FUTURE_OF_GM

It wasn't credited, but I'm pretty sure it was that asshole Cumberford, as it was just as ARROGANT and OUT OF TOUCH as the rest of his writing. To be fair, MOST of the cars (Well domestics anyway--as that was all I cared to read) in that Automobile were panned. I'm *STILL* hopeful that the Enclave will help save Buick and I think overall it has gotten GOOD articles. The question is: will it continue to get good press in production? Cumberford once wrote about a 1957 Chevrolet and in the article, he did nothing but talk down about the car and the era of time. I felt personally offended because I am a restorer... And I'll tell you what... I'd be willing to compare the residuals of that '57 Chevy with ANY of Cumberfords coveted Jap traps any day. **And BTW, Consumer Reports says that the Enclave borrows cues from the Lexus RX and Infiniti FX.... But, I later felt vindicated because they said that the new Sentra looks like a Saturn Ion.... LOL ***

But it's "COUNTER INTUITIVE!!!!" I'm surprised those idiots were intelligent enough to even know what counter intuitive means.

Agreed 100%!!!! You must go BEYOND the competition....

See what happens when you get a hit Ford???? IT GETS KILLED in order to seize the momentum. Oh, the first quote wasn't enough... They had to drag the Milan (Which they didn't test) in on the action too... Nope, doesn't matter.... It's not domestic. Piece of sh*t, of course, you'll never see that anywhere in the press... Again, it's not a domestic so deficiencies don't matter. No mention of that in the media either.

According to MT, the Fusion was off to a slow start!!! Oh, wait... They're MT, a sh*tty excuse for TP..... (This angry, sarcastic remark has been funded by The FOG!) No surprise there... Not too often that you get a chance to own a little piece of God after all. WHY you ask?!?!? EXCELLENT MARKETING!!!!!!!!! That's why... Something Detroit needs to wake up and learn how to do. Thanks to articles like the Lienerts latest G6 review where they DEMAND that the price be lower by $8-$10K... Ummmm.... At BMW.... Doesn't a 3 series start close to that?!?! Well, naturally sales were going to drop off with the introduction of the more traditional Charger sedan. Umm, yeah... Chevy definitely doesn't SELL the Blazer anymore. WELL HELL!!!! After 5-6 years of nothing but slurping and fluffing from EVERY journalist REMOTELY alive around the universe they'd BETTER have a damn advantage.... It's called COGNITIVE CONDITIONING, a.k.a. LEARNED BEHAVIOR a.k.a. BRAINWASHING!!!!!! ***WOW!!!! Buick Lucerne at 18 is RIGHT behind the Solstice (Which I thought STILL had waiting lists BTW?)!!!!!! Lincoln Zephyr... 21 days... NICE!!! Looks like the RX-8 is not selling so well.... Miata anyone???

But Pontiac can't; they'll get trashed.... Oh, wait... Double standards... RIGHT. I forgot that Pontiac ALSO can't make one of those edgy new UGLY SUVs and have it 'kudo-ed' about and voted one of the coolest gay rides of 2006 either. Oh, and... They also can't employ red gauges, only Lexus can do that. Nor can they employ new technology.... The Camry is as UGLY as a whale, just like all the new Toyexus cars.

I'm sure we'll see a lot of dealers abandoning the domestics... After all those "cool" prissy people on the west coast don't buy domestic and GM has almost been milked dry. Time to LEACH on to another cash cow.

THANK GOD!!!!! Detroit is FINALLY realising this..... ALL they have to do is pick up where they left off in the 60s and 70s as being INNOVATIVE, STYLISH, AMERICAN cars! Nobody wants a bastardized Camry for a Malibu and nobody wants a melted ODDesse as a Chevy minivan... They WANT pure americana, just LOOK at the collector car boom! Now, does this mean pure retro? Absolutely not! Just a nod to who YOU ARE and WHERE you've been. I'm not a fan of the Sting Ray.... First of all, I don't like the name (It's not a Corvette) and secondly, GM does NOT need another roadster to dilute the impact of the Solstice. Kappa for Chevrolet=GOOD. Kappa Roadster for Chevrolet=BAD PERFECT!!!! Get the clue Detroit!!!!!!! OH MY GOD!!! Lutz is reading my mind!!!!! I'm so happy! THIS is why PONTIAC is SOOOO essential!!!! They are the ULTIMATE 60's mark. This is a VERY interesting concept if any of you hve ever studied it! And it is the very mindset that inspires POSTMODERNISM For those of you that don't know what postmodern means; it is the incorporation of aspects from ALL time periods into current design and culture. THEORY suggests that we gravitate toward POSTMODERNISM because we are unhappy with current events and in a bid of nostalgia, have a yearning to be back when times were BETTER, SIMPLER and EASIER, thus we incorporate things FROM that time period into our current lives. EXACTLY what they need now... CONFIDENCE and SWAGGER ***All this is great, BUT, styling alone wont get the job done... The new domestics need to have superior quality, superior technology and superior refinement as well.

Of course!!! In the world of the media it's ALWAYS GM's fault!

Read the review tonight... Overall I didn't think it was that great. They began by ragging on the Escalade and it's "superficial" cachet.... Hmmm, I guess all those Lexi and MB's in rap videos have "superficial" cachet as well then... Or is it that C&D is just jealous of the slade's success. Or, I guess in the world of WHITE YUPPIE B*TCH, where these 'journalists' live, only mid-level Accords and Toyota trucks have 'cachet' Some other highlights include them whining that it doesn't get the 'unique soft touch' interior that the slade gets. Of course, they hardly even mentioned the improved interior and had NO pictures of it. Then they went on to QUESTION why some one would pay such a huge price for such a vehicle (SUVs in general) this being DESPITE the Denali's lower price and then went on to say "especially when it looses $20K of it's value after the first 2 years." (Yep, these guys will research anything to SCREW GM over) Pretty much the whole article was focused on how it was a 90% Escalade and pretty much the whole article was meaningless IMO.... ***Also to look forward to in this issue: a sh*tty review for the Zephyr, a LAST PLACE finish for the H3, DESPITE them openly admitting that it WAS the best on the trail and a Jim Press interview declaring Toyota the "soon to be biggest automaker" (Or maybe that was in Motor Trend)

Thanks for the love guys GMTG74: I'm still jealous of the Sky though

So, I'm flipping through the recent Automobile... Came across a short section on the Enclave where it said "Other than the Buick ventiports and grille, [the Enclave] is completely generic" And then this jewel: (Might not be the exact quote) "The aluminum on the dash looks like an unrefined knife blade and the REAL wood looks FAKE." ***This is further proof that the anti-GM media sentiment is TOO powerful for GM to overcome. I said it with the Solstice and I'll say it again; GM will NEVER be good enough for the media. The Enclave is BEAUTIFUL, yet this is the respect GM gets.... These smart assed, exaggerated one liners that have NO JUSTIFICATION. NOW, apparently Buick show car inspired exteriors are "GENERIC" and excellent, beautiful GM interiors are "Unrefined and fake looking" ***Oh, and there was little positive about ANY of GM's show cars in this issue. (Camaro, Aveo, Enclave, GMT900) :angry2: :twocents:

Simple... They're asian. Agree 100%.... It's Japanese, so it's better by default, oh and, it was MARKETED INTO THE GROUND...UNlike your typical Malibu or Impala, which get a grand total of 2-3 ads that are used maybe 10-12 times. THIS is why Nissan was so "SALVAGEABLE" Not because their cars are all that nice or class leading. THey are asian and THEN the media jumped behind them to hype them as one of the "Asian big 3" (eventhough they are controlled by a french company) And THIS is why 1) Lutz is clueless to the market in some aspects and 2) You will NEVER see a domestic brand revived as well as Nissan was. Ghosen-shmosen.... Big deal.

I'm very on the fence with this one... But, keep in mind, GM *WILL* still be tied to Suzuki through GMDAT. RE: Shantanu, I agree... The share holding(s) have done pretty much NOTHING for GM short of the Duramax... RE: regfootball, I could see that as well. I'm not sure that I'm excited about it but GM *DID* say that Asia Pacific WOULD take the lead role in designing small cars for the company. I guess this is a mixed bag.... I WOULD like to see GM use Suzuki to crack Japan though (Buncha communists)

WOW!! You cn tell that this guy is f*cking clueless even before the second sentence. Ass covering exercise?!?!??! care to justify that statement??? Or is it just more smart assed media banter? WELL DUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHH!!!!!! Anybody with ANY basic sense knows that bankruptcy protection would make GM uber competitive... That isn't even the issue. And SAC, just like that, the media and self loathing americans will have destroyed yet another once great american industry... But then, who cares?!?! After all, we can all just gain employment and sense of accomplishment through our HUGE "SERVICE" industry servicing all those imports..., Then, of course, the media has been "servicing" the imports for YEARS now. That's right.... ACCEPT DEFEAT!!!! And the anti-Detroit people are WILDLY proclaiming victory. You can hear it in the tone of all the cynical anti-Detroit articles. Detroit was written off 3-4 years ago when the media blitz against them began. The media KNEW what would happen... They were well on their way to RUINING Chrysler (The weakest) until the company got whored out to the Germans. Then they targeted Ford and pretty much ran them into the ground (Many analysts have said that Ford would've WENT bankrupt had they not been a household name _OR_ that thy would've been sold too had the Ford family NOT still held so much of the company) and now it's GM's turn. But that is the goal right? To destroy, run off or sell off all of what made america, america right??? Oh it's not? Well, you could've fooled me, with all the self loathing, throat cutting, legislating FOR imported goods and making american industries uncompetitive. Oh really?!?!?! GMT900..... C6, XLR, CTS, STS, SRX, LUCERNE, G6, AURA, THE LAMBDAS etc etc etc... STILL this tired argument!!!! GM's brands and dealers are an ASSET... Why would anyone with GM's best interest at heart want them to "give up" gained ground?!?!?! Facts please. This guy is the ONLY person I've heard EVER say this... Apparently he has some well placed resources or he's blowing smoke up our ass; you pick. Good thing it's coming up for renegotiation in a year. fataly wounded brands?!?!?! YOU KNOW, the same brands that saw RETAIL SALES INCREASES LAST MONTH and have 3 of the hottest products at GM. A WHOLE lotta Ummm.... okay GM NEVER said that they would COMPLETELY kill incentives an they have ALWAYS said that incentives are here to stay and are an extensive part of doing business competitively. That's called: AN IGNORANT MEDIA THAT DOESN'T HAVE A CLUE AS TO THE REALITY OF THE SITUATION AND THUS FORMULATES STORIES AND PASSES THEM OFF AS FACT... ALL automakers go through decision making, yet none are scrutinized, fantisized or bandied about like GM. That's because, at the time the "board member" wasn't a "board member" and didn't have ANY of the FACTS of the situation... Screw the little guy... His union is A LOT of the reason GM is in such bad shape right now. OF COURSE, anything to kick dirt in Detroit's face before lowering them into their grave. They’ll highlight the most desperate cases and blame their fate on management incompetence, outsourcing, the Japanese, the Chinese, foreign trade policy, currency manipulation, oil prices, George W. Bush, the anti-GM press, anyone and anything other than the workers themselves. I've bolded the REAL problems which should be blamed This guy is a f*cking idiot.... You should automatically KNOW his bias and opinion by the TITLE OF THE SERIES... YEAH RIGHT... The anti-Detroit people would NEVER allow this to happen... They've worked vigorously for 30 years to try and oust Detroit. This is VICTORY for them. If we give up, then we give up.... PERIOD there will be NO domestic auto industry.... Share will fall through the floor, MORE people will be "enlightened" to Japan Inc. GM and Ford will AT BEST struggle for 5-10 years trying to convince a NAIVE and BLIND public that they HAVE changed and ARE safe to buy from; all the while, the media will once again be working overtime against them. Then they will likely be bought by a bigger (Japanese) foreign firm (You know, bought like THE REST of american industry) If anything, GM and Ford will be niche players like the Euros after bankruptcy and will kill each other trying to reclaim the share that they were screwed out of. :twocents:

Okay, first, it's sad to see the Focus categorized in this way... Although, I do think the recent refresh made it a little bland. Secondly, what the hell is that supposed to mean about the G6?!?!?! Is it a good thing or a bad thing??? (More than likely a bad thing---go figure)

Good god... GM is dieing and the 'board is still completely clueless and seems to be getting dumber by the day.

I've heard VERY good things about this movie.

Sin City... If I were a movie.... That would be me

This is a PRIME example of automotive reviewing being MOSTLY SUBJECTIVE GARBAGE these days... There is NO WAY IN HELL that these reviews should differ that much. [classic FOG cheapshot] So wouldn't that make EVERY Toyota buyer a YUPPIE :AH-HA_wink: [/classic FOG cheapshot]

Oh, so they're going to start comparing OLD domestics now and throwing those problems up in our faces again eh? RE: Mitsubishi quality... WOW, C&D must've had some input on that CR list since they are giving Mitsu a "save your ass" boost this month too.

The satement was made with ONE goal in mind... To destroy domestic credibility. Seriously, CR IS biased.

It's going to end up taking something like this to sway opinions... GM and Ford need to team up to promote the virtues of buying domestic. And no, I'm not talking bout a flag waiving campaign, I'm talking about FACTS pressed on the consumer promoting GM and Ford as the better ALL AROUND products/companies.

I agree 100%. And I love the fact that the media is playing it up like this is some OFFICIAL proven fact...

And unfortunately, these are the people who INFLUENCE and MAKE the decisions of others... It's like an effective Toyota advertising scheme. CR probably included the Japanese electronics reference to add salt to the wound... After all, thanks to people like them we're seeing the same thing happen to yet another industry. And what's sad is; people know it (ESPECIALLY the media) and they take cheapshots at it as much as they can. On the positive side (counter to F_O_G basic logic of: THERE IS NO POSITIVE SIDE) Consumer Reports DOES seem to be losing credibility and DOES seem to be having to field more questions about their bias and accuracy. (Or lack there of when it comes to accuracy)