smk4565

http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_cal...&vote=00215 Interesting that Harry Ried voted against it.

Time to bring out the bankruptcy papers, salvage whatever they can in Chapter 11. Hopefully they can save Chevy and Cadillac at least. The cash is almost gone and there is no one left to help them. Stock price will dive tomorrow.

Not even Toyota could be Saved By Zero. Most annoying series of car ads in recent memory. Outdoing the current LaCrosse is not a challenge, making the Regal or new LaCrosse better than the Accord or ES350 is. GM is king of making a new car that is benchmarked against the previous generation (Cobalt was better than Cavalier and G6 better than Grand Am, etc), rather than what the competition is doing. Challenge 2 is convincing people to buy a Buick sedan rather than a Japanese one. Everyone talks about the success of the Enclave, they are on pace to sell under 40,000 of them this year, that isn't that great for a $32-45,000 SUV. The Acadia is priced the same and handily outsells it, the Pilot and RX350 outsell it by a wide margin also. The Enclave is the 3rd best selling vehicle on it's platform. Plus it was down 40% in November, while the industry was down 30-35%.

It probably doesn't matter what the interior looks like because it's unlikely that Buick will get conquest sales, and only cling to their dwindling customer base of senior citizens drawn in by $3500 cash back and 0.9% APR.

Chrysler probably can't survive, a loan just pushes their demise off a year or two. I don't think Chrysler should get government money, let Cerebus pump money into them if the company is a good long term investment.

The front works, I like it more than the current car. Looks pretty good from the side, the rear is horrible. The back looks like a Japanese generic and ruins the car. The LED lights are an Audi ripoff, they look good on the Audi, but Mercedes didn't incorporate it as well.

The 2010 SRX and 2012 DTS hate that idea.

GM's position often doesn't match up to market reality. They may aspire for the Regal to compete with imports but it will likely be a Malibu, Milan competitor (assuming the Mercury is still alive then). Buick still fleets sedans at a pretty good rate, Honda is only 2% fleet.

I agree on the point that better than the current dated platforms and 4-speed/3800 combo cars isn't good enough. It has to be better than the Japanese sedans. And why is it supposed to compete with the Accord and Camry, the Malibu was supposed to do that. Sounds like the Regal will be midsized and priced in the low $20s, and all it will do is compete with the Malibu.

Well no bank would give GM a loan, so the government is their only option. GM isn't paying income tax right now because they don't make income, and Wagoner said something in the hearings about a tax exemption they have.

Pittsburgh has 4, one downtown (although it may have gone under) one in the south suburbs, one north (that did go bust and is now with a Pontiac-Hummer-GMC dealership, and one on the east suburbs that is at a Saturn, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Pontiac mega dealership. Saab I thought had nearly 200 dealers nationwide, 4 cars per dealer doesn't cut it. Lexus only has 200-250 dealers and outsells Cadillac with 1,000 and Buick with 1,500. Number of dealers isn't the problem, the products Saab has are.

I agree with siegan, and hopefully they mean it. This could just be another song and dance routine by the GM PR department. To me, GM's press releases have lost credibility, let's see the actions to back up their words. They have to prove they have changed, not just issue a letter or statement.

Saab's 3 models combined to sell 800 cars last month, that brand and all the models need to go away now. All of Saturn can die. Buick could use a small SUV, but the GM product planning idiots made the SRX as a dressed up Equinox, so making a Buick version is redundant. G3, G5, G6 should die in 09.

Not the S-class. The S-class is engineered better than any domestic car. Mercedes for a while in the late 90s, early 2000s, lost that engineering commitment, but it is coming back now. I wouldn't buy an M-B, but probably nothing under $100k is engineered better.

The 3-series is smaller than a Cobalt, and worldwide the 3-series has been a sales success for 20+ years. There won't be a glut in the middle when Saturn, Pontiac and Saab are gone, and a new Impala goes to a price in the high $20s rather than total overlap with the Malibu. The Delta Buick should be $25-30k like the LaCrosse is now, the Buick Epsilon about $29-35k so a base Buick is nicer than the Malibu LTZ. A lot of the 55+ crowd that Buick is trying to get doesn't need a big car, the kids are grown and gone, and they want something with a premium feel. Younger people in urban areas also prefer smaller cars, GM is missing this segment. Buick will never make it at $50k, let alone $60k, they have to live in the $25,000-40,000 range. Cadillac can't even make it in the $50-60k range right now. Cadillac can't get $60k for a midsize V6 sedan like M-B can. Mercedes spends over $1 billion to develop a new S-class, to make a great car it takes a lot of investment, so GM has to choose wisely what they pursue.

There isn't room unless GM can make all 4 better than the competition. 4 average brands will lead to eroding market share just as 8 average brands did. If they can make Chevy better than Toyota/Honda, Buick better than Acura/Lincoln, Pontiac better than Nissan/Mazda and Cadillac better than the Germans they can support 4 brands. If they can't do that, better to go with 3 brands.

The XF is 195 inches long, the MKS is 204. 9 inch difference. MKS is on the D3 platform shared with the Taurus and S80. The XF is on an updated version of the S-type platform, the suspension is aluminum and from the XK. XK and XJ have aluminum unibody structures.

Agreed on that point, which is why I criticized the CTS initially saying it had to be better. If they want it to be a 5/E/A6 competitor they should price it like one. But if the current CTS started at $49k sales would be about 100 units a month, because even at $34k base they need red tag sales. DTS and STS sell in the $40-50k range now, too much overlap, both those sedans need to die, CTS has to move up. Buick should not get 2 epsilons or 4 sedans, too much overlap. Delta and Epsilon will be the volume, the Zeta sedan better be close to the Genesis in price and content, they can hopefully pick up G-Body and Panther platform sales when those products die. If they price a Buick sedan at $40k+ it will get killed in the marketplace by Lexus and the other luxury brands. This car has to be a low priority, because the G8 under $30k isn't selling, a $40K Buick version probably won't sell either. I would like to see Cadillac have 4 sedans, one being a CLS type car, but the money won't be there for that. The Cadillac flagship can't be on Zeta or it is DOA, no credibility at all to an $90,000 car sharing a platform with a $28k Pontiac and Chevy. It has to be exclusive and should be aluminum like the XJ.

The expensive big sedans are safe, but mid-priced big sedans aren't that popular. A zeta Buick could work because it would be smaller than the w-body LaCrosse, and if priced like a Lucerne should find buyers. I said years ago GM needs to dump Saab, Hummer, Saturn, etc to free up resources for a flagship Cadillac, because without an icon, people will still think Cadillac, GM, American cars in general aren't as good as Europeans. Europe has Rolls-Royce, Bentley, S-class, 7-series, and A8, and we have the STS, 300C and MKS.

Pontiac has zero brand image, they can't move G8s for $30k, they won't make it trying to go above Corvette. Cadillac can't match Porsche or Maserati either, the XLR flop is an example. GM right now doesn't have what it takes to play in that high end league with the Euro exotics. I'd like to see Cadillac try, but that is so far down the priority list, and unless they fund it properly, it will fail.

The future of Buick lies with small to midsize vehicles. The mistake GM made in the past was all the full size vehicles with no focus on small premium. LaCrosse, Lucerne, Enclave are all full size vehicles, and full size sedans are a dying market. Town Car, Deville, LeSabre, Grand Marquis, etc worked in the 90s but times and demographics have changed. Delta II, Epsilon II and the Vue platform are where they need to go.

The XF has real leather wrapped on the dash, not leatherette, and real brushed aluminum, not gray plastic meant to look like aluminum. XF has better materials throughout the cabin.

I m guessing Fed or TARP money, probably TARP. It seems that the big banks already appropriated the money they got, and the smaller banks can't make a loan this big. I'd rather not see the Fed make the loan, they are over extended as it is, and the treasury just printing more money isn't helping our economy.

I agree they did better today and had a plan at least, and asking for $34 billion is nothing compared to Citigroup's $300 billion. But the votes for a bailout probably aren't there, some sort of government bankruptcy plan is probably as good as it gets.

It looks like GM and Chrysler's situation didn't improve much today. I do think congress will do something before they go bust. I predict some sort of reorganization that is like Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but controlled by the government and not called bankruptcy.