I was watching CNN this morning and they are saying GM announced their revenue forcast for 05 will be an 80% drop from the previous forcast. Their shares dropped 14% (that's alot on a GM stock) and it's trading at it's lowest point since 1992.

Some of the blame is due to the inflated numbers of vehicles they assumed would sell more, (SSR, G6, GTO, and even the Cobalt). The cars aren't moving like they expected.

Some of us probably aren't surprised. I put the blame on Lutz for green lighting some of these cars (SSR and GTO) but I figured the G6 and Cobalt would make money for them.

 

Well, I never thought the G6 would be anything but a failure. The Cobalt's a little surprising, I can only assume it's not selling because it doesn't have the massive rebates the Cavalier did. Just for example, my sister was offered a brand new Cavalier LS Sport (2004) that stickered for just a hair over $21,000 for about $12,000. Not to be fair, that's with a discount because we have family that work for GM. But just over $9000 dollars off the price of a Cavalier is a big drop.

As for Lutz, well I can't take credit for what I'm about to say, jsaylor said it to me, but it's true. There's someone at Chrysler that got jobbed, because Lutz was taking credit for their work apparently. His best idea so far was the GTO, and that couldn't even get done correctly.

 

After looking at some of the decisions Lutz has made at GM I question his intellegence.

There is not one product in the pipeline at GM that I like. In fact, all of the cars in the works look bland and uninspired. The Malibu, Monte Carlo, Impala (Lumina?) all are ultra conservative designes that are destined to rental car status. I can't honestly say that those cars stack up against their competitors.

I am still in utter shock that they are building the PT Cruiser knockoff HHR. I doubt that they will move at all and will have a very short lifespan.

The G6 seems to be selling well, as are the Cobalt and Equinox

 

The HHR is years too late to the market. GM is perpetually a day late and a dollar short.

 

G6 (as well as Buick LaCrosse and Chevy Cobalt) sales aren't that good.

http://www.automotivedigest.com/view_art.a...rticlesID=14999

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2005-0...over-usat_x.htm

 

WOW! That USA Today article was supprising. Percentages can show anything but when you have numerical figures to represent these %'s, those are "a lot of Benjamin's". The article said GM expects profit for the full year to be as low as $565 million and no higher than $1.13 billion. It previously had forecast a range of about $2.3 billion to $2.8 billion.

It also noted the recalls, the brand new G6 doesn't have a child restraint anchor in the owners manual. O.K. but how stupid must one be to not be able to find the L.A.T.C.H anchor in any vehicle that has them? I mean really folks, but I guess they are living by the motto, "CYA", for legalities. And what IF GM vehicles becomes/receives a "Junk'" bond rating, hmmm?

I also agree w/ Peter DeLorenzo in that GM is spread WAY, WAY to thin. They have too many cars that look too similar to each other, w/ a few minor exceptions. They all are either "square-ish" or "oval-ish", depending on which lineup of GM you look at. Like Galaxie stated, Impala, the Jeff Gordon mobile, Malibu, man my cousin had a '76 Chevelle Malibu when I was 12 and he was 18 or 19 and he used to run me up and down the Banks Co. back roads in that thing. They all look similar to where if they were all lined up side by side and from a 100 yards, I could not distinguish them, throw in a Vette or a Mustang, and then it would be easy.

 

I have to agree with you there. GM has been on a downward spiral since the late nineties; honestly the Trans Am I ordered in '98 was the last car Pontiac produced that I cared anything about, and while I like the new 'Vette, there's way too many of them around town and the price point is completely out of my league. GM is saddled with way too much duplication -- do you know how many rebadged copies of the Chevy Uplander there are? Chevy, Pontiac, Saturn and Buick ALL have one, and they all look the exact same. If Olds was still around, I'm sure they'd have one too. Now Pontiac is getting their own rebadge of the Equinox. Who cares? Why do we need it? And the HHR...I cannot even believe they're going to build it.

And as Galaxie said, the other big problem is the rental car image. GM seems only to have two design philosophies on tap: The ultra-conservative, push-no-envelopes design, and the so-radical-it's-ugly design. The only brand new design I've seen them put together that I actually like is the Solstice/Sky, particularly the latter. I wouldn't buy one, though, cause I need my V8 fix.

Now that they've killed Zeta, and probably the '08+ GTO with it, I see GM running back to their safe truck/SUV corner and churning out as many Silveradoes, Tahoes and TrailBlazers as they can. The bean counters are still screaming, "Big SUVs, big profit margin!" But for how much longer? I dunno...doesn't matter how big the perceived profit margin is if they have to mark 'em all down ten grand just to move 'em.

When Lutz took over at GM I remember being pretty excited about his ideas, but not one of them, with the possible exception of Solstice, has panned out. Lutz's entire mission plan at GM seems to be an abject failure. At this point I think it's time for them to find some new leadership.

As for me, I continue to await (with much excitement) the unveiling of the '07 Shelby Cobra GT500, for it's quite plain that Ford knows what excites its halo car buyers, and also that in the near future I'm going to be putting a blue oval in my garage instead of another red arrowhead. I go where the excitement is. Right now, Pontiac's not building any more excitement. But Ford and SVT sure are.

 

In my opinion, with gas prices rising sharply, I think it is a terrible mistake to place your eggs in the truck/SUV basket. If we get another fuel crisis as it happened 30 years ago, they will go bankrupt.
That is what they are doing by killing Zeta and trying to get the new trucks out there quicker.

 

What I can't understand is their recent car company purchases. Ford had a hard time coming back from their spending (LR, Jag, Volvo, AM, Mazda) but the only one not making money now is Jag. They picked some really diverse companies, and made some really smart moves, and Ford has really done well with gobalizing their platforms (thank you Volvo!). Ford had 3 brands when they started buying (Ford, Lincoln, Mercury), but when GM started buying they had 7 (Cadillac, Chevy, Pontiac, Saturn, Buick, Oldsmobile, GMC). And to get diverse they bought Hummer and Saab? Come on. When I was growing up, I always respected the power Camaro's and Trans Am's made, I thought the original GMC Denali was refreshing, and I will NEVER forget the first time I drove a Corvette, but now, the only thing that moves me in that entire company is the Saturn Sky, and who knows how much that will change before it hits production. I just think they need to K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid). Anyone see Pontiac and Buick going the way of Olds to be replaced by Saturn?

 

I don't think Ford is doing that much better than GM. 500 and Freestyle are not selling as good as we though they will. If it wasn't for F-Series and Mustang, Ford wouldn't be doing any better.

 

i think this is true, but they have the hype to get people to go to the dealerships. the mustang is really really drawing attention i havnt picked up a car magazine since 05 mustang unvailing that hasnt had something about it in it...the cobALT, SSR, and G6 are "ehh thats nice cars", they dont have the attention grabber. both chevy and pontiac have nothing really exciting right now, i think ford will ride the mustang wave till the fusion comes out and hopefully that will be a success

 

The 500, Montego, and Freestyle are actually on target to hit their sales goals right now. And, if sales keep rising as they have been lately the cars should pretty handily beat their sales goals. All of this has been acccomplished with no rebates and minimal incentives.

I would encourage you to look at what is going on at Ford again, as they are doing very well indeed with all of their new product.

 

They will be talking about GM on CNBC in a few minutes. For once I'm actually interested in something they talk about.

 

Unfortunately for GM right now the only good news would be no news.

 

The 500, Montego, and Freestyle are actually on target to hit their sales goals right now. And, if sales keep rising as they have been lately the cars should pretty handily beat their sales goals. All of this has been acccomplished with no rebates and minimal incentives.

I would encourage you to look at what is going on at Ford again, as they are doing very well indeed with all of their new product.
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None of them will ever sell as good as Taurus did. It was big mistake to kill Taurus.

 

but anyone know what is Ford going to run in NASCAR since the demise of the Tarus? Dodge has got the Charger and Chevy's got the Monte Carlos

 

GM isn't playing it right by throwing out half done work like the Cobalt, its just a redesigned cavalier, and the GTO is a design dissapointment, the SSR is useless, and the G6 doesnt fight competition



not that i know of, the 500 set up to be kind of a luxury sedan so i dont think it'd be fir for the job, and the fusion wouldnt fit the bill...this calls for a new torino

 

The Taurus is still being produced for rental fleets. I would imagine they will stay with it until the Fusion hits the streets then I would expect to see it in NASCAR.

 

I would love to see a new Grand Torino or a new Torino 500. IF they did bring these back, I would hope they don't totally redesign it, like the Fairlane.

 

The Fusion is the Taurus replacement in NASCAR.