GM to cut 30,000 Jobs & Close several NA Plants

Because I run two or three cars, A luxury car, a sporty convertible and one for my wife. besides I want to, and I can ;)

Do you own research, I don't do home work for my own grand children what make you think I will do yours. I suggest you subscribe to Automotive News, like I do, if you want to know what goes on in the automotive world..

mike

Just as I thought - you don't have any. You're a fraud.

I think you have completely ruined your credibility to argue for domestic car quality, at least for the longer-term aspect of quality.

As you claimed to buy a new vehicle every year, and own three cars, that means that on average you keep your car for only 3 years! Assuming average driving milage, you just sell your vehicles whithin GM/FORD/Chrysler typical warranty period, or shortly after it expires.

And this within warranty period experience of yours is supossed to be the basis of your argument that domestic manufacturers quality is equal to imports?

I think with these experiences you're just unqualified to argue this topic, and definetely not to Subaru owners (and other import owners) who frequently tend to keep their cars for many many years, and view quality in both the short-term perspective and long-term perspective (100k + miles).

For you quality does not matter after only 3 years of ownership!

MN

Off hand I would think you would care. When I worked production in a similar business I figured out there were 2 overhead folks for every actual producing worker. Most of them were paid more as managers, engineers and sales people. Then I learned about he outside the plant peripheral effects. For instance I used to read Backpacker religiously but I dropped it 10 years ago because I could not afford it. Folks like you seem to forget that the high standard of living we had was because of the low end workers getting it so everyone else did. Now the mantra is that they don't deserve it. Soon no one will deserve it as no one left working will be worthy of benefits.

You are obviously new to this group.

Hi,

I wouldn't say unqualified, instead I'd say his comments are very qualified! They're qualified by the time period he keeps his cars, and HIS expectations of what quality is, a very subjective issue at best.

For example, IF he EXPECTS trouble within the three years he's likely to keep a vehicle (which, sadly, so many of my GM owner friends DO), and NOTHING goes wrong, the vehicle is of high quality. To him. OTOH, unless he drives these cars literally 24/7, I seriously doubt he can add any worthwhile data points at 150k, 200k, 250k, even 300k miles and beyond. Nor can many GM owners I know relative to the number of Toyota, Honda and Subie owners who can. To those of us who have cars with that kind of mileage, quality takes on a completely different face: what's the cost, in money and down time, of keeping a car on the road that long? To me, overall dollar cost/mile is a strong indicator of "quality." For others, it's a moot point. The leather, the fantastic sound system, the "prestige" (whatever that means to them) are, for their purposes, definitive of "quality." What's the ol' saying, "One man's junk is another man's treasure."

Don't get me wrong: my family was "all GM, all the time" for MANY years. But when they were starting to have trouble at 50k and beyond, while their neighbors with Toyotas, Hondas and such were going two and three times that long without trouble, they started scratching their heads and going, "Hmmm..." Today there's not a GM vehicle in the family. There have been Hondas, Nissans, Toyotas and Subies. Nissan's the only "didn't go back and probably won't" Japanese make so far. And I seriously doubt any of the family would ever buy another GM product.

But competition's good for the species: without the Japanese influence, we wouldn't have GM vehicles that can now at least make 100k miles with relatively little drama. GM's quality HAS improved some over the last decade or so. Still, as they say, it takes a lifetime to build a reputation but only minutes to lose it, and GM's screwed the pooch with too many former owners, so they won't come back. And IMHO they don't quite build a car that appeals to the guy who's looking at a Honda or Toyota, so there's another sale lost. Then we look in the paper to see rebates of up to several thousand dollars. Constantly. What's that tell us? I don't know about the rest of you, but to me a "rebate" is an out and out admission the product was seriously overpriced to start with. Doesn't matter what it is. With cars, it's even worse IMO, since car dealers and manufacturers have been suspect for years as it is--how many other products does one EXPECT to haggle over price on like we do cars?

So, while for MY purposes I think GM makes garbage, and perhaps many here share my thoughts, people like Mike keep 'em in business cuz they serve HIS needs and meet HIS expectations. Good for them! We just have to realize Mike speaks for himself, not the vast owner base of GM products, and remember NO car is perfect. So his comments ARE very qualified!

Rick

Yeah, you are right.

In addition to what you write below, there is also a group of people who change cars every 3-4 years 36k-50k miles, or so.

See, I have been living in the Western US., for so long, I totally forgot that some well-to-do folks in the rust belt, or pot-hole ridden places, like Chicago, change their cars frequently because of generally quicker deterioration due to bad roads and bad weather (bad roads are also weather related).

Many frequently park their cars in front of various city dwellings (high-rises etc.) where they sit exposed to the elements, get dented in crowded urban conditions, and are constantly driven on terrible inner city roads, and therefore deteriorate very fast no matter whether import or domestic.

Who wants to drive that 3year old dented Buick, or Lexus, whose suspension is shot, exterior lost its shine, and the body is beginning to show rust around the numerous scratches etc. I suspect it makes more sense under these conditions to buy a cheaper domestic car like for example a Crown Victoria, than to pay for the Avalon; both will do the job splendidly.

MN

Alas - a rational thought.

You hit the nail right on the head with that last line. In most cases, it's not at all a matter of if the car is holding up, or fit and finish, or any of the other attempts to justify preference for one brand over another, as much as it is the very subjective perspective of what quality is defined as. That subjective perspective distorts vision and it's what allows others to see GM cars as rust buckets with weekly trips to the dealer for repairs while seeing Toyota products as supreemly reliable, trouble free cars for life.

My perspective is that the GM line offers some extreemely high values for the dollar. I keep my cars for an average of 200,000 - 250,000 miles. That's typically 8-10 years. I live in the Northeast so rust is a concern for all cars - no matter what the brand. Anyone who believes a Subaru or a Toyota will not rust out as fast as a Buick in upstate NY is fooling themselves. The cars are their own testimony to what salt does and it affects them all. This is not to say they're rust buckets though. My cars look as good as any typical 4 year old car when I get rid of them. I wax them once or twice a year... or every two years - to say, I don't spend inordinant amounts of time on this stuff. The paint looks as good as any other car out there at the end of it's life. All of the manufacturers use the same paints and techniques, so it is really silly when some suggest a Subaru's paint looks better after 200,000 miles.

As for cost of ownership - I do all of my own repairs so I have an excellent handle on what lasts and what does not. GM's will cost you a wheel bearing every few years. They will cost you an alternator a couple of times over a

200,000 mile lifetime. They will cost you a fuel tank and a sender unit (this one is a sore spot to me) once within their lifetime. My expectation for a car is 250,000 miles. I expect the engine to hold up and perform in such a way as to feel almost new at that point in its life. I expect the interior trim to remain intact and only show some signs of use wear at that point. I expect suspensions to only suffer an occasional ball joint replacement, shock replacement or tie rod end at that point in it's life. I expect the transmission to hold up without a flaw and still shift positively at that point. Every Buick I've ever owned has met these expectations.

I do believe you are mistaken above though, with respect to GM owners and high mileage. Agreed that many, if not most owners of new GM's may not keep their cars to 100,000 miles, but those cars do recirculate in the economy. Look around again and see all of the 100,000 - 250,000 mile GM's that are on the road. I'm not saying there are more than other brands, I'm saying that the cars do run that long and they are there on the road right next to you.

There was a time... but I contend that that time is long past.

Ahhh - we converge. Agreed.

Don't know about your area, but where I live the imports play the same incentive games. It's a car dealer/manufacturer thing. 0% interest, rebates, free cases of beer for life...

Or because GM really does make a better car now than what your experiences in the past have caused you to believe they would make. Like you said - ruin a name and it's very hard to re-establish it. Is it possible that once you decided that GM had hit the bottom of the barrel in quality (and they did), that you never really saw the quality that is there today? I've owned Toyota, Subaru, Mazda and some others over the years. Most all were good cars in their own way. Some had some real design issues - not unlike the claims against GM products. The only point that tends to aggrivate me is when GM takes a hit from folks who sing the praises of Toyota or Honda or whatever, and they so conveniently overlook the cost of ownership in those cars. Many of the repair items I spoke of above reoccur within these brands just as frequently as they do within the GM family. Cost of repair is certainly no less for these brands, often more due to rates at the dealerships.

Well, I think Mike does probably speak for the vast majority of GM owners to some degree. Most GM owners are not first time GM buyers. They must like what they purchase or they would go somewhere else.

Today I own both import and GM. Unless they stop selling the style of car I want, I will probably continue to own GM. There are a lot of voices out there who decry GM and have never owned more than one car, yet they shout from the rooftops as if they were expert. Well - such is life, but it really pays to measure specifics when comparing vehicles and not rely totally on the subjective.

On Sun 27 Nov 2005 05:23:21p, doug responds to Mike Hunter's

It varies. Some European stuff is atrocious. Others have been very good.

I agree with you on styling of the Hondas and Toyotas, but being an engineer for me styling follows function. If the function isn't there I'm not interested in even a test drive. The NA car companies go in cycles, unfortunately Chrysler now has nothing to replace my '95 Concord. Since it runs beautifully I can wait it out for a while, even though I'm quite capable financially of buying anytime. I don't even like the styling of the Chrysler 300 and from two weeks driving a rental I know I don't like driving it. However I wouldn't even take a 300 test drive because 25 years of FWD have convinced me that's what I want to stick with.

I'm in agreement with you here as well, but face the facts that GM is putting the company ahead of the workers. GM is closing NA plants while importing more and more GM branded foreign built cars.

FYI I won't buy a foreign built car branded by a the big 3. My reason is the quickness then can discontinue that importing and leave one stranded with an orphan vehicle. It's happened before. If I buy an import it will be from a foreign car company importing their own product.

I'm sure you do but management have not been designing and building the cars many people want. I know GM is trying to upgrade their designs now, but it's coming a bit late.

Yes the equivalent foreign cars have been much higher priced, that is why I have stuck to Chrysler's NA built cars since '79. Now that price difference is disappearing. For example the Chrysler 300 is just as expensive as the equivalent from Toyota. Just compare the Avalon to the 300.

Is that a Toyota car I see as #1 car and Honda as #2!

Most Toyotas and Hondas are not imports.

Many "foreign" vehicles built in the USA are exported around the world. See BMW in Greenvile, SC and Mercedes in the next state south.

GM has started selling Korean built cars. Cars from China next. I won't be a buyer as I'll try to buy a NAFTA built car, which includes most Toyota, Honda, Nissan, VW, etc.

Of course the dealer experience is related to the dealerships sales attitude. Here one BIG company owner owns several car dealerships. He started with GM Chev and is now into "foreign" makes. From my horrible experiences of a few visits to his Chev dealerships I will not enter a dealership he owns. These dealerships won't even stock the deal car packages GM occasionally advertises. The last time I went there they immediately tried to push me into a more upscale and expensive car than I wanted. I left and eventually bought Chrysler, then reported my experience to GM. However I'm sure this very powerful dealer chain is still practicing the same customer imitation practices.

I've dealt with a few of our Chrysler dealerships over the years, only one which is now out of business has not been enjoyable.

Ford is actually coming into my look at list, with their interesting new variety of cars which are the result of their Volvo and Mazda relationships. Don't count Ford out, they are trying very hard to update their designs.

Yes the VW engine in our first two Horizons weren't so good,Chrysler stood behind the valve seal problems. The Chrysler 2.2 & 2.5 L 4s we had later were very good. However the Chrysler 4 spd manual transmission that they brought out with their 4 cyl were a horror story. Their lack of maintenance people who understood a 4 spd transmission added to my problems. I found I couldn't even discuss my problems with the maintenance supervisors, they didn't understand. Fortunately they stood behind it and after many fixes by the one mechanic they had who understood the transmission, they completely replaced the transmission innards two years later. If I wasn't very patient I'd have traded it right away for a "foreign" car.