GM finished?

When I was a kid and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would say “Chairman of GM, the largest corporation in the world”. That would be a pretty stressful job right now (at least the pay is still pretty good at 3.5 M).

i wonder how big telecom vendors are doing?. lucent? nortel?. they still havent recovered from the excesses and accounting frauds of 1999-2001 when i last checked.

talked to people @ GMAC, they sound like people sound when they know they will be let go. otherwise, i dont know more than what is on there on the tube…looking @ their burn rate, there is no way they can last more than a year unless economy turns around

everybody is making fun of Detroit for getting americans addicted to the SUV.Know what ,the hottest selling vehicles in China are SUVs .greed is global

this recession may break the weak US autos…say goodbye to chrysler…and GM…and Ford…if they do emerge it will be a very in a very differnt business model. nobody is buying cars, nobody.

Sorry, I won’t shed a tear. These American auto makers spent the last decade preparing for the next quarter. I wondered how strongly they accounted for the cost of gasoline in their long-term planning. And then put an economic slowdown on top of that… How’s Honda stock doing these days?

GM junk bonds, here we come!

You will see a merger of all three before this is out. Ford/GM/Chrysler.

daj224 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > talked to people @ GMAC, they sound like people > sound when they know they will be let go. > otherwise, i dont know more than what is on there > on the tube…looking @ their burn rate, there is > no way they can last more than a year unless > economy turns around economy will not turn around (not fast enuf)…

Will GM die today?!?!

frisian Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Sorry, I won’t shed a tear. These American auto > makers spent the last decade preparing for the > next quarter. I wondered how strongly they > accounted for the cost of gasoline in their > long-term planning. And then put an economic > slowdown on top of that… > > How’s Honda stock doing these days? That’s a little unfair. The automakers are saddled with unionized workers unlike their global peers. No one in the mind thought gasoline would hit these levels. High gasoline price is a recent phenomenon.

swtxlady Wrote: > No one in the mind thought gasoline would hit > these levels. High gasoline price is a recent > phenomenon. But whenever your product has a critical input, you have to consider the impact of any changes in that input. Honda has kept its eye on the future. But the American manufacturers were more interested in lobbying to keep the low mileage standards so they could keep cranking out SUVs.

Agreed. They drop the ball on the passenger car space. At the time (~2003), I can see why they chose to do so… the imports simply have leaner cost structure that allowed them to price their passenger cars at a much lower price point. It made more strategic sense to focus on the one area where they have somewhat of an advantage: SUV and trucks. Over the last five years, I don’t think anyone have introduced bigger and better SUV/trucks model in the US than the big three. That was the right strategy when consumer was splurging on the latest “infotainment” system in their cars, bigger and shinier rims, etc. It was a “social” change, if you will. Even soccer moms were dropping vans for the latest and greatest SUV. Now… it’s the opposite. It’s very tough to anticipate market trends (and their reversal)… Had consumers continued to buy SUV, things might have been different…

> nobody is buying cars, nobody. i did last month. but it was a toyota.

last month is very different than this month.

Gecco Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > nobody is buying cars, nobody. I bought a Saab which is GM. Of course it was a 2005 and I got it from CarMax.