Blake Noble

Hope you have a great birthday, PCS.

I live in moonshine country, so perhaps I could be of an assistance. :AH-HA_wink:

da debbil

What I meant did not concern a lack of future product. I know GM has a good deal of future products coming down the way. What I meant was concerned with what seems to be a lack of future innovation to ensure that North America can have more realistic options outside of compact cars in the face of the future and the current CAFE, environmental, and fuel concerns. The current attitude at GM seems to be that if you can afford something that is the size of a Malibu or Aura in the future, you must be a fairly affluent individual. I do not think it has to be that way and it should not be that way.

"Foreclosure Of A Dream" - Megadeth Something of a song for the times.

I found it quite hilarious when I had first seen it.

To be fair to Rick, he was doing a good job of leading the company before the CAFE and environmental challenges presented themselves. Now that he must rise to the challenge to lead the company through an upcoming troubled era, he is beginning to perhaps prove himself incompetent and unsure. He had a clear plan of what to do, but he didn't make it fail safe sadly.

Good to hear you are doing well, sir. I imagine you got the steak?

Anymore, it is Ford I am keeping within the distance of my left ear (GM within the distance of the right, of course). Rear-drive is still on the table there and the company listens to what it's customers want (in all honesty, they always have; if they didn't, they would have replaced the Mustang with the Probe long ago like they intended to). If Bill Jr. was still in charge, it wouldn't be anything like the way it is going to be in the future. Agreed.

I'd buy what I could afford. I already plan on buying stock anyway and increasing my shares to a certain percent year after year. At $17 bucks a share, GM stock isn't exactly expensive right now. I don't foresee it getting too expensive in the future, either.

Indeed.

Don't forget to think for yourself. :AH-HA_wink: "Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities, the political, the religious, the educational authorities who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing, forming in our minds their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable, open-mindedness; chaotic, confused, vulnerability to inform yourself."

Hmm ... the ST will have an LS3-based engine, correct? I believe a junkyard C6 would be willing to sacrifice its six-speed manual transmission for your ST, Camino. There is always that option.

No manual transmission and front-wheel drive are the main deal-breakers for me. Although I am partial to V6s and mid-sized vehicles and would much rather drive such, I am not totally closed minded to compact-sized vehicles and four-cylinders (I am already making due with those two things right now). Good design is a must!

And yet that is what GM does in face of challenge: panic. Where is the proud, confident leadership that GM really needs? GM needs their own Alan Mullaly; someone from the outside who knows what to do to turn it all around with a sound vision of what the company should be and the courage to hand a pink slip to anyone who isn't willing to get with the program.

You know, Holden is selling those gently used small-blocks complete with transmission as part of the W427 project. :AH-HA_wink:

Don't you know when to quit? The Hyundai Genesis coupe will be rear-drive and have a basic price of around twenty grand. And not every car buyer wants a mundane, run-of-the-mill, front-drive mainstream appliance that can be found in every driveway across America. Not every car buyer wants a Toyota. This isn't Europe, by the way. Or does everywhere you go look the same when you view it from under the same rock? Cadillac is unafforable to car buyers in my price bracket. Corvette is much of the same as well as unpractical. Camaro is more my speed and fits my criteria perfect, but what if I have a family someday? A nice rear-drive sedan sure would be nice if I have to buy something to supplement the Camaro.

I won't argue here. Although, of course, this is what everyone capable of rational thought has been saying since the G5 was first introduced to this market. Ah, now this is where I will disagree with you. Going back to having things in this condition is, in reality, more of the same of what we have now with the G5 and Cobalt. So what if the old Sunbird had an unique interior? You could take one look at the exterior and tell it and the Cavalier were the same car. The Sunfire was better, yes, in its relation to its Chevrolet cousin upon its debut, but like the Sunbird that preceded it, it was car plagued with quality issues. It still wasn't what Pontiac really deserved. GM is not just a North American company anymore. You have to see beyond that. And as for your vision of Pontiac that emulates the brand's status from the 1980s or 1990s, I will give it a big thumbs down. If there is an era in Pontiac's history that should be emulated, it should be the era of the 1960s and the brief period of time in the early 1970s when the brand was really doing well. The 1980s and 1990s were largely nothing to write home about.

You too, huh?

I don't think GM will give up building larger vehicles. They know that there is a market for vehicles larger than a car or truck in the compact-size class and they will not abandon those customers. They will have something for them. Agreed. But let me say this, if I am misunderstanding anything: if GM does intend to virtually abandon mid-sized vehicles at the least, they will make a horrible mistake.

Exactly. I have nothing against an Aveo-sized vehicle for Pontiac, as long as it fits the brand's mission and does not look like a mere rebadge of what you can buy from a nearby Chevrolet dealership. I understand that not everyone wants what I want, but that still does not justify a "quick fix" product for the brand that will ultimately be left alone. It needs to be Pontiac-unique and invested in when that time comes. If GM will not do that for Pontiac, then just let the brand bow out on a positive note with the G8 and Solstice. If you will not do it right, then don't bother.

torque

As will Jeeps.

No problem. I don't think GM will build small cars and nothing else, but that's just what I think.

I don't mean to speak for F_O_G, but I believe his post was directed at Wagoner's statement that the shift to smaller cars in the U.S. would be permanent and not shift back to larger vehicles. However, truth be told, in markets where smaller cars are mainstream, like Europe, larger cars are still offered. Rick better clarify on what he means here, if he wouldn't mind. Some people are reading that as if GM will never build anything larger than a Cobalt again.