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Don't know if any of you caught this but here is something for you to read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/bu...s.html?_r=3&hp
tl;dr
GM to axe saturn, Hummer, and Saab (preferably seeling the latter two) slim pontiac, run only GMC, Chevy, Caddy, and Buick.
Update:
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/02/18/b...le-operations/
Goodbye High Performance Vehicle Operations; hello toyota mode...
Welcome to the age of soulless/boring cars. Abominations. The early 80s without cult classic followings.
I said they needed to do this 3 months ago before the bailout. I'll find the thread later
So? They would have still been in the shitter and still needed bailout money.Quote:
Originally Posted by Atmosfear
For the record it's not much of a loss except for the V-series Cadillacs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tekk
Also, it doesn't mean that these programs will never be brought back, they just can't afford to run them right now.
I personally think this is a great idea because these projects don't bring in enough money to be cost-effective. Besides, I don't think of a Cobalt SS when I think of High Performance Vehicles anyways. It's a decent car, but it is far from High Performance.
Also, I agree with these choices because GM is in dire straits and to continue on projects that are failing to bring in money would be to breach the trust of the American Government and doom the company. This is one of the better paths GM has taken since its conception and I for one am interested to see if they can dig themselves out of this hole.
It should have been part of the bailout and Pontiac should've gone out the door, too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Killuminati
not pontiac!
oddly enough, three of five of my immediate family members have a pontiac something
i am also pretty sure that, in spite of the huge GM plant in Oshawa, not one of the models was actually manufactured there
except maybe the grand prix
That's funny. Three of five people in my town work for Pontiac. Or did, before the plant shut down. =(Quote:
Originally Posted by coqauvin
yeah this year they tore down the old plant they decomissioned a couple years ago, oh, they also completely closed one of the production lines (which was roughly half of the operation), and also cut out a shift.
Now Oshawa is flooded with underqualified, overpayed unskilled labourers who can no longer afford their ridiculous $25/hr lifestyle
thank god i'm in nova scotia
Also, the truth of the matter is that it's too little too late and GM needed help from the government in order to shed the union power that is making it impossible for them to compete.
Jesus Christ if there is an American industry losing to a foreign competitor I bet there is a union to blame (see also: Boeing)
that is the case in oshawa, i believe
i mean it sounds cold, but the union is part of the problem here. it is one thing to demand that level of pay, so long as it is ultimately sustainable, but it wasn't
each was looking only to themself instead of ensuring mutual survival
The major issue with Unions is that their existence is only justified when their performance is superior to the performance of non-unionized workers. The classic example of a quality union is IBEW, because they've protected themselves by ensuring union electricians are the top-notch electricians in an area. Paying the premium for IBEW means a better service.
UAW plants are less productive than their non-unionized counterparts, and the quality of their products is either identical or worse than the products of non-union plants. It's a union that exists solely on its lobbying power, which is just bullshit.
Same goes for fucking pilots.
see that's what i wanted to say
Unions are horribly outdated and no longer necessary.
Pretty much whats been stated here I agree with. I hate to see the performance aspect of autos be diminished at all, but its got to happen so the company stays around.
Should be interesting to see what happens. I had said this same predicament would happen, that they needed to consolidate a while back too. I said keep Chevy, Caddy, Buick, call the rest quits. Drop the sports cars from all except the Corvette (I'm partial to it since that was my first car & project...) and the Camaro, (entry level sport coupe that was already engineered)
Oh well. At least Ford is repositioning itself nicely, and Chrysler MIGHT be able to pull its head out of its ass if it can put together some of Fiats cars, but more than likely the corp goes bankrupt and/or merges.
Hummer is a joke and has been since the H1 was discontinued. "Hey, I have an idea, let's put a H1-esque body on a Tahoe and call it the H2." Now we have numerous "Hummers" running the streets with none of the versatility/appeal o the original. As for the rest of GM, it too has become a joke. I worked at a Cadillac dealership as late as 2000 and watched the Escalade become a decent seller. A few years later I went to a car lot and found the Avalanche clones and now Caddy even has a station wagon. Granted, since the 70's many Cadillacs shared platforms with other GM products but (besides some failures like the Cimarron and Allante) the Cadillac name has almost always been associated with luxury V8 powered sedans and coupes. GMC is much the same way. "Professional Grade" has gone the way of the large Jimmys, and though I still like the newer pickups, an SUV like the Envoy or a station wagon...er, crossover...like the Acadia just does not invoke images of do-it-all toughness.
Chevrolet has always been the jack-of-all-trades, but GM seems to have turned all its divisions into clones of each other, rebadging what would have been a Chevy thirty years ago and raising the price. I mean, it was bad enough when you could buy a Pontiac 6000 that was a Chevy Celebrity at heart, or a GMC Jimmy that was an S10 Blazer without a bowtie.