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amit · 21st April 2006, 07:27

CNN reports on the marginally better performance from GM in the first quarter this year although I don't think they can sustain that. New SUV's have been recieved well the company says but I say it's just the honeymoon phase that every new product enjoys for a while. And with soaring gas prices, it's not going to be long before these gas guzzlers start sitting on dealer lots again.

I don't see GM recoevering until they change their way of doing business. Forget Japanese, GM's cars don't come even close to korean ones. Fit and finish is atrocious, panel gaps are huge and uneven, engines are all outdated and old and frankly the american's have no engineering capablities. GM is still pushing 4 speed automatics and are very proud of that and issue full page adverts on their innovative 4 speed automatics. Come on the competition has moved on, VW gives 6 speed automatics standard now. There is no passion or pride in the products they make. All they seem to be interested in is in holding onto their no. 1 position. Isn't it ironic that the best cars under the GM umbrella are not made by them. Optra, Aveo are from Daewoo , 9-3, 9-5 are made by SAAB for example.

The question is what do the highly paid workers at GM do? They have strangely high pay packets, health care, pensions and what not and they still don't have pride in the company they work for and show no passion towards at least assembling and building cars correctly. Until GM addresses it's high labour issues, they will keep zooming towards bankcruptcy.

When GM announced the closure of some 15-16 plants including Canadian plants at Oshawa, CTV did a segment on workers at the Oshawa plant. They spoke to this guy who works at that plant and all he does is wait for cars to get assembled and after the final quality approval, his job is to drive the cars from the factory to the parking lot for new cars within the plant. Guess how much he makes doing this? CAD 65,000 a year! I tried to corelate his earnings with the responsiblity his job has and I couldn't see anyone with his level of responsiblity getting that kind of money. Think about it, what reponsiblity does he have? The guy has 3 cars (all GM ones at employee prices), a big house and even a boat! Needless to add, he wants his sons to work for GM too. How long can a company surivive giving that kind of pay checks?

21st April 2006, 07:27	#6 (permalink)
amit Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Mumbai Posts: 2,336	CNN reports on the marginally better performance from GM in the first quarter this year although I don't think they can sustain that. New SUV's have been recieved well the company says but I say it's just the honeymoon phase that every new product enjoys for a while. And with soaring gas prices, it's not going to be long before these gas guzzlers start sitting on dealer lots again. I don't see GM recoevering until they change their way of doing business. Forget Japanese, GM's cars don't come even close to korean ones. Fit and finish is atrocious, panel gaps are huge and uneven, engines are all outdated and old and frankly the american's have no engineering capablities. GM is still pushing 4 speed automatics and are very proud of that and issue full page adverts on their innovative 4 speed automatics. Come on the competition has moved on, VW gives 6 speed automatics standard now. There is no passion or pride in the products they make. All they seem to be interested in is in holding onto their no. 1 position. Isn't it ironic that the best cars under the GM umbrella are not made by them. Optra, Aveo are from Daewoo , 9-3, 9-5 are made by SAAB for example. The question is what do the highly paid workers at GM do? They have strangely high pay packets, health care, pensions and what not and they still don't have pride in the company they work for and show no passion towards at least assembling and building cars correctly. Until GM addresses it's high labour issues, they will keep zooming towards bankcruptcy. When GM announced the closure of some 15-16 plants including Canadian plants at Oshawa, CTV did a segment on workers at the Oshawa plant. They spoke to this guy who works at that plant and all he does is wait for cars to get assembled and after the final quality approval, his job is to drive the cars from the factory to the parking lot for new cars within the plant. Guess how much he makes doing this? CAD 65,000 a year! I tried to corelate his earnings with the responsiblity his job has and I couldn't see anyone with his level of responsiblity getting that kind of money. Think about it, what reponsiblity does he have? The guy has 3 cars (all GM ones at employee prices), a big house and even a boat! Needless to add, he wants his sons to work for GM too. How long can a company surivive giving that kind of pay checks? __________________ Some people drive cars. I drive the Palio. Last edited by amit : 21st April 2006 at 07:31.