As GM bets the Farm on the Volt, look what else they're doing

Excellent find. This one has another gem:

GM plans multi-million dollar refresh to truck lineup | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Well that sure puts CNW Marketing in a hurt locker.

Bob Wilson

 

In the thread the other day about the Detroit Auto Show and how everyone was touting smaller and greener, I said, I'll believe it when I see it.

Given GM's recent history, they are definently working under a microscope. Honestly I don't have any problem with GM selling some trucks, even SUV's. Toyota and Honda sell Tundra's and Pilots. However, as one of the first announced business moves coming out of GM it is disappointing that they seem so anxcious to try to get back to business as usual, which really hasn't been very succesful.

Unfortunately for GM there current marketing slogan may quickly become there epitaph. "May the Better Car Win". Well so far they already have and they aren't GM products.

 

The big, honking trucks and suv's are a cash cow for the American companies. They are dirt cheap to manufacture and can easily be sold for 40+ grand! A small car, let alone a hybrid or EV, costs just as much to build and must be sold with a far smaller profit margin. So of course they're gonna keep pumping these things out as long as they can!

 

Report: GM to shell out $1B to update Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra — Autoblog quotes the WSJ as saying the effort will cost $1 billion.

 

This time we won't bail them out.

RIP GM!

 

Well, I have doubts about the production costs, but the profit margins are definitely different. And as long as the CAFE standards allow such a huge loophole, the big vehicles will the big money-makers for the auto industry.

It's a good example of push cost off onto the consumer - the hidden cost in MPG tends to be ignored by buyers and glossed over by the salespeople.

 

The truck market in the US is huge and will remain so for some time. It's part of the traditional American psyche/culture, and fast becoming part of the Hispanic fabric as well (given how many contractors there are in that sub-market).

Ford is making a killing in this space. GM has no choice but to compete. Question is how well they will be able to. My bet stays w/ Ford, however, whose stock crossed $12/share this week.

 

Yes, of course that's the truth of old, but if they were so easy to sell GM wouldn't of gotten into trouble in the first place. I don't mind, and even admittedly think it wise for an automaker to have a diverse line-up of vehicles, but when almost EVERY vehicle in your line-up is a big honking truck or SUV and you haven't updated them in 3 years, don't start complaining that your business is failing.

 

I fear you are wrong about not bailing them out. The UAW is almost sacred to the democrats. No .... they will get whatever they want. Just look at the concessions the UAW won in the health debate.

 

When I look at the current full size GM pickups on dealer lots in disturbing large numbers, I see some real improvements over the generation before. GM has tried to maximize the useful amount of space allowed by the wheelbase and fuel economy is somewhat better (to me it still sucks). What direction will GM follow for the next generation of pickup; will they build a truely revolutiony pickup that gets great mpg and takes us to new levels of REAL WORLD usefullness and reliability, or will the fall into the gravity well macho bullshite and fantacy that every other manufacturer of pickups is now living in?

 

As much as I personally despise trucks and SUV's, I don't see a problem with GM continuing to make them from a business standpoint. In fact, I'd be surprised if they didn't. In fact, those vehicles are very profitable and that was the only thing keeping GM afloat for the last decade. The problem was their business was so inefficient that these vehicles were the only thing profitable enough to keep them afloat. So that meant they were dependent on selling lots of those types of vehicles to stay in business. So when gas prices fluctuated, they were in trouble. I would hope that they've learned their lesson and this time they'll hopefully try to have a more diverse product lineup that will be profitable in times of cheap and expensive gas. The volt should help with that. Even though they say the volt will not be profitable, I don't believe it. Toyota used to say the same thing about the Prius.

 

I looked the word "O X Y M O R O N" up in the ole Funk & Wagnals.....funny, that's one of the exact worded phrases they used.

 

Saw a hybrid Tahoe yesterday. Man, what a stupid looking beast.

 

I worked next to the sight of the 2008 Republican Convention. There, I saw a lot filled with them... probably about 40... all at once. That was the ultimate statement of misguided effort.
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Maybe I'm wrong, but isn't the viability of the truck business pretty much tied to the price of gas? If gas shoots back up to $4 a gallon, then GM won't be able to give away any of these newer 'prettier' trucks at any price. Otherwise, if gas stays relatatively low and given the fact that the current administration seems unwilling to raise CAFE standards, GM will make plenty of money on truck sales. Granted, it doesn't look like the US economy will be roaring back anytime soon - so it's questionable whether GM will be able to sell trucks at their prior market/economy crash high markups.

 

Well look what else GM have been upto over here in Europe. A diesel hybrid with rather amazing fuel consumption figures.

Concept cars | Cars | Vauxhall Motors UK

 

Heh, I gotta chuckle whenever someone, especially on the news programs, talks about "relatively low gas prices". It wasn't that long ago when gas was under $2, remember? A couple of oil guys in the WH, a couple of wars and a refinery socking hurricane later and we now readily accept $3 a gallon as low. Is oil any rarer now than it was before, harder to get? When something happens to drive gas to $4 or $5 the same story will unfold... lots of teeth gnashing and hand wringing for a while, then back to the big monsters, 'cause gas will be "relatively low" at $3.80! Where I live the roads and parking lots are full of brand new luxury trucks and suv's... excuse me, "crossovers", after the cash for clunkers deal this summer. I can count the Prii I see on any given day on one hand with fingers left over!

 

Well if you believe oil is a finite resource then one could argue it becomes rarer every day, every moment.

While I believe there are dubious mechanizations of global politics and economics that often result in the prices of the commodity being artificially high or artificially low, ultimately the truth is Oil and Gas as finite resources are never going to be cheaper. And that is if you just want to evaluate actual monetary cost. Factor in economic, social and technological dependency and enviromental impact of world wide useage and the "cost" of foreign oil and oil dependency as a whole goes way beyond what the price per barrel reads on the open market.