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But I've had friends call me on their cells so I could look up directions on MapQuest and my personalized turn by turn got them where they needed to be, even without any GPS info or maps.
If my gizmo was just a map with no turn by turn (and many of them are), I'd be blowing by intersections all the time.
Personally I like the screen in the car but spending $2500 is ok with me. I figure I will get most of it back in resale.
I wonder. Accessories and options may not add much to the resale price (although that's generally more true of aftermarket add-ons). But you'll have a built-in system and the POIs and maps will be several years out of date when you trade. And it will probably cost ~$300 to update the factory navigation. But you can buy a good portable for that or less with up to date info.
And you can't take OnStar or a built-in navigation system with you in a rental car (mine has a MP3 player built in, so I take it on the slopes).
But I gotta tell you I love my nav. I am constantly taking kids everywhere and I have all their friends homes saved. Will not buy another car w/o it.
The following table provides estimates for car and light- truck sales in the U.S. Estimates for companies are percentage changes from January 2007. Forecasts for the seasonally adjusted annual rate, or SAAR, are in millions of vehicles.
The SAAR average is based on forecasts from 9 analysts and a survey of 30 economists. The estimates are based on daily selling rates. January had 26 selling days, one more than in 2007.
Analyst GM Ford Chrysler SAAR
Patrick Archambault -39% -33% -52% 10.0
(Goldman Sachs)
Christopher Ceraso -41% -32% -50% 10.2
(Credit Suisse)
Christopher Hopson -41% -36% -48% 9.8
(IHS Global Insight)
Brian Johnson -37% -35% -46% 10.2
(Barclays Capital)
Richard Kwas -40% -33% -48% 10.0
(Wachovia)
Erich Merkle -44% -29% -50% 10.0
(Independent Auto Analyst)
Itay Michaeli N/A N/A N/A 11.2
(Citigroup)
John Sousanis -33% -34% -50% 10.4
(Ward’s Automotive)
Jesse Toprak -40% -33% -50% 10.6
(Edmunds.com)
AVERAGE: -39% -33% -49% 10.3
Bloomberg Economists N/A N/A N/A 10.2
(Average of 30 estimates)
Regards,
OW
Regards,
OW
BUT look for retail to be about even with December. GM will be down about 20% from December overall. But this should be the worst month of the year unless the economy really takes more hits. But hey, we now have Obama in charge and the future is rosy through my sunglasses. :P
And look for February to again have even retail but a big jump in fleet so overall GM should be down about 20% from last February. But then again February has not even started so there are too many unknown factors to make a decent guess. SAAR should be about 10.5.
$9.8MM SAAR for February given I am within 2% margin of error in Jan.
More importantly, in this downturn will be the market share. Will GM loose more or stop the trend??
We will see.
Regards,
OW
I wish I still had access to days of stock. If it is not too high GM would run the plants that sell fleet and get the orders out in February.
Talk about pressure. Just a couple of weeks before General Motors has to submit a detailed plan proving viability, GM executives have no idea what to do with their losing brands.... »
http://www.autonews.com/
Saturn as a vehicle lineup is really unsellable since every product is built on a GM platform. The worth to someone is the dealership franchise that is already out there and the brand name recognition someone may want (China or India company). As we have already posted here the only real plan is to let it die a slow death with no new product. This keeps GM from taking the dealership franchise closing cost hit in the near term and cost GM virtually no money. Whatever dealers are left in 2012 will have to be delt with but it should be a better time since US sales will be a lot better.
Jamie LaReau from Automotive News: Talk about pressure. Just a couple of weeks before General Motors has to submit a detailed plan proving viability, GM executives have no idea what to do with their losing brands. GM asked various companies to run Saturn and absorb the dealerships, provide product lines and perhaps rename the brand, says a source. But no one was interested. GM never tried to sell Saturn outright because it is so entrenched in GM's product and manufacturing system that it would be nearly impossible to reorganize as a separate company. According to a dealer familiar with the talks, options include allowing dealers to buy the brand, blending Saturn into the Buick-Pontiac-GMC channel, finding an outside investor to finance an upgrade of the product lineup, and finding a global partner. But Saturn's future remains unsettled, and GM could kill it, one source says.
About the only organizations that will be buying fleet is government; almost every other company is cancelling and delaying spending.
Remember retail has been running even for GM, it is the fleet orders that have decreased.
And there are many more unemployed at the end of Jan. than in Dec., which has more of an effect on those with jobs. And most people are poorer this month as they have again seen their stock and retirement funds hit - the S&P500 was down 9% in Jan.
The data that the economy is getting worse is right in front of you everyday.
And with GM and Chrysler not having done anything (just talk) towards viability, then I doubt Congress is going to be in the mood to extend any more loans, and hopefully calls for the existing ones repayment.
GM should have sold Saab and Hummer by Dec. 31, having publicly announced they would take the high-bid for them as of midnight that day. Saturn should have been shuttered, with the existing cars and inventory of parts and tooling liquidated. Any buildings or land Saturn owned should have been sold at public auction.
GM will not have to pay the "back taxes" These are taxes from receiving the loan! It was supposed to be negated by the house bill that did not get passed but the pres forgot to include it in the actual load agreement.
The equity-for-debt exchange is aimed at ensuring G.M.’s viability in the future, but under corporate tax law, the swap would amount to debt forgiveness and count as income for G.M.
This tax law provision is to keep business's from buying other business's in debt and use that debt to lower their taxes. In this case it is the government that is that other business. Most likely the tax will not be collected.
The $66 billion is what the restructuring is about. At least 2/3 of that will be gone or GM will have a hard time getting more loan funds.
Any buildings or land Saturn owned should have been sold at public auction.
Saturn/Hummer owns no buildings or land. Now Saab does have at least one facility in Sweden.
Edmunds predicts sales will recover during the second half of the year to an annual total of 12.4 million units, down from 13.2 million in 2008.
"I think there's a lot of pent-up demand," Toprak said. "Consumers postponed purchases in the marketplace for the last year or longer, and once conditions start stabilizing in the economy, we're going to start seeing those postponements become reality."
Don't those that hold the debt have to agree? If GM owed me that money they would have to go to bankruptcy court to get out of paying. I would want their foreign assets that are making money.
General Motors, anticipating the spring selling season, is boosting some of its light-truck production in March.
GM will restore production on Line 1 in its Flint, Mich., plant for the week of March 16, according to the UAW Local 598 Web site. The company also will increase the line speed of Line 1 from 27.7 jobs per hour to 31.5. Line 1 builds the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra
Chrysler's early retirement package includes $50,000 cash and a $25,000 voucher to buy a car, while the Auburn Hills-based company's buyouts include $75,000 cash and a $25,000 car voucher, according to the union memo. The buyout offer is more lucrative, with $115,000 plus a $25,000 car voucher for workers with 10 or more years of seniority at closed plants in St. Louis and Newark, Del., according to the memo.
News of Chrysler's offers was reported earlier Monday by the trade publication Automotive News.
GM's offers, to nearly all its UAW employees, are less lucrative. The Detroit company is offering $20,000 in cash and a $25,000 car voucher for workers who retire early and those who simply leave the company, according to the union official.
GM spokesman Tony Sapienza and UAW spokeswoman Christine Moroski declined to comment on the offers.
Regards,
OW
In my opinion, if you are part of the employee base that helped drive a company into the ground, why should you get bought out?
If anything, employees should get their own companies stocks, which are worthless, just like UAW employees when it comes to making quality vehicles.
Toyota packages it's options in groupings. It is a little irritating. I would like leather but not Nav and that's a tough if impossible combination. However I am sure this packaging is just one of the many reasons they can effeciently move their cars down the assembly line, ship them overseas (even thought the KY Camry's are the same) and then distribute them.
I believe GM does this to a good extent with the 1LT, 2LT etc packages but may offer a little more flexibility. I know in the past when I bought a GM car I was always impressed that I could order exactly what I wanted and get it in 6 weeks.
I never want a sunroof, don't like them and they take too much headroom. One 3 series BMW I ordered in 1980's came in with one and they said it was the only way they could get them. I didn't buy it because I had to tilt my head to sit up straight. I would be curious to know how many millions American consumers waste on Sunroof's and Premium stereo's when they could really give a hoot about owning one.
in Warren, Mich.
One is an artifact, built a dozen years ago. Weighing 1,200 pounds, it
could fill the back of a large pickup truck. Standing on one end, it
towers over GM's Robert A. Kruse, executive director of global vehicle
engineering for hybrids and electric vehicles.
The other battery is new and produces the same amount of energy but is a
relatively trim 400 pounds. It comes up just past Kruse's shoulder, and
it will squeeze into the body of the compact Chevy Volt that GM plans to
start producing next year.
.... and Edmunds thinks that's going to happen in the second half of THIS year?
Most forecasters are saying the same thing.
In my opinion, if you are part of the employee base that helped drive a company into the ground, why should you get bought out?
I sort of agree with you conceptually. But the bailouts were to help the D2 become viable. Part of that is to lower cost structure. If you don't pay a worker to leave they won't go. Getting the payroll down (and hiring workers and new lower wage structure if necessary) is how you make GM more competitive. So it's a practical approach.
Most forecasters are saying the same thing.
...of course, at the end of 2007 they were saying that the economy would slow in mid 2008 and be on the rebound by the end of 2008.
It's not the sales that matter at this point. GM couldn't make money when sales were 16.5M, it's a given they will continue to lose money whether sales are 10M, 11M or 13M. It's how much money they have to put on each car to move them. If they have to use $4k and $5k to move the cars, expect another record loss. Also gas is slowing inching up to $2.00/gallon. I'm sure we will be at $3 by Memorial Day, which will slow truck sales again.
BTW, Macy's announced they are laying off 7,000 people and another half million were laid off in January. I just don't think Americans really care if GM or Chrysler stay in business at this point. Buying a new car is not a priority when people are losing their homes and jobs on a daily basis. The reality is one or both will not survive. We will lose more jobs in the automotive industry. Suppliers and dealerships will go out of business and there is nothing we can do about it! the auto industry needs to down size to match the economy. It can always expand if sales increase in the future.
Wagoner and the rest of his merry men better get to work on a plan. At least Chrysler has come to the realization that they had to partner with someone to have any hopes of staying in business. Desperate times call for desperate actions. GM needs to start thinking outside the box.....quickly.
This "recession" is different than anyone in the past as far as I can tell. I think the whole country has already stopped buying what they do not need because they are afraid they might lose their job. I guess I am not sure we will see much job growth this year. Hopefully the forecasters are correct and folks will start to spend in the 3rd quarter and then we may well see job growth in the 4rth. Need uptick in spending before uptick in hiring.
Now if the stock market works like it is supposed to we should see it go up the next couple months ahead of the economy going up. I think that the investors are a bit concerned about the very progressive (liberal
Regards,
OW
Not me. Then again, I work for a company that provides services to the aftermarket parts industry. We're expecting sales and revenue growth as people fix their old cars instead of buying new ones. :shades:
BUT look for retail to be about even with December. GM will be down about 20% from December overall.
Sales will be announced today. Because fleet has been about 20% of GM sales for the last year look for GM to be worst than the industry because their plants were shut down. Important factor for the economy is what the retail side does.
Go here at 1:45
January sales
GM Statement Regarding the Status of GM's Medium-Duty Business
As GM announced in August, it is continuing to operate the medium duty business as it has in the past, including providing sales, service and marketing support to GM dealers for its medium duty trucks. While GM is assessing various strategic options for the business, no decisions have been reached and there are no details to share at this time.
About 525 hourly and salaried workers are employed on the medium-duty truck line in Flint, which produced 22,000 vehicles last year, GM spokesman Tony Sapienza said.
Trucks produced at the plant include the GMC TopKick and Chevrolet Kodiak.
Isuzu may buy?
General Motors Corp. is negotiating with Isuzu Motors Ltd. to sell its medium-duty truck business, a move that would help the cash-strapped automaker raise money, cut costs and help ensure it complies with a $13.4 billion federal loan package.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090203/AUTO01/902030327/1148-
The financing arm for General Motors Corp., which is also owned by Cerberus Capital Management, also said Tuesday its financial condition has improved since the government approved its application to become a bank holding company last month.
GMAC says it earned $7.5 billion in the fourth quarter, after a loss of $724 million in the same quarter last year. Revenue more than tripled to $11.42 billion from $3.29 billion.
The company attributes the better results to an after-tax gain of $11.4 billion from a debt exchange program in which it raised capital to ride out a collapse in auto sales.
With only two weeks left you have to wonder if GM has anything of value to give in exchange for the bailout money. Has the UAW made any gestures to help?
The new plan will see GM restoring one line at its Flint, Michigan truck plant during the week of March 16th. The speed of that added line will also be bumped from 27.7 jobs per hour to 31.5. The Flint plant produces heavy-duty versions of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks.
Additionally, GM will increase the line speed of its Arlington, Texas plant, and will also restore the plant’s production the week of March 2nd, according to Automotive News. The Arlington plant produces the Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon, along with their hybrid counterparts.
Everything is being negotiated. GM board will probably make announcements soon on status.
As far as Isuzu this is only one plant. The UAW cannot hold the entire industry hostage with a strike on this plant. New owners could pretty much say (because they have no other US plants to take down) take what we will give you or good by. Since they closed Janesville the capacity of medium duty trucks is way down and should lead to profitability once things get moving again. And if Dodge goes under there is even less capacity.
Don't worry the Republicans will get their $0.02 in......I mean $$70B in. As much as I hate to see the government spend that kind of money, They are the only ones who are investing in businesses right now. Exxon-Mobil as well as other companies are sitting on hoards of cash. GM should be approaching one of these companies to help them. Imagine an oil company promoting the electric car. :shades: Sounds like a great idea to me.