GM in deep doo-doo

[Pot Stirrer]

Lets get one thing straight. Asian cars ARE NOT better quality than Australian or American for that matter. Reliability wise- I have worked as an apprentice mechanic and have seen first hand how much running repairs these pieces of plastic crap need. Dont believe me? Ask your local mechanic. Better still ask a taxi driver the pro/con of ford and holden vs japanese plastic. These cars use cheap parts and they break easily. Not to mention how hard most of them are to work on.

To prove the point of how cheap and nasty they are; there was a recall on a korean make of car because of a weird 'clack clack clack' noise coming from the engine. Number 4 piston was not there! What I thought when I saw them making ships was "My god, I hope these chumps arent making oil tankers". One good thing I noticed was that their upper management werent paid much more than the grunts; not even double from memory.

Theres my rant for the day.

Although I agree that asian cars are of a lower standard. <deleted>

 

[RichKid]

This never ending push for never ending demands for better EVERYTHING from workers is leaving business in the position where profitability cant happen.

All of a sudden NO JOB---bastard employer!!!

Chinese,Indonesians,Indians rubbing their hands together.

Where'd you rather go home and spend the weekend??
Its a 2 way street people!!

Some of the people who make those big demands (as mentioned by other posters here) are those executives on high salaries, too high if the co isn't performing. They also make demands when they leave and get lots of money for it, employees get a rude look and lots of empty promises. Might as well be fair to both ends of the employee spectrum. Also a company is a separate legal entity, it has its own legal personality, it's mainly there so that people can make demands on the entity while shielding themselves from certain risks, so why should only the weak, vulnerable employees be at the bottom of the heap?

As you mention the Indians, just read an article in a recent Time mag (maybe an old issue from two months ago) about Tata (steel and diversified industries), see how they operate (just do a google) and you'll see they can take care of people and make money and they've done if for many generations.

As for what it'll mean here for GMH--- well I suppose a bit of political pressure may see more subsidies, depends on whose political office hangs in the balance.

 

[Knobby22]

Well said, RichKid

And Toyota is expected to be the number one manufacturer of cars this year, beating all other companies including GMH. They are number 1 in Australia already. And it is just rubbish saying GMH and Ford make better quality cars than Honda and Toyota.

I own a Chrysler Neon which my wife wanted. What a lemon. Switches failing, water getting in. Solder joints failing , it just goes on. Always in for expensive repairs.

A friend of mine who lives in the US bought a Ford, he was very unhappy with it and only buys Euro or Jap now. The car had a dash which said Euro style, what a joke!

 

[Smurf1976]

Lets get one thing straight. Asian cars ARE NOT better quality than Australian or American for that matter.

My own car is a Nissan. At work I drive a Ford so I can directly compare.

Suffice to say that I most certainly won't be swapping my Nissan for a Ford for the simple reason that I prefer a vehicle that doesn't need fixing all the time.

Nissan - 5 and a half years old with no problems at all. Only thing that has been replaced apart from the oil etc. are the front wiper blades and tyres. Normal wear and tear items. That's it. Even the battery is still going fine.

Ford - Two vehicles (leased so frequent changeover) over past 3 and a half years. New battery in one after 12 months. New diff after 20,000 km (had to wait two months because "it's a common fault with this model" and they had run out of spares). Brakes needed work after only 30,000km. Seatbelt not retracting properly. Interior panels falling off from day one until I modified the means of attachment. Fan noisy.

Not being a car expert, I just want a car that I can get in and drive without needing to be a mechanic to get from A to B. Nissan meets that criteria as do Toyota, Honda etc. Hence people will keep buying their cars no matter what price incentives Ford and GM offer.

 

[Milk Man]

Im not going to start any fights. I know several mechanics. ALL of them say that Commodores and Falcons dont get too much trouble. Yes, Honda and Toyota are the pick of Jap cars but the major items (engine, transmission, etc) simply dont last as long as commodore and falcon. Yes, neon's are no good; but give me a neon over a kia anyday. Bikes are a different story....

 

[Green08]

How times have changed and reality real.

I noticed this hasn't been touched since 2005

GM should not have been 'saved', they just delay the inevitable. If you can't see the future changes and your that 'big and famous' then down you go. It is a level playing field - evolution. Ego is not eternal just a self righteous thought.

Reading posts on other cars. I think it really depends on what you want out of your car. My Nissan Patrol Turbo Diesel Manual is perfect for the country and horse float. My Honda Accord Automatic was exceptional in Sydney.

 

[Smurf1976]

Nissan - 5 and a half years old with no problems at all. Only thing that has been replaced apart from the oil etc. are the front wiper blades and tyres. Normal wear and tear items. That's it. Even the battery is still going fine.

Ford - Two vehicles (leased so frequent changeover) over past 3 and a half years. New battery in one after 12 months. New diff after 20,000 km (had to wait two months because "it's a common fault with this model" and they had run out of spares). Brakes needed work after only 30,000km. Seatbelt not retracting properly. Interior panels falling off from day one until I modified the means of attachment. Fan noisy.

That was in 2005.

I still have the same Nissan and yes it's needed some work doing - but nothing more than a new battery and I'm about to get some new tyres soon. The car is now 9 years old.

And we've had more leased Fords at work. Mine's not going too badly, unless you count the seat belt retractor needing cleaning regularly (NEVER had that problem in ANY car before) and a couple of interior panels coming loose.

But the other one we have just needed a new exhaust (after only 50,000 km!!!) and has a failing battery which, for some strange reason, the dealer recommended charging rather than replacing. Um, isn't running the car supposed to keep the battery charged? It does on every other car.

So I'm not surprised to see any of the GM / Chrysler / Ford mob go bankrupt. Two down so far.

Fundamentals win out eventually (though it can take a very long time) and these guys are trying to build a mass market product of mediocre quality using high cost labour. Commonsense says that won't work - either build cheap cars using cheap labour or build higher priced cars with the expensive labour.

Selling GM etc cars at the price they sell them is a lot of the trouble. They need to be charging more, a lot more, given their cost structure. Trouble is, the cars aren't good enough to be charging a higher price given the competition. They need to either make better cars or make the same cars more cheaply.

They don't have the quality of Euro / Jap and they don't have the low costs of Korea etc so they're stuck in no man's land. Can't build it cheaply but it has to sell fairly cheap. Economics 101 says that's not going to work for too long.