ShadowDog

When it says that 10,000 union members who work at GM plants across Ontario will hold ratification votes this week on these changes, one hopes they are smart enough to realize they are looking at a deal to save their own jobs.

Hmm, that story stinks. The speed and the thought that a frontal? airbag would have saved someone's life from decap? Never mind that the guy says how safe the BMW is when someone died at a relatively below-average speed. It all just doesn't add up.

As ignorant as that woman was, I couldn't help but think the other audio I heard about the 911 call the customer at Burger King made was even worse! Basically, he was at the window after ordering a #7 off the menu board. When he got to the window, he was told they didn't have lemonade, but would another beverage be alright. He argued that it wasn't, that they should have told him so he didn't have to waste his time and he still wanted his lemonade. He said he was going to call the police, which is when he called 911. No food order or money had been exchanged and he was calling 911 to complain?! That's just the pinnacle of stupidity and ignorance.

There, now was that so hard? My point was that the media thinks this is newsworthy. In wanting to know the best thing to do with my money, I'd be more interested in what is going on in the financial world for succeeding companies in times like this. I'd want to know what they're doing, what they produce, where the demand is and why people should consider investing after seeing a plan on how they will remain viable for years to come. One has to dig to find the better information behind all the useless, 'No $h! Sherlock' dirt that makes headlines the world over.

Bum luck? I mean, these things will happen to a few people out there, regardless of the manufacturer. On the flip-side, we also own a runabout 2004 Chevy Optra5 developed through GMDAT out of Korea. You can start thinking up your horror stories, but the fact is the car hasn't visited the dealership for anything mechanically wrong (knock on wood). I'm guessing there are significantly more better-running Malibus out there than there are ones in your situation. These things happen?

Where there is money to be made and capitalism means anyone can attempt to have a piece of the pie, the consumers dictate who will prosper; this, whether the company's efficiency or product itself is any good or not. The pie slices aren't getting any larger with, IMHO the decline in personal disposable/discretionary income to afford the 'extras' or the 'must-have-goodies'. For this, we have a few possible outcomes: 1) Offerings and options decline for more basic models and low-buck transportation. 2) Everyday versatility and practicality become more important than status-symbol-gotta-have - it's a stretch, but goodbye SUVs, High-Po station wagon models and track-burning grampa-movers... hello Minivan and the opposite of what I mentioned above. 3) Free-market involvement means risk, which means attrition will decide from there. If you want to play the game, accept there will be losers. If this is the case, accept your losses and move on instead of prolonging the agony and disappointing the consumers.

Don't fricken JINX it!

Um, uh, it was definitely a car... ...a red car. Other than that, I dunno. Otherwise, this site provides countless hours of entertaining mayhem to rubber-neck at.

In a better time, sure, giv'er. I'm not keen on this look, but that doesn't matter any. In today's time, it won't help their situation.

I like their real-world science and myth busting. How I'd have loved to be live when they blew up the cement truck. Even the sound it made on TV was amazing.

So, turn it the phuck around and slap the wads of profit in their faces later! Where the hell is the positive? The media make this world such a $h!ty place to live.

Done anything? Nope. As the story goes, they were sitting next to each other just before 10 PM when many passengers were asleep. A male passenger in front of the pair (attacker and victim) said he was reading a book and suddenly heard a guy screaming. He turned around to see the attacker over the victim, stabbing him in the throat, repeatedly. The witness then yelled to stop the bus and nobody up front even knew what was going on before a near-trample ensued. The entire time, the attacker remained calm; not concerned with anyone but the guy he was stabbing. I'm not sure if it's policy yet, but it was said to be made illegal to have any weapons on a transport bus now... of course, not until after this attack had already taken place. As for the end result, there's little doubt the guy was messed in the head.

Understood, my bad. My hope that a solid plan for their existence will include more differentiation in an effort to attract more buyers over just the GM buyer deciding simply between rebadges and savings. Any other plan involving their existence will likely have more negative consequences.

... oh

After it buffs right out, it could use a little hard-shell protection from Turtle Wax. Too painful a memory to joke about... I miss my Z34... Well, okay, maybe someone, somewhere, buffed it right out.

Why does this matter? Does one have to be a gearhead to own a GM? By your rationale, since the majority of female car owners out there don't fall into your second or third category, and it's the public that speaks for the auto-industry, it's any wonder why there are any performance vehicles at all. BTW, my wife knows the basics of a car. She can add air or change a tire, check the fluids, understand what the gauges are telling her, all basic essentials. The fact that she didn't know how the internal combustion process powers her car doesn't mean anything. I'm pleased she asked me to describe it to her, but it doesn't mean she wants to go and buy a 300 hp sports sedan.

I'm with you on this one. I've only read one article that was meant to inform the buying public that they would have little-or-nothing to worry about when it came to buying from GM, even if they fell into bankruptcy. People are just too ignorant to learn anything while the media are too quick to report just the bad news and not the whole story.

Just a little spit and it'll buff right out. I could use a nice, strong tree like that on the corner of our yard. Hmm, on second thought, that might need a touch of Bondo.

That's what drove them into this problem in the first place! As anyone with a mindset for business knows, you cannot be everything for everyone. They saturated the market with low-budget product with the only hope for profit coming from volume sales that never materialized. At this point in time, with zero hope for volume sales, GM cannot afford to fund everything under their roof. Fixed-cost reductions won't even bring a break-even figure for the operating statement, so cutting further into operations must be done. I'm not out to insult fans of Pontiac in my understanding why GM would choose this route to save themselves, but I don't see that Pontiac has made that much of a positive impact to warrant retaining. Anything else worth mentioning will be reserved for when we would see what GM plans on doing with the exclusive lineup.

Exactly how much money do you think they're making/losing with each sale?

It's clearly a common-sense situation. Those taking shots against the Big3 are merely regurgitating the news-making the media itself is creating. Sure, the Big3 were not in a great position to begin with, fairing substantially worse than their foreign competitors; however, it will be interesting to see how the viability plan will work out for GM to survive at all now.

Sadly, I'm not convinced there is more than a marginal percentage of RWD owners whom could even understand the concept of this, much less execute it in real world driving.

Not enough money to make them all go 'round.

Some simple points to consider: - It's likely that most all season tires are not brand new to have the majority of their traction ability for winter. In my experience, half-used all season tires really sucked in winter. Keep in mind, we have winter conditions that mean you may not even see pavement for a couple of weeks between snowfalls. Around here, east of the Okanagan in B.C. and west of Calgary, all-season tires on loose or compact snow, slush, or ice is, well, taking a very unneccesary risk. The west coast was hammered with snow this year, and those with all-season tires did the grand majority of the suffering. - According to Transports Québec: In Québec, Canada, information collected in 2005 shows that 38% of the accidents that occur during the winter involve at least one vehicle that is equipped with all-season tires. These vehicles are strongly overrepresented in these accidents (a.k.a. they played a key roll in these accidents during harsh conditions), as it is estimated that 90% of passenger vehicles already have winter tires. In addition, the proportion of the occurrence of loss of control is even higher when the vehicles involved are equipped with all-season tires. This is why, as of September 17, 2008 Quebec mandated winter tread tires be installed between December 15 to March 15 for taxis and passenger vehicles that are registered in Québec, as well as passenger vehicles that are rented in Québec. Does AWD make a great difference for a car? Sure does. It may not be completely necessary; however, there sure are a lot of Subarus at the ski hills around here. Beyond this, a RWD tractor for snow removal absolutely sucks without the front wheels engaged. Even worse, without chains on the front, you can't steer... literally can't. To me, the make-or-break for most people shouldn't have to be the drive wheels. When you consider the majority of the city-bound sedans, how many drivers wring-out their cars to even know how to understand what the drive wheels are doing?

Certainly, I believe GM is largely responsible for setting up the consumer backlash that almost always came with the unveiling of a new model. If it wasn't that other division-loyalists/enthusiasts were complaining about what they aren't getting, it's the division-loyalists/enthusiasts of the unveiled vehicle complaining about what they didn't get! There appears to be a great deal of insight in Mr. Kleinbaum's paper that is easy to understand from an outside point of view. In such times as before the financial crisis, when GM was already at a point of opportunity for change they could afford to implement just then, GM appears to have chosen the course of least resistance. Covering the eyes and saying, 'Steady as she goes,' while taking a peek for problems and concluding, 'Looks good, keep rowing,' is anything but adjusting for the times. To me, it's as if GM could develop a product, send it out and wait; as if to toss a piece of spaghetti against a wall to see if it sticks. More often than not, it didn't stick... maybe it wasn't done yet. I tend to think that the biggest issues are just as I'd read from the paper, that the internal structure within GM is one of inefficiency and outdated practices. Rather than a review of the internal structure to better provide for altering and updating the kind of decades-old operational activity the paper indicated existed, GM continued to acquire additional divisions and absorb what interested them. Holy crap, GM is the Borg. They're phucked.