GM cuts jobs and Truck/SUV production

This would be a great question for Malorn to answer.

I would speculate that a potential legal issue might be that the dealer has paid for a franchise which gives him/her the right to sell that brand exclusively in a territory. So, if you paid $$$ to sell Cadillacs in your area, and the dealer next door also a Cadillac dealer, you might not be happy about that.

 

Really? While clearly GM missed the boat, you can bet if they started making Prius knockoffs they'd be C&D'd. Even if it was just the drive train bits copied. Ford did a cross-license deal for the hybrid Escape -- basically an agreement not to sue each other over patents. Patents (plans?) are by design open, but that doesn't mean open source in the common, if mistaken, meaning.

Also, the success of the Prius is as much about Toyota's manufacturing technology as it is about hybrid engineering. As other's have pointed out in this thread GM just can't get a bunch of guys off in a corner and start building Volts. I read somewhere that Toyota had 7 refreshes of Camry in the same period that Taurus got refreshed once. That's wicked bad skillz among the metal bending set.

 

+1 . I have no doubt that GM will be able to build a working Volt and display it for the automotive press. I have some serious doubt that GM 3 years from now could build 100,000 of these a year and have them be as reliable as the Prius has been.

 

I bought my Prius in Febuary. A little history here, alot of my family worked for Oldsmobile. Needless to say, I have caught a little heck for buying "Jap". I have used the simple arguement that we (America) are busy building Hummers and Hemi's, while they (Japanese) are building cars people can actually afford to drive. I also pointed out that the problem is a mind set one. American auto manufacturers are so quick to blame the consumer rather than themselves, if one of the big 3 had built something that compared or better yet, beat the Prius, I'd have bought it. Needless to say, I can't park in my father in law's driveway, but I guess that's his problem, not mine. I wish the good old USA would pull it's head out and build a 100 mpg car. In WW2, the US always found a way to best every other country in the world technologically. What has happened?

 

It's sad to see things happen like this because it hurts the USA as a whole. Job loss, Housing crisis, And higher costs of food is not good right now. But being at war things like this can happen.

It's a chain of events, Gas and Diesel is at an all time high, So, We charge more for fuel surcharge to deliver your cars and all other goods to gain that money back. Then, Grocers in turn charge higher prices for food to get the money back they lost for fuel surcharge.

I've spent like $150 in gas the last month. it does not bother me because I can afford it, and I don't drive alot right now.

But, Now to be more on topic, GM is not the only company being affected by high gas prices. I'm sure Toyota, Ford, Dodge, Nissan are all being affected in a way with truck sales. I guess thats why Toyota is pushing it's Tundra so bad right now. Of course, The Tundra only gets 11/14 for mileages so it's awful. The Silverado gets 14/20.

But, With gas a little bit up in price you won't see a mad rush to buy newer technology cars. They carry a hefty price tag people don't want to spend.

 

Oh right. I used to have a 2000 GMC SIerra with the Vortec 5.3. Summer city driving, 10, winter city driving, 5 mpg. I usually got 16-18 mpg highway, I once got 23 driving at a leisurely 80 km/h

The mpg figures are Imperial gallon, not US gallon

So the new Silvo gets 14/20? Is that in neutral, downhill? Everybody I know with such a vehicle reports low teens AT BEST

Gas will keep going up. Given that a lot of folks have such long commutes, they are already finding out their monthly fuel bill far exceeds the payment on a new Prius

You can't have cheap credit forever. At a certain point, somebody demands payment. Now we're all paying for this bulls*** thanks to ignorant, greedy, selfish people

Ever been to Europe? Seen a huge number of fullsize pickups and suv's? Of course not, they have had the reality of high fuel prices for a long, long time. Unlike us, they don't piss and moan about it, having foreclosures, etc. They just deal with it and budget accordingly

 

another sad reality is the fact that denial is rampant among the lower efficient vehicle drivers out there. "Oh, my durango gets 20 MPG so it's not so bad". My new truck says is gets 21 MPG on the sticker as do all the ads for it". The claims are really quite funny.

to combat this now I just mention cost to drive X amount of miles. forget the MPG or EPA sticker or whatever. $25-30 fillups. $42 for a 600 mile trip. THAT gets people's attention.

 

I always get a giggle when folks tell me that. Only once have I had a Dodge Ram Hemi driver tell me that during one of my rare fueling stops.

I used to have a 2000 GMC Sierra and kept careful records, as I used it for business. City summer, 10 mpg. City winter, 5 mpg. Highway summer, 16. Highway winter, 12. That's Imperial gallon too, not US gallon. Co-workers with similar vehicles report similar mpg.

Yes, they want to delude themselves. I don't even bother getting into a discussion, if somebody is that brain damaged I just glare at them and then ignore them. It helps that I'm built like an ape, the shaved head and biker shades help a lot too

Keep in mind that when a suv or pickup driver makes some claim like "almost 20" or "bout 20," that covers a lot of integers. For example, 10 is "almost" 20

 

The sad thing is that people continue to pull numbers out of their arse when the numbers are easily available. It takes all of a couple of minutes to find the best mpg for the Tundra is 15/19 (17 combined) and the best for the Silverado is 15/20 (17 combined). Worst for Tundra is 13/17 (14 combined) and Silverado is 14/19 (16 combined). Fuel Economy

The reason why GM is getting hit harder than most companies and are having all of the layoffs is the bulk of the sales (and their focus) was on large gas guzzling vehicles. Most of the other companies had a healthier balance and aren't hit as hard. I have no sympathy for companies that buried their hands in the sand when almost all (if not all) indications were that gas would not be cheap forever. Not to mention convincing buyers they needed large vehicles and refuse to build quality small vehicles for years because "no one wants them." It does suck for the workers when the company they work for is shortsighted.

 

The legal obstacles of converting everyone to GM dealerships is huge. First you have to get the dealerships to agree to it, which isn't going to happen. Second, States have laws that regulate the distance between dealerships selling the same brand. The distance varies from state to state. So GM would need to get each state to change their laws or give GM an exemption.

Just an example, a local motorcycle dealership moved their shop 7 miles so that they could sell the Suzuki brand. Alabama requires 30 miles between dealerships selling the same brand.