weak to fight.

GM is like the ugly girl who broke (on every attempt to have fitted) the
magic glass slipper...

<G>

JT

 

[Jason]

If a takeover were to occur, that's probably the route that they would
take. OTOH, GM's current selections are not all that popular so why buy
a failed operation?

JT

JT,
Good point. Probably for the same reasons that the owners of Mercedes
purchased the Chryler corp. They continued to make the best selling
vehicles such as Jeep
and the full sized pick-ups. They stopped making the worst selling vehicles.
Jason