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Get a smoking deal on a GM car/truck now!

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  • Get a smoking deal on a GM car/truck now!

    Copied this off the AOL site (people who don't use AOL wouldn't be able to open any shortcut to AOL, hence, the whole story below).
    Miulang

    GM Offers Employee Discounts to Public
    by Eric Peters
    General Motors has announced it will extend the generous discounts on new vehicle purchases it provides as a perk to GM employees to the general public -- the latest effort to prop up flagging sales and declining market share.

    The discount -- approximately 3-4 percent off the dealer invoice price of a new vehicle -- could amount to savings of thousands of dollars per vehicle.

    The problem for GM, though, is that new and deeper discounts for buyers means even less profits for GM. And cutting profits won't dig GM out of the hole it's in.

    First quarter losses are much larger than expected -- $846 million, according to GM CEO Rick Wagoner -- the largest quarterly loss since 1992. And GM's overall market share has dropped to about 25.4 percent, a dramatic downturn. The value of GM shares has fallen through the floor to junk bond status -- vitiating nearly $13 billion in shareholder equity.

    Things are not looking good for the world's largest automaker. Inventories of vehicles are piling up on dealer lots, sales of high-profit large SUVs have fallen off as gas prices have gone up -- and several GM divisions (notably Pontiac and Buick) are close to being on life support .

    In response, GM has cut production by 12 percent (with future cuts and plant closings in store) and resorted to extraordinary incentive programs that amount to fire sale prices, while competitors -- most notably Toyota, the world's Number Two automaker -- are selling cars at full mark-up and are awash in profit.

    Toyota reportedly has enough cash on hand to buy GM's entire automotive operations outright -- and is gunning to replace GM as the world's Number One automaker within five years.


    So what will happen to GM?

    Morgan Stanley auto industry analyst Stephen Girsky says GM's declining market share "...doesn't support its size. They have too many plants, too many workers, too many models, too many dealers and their employee benefits are too high.”

    In other words, barring a major turnaround in profitability, the odds are that GM will likely retire its poor-performing Buick and Pontiac divisions -- each of which have dwindled to less than 3 percent of the market. The remaining GM divisions will be consolidated and streamlined -- with the number of models reduced. More U.S. assembly and manufacturing facilities will be shuttered -- and more jobs moved overseas to take advantage of cheaper labor and lower regulatory compliance costs.

    The sad part is that GM is producing some of the best vehicles it has ever built, with several models ranking as well as top-scoring Toyota/Lexus and other import vehicles in terms of customer satisfaction and the number of problems reported during the first 90 days of ownership. The 2005 Corvette comes standard with a 400 horsepower engine and equals or beats the performance of cars costing two to three times as much. Cadillac is once again a "hip" brand -- and the new Chevy Cobalt is an excellent small car as good as anything from Honda or Toyota.

    Maybe even better.

    Unfortunately, if may be too little, too late. The iceberg looms large in the lookout tower -- and it may impossible to steer away in time.

    For consumers, GM's woes mean some great cars are available at even better prices -- especially if the new employee discounts become available across the board.

    The only downside is there may not be a GM around in five or ten years.
    "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

  • #2
    Re: Get a smoking deal on a GM car/truck now!

    What will happen to Ford and Daimler Chrysler? If GM goes out of business, then will imports rule North America's freeways?

    Its too bad that my Dad (who literally controls the garage at home) won't go for anything other than Ford (we have one Ford Aerostar and 2 F150s). But then again, I don't think I'd like to drive a brand new car.
    How'd I get so white and nerdy?

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    • #3
      Re: Get a smoking deal on a GM car/truck now!

      Something tells me the local GM plant fixing to lay off thousands wont be getting much business FROM those thousands.
      If anyone on Oahu is NOT happy , feel free to trade places with me.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Get a smoking deal on a GM car/truck now!

        Unfortunately, when a company as large as GM goes under (and 25,000+ people get laid off work at about the same time), it's going to create major economic havoc for this country.

        I doubt we will ever again be in the position of bailing out a company this large; remember when the government helped bail out Chrysler in the 70s?

        Toyota (#2 largest auto manufacturer in the world, right behind GM), apparently has enough cash to buy out GM right now. They are making money hand over fist; they don't have to rely on sales to get their cars out the door. Seems to me that if the US automakers had been listening to the consumers and not put all their eggs into the SUV/big truck basket, they might not be hurting as much. Ford at least has some hybrid cars (including one of the only hybrid SUVs---the Escape) and they own part of Mazda and Jaguar, so maybe they won't be in such dire straits in the long run.

        The people I feel badly for are all the workers...and the retired workers and stockholders who will soon be holding onto worthless pieces of paper.

        Then again, the Chinese want to bring over their "Chery", a small subcompact car that is supposed to be sold in the US beginning sometime later this year, I think. And the Korean carmakers seem to be holding their own (Hyndai especially).

        All of you who own Chevys now, they might be worth lots of money to collectors if GM ever folded.

        Miulang
        "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

        Comment


        • #5
          Ford has quality problems too!

          Maybe one reason why Americans don't want to buy US-made cars is because the manufacturers don't pay enough attention to quality control? Ford now has to recall about 260,000 pickups and Ford Excursion vans. I'm sure Henry Ford would be rolling in his grave right now. Everytime there's a recall of this magnitude, it costs the company lots of money to correct the problem. You'd think if they spent time being more careful when the build the cars in the first place, they wouldn't have to recall them so often!

          Miulang
          "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Get a smoking deal on a GM car/truck now!

            Oklahoma City's plant is fixing to lose a whole bunch but then someone was diggin on the employees for not driving their own product tho too.......

            Its going to hurt OK alot but they have been digging their own grave for awhile now anyway.
            If anyone on Oahu is NOT happy , feel free to trade places with me.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Get a smoking deal on a GM car/truck now!

              Another US industry in jeopardy? I think rifts between labor and management causes most of the inefficiencies in today's US labor workforce. Instead of working together to promote a good product, both sides seem to just want the money grab and leave the consumer with inferior products.

              Management seems interested only in satisfying it's investors while labor unions focus on freebie benefits. Both can undermine the quality control of a product or service.

              So if you make the workers the investors then management has to support the workers because they are their investors. The labor force on the other hand will strive for a better product to improve it's return on investment thru customer satisfaction. Yeah I know Hell will freeze over first right? Well at least we're on the right track with Profit Sharing.
              Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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