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

If you are going to call me a liar, you might at least make a feeble attempt to check my facts. Even a polite request for a reference would save you the embarrassment of my (once again) proving that you are blowing smoke.

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:rAtnUeuBs3oJ:

Big 3 fleet sales hid October retail collapse, helped to keep domestics afloat MARY CONNELLY | Automotive News Posted Date: 11/15/05

"GM's fleet sales generated 33.5 percent of its total October volume, up from 25.8 percent for the period a year earlier. Ford Motor's fleets also accounted for 33 percent of October sales, up from 24 percent a year earlier."

Honda, Toyota Sales Up; GM, Ford Sales Slide

By Dee-Ann Durbin AP

03/02/06 7:38 AM PT

"Paul Ballew, GM's executive director of market and industry analysis, said GM was pleased with its performance because it relied less heavily on incentives and fleet sales than in the past. Ballew said GM's incentive spending was down US$1,000 per vehicle from last February, while sales to corporate and government fleets fell to 25 percent of overall sales, down from 30 percent a year ago."

Feb. Sales: Chrysler, Japanese Strong GM and Ford slip slightly as sales stay flat. by Joseph Szczesny (2006-03-06)

"Ford, meanwhile, was forced to use fleet sales to prop up their February sales totals. GM and Ford also disclosed plans for modest cuts in production during the second quarter. George Pipas, Ford's sales analyst, said Wednesday fleet sales accounted for more than 40 percent of the company's sales total for February, surprising analysts monitoring the company's monthly sales call."

It is not the fule price that is going up It is the price of the dollar going down You will notice the price of hamburgers and houses as well as anything else costing more dollars It is called inflation and is caused by the government printing too many paper slips to pay for wars You might need to get wheelbarrows to pay for your hamburgers soon The fall of GM is just one of many signs

If you will take the time to actually read what you post you would realize when you said 25% of GM car sales are fleet purchases, you were incorrect. Since you obviously knew what you posted was not correct, that makes what you posted a lie. I was being kind when I called it a 'story' GM or any other manufacture would love to sell 25% of their cars to ANY one type of buyer. ;)

mike hunt

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:rAtnUeuBs3oJ:

You have a rather convoluted understanding of inflation, it appears. During the Carter years the inflation rate was as high as 16% and GM did not go our of business. During WWII inflation was well over 100% and GM did not go our of business, although the same car they sold in 1947, that they sold in 1941 went up from $700 to $1,800. ;)

The Toyopet I bought in around 1957 cost me $600, today the shipping cost is more than that and Toyota is still here and growing.

mike hunt

I could not agree with you more

Mike Hunter wrote:

I always try to be factual. ;)

mike hunt

What school of economics did you graduate from?

Newsflash! Oil prices are rising worldwide and that affects everyone on the planet.

You might consider the competition for petroleum and related products as the main driving force for rising prices.

Sheeeesh!

JT

That's funny, coming from "Mike Hunt" the bald-faced liar.

It appears to me that his evidence proves his claim. Stop being a stupid, top-posting asshole and show EXACTLY where he is wrong instead of just ranting-away at the top.

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:rAtnUeuBs3oJ:

>

That's OK dizzy AKA Moron, Idiot, Stupid, Troll etc we did not expect you to find the discrepancy between what he posted and the actual facts. LOL

mike hunt

"dizzy AKA Mor>

What you write is simply not true. In fact it is utterly absurd. I've pointed this out to you in the past and I wish you would make an effort to understand it. Go look in the Consumer Reports owner surveys and you will find that, for example, the failure (problem) rate for a five year old Lexus (that is, in it's fifth year) is about 22 failures per 100 vehicles (a Lexus owner has a 1 in 5 chance of having a problem in year 5, on average). That is for just year 5, not a total of 5 years. Very different. For Mercedes Benz and Cadillac the failure rate is about 105 failures per 100 vehicles. The Merc and caddy owner has a 1 in 1 chance of having a problem during year

5, on average. Pretty bad for high priced spreads. The overall average failure rate for all cars during year five is about 75 failures per 100 vehicles. So the Lexus guy is much better off than the average, while the Caddy and Merc owners are significantly more likely to have trouble.

How you got a failure rate of 2% in five years is a profound mystery and something that is simply unbelievable. Even if you claimed it was a 2% annual failure rate that is still ridiculously low. Even Japanese cars do not do that well. My GM Yukon XL had at least five failures in five years, or a 100% chance of a single failure each year, on average. (Pretty close to what CR reports for year 5, actually.)

Mikey has never let truth and the real world intrude on his fantasies and he supports GM and company, never.

The devil is in the details Charles. The word "failure" is where Mike tends to leverage his position. His leaky intake gaskets didn't cause him to be stranded without a car, so it wasn't a failure. Likewise with the wheel bearings that wore out in less than 40,000 miles. Or the heater control resistor pack. He either drives through the problems, never having them fixed, or he gets rid of the car and lets the new owner deal with it. He's already told us how many cars he's owned and how often he turns them over so it only stands to reason that he's never "experienced" the "failures".

What make you believe the 2% failure rate is my opinion? What would make you think it applies to every single copy of any model? It is the RATE of failures, per hundred vehicles, as indicated in most every survey reported in automotive industry publications Those that take surveys never quantify problems in any event. If one wants to know the severity of type of the failures you need to pay them a fee to get that detailed information.

The majority of my vehicles are 'turned over,' as you call it, to members of my family or sold to friends. Most accumulate a lot of mileage before they are sold off again.

mike hunt

He's

No wonder you are confused, you need to go back to mathematics 101 and learn what is the AVERAGE failure rate when a survey shows the number of failures reported for all vehicles was 133 per 100 vehicles LOL

mike hunt

Obviously Gosi went to a good one.

Yes everyone is affected, but the USA more than many other countries. Oil is priced in USA $s. Time to look outside the USA.

Since the USA $ has been going down compared to most other western countries, gasoline in the USA has increased a higher % than in many other countries.

Many other products the USA imports from Asia are from countries that tie their money to the USA $. So the USA sees no price change due to the dropping USA $ from these countries, but many other countries have seen a drop in product prices from these countries, due to the dropping USA $.

There is no shortage of oil, there is the fear of a shortage and the main problem in NA is a shortage of refineries.

Oil will soon be priced in Euros The dollar is losing China has USA by the balls

Or an excess of demand.

As for there being a real shortage of refinery capacity in NA, I have heard it both ways. If NA refineries are all running flat out, wouldn't that tend to depress the price of oil compared to what it would be if we had more capacity?

How much refined petroleum do we import into NA?

Actually, the Chinese banking system has the integrity of a house of cards in that China is fostering a weak currency to keep its products price low. Sooner or later, something is going to give...

JT

Gosi wrote:

There IS a shortage of oil and it will get even worst in the next

10 years. Every day, thousands of new cars are sold in China and India. Those people that are buying those new cars in China and India have never before owned a car. That means that China and India will be buying thousands of barrels of oil every day. In other words, the oil now in ground will be used at an even faster rate than any of the experts predicted that it would be used.