Good News: Surging Cobalt Sales, Focus on Fuel Economy = 1400 New Jobs at Lordstown

[Michael_S]

Originally Posted by unkillsam

GM's fuel economy is trending upwards while Toyota's fuel economy is trending down. Yet you find time to post on GMI about how GM sucks and doesn't get it.

Why don't you find time to go over to TN and bash Toyota for trending downwards?

If you choose to disbelieve all posted reports then fine. But what happens in 1 year when the compact Chevy replacement is here with a 1.4 liter VVT Ecotec and a 6-speed Hydra-Matic? Toyota will not be re-doing the Corolla till at least 2012 at the earliest.

I am thrilled that GM fuel economy is trending up and that Toyota fuel economy is trending down.

But we need to be honest here and call the situation for what it is - GM has been screwing up the economy car segment for decades, and the 2010 Cobalt (or whatever it's called) looks to be its first serious attempt to be near best in the market.

There's plenty of import bias in the market and the perception of GM's product reliability hasn't caught up with the dramatically improved reality. But that doesn't change the fact that there's a reason the Corolla and Civic are beating the Cobalt and beat the Cavalier.

[unkillsam]

Originally Posted by Michael_S

I am thrilled that GM fuel economy is trending up and that Toyota fuel economy is trending down.

But we need to be honest here and call the situation for what it is - GM has been screwing up the economy car segment for decades, and the 2010 Cobalt (or whatever it's called) looks to be its first serious attempt to be near best in the market.

There's plenty of import bias in the market and the perception of GM's product reliability hasn't caught up with the dramatically improved reality. But that doesn't change the fact that there's a reason the Corolla and Civic are beating the Cobalt and beat the Cavalier.

Their will come a point, when people sit in a Corolla and say, "WTF"!!!

GM will be their for those people that walked into the Toyota dealership because they were told to by others, not because they have some born in import bias.

My sister was told to buy Toyota, they are the best. Her mother-in-law told her this. Despite the fact that the transmission in her Camry had to be replaced around 30,000 miles She was a product of GM's bad product of the 70's-90's obviously.

Now my sister goes to the Toyota dealership with me in tow of course I drive up into the dealership in my Cobalt SS/SC and the salesman see's me drive up into the parking lot. We go into the store where the salesman greets us. My sister tells him she is looking for a used Corolla. We go out onto the lot (becuase the salesman has no clue about the inventory at his store) to look for used Corolla's. We find several, but none with ABS.

The salesman was very poor at his job. Obviously he was used to people buying whatever they had on the lot becuase of the T on the front of the cars. He did not even know the product on the lot.

Get this! I tell the salesperson that we would like to go shop at another store because I want a car with at least ABS, and preferably side-curtain airbags for my sister. 1st I want to keep her safe, and secoundly we would like the insurance discount. His first sales tactic was to try and convince my sister that ABS is not necessary and that she will not benifit by it. "Who needs it" he says.

I counter with the fact that if a loaded up Camry comes standard with it, then obviosly it is a desireable feature. He looks at me like I just punched him in the face.

He then tries to sell her on a used Yaris. "It's got ABS" he proudly declares!
My sister test drives the car, likes it, and we go back to the showrooms to discuss figures.

They won't budge 1 dollar on price ($15,000!!!wth?) , and tell her that they can't get her financed for less then 7% I then tell them that we are going to shop at another Toyota store first to see if we can't find a used Corolla with ABS (we never did, very hard to find)

I then say if that fails that I have convinced my sister to shop several GM products with me before she makes a choice. Now that salesperson saw me drive up in my Cobalt SS/SC and still says to me right to my face "GM makes crap cars and you would have to be dumb to buy one"

Before immediatly walking out the door, I go to his GM and tell him that his store just lost a customer (my sister) for life because of their rude, overbearing, arrogant attitudes of their employees.

My sister ends up buying a 1 year old Malibu LT2 for $2,000 less then Toyota wanted for a USED Yaris!!! Also we were able to get her financed thru GMAC at 4.9% instead of 7% that the Toyota store refused to budge on. Apparently they force everyone into Toyota Motor Credit! WTH is that all about? I have gone thru Chase many times over GMAC at GM stores.

Bottom line, there are a lot of Toyota stores out there like that, and with the product slowly becoming diluted and inferior over time, people will become fed up.

[Michael_S]

unkillsam,

I'm glad your sister agreed with you on that trip. I've had people and salespeople tell me that a specific sales feature really isn't necessary, when they're obviously just trying to spout whatever they think will make the sale. And of course, that includes talking trash about other brands. We were cross-shopping minivans between Nissan and Hyundai, and the Nissan sales lady started mocking Hyundai reliability. She may have been right, but mostly it came across as saying whatever she thought would get a signature on the dotted line.

The Malibu LT2, you mean she got a 2007? The looks are bland, but it's definitely not a bad car. The side curtain airbags were standard for model year 2007 (or maybe 2006, I don't remember) and as I'm sure you know, the 2007 Malibu had an outstanding crash rating in front and side impacts. Good choice.