AxelTheRed

Wow...in the last week or so everything's been looking up for GM and Ford...GM especially. My wonder if they're going to fade into the good night is slowly being replaced with optimism. They didn't do fantastic in CR, but its better than what they had been doing.

Hey, I like the thing. But I still say their best bet is to introduce the Imperial as a brand, not a model...I keep saying that Chrysler needs that true luxury brand. All they'd really have to do is change its name from the Chrysler Imperial to the Imperial Crown (of course with enough redesign so it doesn't look like a Chrysler). The Chrysler Group has been really getting into its own heritage lately, so it would only make sense.

Dear GM, I was born in Flint in the mid-eighties and have lived in or near it all my life. I've had to watch you gut this entire town these last twenty years by taking away our factories one by one and decimating our workforce. I'm not the only person who thinks this is unfair. I'm sure the entire city thinks its unfair. I'm sure the entire state, the entire country thinks what you did and are continuing to do to Flint is unfair and uncalled for. How can you wonder why you're losing sales to foreign competitors when you have shown so little loyalty to your home town? Toyota is showing more loyalty to the American cities they've put their plants than you have been. Flint was literally GM's city. GM's industrial capital. The birthplace of Buick, Chevrolet and the company itself. Why would you do such a thing to a city that was so dependant on you? So loyal? You might not agree that the city was loyal to you, but I think it really was. The city was the proud home of Buick. The proud industrial cornerstone of the world's largest automaker. You'd argue that the unions pushed too hard in Flint. My father is a union man who understands the good and the bad of both the UAW and General Motors. He'd agree that the unions had pushed too hard in the past. Does that justify cutting GM employment in the city by the tens of thousands? Closing plants left and right? I don' t think so. Flint was once the home of General Motors. Why loosen ties with it? Why not continue the heritage and traditions of both GM and Flint? We need General Motors as much as they once needed us. On behalf of the city, I'm asking you not to close anymore plants here. Close plants in other parts of the country, but not Flint. Speaking for the city, I'm asking you to give it its soul back...to come back to Flint. Flint has played an important role in the automotive industry since its beginning. Its what we know, what we're used to, and what we deserve. So please, if you have respect and loyalty to GM's heritage and Flint, you'll consider what I'm saying here and hopefully act on it. Please, bring back the glory days of Flint by investing more into the city, building more plants and employing more workers here. Flint was the Vehicle City and we wish we could have that back.

Well, I guess its not hard to beat something that doesn't exist.

The Smart looks like a really surprised midget.

Can't say I blame him.

Another excellent reminder why I'll only buy American. Screw Toyota, I have pride for the Detroit automakers.

Yeah, the Buick Gallery and Research Center. Its on Walnut Street right off of Robert T. Longway Boulevard. That museum is bad ass. Anyone who passes though Flint ought to take a look at it. Its not an incredibly big place, but they have a LOT of cars in there (obviously all locally built)...and a tank.

That GMC interior looks supremely more comfortable than the Honda's. It also looks much better and a little more up to date.

I'm cool as long as they don't sell off the Auburn Hills HQ.

$100 less for repairs than a Lexus? I thought those things were supposed to be better than perfect in every way compared to our paltry domestics.

I wouldn't say ALL of Toyota's products are ugly (many are). Just horribly anonymous. That new Tundra though...wow...I'll take a Dodge or a Ford any day over that thing. You know what, though? Even if Toyota made a truck that looked as good (or better) than a Ford truck or a Dodge truck, I'd still take the domestic.

I'm gonna guess that GM's original headquarters were PROBABLY in the old Buick offices when it was based in Flint. It seems only logical since Buick was the cornerstone of GM...if that's the case, then its definitely been demolished.

Sadly...that doesn't come as much of a surprise...

I live near Flint, MI and I know that GM didn't move its headquarters to Detroit until about 1923...I'd like to find out where their original headquarters were located up here. I've been checking all over for weeks on end trying to find out where it was. Does anybody know or have any ideas on how TO find it?

Wow...and powered by a bio-diesel turbine? Pretty cool. Wondering about the logo, though. Maybe its a potential new GM division...if the car gets produced and isn't just a one-off for Leno. I always wanted to see the General with its own supercar division.

I don't think Daimler-Benz should sell the Chrysler Group. If they want to get rid of it, I say maybe they should undo the merger. However that could even happen... I disagree with breaking apart Chrysler and selling it off to the highest bidder too. I don't know if its just me, but I'd rather see three whole American auto companies than two...and have foreign companies own and market Chrysler's brands. I hate seeing American automakers get killed in their own country's market like this, and if the Chysler Group were to all of a sudden be broken apart and sold off...well, I doubt it would be a good thing for everyone and everything involved with domestic automakers. If Chrysler wants to do better though, I agree that it needs to move some Chrysler vehicles upmarket...that or reintroduce Imperial or DeSoto to fill in its need for a true luxury brand.

And to think...Chrysler was doing just fine not long ago.

I agree. Most Buicks are too classy for that crap anyway.

I never understood why everyone seems to think that young people hate Buicks. I'm 19 and I love them, as do many of my friends, although I might favor them, at least a little bit, due to the fact that I was born and live near Flint. If I had any money, you better believe I'd be down at the Buick dealer buying a Lucerne. The only problem I have with Buick is that they're no longer built here in Flint. We still build the 3800s, but lucky for us, they're closing that plant down too. But...uh...yeah, GM? Us Flint natives sure were proud of the fact that Flint was the home of Buick. How about giving us a little bit of that pride back? Word 'round here is that there's a bigass vacant lot up on Hamilton Avenue...could be a good place to build a plant.

I wouldn't mind one bit if Daimler-Benz let Chrysler go. It'd be nice seeing Chrysler be its own company again.

It really hasn't been mentioned very much...or at all, but there seems to be absoulutely no closure as to wheter or not either company activley helped the Nazis. Critics say they knew and willingly helped build tanks and aircraft and whatnot, but the companies themselves say the Nazis wrested control of the factories away from them. Believe me, there's nothing that I'd rather believe more than that Ford and GM actually did have their plants taken over, but with all the criticism I found online, the whole thing gets a bit fuzzy. So I guess let's try to get some closure on this topic.