GM is counting on the Volt to knock the CAFE standards down. They have many new products coming with great milage numbers. Electric is coming! There was a meeting at the Tech Center in Warren, Mi. and 'all' were invited to hear about GM's future, yes, they plan on a future and it is a bright one too, no matter what you hear. The C7 is on hold for now, (unless it has been made by somebody else),has been for about 8 months now, and if you don't agree with me, don't bother telling me, I really don't care, I worked there up until last week. GM has about 6 vehicles that beat 30 miles per gallon, some with over 35, remember though, that most people were wanting the big SUV's, me included, to go along with their Vette. I see how the stock is down, perfect time to buy.... We need to drill for our own oil, we have plenty to get to supply America if we can only do it without hurting a fish, bird, (put in your own species). Finally, the Retro Vette that is now being shown was made about two or more years ago, that is when my friends and I saw it in Michigan, it is now being called the Transformers car or whatever, I don't know where it's at now, but by the picture, it looks like it is being painted. It was a bright silver, you ought to see the two big holes in the back, does anybody have any of the back end? It might surprise you more than the front. Some nice Caddy's are coming out, what's that Chrysler station wagon called? Anyway, I was told that GM was nearly broke when I hired in 38 years ago, we hardly ever got Anything for profit sharing, GM never made any money, it stayed number one for all those years and Never made any money! Amazing isn't it?? They just spent a Billion dollars cash and Wall Street says that they are going broke. The lenders aren't lending so GM spends cash. Well, GM just told us that we have money for our medical for 80 years, YES, 80 years, so I guess that I should be fine in my retirement, as long as I don't live past 135 years old, it could get a little shaky. Just thought that I would share a Little bit of GM news with the Forum Brothers........see ya.......

 

Do you have any insight to the dual mode hybrid availability for the truck and SUV's this coming year? Are they still going to be difficult to come by(they are adding the 1500 series trucks in a certain body style I heard) or does GM now have the ability to ramp up that hybrid version offering? Unfortunately, I need a truck, don't drive it much, but I still need one and it is mostly for around town pick-up and delivery type situations.

Sorry to hear the C7 is still on hold. The corvette group should be given the green light and get going on that thing again.

 

I'm sorry, I don't have much to offer. I usually just go and check on the performance vehicles, like 'They' were toying with a Caddy CTS with the *** motor in it, it was a supercharged motor, not original, I don't think that it was for production, sometimes GM just does stuff to try out. The truck series that GM was talking about, you probably already know more about it than I do, smaller, more efficient motors, the larger motors with some sort of electric motor at cruise, (your Hybrids), cylinders cutting out at cruising speeds, they have already been using these, you probably saw they're testing the Hydrogen, (I believe that is the term being used), powered trucks right now with a select group of people. I can see them going to smaller turbo diesel engines to keep up with CAFE standards and performance for small cars and most of their trucks. But for right now, GM is going strong on the Volt and from what we are told, the 40 mile range before charging is supposed to be on a 10 year old battery, don't ask how they can tell this, but the immediate range is supposed to be more than they are saying, Remember GM ALWAYS under rates everything, which is what I love about them. The C7 was put on hold the same time the rear wheel drive Impala and Monte were. All else from the Magazines is just talk, while I could never talk about Company secrets, I really get pissed off at the mags when they put out BS. Sorry again that I couldn't be more helpful......

 

Remember, it took 12 years between the C4 and C5, and during that time period, corvette almost became part of history. GM's financial position during those twelve years was never close to being as bad as they are now.

If the Volt is supposed to save GM, I would think the company is a goner. Do you think Toyota and Honda have not been doing electric car development for a long time? They sure have, and their engineering is certainly excellent as is GM's.

GM needs a radical change in their senior management or the company will continue to founder. They have lacked foresight for decades and that is the biggest reason the company has tanked.

 

GM's stock was nearing $9 a share somtime last week. It has not been at that value since 1954. The dollar was worth maybe 8 times more back then, so that would make the eqivalent current cost in 1954 dollars $1.12. How sad is that? I hate GM because they make the Corvette, and I love the Vette. I could hope a car company with real vision, a different bottom line, and an utter lack of upper management stupidity made the Vette. The car would probably cost a little more, have a lot better quality, oh yeah, and real dealer customer service.

I have a friend at the Chevy dealership that told me they did not sell one diesel truck for the entire month of May!!!! Wow, are they hurting.

They accepted an offer from me for essentially invoice for an 08 Z06, this from a dealer that is notorious for "above MSRP", only. I hope they go bankrupt.


GM is paying for its past mistakes. Making $10,000 profit on every Tahoe, Chevy and GMC trucks. It is offering locally $15000 off on its Duramax trucks, so is Dodge. Ha, very funny.

The extremely poor Customer service I have received for making the mistake of spending $200,000 on GM premium vehicles was my thank you from them. Good Riddance.

 

It sounds like your problem is more with the dealer than GM.

As far as making $10k profit on trucks, that's a good thing, no? A corporation's only purpose is to make money for its shareholders.

 

As stated above, why is making a profit a bad thing? We live in a free market economy, if a company does not make a profit, they go out of business. The other thing is, you live in the US. If enough US corporations go out of business, where ya gonna work? I think you need to study a bit more and develop your thought processes.

 

We have a saying at work with the UAW, it goes...
'Out of a job yet? Keep buying Foreign'
we will learn someday.........

 

I agree with poster number #4. Top brass at GM is probably more hurtfull to the company now than the UAW is. Yes, I think there are some issues to iron out in the UAW contracts, but the top brass is just visionless when it comes to product.

I think the situation with the C7 is the perfect example. Here is the Corvette group who has made a tremendous effort for CLASS LEADING ENGINEERING and producing a VERY COMPITITIVE VEHICLE in the sports car market, yet GM puts the C7 on hold. I understand the Corvette isn't a large money maker for GM, but they should be taking the facts that the Corvette group is at least doing it right and spread that through the corporation.

 

If you take the people who are doing the Corvette right, and put them to work bringing that expertise to other cars through the line, you really don't have those people available to work on the C7, do you?

 

No, that is a non-issue about profits. I am saying selling a vehicle around the time I read this report, which at the time sold for $40K, and making 25% in profit is ridiculous. Especially when the car has serious quality, and design issues. If they had cut their profits some, and sold better products, they would not be in this mess. I don't believe this problem is industry wide. Take a look at Honda, they didn't bet the farm on mass profit, huge rebates, big trucks and crappy cars. They are a solid company who knows what it takes to keep customers. They are not giving rebates as of Saturday, and everyone else is.

GM's bottom line has always been more about profit, than quality engineering, after the sale satisfaction or customer service. I would not have been at the dealers' service department, had my vehicle not broken down, all three: Z06, H2, Caddy STS.

I get treated better at Nissan, than at the Cadillac dealer. The fact that a Nissan Frontier, is the number two customer voted truck in America, and I am treated much better there says much about Nissan's intent for future purchases. The way Cadillac treated me, you would think they never wanted me to buy another. If you know GM's current stock price, you would think that is how they treat everyone. The service manager told me he didn't want me as a customer anymore because I had a problem with his poor service department. I told him to go across the street, and learn from Nissan.

As far as a corporation's sole purpose is to make profits, that is how GM operates and look where it got them!!

 

Although I agree completely that GM, Ford and Chrysler make unbelievably crappy products that fall to pieces almost immediately and depreciate on a slope that would be too steep to ski, I am sure that your problems are dealer related. I have a DTS Caddy that I bought one year old (at 50% of sticker- see depreciation remark above) and the service at Kachina in Scottsdale is fantastic. They always give me a Caddy loaner car , they always detail my car and they always explain what was wrong. These are all good thing because the car is in the shop about every 3 weeks ( see unbelievably crappy above) . You need to go somewhere else for service old chap. Oh , and I bought a Suburban about 18 months ago and it has the worst driving position of any car I've ever owned and I have had 185 cars. These are my last non-german sedan cars ever so I just kind of put up with it... I will have two more cars in a few months and these will be but a memory. Hopefully the new C7 is a better unit both in looks and build quality than the current model or my 2 seat car will be German too...

 

Hi all
I worked for a fortune 50 company for many years
when i started we were tough the company will take care of the employees if the employees take care of the costumers If we KEEP the costumers HAPPY the profits will take care of the company and the stockholders and it always did Our stock was always high, Then what we called the new MBA manger types
starting running the show. They believed that you had to make money on every job BUT forget that at
times it is cheaper to louse on the front end when you will make a much bigger profit on a long term basses
with very little service involved Happy Costumers will stay with you and also sell for you But the country is also true We were topically more expensive but use to be worth it Not sure anymore

 

Sorry, that isn't how it works. GM has experts in all the fields, it doesn't take from one to move to another. Caddy has theirs, Corvette theirs, etc. etc..... There is more discussion between brands now than there was years ago. Rick Waggoner has just come out with a live discussion on GM's future, check this out....

 

Yes, true, but dealers are GM, and vice versa. The lack of concern goes from many dealers, to many within GM. They are currently unconcerned with you or your problems with their products. The problems with my 06 STS, were handled by a guy in India, who was both Caddillac and Chevy, and GM customer service. This is idiotic,some guy in India does not give a rats a$$ about you or your automobile issues, when many in that country go without basic necessities. GM is currently unconcerned about it's customer base and has in the past been largely the same. I have never until the problems with my Caddy, bought a foreign car, I am now on my third new japanese car, wow!

 

You are certainly right! I praise GM on their technological knowledge and what they are capable of doing, they certainly need to realize that they are lacking in personal areas of concern. It's not always about the money, they think it is and that is why they are losing a certain clientele. They need to look at it all and they need to do it now.

 

GM has announced that they will no longer pay for their salaried retirees Medicare supplement ins. This is an obvious cost cutting move and should be done with every retiree as it has in many other industries. My father is a retired engineer from corporate America and pays his own way with his Medicare. My mother is a retired teacher and has no one paying her health care bill either. This is not that big of a deal. Tens on millions of retirees do it and don't live under a bridge.

 

This is true, Ford salary workers lost a law suit against Ford on this issue years ago. My problem with this view is that you work 30 years or more with a promise of something and then you retire with this and then 'They' come along and take it away from you after you retire. Many would not have retired if they knew this up front. It's like working a month for a certain amount of money and then, after you are finished working, 'They' renegotiate your pay without asking you. I'm sure none of you would work for these conditions. Many people will have to go to work again if their medical doesn't cover them. My uncle did.