Big 3 aim to make vehicles hold their value better

If they want them to hold value better, they had better make them better. The publics bullshit coefficient is used up. No more of the talkie talkie for GM and Ford, they have to do the walkie walkie. Personally, it will take ten years of superb performance for me to even walk into a GM or Ford showroom again.

Understand, and agree. I would truly like to be able to buy from the Big 3, but the time is not yet

I'm not ready to completely walk away from GM yet, though that's a bit easier to say since I'm not in the market for a car right now. If I were, it's possible I would look elsewhere. What I'd like to see is for GM to simply put the product out there, and forget any of the slick campaigns like Ford did with the Job 1 marketing campaign, which was pure bull. It's going to take GM a while to design and tool up for a truly better quality off the production line, but in the mean time I'd like to see a much more responsive GM to the kinds of problems that have plagued owners for the past decade. A company that openly stands behind such things as intake gaskets, power window motors, etc. Once it starts to cost GM to stand behind their products with no hassle to the consumer, I believe they'll find the ways to improve that quality off the line. They might have to cut some executive positions to fund such a move, but... oh well...

Well, Mike, I read a newsbit yesterday that did not encourage me. It was talking about the companies trying to improve customer interest and sales with new 'designs'.

To me this is not an issue of new sheet metal, new upholstery, and new electrical gadgets. It is not about new SUVs, or crap of that type.

I want a new outlook on quality and support.

Amen, amen.

No wonder you don't know about the newest stuff for GM and Ford, that those that own them say they are great vehicles. IE the Silverado beat out the Tundra for MT 2007 truck of the year. The Camry got car of the year, but the Fusion and Milan that were new in 2006 and not eligible to be considered as car of the year for 2007, beat out the Camry and the Accord in several of the 2006 owner surveys in including CR. CR also pointed out the V6 Fusion costs thousand less than a 4 cy Camry. Perhaps if you drove and priced some of what GM and Ford have to offer today you might have a different opinion. I would certainly not base my opinion of any domestic or foreign car sold today, on the domestic or foreign cars I owed in the seventies, that's for sure ;)

mike

Dead on. I have always been quite happy with GM designs. I could always find a model that I like the look and feel of, so it's not a sheetmetal design issue for me. As you say, it is all about outlook and quality and support. GM to me mean has always meant you pay a little more and you get a lot more. But then again - I remember Body By Fisher. I have painfully acknowledged that this is all more reputation than reality these days.

Quality is something you can't talk about and make it happen. You can't market it and make it happen. It has to be there, pure and simple. Then you can talk about it and market it.

Me thinks some of you are confusing the word 'design' with.'styling.' The latest Silverado, like the F150 a few years ago was, is an all new 'design' from the ground up, but the F150 had been restyled. The trucks of today ride and handle better than many cars of just a few years ago and some even get better fuel mileage How many over 300 HP cars can get 30 MPG ?

mike

We are indeed using the term interchangeably Mike. In some sentences we use the term to refer to styling (the artistic sense) and in others we use it to refer to the engineering. Both senses of the term apply, but I agree that it probably makes a conversation a bit convoluted to use the same term in different ways. Point taken - I'll try to remember to use the term "styling" when referring to the artistic aspect.