ellives

There are plenty of those kinds of people around who move from company to company, killing them every time. The strange thing is these company's boards keep hiring them, and doing so without some kind of performance mandate whereby the company is better when they leave it than when they arrive or else they get nothing but their base salary. Stupidity abounds.

Interesting that 95% authorized. Not sure I trust this number. In the end we all know it's wasted effort. The golden goose is dead and they're all scrambling around the corpse pecking at the remaining flesh. If the UAW was worth anything at all they'd be spending their energy at the Toyota and Hyundai plants, but they won't.

I'm not worried. Isn't California scheduled to fall into the Pacific some time soon?

We're agreed on the missing features however the original poster I responded to DID state they'd make a decision based on the window-up feature: " I'd rather drive a rotted-out nissan with express-ups than a beautiful brand new Escalade! "

All the more reason to dump it.

I believe the general feeling of the community working on ethanol is that there are a number of products and by-products that could be used as sources for ethanol. Either on the 60 minutes piece or the NBC piece they mentioned things like prairie grass, orange peels and even wood pulp. I think the point was that anything that is grown has the potential to be a source for ethanol. Maybe this was just the media being biased as usual but it wasn't that long ago people supposedly in the know (big oil companies?) claimed ethanol was not viable because it took more energy to produce it than it yielded.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/opinion/...agewanted=print May 14, 2006 Editorial No Holds Barred Both sides in the labor battle at America's largest auto parts supplier, Delphi, are trying to ratchet up the pressure. Delphi's management asked a bankruptcy judge to throw out its labor agreements, which would let the company cut wages and benefits steeply. The United Automobile Workers leadership, meanwhile, has asked its 24,000 rank-and-file union members at Delphi to authorize a strike. The country is used to confrontations between entrenched unions and struggling corporations in the Rust Belt, but this one is more significant than the usual fights over who will pay for health benefits and job security. The choices being forced on the Delphi workers are extreme, and the temptation for management to simply pack up and move overseas is powerful. This struggle exemplifies wrenching changes in our economy that everyone watches with concern and more than a little trepidation. The problems at Delphi and its former corporate parent, General Motors, are not exceptional but are instead symptomatic of the challenges faced by a high-wage economy competing not only with drastically lower wages but also increasing productivity and quality overseas. These days, white-collar workers are no more immune to the offshoring of their jobs than their assembly-line counterparts. Even far from Michigan, this is everyone's problem. A negotiated settlement should be possible because G.M., Delphi and the U.A.W. all know that a strike would be the worst outcome, potentially crippling both of the businesses and costing workers and retirees more than the wage and benefit concessions they are being asked to accept. But Delphi management, led by the company's chief executive, Robert Miller, has spoken indecorously at times, antagonizing workers unnecessarily. Proud men and women, backed into a corner, may prefer to go down fighting in a strike to accepting an offer they deem humiliating, no matter what leadership tells them. Yet workers have proved themselves willing to join constructively with the auto companies when they know the businesses are in danger and the pain will be shared. There is still money to be made manufacturing cars and parts in America. One need look no further than the big investments Toyota and Hyundai are making here. We hope American business proves sharp enough to figure out how to do it too.

Here's a little tamer review: (enjoy) http://www.automotiverhythms.com/testdrive...007escalade.php

I won't miss it and I don't think GM will miss it either. I go to the International Auto Show in Boston every year, and I've sat in one of those things ever year since it became a GM division and every time I do it I ask out loud "who would buy one of these things?" RIP for sure.

Therein lies the problem. Even the GM enthusiastics can't even agree on the market each division is chasing and we know the product lines. How is the average Joe customer going to figure it out? GM needs to get this issue fixed.

Actually he means DHS as he stated. The DHS was the mid-line trim level between the base Deville and the DTS before they dropped the Deville name altogether.

Luckily, Cadillac isn't focusing on people like you for their market share. Who makes a decision about which vehicle to buy based on whether it has "express-up windows?" It's a laughable comment. 10k units a year? Another laughable comment. They already sold over 12K year-to-date. Building automobiles is always about compromise. If they didn't have the class-leading engines, they'd get chastised about that. They absolutely have places to improve. The trick is to improve faster than your competition because they're improving too. Go GM!

You're kidding right? The US government pays LOTS of farmers NOT to grow certain crops. Do you work for ExxonMobil?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/11/business...lace.html?fta=y (click through the ad) May 11, 2006 Market Place With $12 Billion in Profit, Toyota Has G.M. in Sight By MARTIN FACKLER TOKYO DETROIT'S ailing automakers may be struggling to get out of reverse, but Toyota showed yesterday that it was just shifting into high gear. Toyota, Japan's largest carmaker, posted a 17.2 percent jump in net profit, to a record 1.37 trillion yen ($12.1 billion) in the fiscal year ended March 31. It was its sixth consecutive year of record profit, enough to make it one of the world's most profitable manufacturers. Toyota also released a sales forecast that analysts said showed it was on track to dethrone the floundering General Motors as the world's largest carmaker, possibly as soon as this year. Toyota said its entire group, including Daihatsu Motor and the truckmaker Hino, would sell 8.45 million vehicles this fiscal year, 476,000 more than last year. While G.M. has not released a forecast, many analysts expect it to drop below last year's 9.17 million vehicles. G.M., which has held the top position for 75 years, is struggling to recover from a $10.6 billion loss amid labor tension and soaring gasoline prices. Its first quarter was profitable, but if its sales drop 8 percent and Toyota exceeds its projections, then Toyota could become the world's largest carmaker. In a sign of the two auto giants' diverging fortunes, Toyota's current share price values the company around $218 billion, nearly 15 times the valuation of G.M. "I don't know when we'll pass G.M.," Toyota's chief executive, Katsuaki Watanabe, told reporters. "We're not thinking about other companies. We're just trying to meet our own growth goals." In fact, Toyota disclosed that in the coming year, it expected profits to dip. Still, the company showed no signs of any letup in its aggressive expansion. Mr. Watanabe said Toyota planned to spend 1.55 trillion yen ($14.1 billion) on new factories and production lines this year, matching last year's record investment. He said it would put 920 billion yen ($8.35 billion) into research and development of new models and technology, including its popular hybrid gasoline-and-electric engines. Mr. Watanabe said Toyota planned to open six factories in the next three years, at a time when G.M. and Ford are closing plants. The new factories include two in China, the company's first in Russia, one in Canada and one in Texas that will start producing Tundra pickup trucks in October. Executives are considering four Southern states for the site of a new assembly plant, and they may also build an engine plant in Michigan, Kentucky or Indiana. "To take advantage of the opportunity we have now, we have to have enough supplying power," Mr. Watanabe said. "We are fortunate that global customers have embraced our products." Revenue last year rose 13.4 percent from the year before, to 21 trillion yen ($185.8 billion), close behind G.M.'s revenue of $192.6 billion. Despite rising prices of steel, aluminum and other raw material, Toyota was able to increase operating margins and profit, Mr. Watanabe said, by cutting costs elsewhere and significantly increasing factory efficiency. In the United States, its largest single market, the company said operating profit rose 10.7 percent, to about $4.4 billion, making it easily the most successful car seller. Vehicle sales rose 12.5 percent last year, to 2.56 million units, and Toyota forecast a further increase this year, to 2.8 million vehicles. Mr. Watanabe departed from his upbeat presentation only once, when he pledged to prevent race and sex discrimination in his company. He was responding to a $190 million sexual-harassment suit filed last week in the United States by a former female employee. He refused to comment further, saying only that he did not expect the case to hurt sales. The official involved in the case, Hideaki Otaka, stepped down Monday as chief executive of Toyota Motor North America, and will not take up a new assignment in Japan until the case is resolved. Asian automakers like Toyota have gained competitive advantage from soaring oil prices because their vehicle lineups have more light and fuel-efficient cars and trucks than the Detroit makers. Toyota, analysts said, has managed to pull ahead of even its Asian rivals with its knack for building the right combination of models to attract buyers. They said another source of the company's strength was its ability to keep factory output slightly below consumer appetite for its vehicles. This approach has created a constant state of mild scarcity that helped prop up prices and avoid the large inventories of unsold vehicles that has proved costly for G.M. and Ford. Analysts also said Toyota continued to invest in new vehicles and technology, which helps it stay competitive. One example is hybrid engines, a popular fuel-efficient technology in which Toyota invested early, seizing a lead with its Prius hybrid sedan. Yesterday, Toyota said it sold 263,000 hybrid vehicles last year, a big source of growth. It reiterated that it aimed to sell a million a year by 2010. Koji Endo, an analyst in Tokyo with Credit Suisse First Boston, said, "Toyota has been smart about investing heavily in R&D while keeping up profits." Analysts said another secret of the company's success was the efficiency and flexibility of its production lines, which allowed it to offer vehicles tailored to individual markets. On Camry sedans, for instance, Toyota makes a common engine and frame globally, changing the interiors and upper bodies to meet local consumer preferences. "Toyota is skilled at supplying the right car to the right market," Mr. Endo said. Micheline Maynard contributed reporting from Detroit for this article.

A similar NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/13/automobi...=th&oref=slogin May 13, 2006 Largest Hummer to Go the Way of the Dodo By MICHELINE MAYNARD and NICK BUNKLEY DETROIT, May 12 — General Motors is preparing to give a final salute to the hulking Hummer H1, the ultimate in sport utility might and, to its many critics, the ultimate in environmental incorrectness. G.M. said Friday that it expected to stop building the H1, flagship of its Hummer line, next month. The move comes 14 years after it first went on sale to the public. The H1, originally called simply the Hummer, and lately known as the H1 Alpha, is derived from the military vehicle called the Humvee. The wide, rugged Jeep-like vehicle captivated many television viewers, who watched it trek across the Iraqi desert during the Gulf War. Hoping to capitalize on Humvee-mania, its maker, A.M. General, quickly brought out a street-legal version. Despite its $140,000-plus price tag, rough ride and a fuel economy rating of about 10 miles a gallon, well-heeled buyers and celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger snapped up the H1 when it first reached the market in 1992. "It started out as a huge image boost for G.M. — everyone knows what a Hummer is," said Ron Pinelli, the president of Autodata, an industry statistics firm in Woodcliff Lake, N.J. About 12,000 H1's have been sold to the public, including 4,000 by G.M., which bought the marketing rights to Hummer from A.M. General in 2000. Since then, G.M. has added two slightly smaller Hummers, the stately H2, introduced in 2002 and the relatively petite H3, which went on sale last year. Perhaps because there are more choices of Hummers, or because H1's moment of military chic simply has passed because of the conflict overseas, sales of the H1 have plummeted. G.M., which sold 875 H1's in 2000, sold just 374 in 2005, and 98 in the first four months of 2006, according to Autodata. With diesel fuel prices around $3 a gallon, it costs more than $150 to fill up the H1's two gas tanks, which together hold 51.5 gallons. And with G.M. on a push to recast its image as a green company, "it's time for it to go away," Mr. Pinelli said of the biggest Hummer. Environmentalists, who have used the H1 as an automotive punching bag since it first heaved onto American streets, could hardly contain themselves. "It's one thing if it's carrying soldiers to and from a fight," said Daniel Becker of the Sierra Club, which maintains an anti-Hummer Web page called "Hummerdinger.org." "It's another if it's hauling lattes home from Starbucks." For its part, G.M. said high fuel prices were not the reason it pulled the plug on the H1. Instead, G.M. said Hummer's maker, A.M. General, "will dedicate its engineering, manufacturing, marketing and dealer resources to bringing more new or significantly revised models to market." Despite the decline in H1 sales, Hummer dealers expressed disappointment that the gargantuan vehicle's days were numbered. "The H1 is where it all started," said Ben Olin, sales manager at Ed Schmidt Hummer, a Maumee, Ohio, dealership that was one of the first in the country to sell the H1. "There's a lot of heritage that goes along with it." Mr. Olin sold just two H1's last year. Many buyers, he said, are now turning to the less overbearing H2, which is based on the Chevrolet Tahoe S.U.V. Indeed, G.M. has sold more than 100,000 H2's and more than 50,000 H3's, based on the Chevy Colorado pickup, since each went on sale. Leo Karl III, president of Hummer by Karl in New Canaan, Conn., said he was surprised at G.M.'s decision to discontinue the vehicle after investing money to make it street-legal. The H1 has a "beautiful interior and unbelievable" 6.6-liter, turbo diesel V-8 engine, Mr. Karl said. Mr. Karl said he would miss the H1. "If there's one vehicle on the road that's like nothing else, that's it," he said.

Really? How did you come to this conclusion? Lot's of people said the world was flat too.

Blah, blah blah. Let's let the sales numbers decide, alright? Oh yeah it's 4100 vs. 500 units sold last month, not including ESV or EXT. Given it's (the GL450) a warmed over M-Class with an undersized engine that MIGHT yield "a more powerful variant, the GL550, will be released in about a year if the GL450 sells well" I don't think Cadillac has too much to worry about in this segment yet.

Note I never said Brazil was oil free. I said "imported-oil-free."

The key to accounting is recognize the need to account for costs in the period (quarter) in which they are incurred. The problem with the recent agreement for healthcare is the payment schedule is sporadic. In the end the actual payment schedule is immaterial and the more important decision is when the costs are actually being incurred.

Call your congressmen and TELL them they better support and promote the widespread deployment of ethanol or they're out! It's high time ExxonMobil was knocked off their fat assed pedestal. (Oh yeah and "Boycott ExxonMobil") Did you know that Brazil is imported-oil-free this year because THEY are selling E-85 everywhere down there?

Go GM! Crush Toyota!

They're (GM) trying to survive. Given they have disadvantages in so many other areas, they need to pursue any opportunity or approach they have to save costs. If one of them is to source in China so be it. Unfortunately the "buy American" thing is really a bit of nostalgia. I'm quite sure most Americans would love to know they're cars are built completely with US labor. This is obviously not happening and it won't happen in the future either. The horse is out of the barn. Personally I'm not so focused on the "buy American" thing as I am on giving GM a chance to become a great company again. If they can't do it, it should be because they can't build better cars at competitive prices. It shouldn't be because of propaganda, heresay and FUD. 2007 is a make or break year for GM. They MUST resolve their labor inequity situation. One can argue about comparative approaches to manufacturing and vendor management strategies all you want. In the end, if labor and legacy costs are 2x your competitors, you're going to fail. This is the reality.

Clueless as usual. What's so unique about GM asking for price reductions? Ever hear of Walmart? They've built themselves on this approach. In fact they're out and out sleazy about it. Not only do they ask for price reductions, they LOOK for reasons to reduce their costs through "deductions." Late with a shipment? Deduction. Wrong size box? Duduction. Wrong or missing barcode label? Deduction. Don't like it? Too bad. Find somewhere else to sell your products. This is where Yorozu will find themselves eventually if the current trend continues. In the end, the problem is not a GM problem, it's a shared problem between GM and Yorozu. They need to work together to come up with a reasonable approach. Seems interesting this business transaction became so public. Is it possible Toyota has some kind of ownership interest in Yorozu? If *I* was GM, I'd get the best terms I could with Yorozu and then quietly find another supplier. Once I had the upper hand, I'd tell Yorozu to Eff themselves.

Hell no. It's a paltry sum of money given his responsibilities. Look at the chairman of ExxonMobil who made almost a BILLION (that's a B not an M) over the last ten years. Taking that pay shows to me how much he believes in GM.

Absolutely an excellent commentary, which echo my sentiments exactly.