The New GM - The Official Press Releases

[04bonnie]

Originally Posted by JoeT

GM's current problems have nothing to do with the Obama government. It's fate has been sealed for a long time.

Not only GM, but the auto unions, Congress, and the American culture in general all contributed to this day, not Non-Patriot Communist Terrorist as many cave-dwellers will have you believe. All refused for many years to accept reality and remodel GM, and Chrysler, into the companies they needed to be to compete in the global 21st century market place.

GM wouldn't accept that the hard decisions needed to be made for decades. The unions wouldn't accept job, plant and benefit cuts to protect the greater good of their members. The elected representatives, more interested in protecting their own interests rather than of the nations, hampered any attempts at real reform in the past. And generally the American public, use to the US being the biggest and best at everything their nation does, were not ready to accept the USA's changing place in the world, and if you did you were probably concidered a Non-Patriot Communist Terrorist.

That is just my view from one of the best managed nations on earth that is also the home of GM's best managed company. I also believe that the Obama government is doing the best it can with what it has to help GM survive and prosper into the future. It's not nice, but it's reality and we all need to accept that.

"Obama government is doing the best it can"... Whatever, if Bush was still in office everyone would be blaming him, and saying it's all the government's fault, but now our "do no wrong" Obama is in there, and everyone is saying...."it's OK, they are doing the best they can", blah, blah, blah. Whether it's the fault of Obama, or was sealed already before this, why are we so easy to jump to Obama's defense? New GM, or not....I won't give ANY credit to Obama for any good coming out of this. It's not General Motors, it's "Government Motors", and it's just the start of a lot of other changes the country will go thru under his leadership.

[zlohban]

If "Bad Management" brought forth the Malibu, Traverse, Enclave, new SRX and Equinox, keep the bad management working.

A well designed and well engineered car will survive a poor manufacturing process......but a badly engineered car is still a bad car even with the best plants and workers.

[lightbrotha2004]

Originally Posted by 04bonnie

"Obama government is doing the best it can"... Whatever, if Bush was still in office everyone would be blaming him, and saying it's all the government's fault, but now our "do no wrong" Obama is in there, and everyone is saying...."it's OK, they are doing the best they can", blah, blah, blah. Whether it's the fault of Obama, or was sealed already before this, why are we so easy to jump to Obama's defense? New GM, or not....I won't give ANY credit to Obama for any good coming out of this. It's not General Motors, it's "Government Motors", and it's just the start of a lot of other changes the country will go thru under his leadership.

I FOR ONE AM GETTING SO SICK AND TIRED EVERY FREAKIN TIME THERE IS A THREAD EVEN REMOTELY CONCERNING WELL ANYTHING SOMEONE BRINGS UP OBAMA. He was voted into office by the American people and if you don't like what he is doing pack your **** and get the hell out of the country right now and don't come back. See how much you like it in other countries. He is doing the best with what was handed to him. When Bush was running things I had a count down from his second term to when we would be down with his crap. He ran this country into a huge deficit fighting a war we have no reason at all to be fighting. But anyway GM got itself into this posistion with very bad descions. Obama is doing what he can to keep this company and Chrysler afloat until they can do for themselves which seems like in either August or September he wants the reins back in the hands on GM and Chrysler. So shut the hell up with all the talk about how he doing this and doing that. HE IS DOING 1,000,000,000,000% THAN THAT LAST MORON WHO RAN THE COUNTRY.

[JoeT]

04bonnie, don't fear the red under your bed, because he's not real. He's a figment of your imagination.

What do you want your Government to do? Stand back and let free market forces kill what remains of GM and Chrysler completely, destroying millions more jobs and leaving the idea of a great US based auto maker as a bookmark in a history book? Come on!

Why does it seem that in the US that it's all about left vs right? That is why the US in the eyes of other first world nations is the basket case it is. I'm glad I live in a nation where both our major political parties and the public in general are relatively centralist.

I could go on for hours about this, but I won't.

[minnfang]

The Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain, midsize crossovers with class-leading highway fuel economy of 32 mpg

Awesome number - I had heard 30MPG. Is this a typo or did the EPA rating come back higher than expected?

[syr74]

Originally Posted by JoeT

What do you want your Government to do? Stand back and let free market forces kill what remains of GM and Chrysler completely, destroying millions more jobs and leaving the idea of a great US based auto maker as a bookmark in a history book? Come on!

That would be a nice start, but I don't expect such a shocking diplay of common sense to arise from our fearless leader anytime soon. GM sealed their own fate, and the market would be far better off if they were allowed to go belly-up leaving economic nature to take its course.

Sadly, somebody at the helm would need to have at least the remotest idea of how capitalism actually works, and at least some idea of the huge benefits that you reap when you actually allow this to occur, for anything like the above to actually happen. Alas, our current administration spent too much time admiring misguided, and largely flat broke, idealists during their formative years tp pay any meraningful amoutn of attention to those who actually understand obscure things like....economics.

[CRW]

Any thoughts on what this would do to incentives? CNN.com is reporting some huge numbers including up to $7000 on Tahoe.

I wonder if that's all the current stuff added together -- GM card top off bonus that some got + GM loyalty + GM spring car care + current incentives?

http://money.cnn.com/2009/06/01/pf/s...ptcy/index.htm

[JoeT]

Originally Posted by syr74

That would be a nice start, but I don't expect such a shocking diplay of common sense to arise from our fearless leader anytime soon. GM sealed their own fate, and the market would be far better off if they were allowed to go belly-up leaving economic nature to take its course.

And put thousands more ex-auto workers on welfare? No. The far-right wants extreme capitalism to control the world. The far-left wants the total opposite.

As much as I'm a capitalist, I am also a socialist and a realist at that. There is such a thing as a happy medium and that is enjoyed by many nations around the globe, including Australia. The free market works well within the flexable guidelines our government sets for them and if the system is going off the rails, as it well and truely has in the US over the last few years, our government will help put it back on track. That's what they are elected for - to govern in the peoples best interest.

Our current central-left government has retained the former centre-right governments tarriff reduction plans, to the jeers of the unions, while setting up the green car scheme to help our local manufacturers build cars that can take on the best in the world. It's half the reason Holden has been regarded as GM's best asset with GM for many years.

We have been very luck in this nation that both sides of our political divide believe in the same basic principals of socialist capitalism. That is why we have what we regard as basic rights, such as world-beating universal health care along side a strong private health care system.

Originally Posted by syr74

Sadly, somebody at the helm would need to have at least the remotest idea of how capitalism actually works, and at least some idea of the huge benefits that you reap when you actually allow this to occur, for anything like the above to actually happen. Alas, our current administration spent too much time admiring misguided, and largely flat broke, idealists during their formative years tp pay any meraningful amoutn of attention to those who actually understand obscure things like....economics.

I think you should add 'extreme' before that 'capitalism', as that has been the way the US has been doing business up till now. I hope for the USA's sake that your current government can get the system back to a happy medium so the train wreak that the US is now never happens again.

[Orbit]

After spending billions of borrowed money (i.e., yours) to prop up GM, the US government left out the key ingredient to giving the "new" (or rather, "the really new THIS time, we swear!") GM an actual chance of being successful: A wholesale cull of management, including its board of directors. The mentality embodied by these bureaucrats (GM-corporate think) is what pushed the company into ever decreasing market share over the past two decades. Without purging its corporate culture of all the insular and uncreative thinking that got it into so much trouble, the "new" GM will fail in any event, but only after billions upon billions more have been wasted. This situation is like handing the keys to a new car to your teenager right after he or she wrecked the family car due to irresponsible driving: no lesson is learned; indeed, there is a reward for bad judgment and destructive behavior. The latter in GM's case is massive wealth cancellation among its customers, workers, and now the general public.

[04bonnie]

Originally Posted by lightbrotha2004

I FOR ONE AM GETTING SO SICK AND TIRED EVERY FREAKIN TIME THERE IS A THREAD EVEN REMOTELY CONCERNING WELL ANYTHING SOMEONE BRINGS UP OBAMA. He was voted into office by the American people and if you don't like what he is doing pack your **** and get the hell out of the country right now and don't come back. See how much you like it in other countries. He is doing the best with what was handed to him. When Bush was running things I had a count down from his second term to when we would be down with his crap. He ran this country into a huge deficit fighting a war we have no reason at all to be fighting. But anyway GM got itself into this posistion with very bad descions. Obama is doing what he can to keep this company and Chrysler afloat until they can do for themselves which seems like in either August or September he wants the reins back in the hands on GM and Chrysler. So shut the hell up with all the talk about how he doing this and doing that. HE IS DOING 1,000,000,000,000% THAN THAT LAST MORON WHO RAN THE COUNTRY.

See, this is exactly what I was talking about. Who would jump to Bush's defense this way? But....it seems like people think Obama is our savior. True, he's not to blame for a lot of what's going on, but please....equal time here. If Bush was in office, people would be going nuts over the fall of GM, and putting 100% blame on HIM. But, if anyone mentions anything against Obama, OH BOY....it causes such an uproar. Bottom line is, YES...he was voted in, but I didn't vote for him, so that means I need to praise him now? Everyone who voted for Kerry, didn't praise Bush because he was voted in by the majority, so why should all of us Republicans be "happy"?

[JoeT]

Originally Posted by 04bonnie

See, this is exactly what I was talking about. Who would jump to Bush's defense this way? But....it seems like people think Obama is our savior. True, he's not to blame for a lot of what's going on, but please....equal time here. If Bush was in office, people would be going nuts over the fall of GM, and putting 100% blame on HIM.

Yes they would. Thats politics, but in this case it would be deservedly so. His government was at the helm since 2000 and had plenty of time to make the hard decisions that could have helped to avoid not only the bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler, but also of the US banking industry that has sent the world into the worst economic mess it has seen in living memory! A lot of the problems existed even before he was in charge, especially with the sub-prime mess, but he and your Congress chose to sit back and ignore the writing on the wall - that the US was about to run into it hard! Now the world is paying the consequences.

Come on! Obama has been at the helm for less than six months! SIX MONTHS!!! What we are witnessing now was well and truely set in stone long before he took up residents at the White House. Let's leave our political allegencies aside for a moment and look at these events from a non-partisan viewpoint. Thing will appear a lot clearer to everyone.

[prowlerjc]

Perhaps corporations that are 'too big to fail' should be split up if their failure would wreck the economy. I'm not advocateding that because I can see pros and cons to both sides, but i think maybe it is something that it may be time to consider.

[JT87]

Originally Posted by DuSpinnst

The faster this plays out, the faster people here in Michigan will start hiring people again as many suppliers and auto related companies have cut too deep too fast because they feared the worst. Many companies will need to grow quickly once GM and Chrysler are sorted and out of Bankruptcy.

Besides, I need a (new) job.

Sounds about right. Numerous companies are on hiring freezes, and as you said, many others cut too deep. Uncertainty and lack of proactive management has hurt this job market. It would be smart for companies to sign some younger graduates now at reduced wages and mold them into what the company will need when the ship turns. Many companies have stopped co-op/intern activities, as well as young worker development.

Hopefully in 12 months management of these companies might actually have some confidence again.

[JoeT]

Originally Posted by prowlerjc

Perhaps corporations that are 'too big to fail' should be split up if their failure would wreck the economy. I'm not advocateding that because I can see pros and cons to both sides, but i think maybe it is something that it may be time to consider.

If GM had a near monopoly on the US auto market I would say yes, but this wasn't the case. GM was a badly managed corporation in an extremely unregulated nation. It's size alone had nothing to do with it.

[BrickTamland]

Originally Posted by minnfang

Awesome number - I had heard 30MPG. Is this a typo or did the EPA rating come back higher than expected?

Better than that - 32 mpg highway for front-wheel drive four-cylinder models.