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Tone · 11-21-2008, 10:14 PM

Generalizations still contain a nugget of truth.

GM workers may not actually "make" $75 per hour, but the point is that GM's labour costs are too high and its contract with the UAW makes it very difficult to shed labour costs when business slows down (i.e. job banks).

When people say GM doesn't make the cars "people want" ... sure GM sells a lot of cars. It also still sells a lot of cars at significant discounts; only in a few cases does it produce "gotta have" cars that can command a premium in their segments. Nor is is nimble enough to quickly respond to rapidly shifting markets. So, it makes more cars than everybody else ... and still doesn't turn a profit.

Yes, the true story is more nuanced than that, but it's up to GM to get that story across and they are doing a pretty poor job of making a case for themselves from what I've seen so far.

11-21-2008, 10:14 PM	#32 (permalink)
Tone 3.6 Liter SIDI V6 Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: The Great White North Posts: 1,236	Re: Tired of Mass Media Misinformation... Generalizations still contain a nugget of truth. GM workers may not actually "make" $75 per hour, but the point is that GM's labour costs are too high and its contract with the UAW makes it very difficult to shed labour costs when business slows down (i.e. job banks). When people say GM doesn't make the cars "people want" ... sure GM sells a lot of cars. It also still sells a lot of cars at significant discounts; only in a few cases does it produce "gotta have" cars that can command a premium in their segments. Nor is is nimble enough to quickly respond to rapidly shifting markets. So, it makes more cars than everybody else ... and still doesn't turn a profit. Yes, the true story is more nuanced than that, but it's up to GM to get that story across and they are doing a pretty poor job of making a case for themselves from what I've seen so far.