Autoblog

I dig your bowl cut.

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everyone beating on GM needs to look at the dates again.

GM's announcement is that 4 plants will be closed by 2010.

GM's promise 2 weeks ago to Oshawa is to keep it open through most of 2009.

There is no breach in those statements. BOTH can co-exist without contradiction. Heck, if someone told me they promise to keep it open through most of 09, I would take that as after 2009 I'm likely on my own, otherwise they would say the foreseeable future.

CAW and the other unions need to realize they are NOT entitled to a job more than anyone else. There are layoffs left and right. Its a fact fo life.

As has been mentioned, there have been enough layoffs to start another motor company and compete. They would be unencumbered by union legacies, outdated plants, and all kinds of baggage. Smaller, more flexible, and able to start fresh. WOW. but no, then they couldnt blame someone else

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I dont agree with you Pete. If my brother could get a Silverado with the 3.6 252hp engine of the Malibu and a 6 speed auto giving him a combined 20 MPG he would be all over it. He has a landscaping business and he just needs a big pickup bed. He also doesnt go more than 90mph so he doesnt need a 6.2 403hp engine. And the 4.3 190hp is a joke.

I guess he will have to keep driving his T100 until the F-100 comes out.

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Take it to the doorstep of the CAW too. I'm sure their serious demands for overinflated compensation and pensions have something to do with profitablilty.

And let me get this straight......the CAW is going to fight the closing????? They make it sound like the closing of the plants is a direct shot at them. What a joke!

Hey CAW.....end the blockade and goto school and learn something. Come back as an educated worker and rejoin the work force and earn what your worth instead of allowing these business agents to sit around and live high on the hog with YOUR'S and MY money.

I know a business agent personally. He never finished high school, drove a truck for 28 yrs and was voted in as a BA. He makes $150k a year. Travels to the tune of an additional $50k a year. He gets a free Cadillac DTS every other year to drive. He is allowed to buy the car for less than wholesale after that if he so chooses. How is this paid for??? With the labor forces union dues, thats how!

So if you're a union worker....your taking it from both ends.

1........The world hates you because you work under a legalized organized crime racket that bullies corporate America into spending more money for services than they're worth.......making illegal immigrants that more attractive to corporations

2.........A good portion of your pay goes to the layers of management who do nothing more than shake down business owners and corporations while they get paid a king's ransom.

There is no benefit in Unions!

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It's not GM's fault that they bargined a contract based on keeping Oshawa's truck plant open, and then change their mind 2 weeks after signing? What 2 weeks ago oil wasn't this high? Give me a break, you obviously have no idea how contracts work. Do you say what people want to hear and then do what you want anyways? Do you expect any consequences?
They still will be building trucks, and GM will still profit off of them if they are built in Canada. It's a breach of contract to move all production to Mexico, and there will legal action against them.

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Find me a manufacturer that produces a non-hybrid fullsize truck that gets a combined 20mpg...

Don't worry, I'll wait...

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@ Steve:

That's why they offer other engines besides the 190HP 4.3L and the 403HP 6.2L. Not to mention that the 403HP engine isn't even available on anything but the Escalade currently. Plus, the V-8 engines get slightly better mileage than the 4.3L according to the EPA and Chevy's website.

Engines aren't as interchangeable as you might think. While some truck engines can be used in cars(like many of the V-8's and some of the V-6's), it doesn't mean that all car engines can be used in a truck.

Truck engines have to be built more stout to put up with more abuse than a typical car engine would see. Normally, that used to mean that you didn't see aluminum blocks on truck engines, but they are becoming more common now.

Personally, I think they should replace the ancient 4.3L with the 4.2L I-6 from the Trailblazer. It's a damn good engine with significantly more power and probably similar if not better mileage. That would certainly help fuel sales of the 6cyl versions considering they would have the power of the V-8's of only a few years back.

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Have you actually been to Ontario. Can you even find it on a map? No commodities here. Just a huge manufacturing economy mostly based around this little hamlet of 5.5 million people you might have heard of before called Toronto.

GM is in the wrong this time. They signed on in good faith two weeks ago saying they would continue to build at this plant including a new product. They used the whole idea that they wouldn't close any plants as the carrot to get a better deal from the union. Then they turn around two weeks later and close a plant anyway. Plus at the same time they have also received a ton of money from the province of Ontario with the idea that it was supposed to create jobs and instead they keep making cuts and have now closed a plant. Even GM's spokesperson today admitted that they may have no choice but to give Ontario back some of the money they were given.

It is one thing when you need to close a plant because times have changed. It is something different altogether when you go signing agreements with governments and unions based on a promise not to close a plant and then do it anyway two weeks later.

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Perhaps you want to apply your knowledge of geography and economy a little further. Exploring correlations between ballooning commodity price, Canada and commodities, Canadian dollar appreciation, higher Canadian taxes you may have to arrive to the same conclusion as GM - it makes no sense to build vehicles in Canada. Especially vehicles that don't sell.

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Peter: The sales numbers for trucks and SUVs have dropped of a cliff in May. From today's NY Times:

"“At the peak in 2002, G.M. sold 600,000 full-size S.U.V.’s, but they’re on pace this year to sell less than 250,000 of them,” said David Healy, an analyst with Burnham Securities. “And the nails in the coffin are getting screwed down a little tighter.”"

You can argue that GM should have foreseen $4/gallon gas and the effect it would have on consumers. I'd argue that they should have made the shift to cars a couple years ago. You can argue that they should have been building flexible factories like Honda that can quickly shift from one model to another. But they didn't. Was this a "shocking lack of foresight", to quote Peter De Lorenzo? Sure. But that, and $3.50, will get you a latte.

So here they are with way too much capacity for trucks that they can't sell. And their mainstream small car is the POS Cobalt.

GM lost a billion dollars last year. Trucks and SUV's were their most profitable vehicles. If they don't shut down the unneeded plants, GM will go broke.

It sucks to be the CAW, but it is time for them to face reality. It will be better for the CAW if GM is able to stay afloat and save some jobs, then for GM to continue to lose money and go bankrupt.

GM is fighting for its very existence. CAW needs to wake up to that fact.

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They said they would close the plants in 2010. That's after 2009 on my calendar.

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They don't care what they're building as long as they have a job. I guess unions have never heard of things like market trends because I can't think of any reason they would demand that GM keep building cars that no one wants to buy so they can have a job. This proves my theory that as long as GM has two nickels to rub together the unions will continue to make more demands.

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