Quote:

If GM could make a car that lasts five years without major problems, they wouldn't be in this mess.



They've been doing this for the past 15 years at least. The problem is, everyone remembers the Chevy Citations from the 1980s.

There is an american media bias against american car companies and a general 'pass' for the japanese companies. You probably haven't heard about the Toyota oil sludge issue, but just google those terms. Had that issue been associated with GM, Ford or Chrysler, it would have been headline news.

Consumer Reports even admits that it refuses to give GM a 'recommended buy', the most coveted award in the automotive industry, for a new model in it's first year, whereas it will do such for Toyota and Honda.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it is financially a HUGE deal. The first model year of a vehicle is where it can do the most to conquer sales from other manufacturers. Getting that CR rating is a big part of the equation.

GM's current mess was created mainly by the lack of credit availability - plain and simple. 40% of nearly all car company customers, foreign and domestic, were removed from the marketplace nearly overnight. (the middle 6 months of 2008).

Look, I worked for them for 15 years - just quit in April. 2 years ago I got a profit sharing check, with a much less favorable cost structure than what exists today.

The car industry had been cranking along with 16,000,000,000 to 17,000,000 unit sales on a year to year basis. Now it's looking like a 9,000,000 to 10,000,000 unit per year market. All the car companies are reeling as a result - but again, the bad news focuses on the domestics. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for them to fail.

The only reason the Japanese companies aren't in as much of a hurt is they had more cash on hand. Toyota lost money this year. And it will likely happen again for 2010.

They also don't have a big retirement aged former workforce in this country as a sunk cost. You can look at that as a good thing, but guess what - now the taxpayer will be paying more for those retiree's health care bills as well as a result of the bankruptcy.

Honestly - check the real reliability results and you'll see there that the playing field is flat these days. I'm not talking about people's opinions on reliability (such as yours posted above), but the reliability ratings based on part and system failures.

And nobody tips a hat to GM for what they did immediately following 9/11. Kept a good part of the US economy in business with 0% financing.

I was fortunate to escape the industry. It's impossible to sustain a domestic industry when we are making the best products in decades; better than a good deal if not all of the competition, and attitudes like the above are still present in the society. Perception is reality.

Just please go test-drive a Malibu.

My Songs, photos, writing,etc.
My Sound Cloud