Well, this article basically caps off a feeling I've had about the General for over a year now. They had no product, and still have basically nothing and what's worse, the stuff they do have people believe they should be able to buy at firesale prices.



http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest...50.asp?GT1=6305

 

im not surprised, i just went to the new york auto show and beleive me if there were two very lack luster dealers there it was pontiac and chevy...boring boring cars , no one looked to excited (ecept maybe around trhe corvettes). the chevy cars were all boring, pontiacs all looked the same, i dont know i didnt feel the same enthusiasm as i did in the ford/dodge/bmw/mercededs/honda/etc exhibits, i think gm is goin down and fast

 

Not good, not good at all. And w/ the zeta platform cancelled,

 

Fantastic article and analysis...thanks for the link. The guy is spot-on. My favorite quote:

"What does GM do with the Equinox? Instead of seizing the opportunity of potentially having a rare, long-term product hit (the kind that doesn't come around very often in GM's world), and nurturing it by polishing it to a sheen and solidifying its place in the market with a clever big-buck marketing push -- they do a few improvements to it and then give Pontiac dealers a version called the Torrent."

So true. Ford could also learn some from this article.

 

oh no!!! American companies failing! quick someone send them a reasonable camaro concept 'fore they 4-bangers take over....

 

calm down man!!... Ford and Mopar are kickin up their engines and performance we shouldnt even miss GM(excpet maybe the vette...possibly...maybe...prolly not()

 

Two American comapnies died in the past 6 years, plymouth in 1999 and oldsmobile last year. Now there is a big possibility that Pontiac or Buick or both of them might join them. Don't you think we should worry?

 

Two American comapnies died in the past 6 years, plymouth in 1999 and oldsmobile last year. Now there is a big possibility that Pontiac or Buick or both of them might join them. Don't you think we should worry?
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YESSSSSS how can the mustang have other pony cars to beat out if the only one left is itself GM NEEDS TO WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

GM does need to wake up but A LOT of things need to happen and not happen for Ford to be the only American car comapny left. Dahmler Chrysler is doing a very good job @ getting products to market so that their customers can purchase and keeping their customers yearning for more as is Ford.

Hello? GM, this is your wake up call, its 9:29.

 

I read that article on AutoExtremist last week and thought it was great. A harsh look at the situation, but a realistic one, in my opinion. GM needs to consolidate their brands. All the badge-engineering and self-competition indicates that they are too diverse. And why does every GM brand need a minivan, a crossover and an SUV? How many people would seriously buy a Buick Terazza?

Zeta was, I think, GM's long-term survival pill, and they flushed it. The revenue from truck sales can help them for a little while, but it is like putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound. They needed a long-term strategy for refreshing their yawn-inducing product lineups, and I think Zeta was it. Maybe with the money they make from truck sales, they can reinvest in a RWD/V8 car platform like Zeta. Only problem is, with the speed at which GM typically moves, it'll be 2010 before we see any end result.

 

that fact that even those like yourself who own trans ams and camaros are still hanging on some hope amazes me, GM is bassically telling you they dont care, i feel for you man and i hope they realize something

 

Thanks -- I can always hope that one day GM will resume making cool cars that appeal to the driving enthusiast as much as the rental fleet owner. The more cool cars there are on the market, the better it is for all of us.

But yeah, right now GM doesn't care. I'm just really impressed when I see the comraderie and enthusiasm for the product that Mustang's design and engineering teams have shown since the debut of the S197. Not only is the car itself awesome, but I really get the feeling that the people who built this new Mustang are really proud of its heritage and how they are helping to preserve that legacy today. That's something important to me as the buyer, and as a bona fide car guy.

But when I try to think of the last time I saw GM do something that truly honored or paid homage to its heritage and its loyal followers, my mind draws a blank.

 

Thanks -- I can always hope that one day GM will resume making cool cars that appeal to the driving enthusiast as much as the rental fleet owner. The more cool cars there are on the market, the better it is for all of us.

But yeah, right now GM doesn't care. I'm just really impressed when I see the comraderie and enthusiasm for the product that Mustang's design and engineering teams have shown since the debut of the S197. Not only is the car itself awesome, but I really get the feeling that the people who built this new Mustang are really proud of its heritage and how they are helping to preserve that legacy today. That's something important to me as the buyer, and as a bona fide car guy.

But when I try to think of the last time I saw GM do something that truly honored or paid homage to its heritage and its loyal followers, my mind draws a blank.
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got any pics of your trans am?

 

My cousin would not see eye to eye w/ you on a couple of your decisions. He's a GM fanatic and "really doesn't like the new mustang. Not the 'classic' styling, not anything". Simply because its a Ford and not a Chevy. His response/reaction to the new Mustang, he went a bought a Caddy. I guess that's the only thing that he justifies "combatting" the new Mustang My brother told him he's just pissed off because the Colorado looks like poo. That in turn, really pissed him off. He's always saying GM this and GM that. We love to rag him on anything negative GM does/produces. And I got a couple to work w/ right now, too.

The ONLY thing, and this is a stretch, that Chevy did anything w/ "heritage" is the SSR vert truck.

 

I agree with the rants posted on Autoextremeist,

Its seems that all of GM's brands really lack an identity, with the exception of Caddilac.

GM doesn't have to kill off an entire brand, they just have to really look at what makes each brand strong and build on that. I think part of the reason they build so many badge-engineered clones is to balance out the volume between all the dealerships.

 

I'm kinda coming in at this from a different angle...

If you look at the design centers of GM and FMC, you will notice two very different enviroments:

At FMC, you'll find that the seperate brands operate much in isolation, with the transfer of personnel rare between, say, Lincoln and Volvo. The only weak point at the present is that Ford vehicles lack a true design direction. (What with the GT at the top and the Fiesta(in Europe) at the bottom, you can see why.)
J Mays also yields much sway in many of the materials and engineering areas, so that two sister cars don't look like they're made from the same molds, so to say. (Look at the Fusion and Milano, versus the Sable and Taurus which were done before Mays.)

Conversely, when looking at GM, the sharing of designers between brands is done routinely. In fact, if I remember right, no one goes more than a few years working on one brand. The identity of each brand is found not in the minds of the designers but rather in guidebooks that explain how a Cadillac should look and how a Buick should look. Besides that, the engineering department dictates to the design centers how the cars should look. This might have change recently, because of some changes in the GM design brass...but I'm sure the bureacracy mentality still exists with the GM design halls.


So, basically what I'm saying is that Ford has a good thing going with the idea of having designers 'grow' with the brand, whereas GM suffers from having all its cars look alike because the same group of designers work on all the different brands!

The only reason Caddy has escaped this I think, is that the Art&Science theme is so solidly defined.


For me, as an 'art guy' the aesthetic of a car is just as important as its power and refinement. And I dare say that the general public would rather have a distinctive car rather than a generic car...saying that, it is easy to see how GM is faltering

 

 

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Hey, I posted that at 2 in the morning, however...I still stand by it :geek:

 

i remember saying that to my girlfriend at one point :scratch: