I have not seen comments leveled against Toyota in that thread that are as vicious and vindictive as those thrown against GM in this one. The most I've seen lately in the Toyota forum are about shortages caused by the recent eathquake which really can't be blamed on Toyota.
If an earthquake hit Michigan, the import fanboys would be cheering the destruction of Detroit giving no thought to the death and destruction of their own countrymen. They sure don't have any regard for their financial well-being or that of their families.
Read the "Toyota on the Mend" thread again carefully - the Domestic Fanboys are just as bad if not worse.
They'll come, share a link to a story about a grandmother who shifted in to Reverse, then Drive, with "both hands firmly on the wheel" in a far-fetched SUA story and then when we point out the obvious flaws in their story, no response. They return later with more outrageous stories or to post about Malibu sales.
Fanboys have a complete inability to acknowledge when they are wrong.
FWIW you're not like that, but half the import basher/domestic fanboys who hang out in that thread are.
Don't really care about Malibu sales vs. Camry sales anyway. That's not a segment of the auto market in which I really have interest. As for me, I'm very happy with my GM cars. Can't say much for the black sheep in my fleet. The dang a/c compressor just quit and cost me $993! :mad: I KNEW I should've got another GM car for my everyday hooptie, but nooooo! I had to be a hero and help out my wife's family by buying her 85 year-old aunt's Grand Marquis! :sick:
I KNEW I should've got another GM car for my everyday hooptie, but nooooo! I had to be a hero and help out my wife's family by buying her 85 year-old aunt's Grand Marquis!
Yeah, but you didn't HAVE to get that a/c fixed right away. I don't really think a/c is all that necessary in a car with a convertible roof. :P
On a serious note though, sorry it happened to you. Did it give any warning signs, or just suddenly die? I had to replace my Intrepid's a/c, along with some other components, back in early 2009, but it was partly my fault. I knew it was low on freon, and was going to try to nurse it along until warm weather. But one day while running the defrost, the a/c compressor seized up!
Funny thing is I came across a plain-jane 2006 LaCrosse CX and a couple older 2000-2005 style Impalas when I was hooptie shopping a couple years ago. They would've made a good choice as I'm familiar with then and had good experience with them. I rejected them as I we had already had them in our fleet and wanted to try something different, not to mention, the LaCrosse was painted lavender.
It quit rather suddenly! Remember, I had it to Carlisle this weekend and all was fine. As of Monday, it wasn't blowing hot air, but it most certainly wasn't as cool as it was before. It was kind of "lukecold" if that makes any sense. I remembered your story about the 'Trep and wanted to catch it before the A/C compressor siezed. I guess it didn't make any difference. I took it to a garage near my work and they said something about a high-pressure valve in the compressor failing causing a seal to blow out on the back of the compressor causing the system to fail. Have I been ripped-off? Good God, I've been having bad luck this year! First my wife wrecks her car, then my home computer dies, and now this.
If Ford didn't do anything else right, it did heaters and A/C very well. The A/C should've been spitting snowballs at me with it set for 60F and Max A/C during the recent heat. My 1989 Mercury Grand Marquis got so cold you could actually see frost forming on the vents.
not to mention, the LaCrosse was painted lavender.
Probably GM Marketing had identified this as one of the main hair colors, of the elderly women who would be riding in the vehicle. I'm sure the Grand Marquis has similar colors.
I see GM stock today is under $29/share. Any GM fans running to buy some, to support their boys?
I just looked it up in my records, and the total bill for when my Intrepid's a/c compressor seized was $1,301.79. So, if yours was $933, I guess you got a bit of a break!
Question: Why DO old ladies dye their hair such strange colors? Nobody's hair naturally turns that color.
I dunno, but I always remember the line "Blue-haired old dragon" from "Mama's Family"! Oh, and the blue and silver candles, that would just have matched the hair in Grandma's wig (Grandma got run over by a reindeer).
>Why DO old ladies dye their hair such strange colors?
I may be wrong but I believe older ladies whose hair had turned gray often had an odd appearance to the grayed hair--a yellowed color. They use bluing on their hair to try to kill the yellow and actually make the hair appear more neutral gray without the yellow dingy look. I don't know if the bluing was the kind used for laundry or a special blue coloring for hair.
OK, I'll buy that the Japanese makers lost sales in May due to the tsunami's effects (even though our routine GM bashers here always said they were every bit as American as GM and Ford). If that's the case, why did GM, primarily, clean up in May? Why weren't Ford products outselling the Malibu and Cruze? Why weren't Kia or Hyundai products at the top of the sales list? Just sayin'. Begs the question.
Maybe people liked what they were seeing.
Maybe people saw a longer powertrain warranty than Ford.
Maybe people saw more car for the same buck.
Gotta be some reason.
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You post monthly sales for Malibu vs Camry, yet don't mention year-to-date sales, which are behind.
Yes, I specifically said Malibu was the best selling car that month.
Can you imagine if the tables were reversed? 'anything' and 'circle' would be saying "A-ha! Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah! Told you so! Folks have come around to 'our side' last month! What happened before doesn't matter!
Sheesh.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
Isn't that why you bought one? You got a bargain, no doubt. I mentioned above with that price advantage I would have picked the Malibu as well, easily.
Why else would a model's sales surge suddenly towards the end of its life cycle?
We can't discuss sales without also discussing price/incentives.
Can you imagine if the tables were reversed? 'anything' and 'circle' would be saying "A-ha! Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah! Told you so! Folks have come around to 'our side' last month! What happened before doesn't matter!
Huh? I haven't "told ya so" to anyone about anything. Am I missing something? :confuse:
Sales are sales. I think Juices point is the spin that some posters like to take with regards to them. Ignoring huge incentives (4 thousand bucks?), on a fleet queen that has averaged 30% or more every month for over a decade (no offense, I'm glad you like yours) and claiming the Camry and Toyota are in the dumps is exaggeration.
Well as you point out also, incentives are a huge part of the picture. I can become the #1 gold dealer in the world overnight, by selling gold for $1,500/oz! Profits is more important than sales. And what's most important to a corporation is cashflow. GM went bankrupt because they didn't have enough retained cash (wealth) to compensate for their losses, and no one was willing to give them loans based on their assets, with such poor operational performance from their assets.
I bought one because that's what we wanted. The incentives were gravy. I also bought when we did because I'd read so much that used-car values were up, and my trade-in was significantly better than expected. Coming up on the 100K tune-up time ($500 with spark plug wires, I'm told), and the upcoming need for new brakes, not to mention the decrease in resale I believe I'd had at 100+miles, all made it seem sensible to do it now, not a few months from now.
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You guys make it sound like GM is the only company in the world to offer incentives. I went to Ford's site, and guess what--the Fusion has a $2,000 rebate, same as the Malibu. When I bought mine, the 1LT only got another $1,000 in 'dealer cash'. I see that now, all the "LT" trims get the extra $1,000. The LS trim did not/does not.
Why are the Cruze and Malibu outselling (at least last month) their Ford competitors? If one really preferred the Fusion, would $1,000 sway them to a Chevy? Somehow, I truly doubt that. I could be wrong this month. You heard it here first!
I think it's a combination of price/value, longer powertrain warranty, and I believe that more Americans than some here might believe are having a backlash against "Made in Mexico". Just sayin'.
Incidentally, although we all post on edmunds.com, I bet the majority of car buyers don't even look to see how much below invoice a car can be bought for. I might reiterate that the two dealers I went to offered invoice less $3,000 in rebates, and invoice plus $200 less $3,000 in rebates. I don't believe the $3,950 below invoice is what anyone could expect at every Chevy dealer, everywhere.
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I have not seen comments leveled against Toyota in that thread that are as vicious and vindictive as those thrown against GM in this one.
I would tend to agree. Perhaps there are some good reasons:
1 - As a US company, people want to be proud of our biggest carmaker, and GM has often come up very short 2 - The bailout. Don't need to say more. 3 - The years of claiming how good they are when they weren't. 4 - Using apple pie and patriotism as a cover for why you should buy something, rather than quality. 5 - Coddling the union, paying for not working, providing benefits WAY ABOVE the average for most industries 6 - Ceding entire market segments (sport sedan, compact cars, small SUVs) to the foreign competition through totally noncompetitive products
These sorts of things bring up the dander of people. I suspect that most of the critical posters would love to see GM performing with the aggressiveness of Hyundai. And they don't see it yet.
If an earthquake hit Michigan, the import fanboys would be cheering the destruction of Detroit
Sad to say but one member here did exactly that referencing Japanese automakers after the Fukushima quake. Pretty disgusting behavior.
Stick around Edmunds long enough and you won't buy any car. They all are junk to read the posts here, the manufacturers are run by criminal CEOs, the stylists all went to the same carve by number art school, and the workers put beer cans and live turtles in the doors. And you don't even want to think about car dealers.
And now you know why my cars were made in the last century. :P
Well Steve, somehow I completely missed THAT post, and I look here pretty regularly. I do believe that a couple or three posters here probably would cheer a tsunami in Michigan. Sick.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
>if the tables were reversed? 'anything' and 'circle' would be saying "A-ha! Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah! Told you so! Folks have come around to 'our side' last month! What happened before doesn't matter!
I say this respectfully, but surely you see the grade-school negative stuff on this forum, don't you? The glee at constant negativity about GM? And it is indeed glee. I don't care for Toyota or Hyundai products, so I stay off of their forums.
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A lot of GM news isn't that good. (Today's example.)
And we see negative posts all over. Automotive News isn't too bad, since people with gel or bum transmissions mostly go to Sedans or SUVs to gripe.
Toyota gel and SUA and corporate indifference. Honda transmissions (especially Odysseys) and road noise in general. Hyundai and Kia not honoring warranties. Lousy Jeep door handles. Ford's about the only one getting a bye these days, but they all have warts.
If you just want the good stuff, we have a General Motors discussion.
Human nature being what it is, about the best you can do is challenge the wrong assumptions with the facts. Doubt that many people will change their minds; shoot, I still hold a grudge against Volvo dating back to 1974. I try not to post about it too often though.
I don't want all positive, but trumped-up negatives aren't a good thing either. It's intellectually dishonest.
A recent example was about GM 'making the government' pay for warranty repairs on failed engines and head gaskets. No one I know, nor could the poster, cite a single example of such a failure on a GM car since the bankruptcy. But there it gets trotted out, not as opinion, but as fact.
That's what gets me.
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Personally, I think that if you limit yourself in options you just short yourself. As for Circlew. I'm guessing he works for the Koreans or is invested there so he cheer leads them. Can't blame him if that's his situation. However, I'm sure there are unhappy Korean owners out there too. Nothing is perfect.
I wasn't opposed to the GM bailout per se, but I do have a [non-permissible content removed] how the gov screwed over bond holders and gave unprecedented favoritism to the UAW. I think Obama politicized the whole BK process and that aspect was wrong (but not GM's fault). It potentially sets up BK more negatively to creditors and will likely make it more difficult in the future for companies in a financial pinch to be able to restructure successfully. It also gave GM and Chrysler an advantage over Ford that worked things out on its own. But again, that wasn't GM's fault, it was the government's and its pandering to the UAW. You can't blame GM for trying to get a BK restructure and stay in business, but you can get mad at the manner the gov handled it. Unfortunately, I think some lay it all on GM.
I know (intellectually if not emotionally), but people aren't necessarily rational creatures are we? :shades:
My sister had a used Volvo wagon for something like 14 years and she loved it. Was unhappy when it finally gave up the ghost - I forget if she got 300,000 miles on it or not, but she had to be close.
Most people vent a couple of times and move on to the next brand. These days few cars are really all that bad, luckily for us consumers.
In other GM News, the Volt gets a price cut and is going nationwide today. (Inside Line)
A recent example was about GM 'making the government' pay for warranty repairs on failed engines and head gaskets. No one I know, nor could the poster, cite a single example of such a failure on a GM car since the bankruptcy. But there it gets trotted out, not as opinion, but as fact.
That's what gets me.
I agree on the intellectual honesty. But let's face it -- all sides do the same thing. I've been told that Honda deliberately used 4cyl transmissions in 6 cyl engines and that's why they are failing. Also that to get tax incentives, Hyundai promised to build additional plants but didn't do so. When I question those posters and asked for links, they never showed up. Everybody "just knew" that it was true!
It's good when any questionable facts are challenged, as long as it is done professionally and not personally.
GM is clearly making major efforts and is improving quite a lot. Whether it is enough is a function of not only the economy (far from out of the woods), but also what the competitors are doing. And Ford and Hyundai/Kia, in particular, are really staying focused. GM's efforts would look even more impressive if those competitors were not around to compare with.
I know (intellectually if not emotionally), but people aren't necessarily rational creatures are we?
You're right Steve, I have problems buying Korean products. I'll do it, but each time I have to get over how the country leeches off America and then turns around and screws over US firms trying to do business there (near our troops defending them). I have to remind myself it is their government, not their companies and our country's unwillingness to stick up for our industries and demand fairness.
We used to be a GM family, but got tired of getting burned (Toyota is really the new GM for ride, comfort, etc. and the Camry is yesterday's Impala or Cutlass). But I honestly think they are turning a corner based on some of the newer stuff I've had as rentals. But I'll be honest, I'll be watching things like their quality ratings in Consumers Report for a couple of years before I actually go back and buy one. I don't hate them, but I don't totally trust them yet either. I think a lot of people are probably similar to me right now. I also don't hold the BK against them because I think the egregious parts of it really are the government's fault in how they handled it. If you want a BK to really get upset about, look into AIG.
It isn't the BK that I hold against them, it's everything they ignored for 40 years and arrogantly repeated mistakes and blindness that allowed the Asians to eat their market share for breakfast, lunch, dinner for years until failure consumed the diseased wreck of an industry giant that once was the best.
I do not take that lightly. I agree ( with huge quantities of skepticism for a complete turnaround) that they are improving but will continually remind when even a glimmer of any disease rears it's ugly head.
If that irks some, so be it. I apologize for anything taken personally. It isn't personal, just business. Something GM is starting to learn all over again. :shades:
If you want opinions, Lutz is your man. Good op ed in the WSJ, may be registration only.
"Where the real work of making a car company successful suddenly turns complex, and where the winners are separated from the losers, is in the long-cycle product development process, where short-term day-to-day metrics and the tabulation of results are meaningless. Despite the advent of many new computer tools to speed engineering, testing and certification, the time between "initial idea" and "first unit off the line" is still about 3½ years, depending on the complexity of the product."
Gotta love this quote:
"A Chevrolet Malibu's material cost is within a couple percent of that of a BMW 3-Series."
We used to be a GM family, but got tired of getting burned (Toyota is really the new GM for ride, comfort, etc. and the Camry is yesterday's Impala or Cutlass).
It is sort of interesting the evolution of the makes over the past 30 years or so.
Mazda is becoming the new Honda. (sporty, ergonomic) Honda is becoming the new Toyota. (softer, reliable) Toyota is becoming the new GM. (bland, quality slipping) GM is going somewhere but I don't know where yet!
It isn't the BK that I hold against them, it's everything they ignored for 40 years and arrogantly repeated mistakes and blindness that allowed the Asians to eat their market share for breakfast, lunch, dinner for years until failure consumed the diseased wreck of an industry giant that once was the best.
Agreed. Although trotting to Washington asking for a handout and claiming it was ALL the fault of the economy was galling.
All GM needs to do is two things really well. They're starting to cover one of them, but not sure about the other one:
1 - Take product quality really seriously (starting to do this) 2 - Be very agile. Move quickly with market forces (not looking strong in this area yet). It shouldn't take over 10 years to realize that fuel economy might be important, or Nav systems are expected in cars now, or that even smaller cars can be of high quality, or that hybrids are important.
Comments
Toyota Camry has dropped to No. 12 in overall vehicles.
That is exactly what you wrote.
Why bring up Camry as opposed to the #2 through #11 sellers? This is a GM thread.
You made no mention of incentives, year-to-date sales.
Nice blinders you have there.
If an earthquake hit Michigan, the import fanboys would be cheering the destruction of Detroit giving no thought to the death and destruction of their own countrymen. They sure don't have any regard for their financial well-being or that of their families.
They'll come, share a link to a story about a grandmother who shifted in to Reverse, then Drive, with "both hands firmly on the wheel" in a far-fetched SUA story and then when we point out the obvious flaws in their story, no response. They return later with more outrageous stories or to post about Malibu sales.
Fanboys have a complete inability to acknowledge when they are wrong.
FWIW you're not like that, but half the import basher/domestic fanboys who hang out in that thread are.
Meanwhile, I don't know if it's me or if this topic has gotten even more "Oh, yeah?" "Sez you!" of late.....
Sigh.
Because Camry was the former best selling car; Malibu replaced Camry in that position last month. Of course I needed to mention Camry.
Yeah, but you didn't HAVE to get that a/c fixed right away. I don't really think a/c is all that necessary in a car with a convertible roof. :P
On a serious note though, sorry it happened to you. Did it give any warning signs, or just suddenly die? I had to replace my Intrepid's a/c, along with some other components, back in early 2009, but it was partly my fault. I knew it was low on freon, and was going to try to nurse it along until warm weather. But one day while running the defrost, the a/c compressor seized up!
If Ford didn't do anything else right, it did heaters and A/C very well. The A/C should've been spitting snowballs at me with it set for 60F and Max A/C during the recent heat. My 1989 Mercury Grand Marquis got so cold you could actually see frost forming on the vents.
Probably GM Marketing had identified this as one of the main hair colors, of the elderly women who would be riding in the vehicle.
I see GM stock today is under $29/share. Any GM fans running to buy some, to support their boys?
Seems to me, a "hot seller" shouldn't need a price cut... :confuse:
Oh wait...
610 available
I dunno, but I always remember the line "Blue-haired old dragon" from "Mama's Family"! Oh, and the blue and silver candles, that would just have matched the hair in Grandma's wig (Grandma got run over by a reindeer).
Also - over there you ONLY share bad news, always, no exceptions.
Circle Dub could stand to tone it down, but when I see people here who act the same way in the Toyota threads complaining, I have to laugh.
I may be wrong but I believe older ladies whose hair had turned gray often had an odd appearance to the grayed hair--a yellowed color. They use bluing on their hair to try to kill the yellow and actually make the hair appear more neutral gray without the yellow dingy look. I don't know if the bluing was the kind used for laundry or a special blue coloring for hair.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Maybe people liked what they were seeing.
Maybe people saw a longer powertrain warranty than Ford.
Maybe people saw more car for the same buck.
Gotta be some reason.
Yes; do you want to borrow mine?
You post monthly sales for Malibu vs Camry, yet don't mention year-to-date sales, which are behind.
Yes, I specifically said Malibu was the best selling car that month.
Can you imagine if the tables were reversed? 'anything' and 'circle' would be saying "A-ha! Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah! Told you so! Folks have come around to 'our side' last month! What happened before doesn't matter!
Sheesh.
Incentives.
Isn't that why you bought one? You got a bargain, no doubt. I mentioned above with that price advantage I would have picked the Malibu as well, easily.
Why else would a model's sales surge suddenly towards the end of its life cycle?
We can't discuss sales without also discussing price/incentives.
I have never owned a Hyundai/Kia product. 2 Fords and a Chevy, but never a Korean built car.
Huh? I haven't "told ya so" to anyone about anything. Am I missing something? :confuse:
Sales are sales. I think Juices point is the spin that some posters like to take with regards to them. Ignoring huge incentives (4 thousand bucks?), on a fleet queen that has averaged 30% or more every month for over a decade (no offense, I'm glad you like yours) and claiming the Camry and Toyota are in the dumps is exaggeration.
One month is just that... one month.
Well as you point out also, incentives are a huge part of the picture. I can become the #1 gold dealer in the world overnight, by selling gold for $1,500/oz!
Profits is more important than sales. And what's most important to a corporation is cashflow. GM went bankrupt because they didn't have enough retained cash (wealth) to compensate for their losses, and no one was willing to give them loans based on their assets, with such poor operational performance from their assets.
Why are the Cruze and Malibu outselling (at least last month) their Ford competitors? If one really preferred the Fusion, would $1,000 sway them to a Chevy? Somehow, I truly doubt that. I could be wrong this month. You heard it here first!
I think it's a combination of price/value, longer powertrain warranty, and I believe that more Americans than some here might believe are having a backlash against "Made in Mexico". Just sayin'.
Incidentally, although we all post on edmunds.com, I bet the majority of car buyers don't even look to see how much below invoice a car can be bought for. I might reiterate that the two dealers I went to offered invoice less $3,000 in rebates, and invoice plus $200 less $3,000 in rebates. I don't believe the $3,950 below invoice is what anyone could expect at every Chevy dealer, everywhere.
I would tend to agree. Perhaps there are some good reasons:
1 - As a US company, people want to be proud of our biggest carmaker, and GM has often come up very short
2 - The bailout. Don't need to say more.
3 - The years of claiming how good they are when they weren't.
4 - Using apple pie and patriotism as a cover for why you should buy something, rather than quality.
5 - Coddling the union, paying for not working, providing benefits WAY ABOVE the average for most industries
6 - Ceding entire market segments (sport sedan, compact cars, small SUVs) to the foreign competition through totally noncompetitive products
These sorts of things bring up the dander of people. I suspect that most of the critical posters would love to see GM performing with the aggressiveness of Hyundai. And they don't see it yet.
Sad to say but one member here did exactly that referencing Japanese automakers after the Fukushima quake. Pretty disgusting behavior.
Stick around Edmunds long enough and you won't buy any car. They all are junk to read the posts here, the manufacturers are run by criminal CEOs, the stylists all went to the same carve by number art school, and the workers put beer cans and live turtles in the doors. And you don't even want to think about car dealers.
And now you know why my cars were made in the last century. :P
Right on point.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
And we see negative posts all over. Automotive News isn't too bad, since people with gel or bum transmissions mostly go to Sedans or SUVs to gripe.
Toyota gel and SUA and corporate indifference. Honda transmissions (especially Odysseys) and road noise in general. Hyundai and Kia not honoring warranties. Lousy Jeep door handles. Ford's about the only one getting a bye these days, but they all have warts.
If you just want the good stuff, we have a General Motors discussion.
A recent example was about GM 'making the government' pay for warranty repairs on failed engines and head gaskets. No one I know, nor could the poster, cite a single example of such a failure on a GM car since the bankruptcy. But there it gets trotted out, not as opinion, but as fact.
That's what gets me.
My sister had a used Volvo wagon for something like 14 years and she loved it. Was unhappy when it finally gave up the ghost - I forget if she got 300,000 miles on it or not, but she had to be close.
Most people vent a couple of times and move on to the next brand. These days few cars are really all that bad, luckily for us consumers.
In other GM News, the Volt gets a price cut and is going nationwide today. (Inside Line)
That's what gets me.
I agree on the intellectual honesty. But let's face it -- all sides do the same thing. I've been told that Honda deliberately used 4cyl transmissions in 6 cyl engines and that's why they are failing. Also that to get tax incentives, Hyundai promised to build additional plants but didn't do so. When I question those posters and asked for links, they never showed up. Everybody "just knew" that it was true!
It's good when any questionable facts are challenged, as long as it is done professionally and not personally.
GM is clearly making major efforts and is improving quite a lot. Whether it is enough is a function of not only the economy (far from out of the woods), but also what the competitors are doing. And Ford and Hyundai/Kia, in particular, are really staying focused. GM's efforts would look even more impressive if those competitors were not around to compare with.
You're right Steve, I have problems buying Korean products. I'll do it, but each time I have to get over how the country leeches off America and then turns around and screws over US firms trying to do business there (near our troops defending them). I have to remind myself it is their government, not their companies and our country's unwillingness to stick up for our industries and demand fairness.
Regards,
ODub
Regards,
OW
I do not take that lightly. I agree ( with huge quantities of skepticism for a complete turnaround) that they are improving but will continually remind when even a glimmer of any disease rears it's ugly head.
If that irks some, so be it. I apologize for anything taken personally. It isn't personal, just business. Something GM is starting to learn all over again. :shades:
Regards,
OW
"Where the real work of making a car company successful suddenly turns complex, and where the winners are separated from the losers, is in the long-cycle product development process, where short-term day-to-day metrics and the tabulation of results are meaningless. Despite the advent of many new computer tools to speed engineering, testing and certification, the time between "initial idea" and "first unit off the line" is still about 3½ years, depending on the complexity of the product."
Gotta love this quote:
"A Chevrolet Malibu's material cost is within a couple percent of that of a BMW 3-Series."
Life Lessons From the Car Guy
It is sort of interesting the evolution of the makes over the past 30 years or so.
Mazda is becoming the new Honda. (sporty, ergonomic)
Honda is becoming the new Toyota. (softer, reliable)
Toyota is becoming the new GM. (bland, quality slipping)
GM is going somewhere but I don't know where yet!
Agreed. Although trotting to Washington asking for a handout and claiming it was ALL the fault of the economy was galling.
All GM needs to do is two things really well. They're starting to cover one of them, but not sure about the other one:
1 - Take product quality really seriously (starting to do this)
2 - Be very agile. Move quickly with market forces (not looking strong in this area yet). It shouldn't take over 10 years to realize that fuel economy might be important, or Nav systems are expected in cars now, or that even smaller cars can be of high quality, or that hybrids are important.