CNBC/ saving GM series premiers Aug 6

[tom3]

Just watched it. Two things stood out to me. The new Camaro has rubber mounted subframes. That's pretty impressive in a car like this, ride quality, lack of road noise, still decent handling without the harshness. And the Volt, to be produced in 2010, they say, at a price over $40 grand. That would surely eliminate 80% of the sales for a car in this segment I suspect. One of the biggest features of the Prius is the low price for such a ground breaking car. Waggoner makes $16 mil a year? Wow.

[Minnesota Nice]

Originally Posted by Hitman1970

Too much gloss. Not enough substance in my opinion. No questions about dealership network size or branding strategies either.

I agree. I felt it was a little too short and lacked substance as well, but you have to agree that, all in all, only those of us who REALLY know and care about GM get to the nitty-gritty of concerning ourselves with network size or brand strategy. That is, in fact, something GM needs work on, and we are right to point that out.

But for a program like this, for customers who, like the idiot woman who said "knobs falling off, bad quality, etc." about what she thought when she heard the name GM...the material covered was good enough.

I'd give it a B. Not an A because it was a bit short and not thick with material, and because it didnt mention small cars.

[I-Love-Pontiac]

Well they did a very god job at making it dramatic. I don't feel like I learned a lot though. This seemed more for people who are unfamiliar with GM.

$45k for the Volt was interesting... not in a good way. $15k for the battery is a lot better than I was expecting. I don't understand why the rest of the car would cost $30k though. I seriously hope the price to produce these cars goes down very quickly. From an interview with Bob he said the battery manufacturing process is almost entirely automatable, but they didn't actually have that kind of automation yet.

I hope they add some extra footage to their website. In the previews they showed Phil talking to Bob about the Aztek, but unless I missed it I dont think was in the actual program.

[Hitman1970]

Originally Posted by Minnesota Nice

I agree. I felt it was a little too short and lacked substance as well, but you have to agree that, all in all, only those of us who REALLY know and care about GM get to the nitty-gritty of concerning ourselves with network size or brand strategy. That is, in fact, something GM needs work on, and we are right to point that out.

But for a program like this, for customers who, like the idiot woman who said "knobs falling off, bad quality, etc." about what she thought when she heard the name GM...the material covered was good enough.

I'd give it a B. Not an A because it was a bit short and not thick with material, and because it didnt mention small cars.

I do agree with your assessment. My first impression is a classic internet over-negative critique.

GM would serve itself well by some hardcore marketing to women. Like it or not but for the majority of America, women have an awful lot of input on vehicle purchases in families. Almost all the women I know drive imports even when hubby drives a domestic.

[pwinskey]

Originally Posted by Minnesota Nice

I agree. I felt it was a little too short and lacked substance as well, but you have to agree that, all in all, only those of us who REALLY know and care about GM get to the nitty-gritty of concerning ourselves with network size or brand strategy. That is, in fact, something GM needs work on, and we are right to point that out.

But for a program like this, for customers who, like the idiot woman who said "knobs falling off, bad quality, etc." about what she thought when she heard the name GM...the material covered was good enough.

I'd give it a B. Not an A because it was a bit short and not thick with material, and because it didnt mention small cars.

I agree with you on the substance portion. I think when this was filmed and put together some of the information concerning the Cruze was not widely known and was left out. I was surprised at how light they went on the Malibu but then again it was a hour long special and they did not have that much time to go over everything.

I was laughing when the lady talked about knobs on the GM falling off and thinking about the Toyota Highlander I had that had such terrible engine sludge that it had to be re-built.

I can say honestly that the quality of my car (08 Malibu) is above all my expectations and will be the first to admit I was hesitant at first because of the negative press that GM has gotten over the years. For the price I certainly cannot complain and feel it beats it's competitors.

[TuffG929]

I watched it. I was pretty shocked at how unbiased their approach was.

[I-Love-Pontiac]

Originally Posted by Hitman1970

I do agree with your assessment. My first impression is a classic internet over-negative critique.

GM would serve itself well by some hardcore marketing to women. Like it or not but for the majority of America, women have an awful lot of input on vehicle purchases in families. Almost all the women I know drive imports even when hubby drives a domestic.

That's exactly what they are doing with the CTS and Malibu.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XVpqzk1KWQ

+ YouTube Video

[TuffG929]

Originally Posted by I-Love-Pontiac

That's exactly what they are doing with the CTS and Malibu.

If sex sells, then ads targeted towards women should have men in them.

[bmarkdc]

All gm needs to do is bring in some cars (like the Camaro) that will win fans back to them. I'm 38 and grew up on gm I still love their cars, during the 90's and early 2000's they lost their edge. The cars were boring, the suv;s were great but the cars eh... Anyway, as I posted before, cars like the Camaro will bring people back. My cousin who is 22 and his friends all they can talk about in the car world is the Camaro. Bring back cool cars and they are in. Also here is a good link that makes me laugh, but it is a cheesy Pontiac commercial from my sr, year in high school, but this made me think of buying Pontiac.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT0IIoYkJaM

[PhishPhood]

Originally Posted by Minnesota Nice

You know, here's some food for thought.

People really think that the Prius was the first real hybrid, but the Insight came out long before the Prius. Very few think of "Honda" when they think of Hybrid. They think of the Prius or Toyota.

I worry that even if GM gets the Volt out in advance of others, if the others are even remotely better...will GM be left in the unconscious memory, whether first or not.

God, that old Malibu needed to be shown far, far less, even if it was a Volt mule. Phew.

Accurate data....

The Insight was the first hybrid sold in the US...by 6 months. It arrived here in late Spring of 2000. The first Prius' arrived in late 2000.

However... the first Prius' were sold in Japan beginning in 1997. The Insight was not sold there at that time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Insight

[t-rex]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT0IIoYkJaM[/quote]

Cheezy. Like, you know, like totally bitchin' 80s.

But it was also Pontiac's sales zenith.

[ksr]

Originally Posted by t-rex

Lord now they're yapping about the Camaro.

I thought this show was focusing on saving GM. The Camaro, as appealing as it is, ain't gonna fit that bill...

I didn't realize exactly HOW MUCH of the Camaro's design was done by Holden.

What's the difference. Holden is GM and has been GM for many decades.

IMO, cars like the Camaro can do much towards saving GM. If the new Camaro has the same appeal as the old, there can be a halo effect. People who like it may not buy one, but they may buy something else. And if the Camaro does as well as the Mustang did a couple of years ago, that means a pretty nice profit.

[PhishPhood]

Originally Posted by Hitman1970

I do agree with your assessment. My first impression is a classic internet over-negative critique.

GM would serve itself well by some hardcore marketing to women. Like it or not but for the majority of America, women have an awful lot of input on vehicle purchases in families. Almost all the women I know drive imports even when hubby drives a domestic.

Here is a stat for ya... Honda and Toyota both estimate that the final buying decision on every vehicle purchase is made directly by or given the final OK by women in 80% of the cases. Most vehicle purchases are from the family budget. If you don't have 'Momma', 'the little woman', 'the Boss', 'my wife', 'my Mother', the 'family money keeper' on board....and then she has to like and trust the presenter...then there's no sale.

Yep, marketing to women makes gobs of money.

[pwinskey]

Being a woman myself I would have to agree with the above statement.

[zete]

I'll believe the price on the Volt when there's one at my local Chevrolet dealership.

Sure, the initial runs will cost money, but GM wants to build lots of them -- here and elsewhere -- and that will drop the price. I wouldn't be surprised if GM is just using the worst case, if we only build 20,000 of them, it'll cost X dollars. You just know the first year the batteries will be expensive, but thereafter they'll come down. And there's no way the main part of the car, sans batteries, is going to run $30k.