I haven't been around for that long, and I'm not from here, but the kind of people that has been buying the GM products are alot of people on this board, and it just amazes me how GM manages to miss their market. Since everyone here is saying to hell with those cars, stop selling us this junk.. They're mismanaging the company in a really bad way. They're building cars that don't have a place on the market. What do they mean an American rEvolution with their ads? They're offering junk..... Well, they have been for a long time, but you'd think that the connection between sales and quality would be made sooner than never.
Planet Sweden.. :Comp: Now in L.A. as a graphic design student with girlfriend from Wisconsin, and the Centurion.. :TU:
You got that right! Am I the only one who is half expecting a Caddy or Nissan to turn into a big japanese armored fighting suit, like this? or maybe:
:blast: :blast: :blast: OH, NO!!!!!!! F$*k! :af: :af: :af: :af: :af: :af: :af: :af: :shock: ou: ou: ou: :boring: :boring: :jd: :rant: i'M GONNA E-MAIL bUICK NOW. :Comp: Anthony
Good news/Bad news I just finished looking at the new Business Week..and they had a big story about GM's financial troubles. One of the points raised was that GM, at about 20% market share, had too many divisions competing against each other both in the market and inside the company for resources. As to which to kill off next, the bad news was that Buick was mentioned as on the list, but the good news (if you can call a Lacrosse intro as good news?) was that Buick is very big in China (go figure!) and that will probably save it from extinction, at least in the near term. Pontiac was mentioned as a contender to get ax'ed! GM is in a very sorry state..It looks like it is continuing its path, ever so slowly, to being an also-ran in the car business. Stanley ou:
Uggggggggggghhhhhhhhh! With 25+ years with GM, for the really first time, having hired in at the '79 oil crunch, and weathered the '80s and early '90s crash, this is the biggest mess, I've ever seen. Canceling the 2008 RWD program, that we have all been waiting for, to build better trucks and SUVs is a BIG mistake, speaking of BIG mistake, I could be fired for this, but my opinion is hiring Bob Lutz was the biggest mistake ever made. He held up the replacement for the Regal/Century to make the LaCrosse, that can't even be said in Canada, and what did we get a Taurus like front end with a Lexus rear end, that sure isn't a 'Gotta Have' GM car. Ok, I've driven one, and it's a very nice driving riding car, but not the one 'I've Dreamed Of", Blah, blah, etc.
Typical case of doing an about face when you have a good idea going. Duplicate the vehicles that are in your own fleet (Trucks) build "Belly Button Cars", and wonder WHY people look elsewhere. Interesting how Ford has had to increase the production of the Mustang to meet demands, after bringing something FRESH to the Public. The More they go forward, the farther they look behind. Tell the world you are dropping Oldsmobile in 2 years, and wonder WHY they aren't selling! DUH, I think I'll go buy an Orphan! Anyone seen a new Mustang convertible with the top up yet? JR
Sadly, this current mess has its roots way back in the '80s. Think about it. The best GM cars and ideas ever came in the '50s through '70s. Sure, you had rust and quality issues in later years, but no one can question designs like the first gen Riv, the F cars, the entire A / G lines. These cars came when GM divisions competed as hard with each other as with Ford and Chrysler. Since the '80s, the divisions are little more than offices down the hall from each other. This was to save cost. The end result was little product individuality and boring products aplenty. Platform sharing is not a bad thing. Most modern cars and trucks share platform mates in other divisions, if not in other companies altogether. The same platform under your Camry is under the neighbor's Lexus. The U.S. auto industry INVENTED this concept. Yet, GM cannot seem to pull this off anymore, but the imports and even Chrysler are going full steam turning out products that share plenty of dna with each other, but that people WANT. We all have our favorites, but few of Detroit's classics are only children. They all share large percentages of parts with each other. Yet, the old 6 banger Malibu down the block and your Stage 1, GTO, etc. couldn't be more different from each other to own, drive, etc. I cannot help but believe that the world is ending when Buick, GM's oldest division, is hanging its future on China's growing demand for cars. Ain't this like 20 years ago when cars like Hyundai, Kia, and-dare I say it-Yugo came over here looking to pawn off cheaper, older designs in the US market as basic transportation for the common man? I'm going to be sick. Thanks, Rudy E
I can see it now...GM restructures itself into Ch*vy Trucks/SUV's, Pontiac 2-door cars, and Caddy 4-doors, and introduces their "NEW!!!" Chinese car division - Bruick! (with apologies to David Dunbar and my oriental friends...) But it don't matter...GM/Buick is now just something to laugh at... :moonu:
Hmm, what was their lineup last year? Trucks and suv's? It's like they're reaching for the toilet flush handle already. Nothing left to do except wait for the tank to refill. Their doom was shown when they let the bean counters uglify the GTO.
The only "New GS" I would buy would be a LEXUS! GM has had a bad case of corpirate sabbtoga or stab-it-to-ya!!! Lutz is a killer!
The folks at GM have short memory and illusions of grandeur. Just a matter of time if gas prices continue upward.....The lots will be full of SUV gas hogs, just like 73/74...only then it was LTD's.
Wanna find out where they got their current stratagies from? Read the book called 'Decline and Fall of the American Auto Industry' by Brock Yates. You have to read it with a grain of salt (Yates is somewhat opinionated especially about his hatred of the full sized American auto and sometimes misses the boat with details), however it gives an extremely good insite about GM and how it created its self-defeating stratagies. The book was written in the early 80's so it is somewhat outdated but most of the things he says in it still apply today. I really don't see things changing at GM, their going to be pulling the same crap until their last penny of red ink is spent. Patrick
