GM Dealer Challenges the Toyota Tundra's Ads... AS BULL

That is a common fault among manufactures who want to advertise high HP, but must spin their engines at high RPMs to attain that HP.. Torque is what gets you doing and keep you at speed on the grades. High winding engines develop their torque at too low an RPM. That is fine for an engine driving a manual tranny with lots of gears that take less HP to run than an automatic tranny. With a high winder engine one must rely on the torque converter and longer times in lower gears to get the lower end HP to the wheels.

If you thought the V6 was a dog, you would never want to drive a Camry in hilly country that has the four. The V6 does a better job than their underpowered 4cy, for a car that size. Lack of torque at the proper RPM becomes evident when one hits a grade, more so than when starting out, because the gearing and the torque converter does the job. At speed, if the driver does not floor the throttle soon enough to keep up the RPMs, the lack of torque will always leave him falling behind the pack.

Truck drivers call Camry drivers 'flatlanders.' People that live in flat country, that get in the trucks way on the grades, because the driver does not to know how to drive when they get in hilly country ;)

mike

You are kidding ,right? LOOK around, see WHO is using all those FORD trucks you see in every direction you look. LOL

mike

And the vast majority of these people don't need trucks any more than I need a truck.

Jeff

Greetings,

Sorry, but my Silverado is made in Indiana. And I've been in, under, around and through it and can't find much that is made in Mexico at all. Most of the parts that I can find with labels are US and Canadian. While GM does have some production and assembly in Mexico, it's not all or even most of what they build and sell. I'm sure someone here is resourceful enough to find out exactly how many are made in the US, Canada and Mexico as either a percentage of total production or overall numbers.

Cheers - Jonathan

I sold my '00 Maxima 5 speed b/c it had such pitiful torque at low revs. Compared to other manuals I've owned (and I've only nearly all manuals until recently) it was dog to drive and it was very easy to kill the motor. Wife and I both killed the motor from stop more than any car we ever drove. It would go like stink if you drove it like you were mad at it and revved it way up, and up hills ok, b/c the gearing was keeping the motor about 3k rpms, but fuel economy was not stellar. What did we replace it with? Sit down for this one, a '00 Olds Intrigue with the 3.5 DOHC (that was a painful discussion to a few uninformed and stubborns wasn't it?). The Olds 3.5 auto motor goes up hills like they are not even there! And I have yet to have it kick down a gear on a hill, and at moderate highway speeds 60-65 I got

33 - 32 mpg. Who needs a Camry? Oh yea, resale value. So I got my Olds for dirt cheap b/c of poor resale, poor me.

That torquey, smooth and rev happy 3.5 motor would have been DYNAMITE in the minivan and small truck, SUVs. Of course GM developed it for "Olds" only and then "discovered" it cost too much to produce. That my friends is pitiful project management and a waste of money. How many engines has GM designed and then dropped? (the Dual Twin Cam v6, Quad 4, 2.8, etc). Now they have the 3.6 DOHC, but its 7 years later and maybe too late.

D

GM seems to have a hard time developing a game plan which will renew their credibility. "Chasing rabbits", we might call it.

No doubt that GM could put out a stellar product line that people would want.

They just have a lot of problems to solve.

They must be selling something that buyer want to buy. GM is still number one in sales in the US. Millions more than any import. LOL

mike

That may be true, but they can't seem to make money selling them.

However the statement, that GM is not offering vehicle that buyer want to buy, is obviously not true based on its sales figure vis a v all other manufactures, foreign or domestic

Don't confuse profit with cost. GM makes a profit on every vehicle it sells, simply not enough to meet the current cost of doing business. It is costing GM billion to introduce all of it newest, and planed, vehicles. GM did make a profit in the fourth quarter and likely will in the first quarter as well. ;)

mike

Don't confuse wages with cost.

I get wages every month , simply not enough to meet the current cost of running the household. It is costing me a lot to introduce my youngest wife to the pleasures of life.

I did make a good profit > However the statement, that GM is not offering vehicle that buyer want to

Duh, when manufacturing a vehicle, labor costs are part of the build cost. What you are taking about are the maintenance cost of the 'product' you purchased. On might suggest you bought more 'product' than you income can 'maintain.' LOL

mike

Only a simpleton reckons profit in terms of "marginal cost to produce this vehicle". At present, GM is having trouble selling its vehicles PROFITABLY. They are not a low-cost manufacturer and they need high selling prices to stay alive. You've pointed out in the past, GM (and Ford) vehicles can be obtained for less cash than Toyota and Honda vehicles. But it doesn't cost GM (or Ford) less to build a car.

The market's judgement is that GM vehicles are not competitive with Toyota's vehicles, which is why they sell for so much less.

That may be your opinion and one is free to believe whatever they choose, and spend their money wherever they wish, but that does not change the fact more buyer continue to choose GM over any import brand. GM still sells more cars and far more trucks than does any Japanese manufacturer. The fact is, while it does cost more for the domestics to build vehicles in the US, because they pays higher wages, offers far better benefits and provides a pension plan and Japanese manufacturers do not, than it costs any Japanese manufacture to assemble cars and trucks in the US, the import buyers are willing to pay the Japanese manufacturers and dealers a higher profits to drive home their vehicles.

As one who formally purchased imports like Toyota and Honda, that says more about the buying prowess of the those who buy Japanese vehicles, than those who choose to buy vehicles for GM and Ford, than it does about the build qualities of the individual manufactures.

Since I switched back to domestic I have found they are just as good or better than the import I have owned. In addition I have been spending thousands less to buy the domestics I now drive. I am saving hundreds of dollars less, at the domestic dealerships, to have my cars serviced, than I was paying at foreign dealerships, as well. ;)

mike