http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/050414/323/fgdmn.html

I didnt know GM was under federal watch for one of their units. It also stated that they paid ahead just to make wall street earnings marks. Hello? Isnt that like selling the chicken to buy more eggs?

 

GM is in bad shape right now. i have read things on Forbes.com that they are talking about filing chapter 11 bankruptcy and and thinking about doing away with pontiac or buick. they have also moved all their bonds to junk bonds and their investors are loosing money. GM is so far in debt that is owes double its worth in loans to creditors. if something does not happen fast its not going to be good for them and the people that work for them.

 

I have some Ford shares and they are dropping since I got them three years ago. Not looking good for the American auto makers.

 

Just exactly what did the big three auto makers expect?????
They are probably getting what they deserve. I base this comment on my own experience with dealships and problems I've had with them. I mean you can tell them about a problem with your vechicle and they just blow me off with excuses without fixing the problems. It's as though they wanted this to happen.
Well they got it........now they just have to live with it.

 

Everyone remember it's the Big 2- Chrysler's a division of the largest Corporation in Europe, and depends on the Daimler part of the Daimler-Chrysler equation for it's finances. GM and Fords stock charts both suck, and the bond story...from Bloomberg:

"Bonds sold by General Motors and Ford already yield more than the average junk bond, according to Merrill Lynch & Co. data. Should both companies lose their investment-grade credit ratings, they would add $80 billion to high-yield markets, equivalent to about 12 percent of Merrill's U.S. High Yield Master II Index. The increase may force yields higher on other junk bonds as investors seek compensation for increased risk."

 

This is just the final evidence of what some people have known for nearly a decade- GM is a money loosing interest. 1996 was the last year that the great mistake company's Electro Motive Division released an earnings report, and has been speculated as being the last year that division was profitable. GM is currently battling it out in China with the Chery auto co, who they used to be in with. The infused Deawoo with tons of cash after that company's American venture failed, they dump tons of money annually in the direction of Suzuki, they have killed all of Saab's uniqueness, and are working away at Subaru as well. They just settled a lawsuit with Fiat, because they didn't have the spare cash laying around anymore to complete their commitment. They can't even produce an acceptable OHC v6, so they used a Honda engine in the Saturn Vue. The Corvette is just about the only vehicle that has it's own platform, nearly all the cars from all the GM companies are off the Epsilon platform now. With that sort of corporate approach, they might as well take the bowties off and label them all "car", model number 1, 2,3, etc, just like they did with Saturn.

 

How can they be profitable when the unions are strangling them? The cost for medical coverage alone, for employees and retirees is over $1,500 per vehicle. When did it become a right to get health coverage? If you aim at your own foot, and hit it, you get what you deserve. Only when employers cease to provide health care, will people start using it more wisely. Maybe then they'd actually eat better and exercise. Sorry to get off topic.

 

Please give me the name of the union boss that held the gun to Rick Wagoner's head and forced him to sign that "awful" labor agreement. I'm not a huge fan of unions, but it is NOT their fault that health care costs are so high. 21st-century Corporate America Mangement seems to live by the rule that, if there's a problem, it must have been caused by ANYONE other than that person that stares back at you in the mirror every morning.

 

its not just the american made dealerships its all of them. i worked for a caddy nissan dealer and the nissan end of things was the same as any american car dealership, people not happy about their car not being fixed, screwing people over on deals when selling a car (i heard one sales mand say he buried the people so deep in that car they wount get out of it for 15 years), plus the quality is not as good as it use to be on the forgin cars. what the forgin car market did was build their name up and now they can lower quality and reap the bennifits from it now. i have a friend that has a nissan and at 50,000 miles it need a new trans, 55,000 needed a new battery and alt, from there it has started nickel and diming him to death, he has even replaced the wiring harnessess on the head lights 2 times. meanwhile i have a 1997 F150 with over 82,000 miles on it now and it still has the original belt, hoses and till just about a month ago it had the original battery in it. all i got to do to the thing is maintain it and drive it. i think the american car market has stepped up their quality and are ready to play the game now.



BUY AMERICAN MADE!!! Its helping to support your fellow americans and their families!!!

 

Totally agree, never did like ricers and now even less when our car/truck makers(including Ford) are having a tuffer time of it. There are lots of reasons for the tuff times but the ricers don`t help one bit! I am with Ford and always will be, my toys were built by Ford years ago when Honda/Toyota were spining out ashtrays!Hate to think some poor soul is going to restore a ricer some day!

 

If it weren't for the foriegn makes, we wouldn't be where we are, for better or for worse. Show me an early 70's American car that got good gas mileage, was fun to drive, looked decent, had good fit and finish, and lasted for 150k with no major problems. The Japanese built a car that ran very well, and the Germans built a car that had incredible fit and finish. If the American companies would have acted faster, then the foreign makes wouldn't have made the inroads they did. But instead, they waited until the 80's to make a move, and paid for it. By then, Japanese and German quality had improved even further, Americans were used to seeing them around, and started buying more. The first round of true compact cars from the "big three" was dismal- you had the Cavalier, an ugly little underpowered car that rotted out within five years; the K Car series, with similar issues, plus an engine that sounded like a blender full of rocks; and the Escort, which was a bit better, but only because a lot of it's design was from Europe, and used a lot of help from Cosworth on the engine design. These competed against Toyota's Corolla, Nissan's Sentra and Stanza, Honda's Civic and Accord, VW's Rabbit, and various other models from Mitsu, Subaru, Saab, and a handful of other makes.
Now that we are finally nailing cars together properly, with drivetrains that can handle more miles, we have a new group of Korean cars to deal with. How do the odds look now?

 

im gonna be mad if chevy goes under, i like chevy, plus we need good compettition!

 

There were no great cars in the dark ages of the 70`s period! The 70`s Japanese cars were total rust buckets where I live so if you want to compare this era of cars they were not so great. Japanese had their own problems, major parts of the bodies would disappear. Most of the German cars(except for the 64 VW that almost broke me!) were way too expensive for my income but they were well built.The Korean manufactures may have much cheaper labour and taxes, most likely without health care, and other benefits so that is a major concern for us and possibly the Japanese in the future. Makes for interesting and troubled times ahead no doubt! I can hardly wait to see what happens next.

 

its because of the forgin car market that we are insuch bad shape that we are in!!! then you talk to people about it and they say its a global economy. the so called "global economy" has done nothing but hurt the united states and the work force here. for once i would like to se one of the forgin car supporters go and say something to a U.S. auto worker about how great their forgin car is. i would not be surprised if he or she hauled off and hit you. my grandfather worked at ford for 41 years and they made all forgin cars park at the back of the lot here at the sharronville trans plant, and that was a good three quarter to one mile walk to the shop entrance from there, and if they did not park them in the back then they would do things to them like flatten all the tires on the car and so on. a guy the other day asked me what i thought about the nissan titan truck, i told him i think that every one of them should be drove off a cliff and the dealership bombed along with every other forgin car maker not owned but a U.S. company. the U.S. needs to reform NAFTA and start keeping our jobs here.

 

Ok, let me rephrase:
American carmaker sat and watched while these funky little Japanese cars came into the country. A few people bought them, carmakers thought they were a fad, so they did nothing. They kept lining their pockets producing crap, while the foreign makes improved, until they were obviously outclassed. Since then, it's been a game of catch-up, with many wrong turns.
Another major factor also related to the 70's/80's fallout is that the last generation bought American cars, and remember the problems they had. Now they are telling their kids not to buy this car because of this, that they should buy a Toyota or a Honda, etc.