ellives

They need to improve their security at these things. The top corporate guys are always targets for nut jobs, whether envirowackos or terrorists.

We can tell him that anyway but as much as we don't like him he's not an idiot. He has been shipping heating oil up here at a discount to be sold to poor people. Of course Joe Kennedy II eats it up. Chavez is popular with the poor people in his country too however the middle class down there less so. Nevertheless he was up in the polls over his nearest rival by 20 points and the election is today, I believe, so apparently he'll be here with us for quite a while... him and his buddy Castro. I have avoided Citgo gas stations for a long time (because of Chavez) and ExxonMobil (because they're thieves.) Whenever I see people complain about US citizens buying Japanese cars and turning their backs on fellow American car builders I immediately think of ExxonMobil, who screws lots more of their fellow Americans every day. Hopefully when the Dems get control they immediately pass legislation that reverses the giveaways Bush and his criminal pals passed a while back. It does seem like a paradox that our best chance to beat the oil companies is to get in bed with Toyota and buy a Prius. The next on my agenda is to switch my heat away from oil. For years it was the preferred choice because of low cost but now between the elimination of the cost advantage and the negative political aspect of oil, I'll be done with it soon. I'll be heating with something else.

Who needs keys? I'm happy just having the fob in my pocket and being able to push a button to start the car. Between my garage and my driveway there are 5 vehicles. I'd be happy if I could simply have *one* fob in my pocket which allowed me to get into any one of them and drive off. Now THERE's a concept.

I suspect Gettelfinger is simply a politician only interested in furthering his own job. As I've said before, 2007 will be a pivotal year. It's telling the concept of "organizing" foreign auto plants in the U.S. was little more than a footnote in the article. Let's hope this issue is given more attention behind the scenes than the word count would imply.

I loved the GM guy's repeating question: "Have you ever built anything?" The kid's daddy probably has a nice pile of GM stock in his portfolio along with a bunch of other "un-green" stocks. Oh the hypocrisy.

Um - who said Wagoner's the prick?

GM needs to figure this overlap issue out. It confuses the marketplace. Did anybody else notice the recent Motor Trend Car of the Year article didn't even include the Impala (which I would expect to be the best competition in this category that GM can muster?)

I think this is one of the reasons he was able to get elected. Good for him. Let's see if the Dems can get something done in 2 years.

Being as the alternative is being known as the guy who bankrupted GM, I hope you're right.

More gloom and doom. I have no problem with consolidation at all. Let the strong survive. I've never cared as much about unit sales and revenue numbers as I have about profitability and if the need is there to consolidate to make a profit, "make it so!"

How about we all accept your bet and if you lose, your end of the bargain is to disappear from the GM landscape altogether?

Well said. The problem is that people are sheep and lemmings and will never get organized enough to put the government in its place. I can only hope that people will get out and vote straight ticket Democrats in November so Bush will be castrated for the last 2 years of his miserable presidency. Sorry to disappoint the Republicans who read this and dismiss it as a "whining Dem." In fact I'm a Republican and have been until Bush and his criminal friends bushwhacked the country (no pun intended.) I'll be back when he's gone. I wonder how long it will be before GM declares bankrupcy simply for the opportunity to dump their healthcare and pension obligations. It's the only way to level the playing field. Of course a lot of customers won't buy from a bankrupt company but it's a risk they have to take otherwise the future of GM is going to be "death by a thousand cuts" unfortunately. Go GM!

This has GOT To be the stupidest comment I've seen you make in a long time. Let's take this: This is precisely the mentality of most Toyota buyers today. Based on this sentence we should all buy Toyota. And how about this: No one can be a winner every time. Being a gracious (preumably what you would call "good") loser does not mean you're a loser. It means you lost fair and square THIS time. Not every time. Would you teach this sentiment to your kids? I hope not.

Can't we ever forgive GM for the Chevette? (Or the Vega for that matter?)

A stigma? LMAO! Unless you're talking about people born in 1960 or early you're incorrect. And if you're talking about people born later, they will have no idea what you're talking about.

Go Cadillac!

Um no. I think the point was the "Toyota Production System" was based on the work these guys did. This premise would dismiss the commonly held myth that Toyota actually invented their "System" or anything else for that matter. They did indeed "develop" their system but it was actually based on others' work as so much of what comes out of Japan, Inc. is.

And your source for this insight would be? Change is disruptive and painful as a result but all have figured out the traditional strategy of letting the chips fall where the may has failed big time. The key to manufacturing in today's world is managing change successfully. If you can't do it, you fail.

Yikes. Hopefully there aren't any women reading this thread.

Actually the answer to this is quite simple: shortsightedness and greed. The assessment has correctly been made that unstable and/or spiraling energy prices have and *immediate* effect on consumer prices and therefore voters mindsets when election time comes. We've seen this week how "great" it feels now when gas prices are under 3 bucks (as horrible as THAT sounds.) The problems of a failure of GM or Ford will create are longer term and the politicians can blame the failures on "other" people like management for instance. The problem (and people have such short memories) is the fact the politicians created the problem by creating things like NAFTA to encourage more worldwide commerce however the problem is it's commerce without even playing fields. We import so many products into the US from countries that don't have an OSHA and an EPA so US companies can't compete and they go away. By the time the people wake up it will be too late I fear. I won't even address the "greed" part of my response. This part of it seems so obvious with Bush having been and "oil guy" we all know where his loyalties lie.

Clearly he's clueless about the retail market (no matter how many Buicks he sold in his prior life.) Retailers change their prices all the time during the course of a product's lifespan. The car business has become just like every other high end retailer like Macy's etc. If the stuff doesn't sell, they drop the price. Simple economics. The positive aspect of the rebates I see is they are $500-$1500 vs. the $3500-$5000 we've seen in the past. Things are definitely improving. Go get 'em General!

Ok. Fast forward to the 21st century. Traction control eliminated the advantage FWD had and eliminated the torque steer problem FWD brought with it. (AWD notwithstanding.) No. Most aren't. Most are sheep or lemmings. Everything can be improved on. Otherwise we'd all be driving 1972 Chevy Impalas. GM is building better cars than they ever have. Does anybody but GM enthusiastics actually know about it? Oh and by the way, check out the October 2006 edition (why do they ship October's issue before September has even arrived?) of Motor Trend. The Solstice GXP won the head-to-head against the BMW Z4 and the Nissan 350Z. Something is happening... at GM.

You "understand" what the media has fed you with their eyedroppers. This is also why the "majority of buyers prefer" fwd: they've "heard" fwd is better. Try asking anyone one of these "majority of buyers" WHY they want AWD and I *guarantee* they'll have laughable answers if they can come up with anything at all. *THIS* is what is laughable.

Yeah -- funny about that. They announced the 18-month target when GM's woes were starting to make the headlines. A little MORE piling on by Toyota? Nah - they don't play that way do they?

Bull$h!. Whatever the US president says out loud lends credence to the point of the comment. In this case his comments reinforce to the car-buying public what they're hearing in the media, whether there's truth to it or not. He's just a cowboy who goes off half-cocked shooting off his mouth about things he's not smart enough to understand. I can't wait until he's out of office.