GM to threaten Toyota? hah!

I stopped reading after "GM".

... Brad

 

True, but I sure hope GM succeeds. Competition means better products for us all.

 

I have never understood the posts which seem to relish the chance that one of the largest major manufacturers of automobiles in the United States would simply go out of business and relinquish yet more manufacturing, high level decisions, and jobs to foreign countries. Perhaps we could contract with Toyota of Japan to build our next generation battle tank...

Sure GM made missteps in predicting the future as it pertains to the price of fuel and such. If the price of oil was around $30/bbl or so I wonder how popular the Prius and other small autos would be today. Not very I trust. GM rolled the dice and lost, Toyota won. But to say one can predict the long term price of oil or any such commodity would be equivalent to predicting the nights lottery numbers. Think you can predict the price of oil tomorrow? Go ahead and put all your money into a hedge fund betting it will go up or go down. Few would do such a foolish thing.

I do support free trade but I also support the ability of Americans to manufacture and have Americans at the helm of domestic industry. But the government, both Republicans and Democrats alike, have hindered such growth of American industry with nonsensical regulations for wages, standards, taxes, creation of programs which discourage work such as welfare and such. One only needs to look as far as China to see how a largely hands off government can transform a poor agrarian economy into a manufacturing powerhouse within only a few decades.

Rick
#4 2006

 

I often find the posts from people that say it is so obvious that GM should just do X. Or GM is so dumb, why do they make so many SUV's? (because they make a ton of money on each one).

 

I agree with you. Not only better products for us, but better products from the USA to the rest of the world.

Just got back from the Detroit/Windsor, ON area and I must say looking at all those run down factories is pretty depressing, GM needs to make something revolutionary and create some new jobs. Not trying to be all nationalistic but even though we all drive Toyota's, I would be the first one in line to buy a reliable US-made vehicle that gets the same mpg and offers all the cool things the Prius does...:usa2:

 

Here's why: they were just so god damned arrogant about it.

 

The fundamental difference between GM and Toyota is "profit vs market share".
In the end, competition is good for consumer. Keep buying Toyota if you love it. No need to bash other brands to justify your decision.
A few months ago when I read an article by local news reporter who said to the effect that,
"Now that HD-DVD is gone. We shall see price drop on Blue-Ray DVD players and ...".
Yeah, right! Fat chance.

 

GM may have rolled the dice, but Toyota covered their bets. Toyota put themselves in a position to do well regardless of which way gas prices went. GM got greedy, put it all on one roll, and threw snake eyes. It's hard to feel sorry for them. Even so, I hope the U.S. auto industry can pull out of this dive before they run out of altitude.

As an aside, I may have set a new record for the number of metaphors in one post.

Tom

 

The threat comes from all the misinformation being spread.

That article is loaded with assumptions and confused facts.

It won't be long before consumers begin to feel overwhelmed, not having a clue what the different designs actually offer.

.

 

I see two fundamental differences between GM and Toyota.

GM is a fat cat on the decline with short-term investment approach

GM has to pay health insurance to its workers, Japanese manufacturers don't pay a single Yen to their workers. The Japanes government pays that.

 

I really wish GM had improved and actually released one of their hybrid versions based on the EV-1. They could be dominating the hybrid market. Every manufacturer in the world looked at the Prius as a huge risky gamble by Toyota, especially as they had to sell them at a loss for many years, so GM is not alone. VW should be chastised just as much for blowing off technology and not having a hybrid right now. Yes they have good diesels, but not the same (in terms of emission reductions) nor the same mpg potential with diesel alone.

We should all hope that the Volt works amazingly well, that its the start to a series of very successful high mpg or even all electric cars from GM, and that in 5 years they regain world's #1 manufacturer from it. Mr. Lutz seems to be coming around, but in 5 years he'll be on the golf course and I know there are many younger upcoming people at GM that will change the old guard over there.

 

I did reread your original post and I quote:

for someone who NOW claims to hope for the best at GM you have a presented your original views in a very strange fashion. Inflammatory, derogatory, and insulting at best. Whether or not you like GM's vision or quality, it is a fact that only until recently, GM for decades had the world's largest market share of vehicles manufactured. Yes, for all those "decades" they must have been doing something horribly wrong to be number one...;-)

I stand by my original post...

Rick
#4 2006

 

...and post my original standing.

 

I lived in Michigan most of my life. Bay City to be exact. Most of my uncles
and my grand father are retired from GM and have good pensions and
comfortable lives. They worked there during the good old days. My father
on the other hand was a restaurant owner. I lived a few blocks away from
a factory that did "power trains" if I remember the sign correctly. I also
worked in a GM cafeteria for a summer.

I grew up during a time when a restaurant owner did not dare drive a foreign
car to his business or he would lose many customers. I grew up during a time
when most cars in the city were Ford or GM and many people had older
pristine models in their garages for summer days.

It was the late 80s and early 90s when things started to change. I remember
so many Honda Civics popping up left and right. Toyotas all over. At some
point in time people got fed up with GM and Ford for their shoddy work-
manship, money saving tatics to cut costs, and all around poor vehicles.

It seems their last success was putting an SUV body on a truck frame and
slapping a large sticker price on it. Such folly in my mind and it worked short
term. Always short term thinking now days. Got to get that stock price up
without caring for long term advantages.

Arrogant is right. Riding a wave of success that was based on past history
and momentum built up from the glory days of having next to no real com-
petition.

Now here I am looking to buy a new car and GM and Ford were not even a
consideration. I really want nothing to do with them and I find it amazing
due to the range of vehicles they make that nothing fits what I wanted.

Along comes Toyota and they do have something that fits my needs. I do not
mind paying a bit more for quality, design, and thoughtful consideration of
todays car buyer's needs.

If I saw a sign of them improving I might buy some of their stock due to their
very normal habit of paying a dividend but i want to see a track record of
5 years of more of selling a successful hybrid before considering their vehicles.
Not even Honda's piqued my interest due to being late to the game.

Yes, i am rambling a lot but GM needs a very good hurting to be reborn
from their ashes. The whole company needs to be flipped upside down by
a CEO who is ruthless in his vision for the long term. Nothing less will save
them from becoming a 2nd rate company in my eyes.

hm. i hope i made sense and have the facts i used accurate.

 

Oil was cheap...now it's not. We ,(USA) should have invested long ago in alternative fuels and transportation methods. I lived through the 70's gas hikes and the sad fact is our own USA companies, (oil refinery) caused the increase in gas for all to share. That basically changed my opinion on "buy America" to "buy best product available"...well that along with the "k" car from Chrysler which was an atempt to rid Chrysler of old parts. Rarely will you find a original invention from an Asian populous, but they excel at taking the information available and perfecting the design and simplifying and organizing the mass production with high quality standards. I give you the Japanese auto industry.

 

Yeah, right. Wake up & smell the red ink. They BELIEVED they could make huge profits on each one. They BELIEVED the price of gas will decline. Perhaps they watched Peter Pan one too many times.

Now they should have enough unused capacity to build tanks & Humvees (on cost + contracts) for whatever nation is willing to pay for them.

 

Come on GM you've drug your heels far too long now, Y are you driving me to the competition, who won the war (WWII)