How to fix General Motors

[amit]

Came across this article on rediff.com. How many of you agree to what some people have said about GM's turn around?

[islero]

Guess Bob Lutz hasnt quite done that great a job.


I just hope they dont go the way MG-Rover went.

[speedzak]

Please stop giving us daewoos named as Chevrolets. We need a proper Chevy. (Original)

[satish_appasani]

Close all their factories in US and move to Asia. They can export the trucks and SUVs to US. That way they save billions of money that is paid towards workers pensions and health plans.

Saw a few videos on Chevy Cobalt that is in the same market as Civic. It looks good.

[paharino1]

On a trip to the US recently....saw that GM has started coming up with 1-2 page ads on " What are we doing " - & they talk a lot about Hybrids, Fuel Efficient Cars....etc...

Too late to join the Japanese party..maybe ????

[amit]

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 Fit and finish is atrocious, panel gaps are huge and uneven, engines are all outdated and old and frankly the american's have no engineering capablities.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?

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by amit

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?

Wow, I wanna work for GM too

[amit]

Wow, I wanna work for GM too

Get in line buddy! I wanna work for GM too!

[sajo]

They should really get rid of their antiquated pushrod engine lineup. Even the new Impala gets an "all new" 3.5 L V6, which, ofcourse , is still a pushrod. Their High Output engines like the 3.9L V6 produce 240 HP.
6.2 L V8 in the Escalade (guess what, pushrod again!)?? They are going to need another war for even more oil.

[amit]

They should really get rid of their antiquated pushrod engine lineup.

You hit the nail on the head with that one. All their engines are big capacity ones with pathetic hp. God knows what they do with all that capacity. Like you said, the so called high output 3.9l V6 has only 240hp. Compare that with the Acura TL which has a 3.2L V6 with 258hp or the new VW Passat with 3.6L V6 with 280hp.

Their all new 2007 Cadalliac Escalade has a 6.0L V8 with 345hp mated to a 4 speed Automatic! This is Cadalliac we are talking about that competes with Mercedes and BMW. Compare that to the new M class which has a 7 speed Automatic.

[sajo]

Originally Posted by amit

Their all new 2007 Cadalliac Escalade has a 6.0L V8 with 345hp mated to a 4 speed Automatic! This is Cadalliac we are talking about that competes with Mercedes and BMW. Compare that to the new M class which has a 7 speed Automatic.

That was the older one I think. As if 6.0 L wasnt enough, they gave it 6.2 and more power (400HP). The transmission me thinks has been changed to a six speed auto.
Have you seen the interiors of the earlier unit? Exactly the same mould as the Tahoe/Silverado,i.e., equally cheap looking. Atleast they have improved upon that one in the 2007 model.