It’s about time. Toyotas crappy engines and pisspoor quality were bringing down General Motors relibility scores. It’s bad enough that anyone who drives or owns a foriegn POS is an embarrassment to this Country, having one of them with your logo on it is suicide.

Not having GM’s engineering expertise and design is going to hurt Toyota badly and it makes us Americans happy as clams. Die Toyota. Die.

Buy American. Buy GM. An American Revolution

GM got a ton out of NUMMI. GMS, their production system, evolved from what they learned at NUMMI. I think it’s ok for them to end their relationship, but they got way more than they gave there.

haha that sucks! That was actually their most reliable car!!!!!!
Buy GM! It is the only way to make you feel like absolute ****!

Funny… my dad fought for this country in Iraq and earned a bronze star, but he drives a Mitsubishi… is he an embarassment to our country? I don’t care whether you believe what you say, or you’re just screwing with people… you’re the embarrasment to this country NMOFG.

2wheeledspeed,
You work hard for your money! Drive what ever you like, and don’t pay attention to NMOFGM’s crap. Everyone knows a talking cow is more credible than him! LOL!!

so let me get this right, gm owned 50 percent of the plant, but only produced on model with toyota, while toyota produced several models there……..sounds like gm was kinda getting screwed, and the vibe wasnt much of a gm car anyway, besides some reworked exterior, it was just a toyota. Getting out of this plant will save gm some cash. I think its smart

funny how people flock to buy the Matrix and not so much the Vibe, im sure the Matrix outsold the Vibe 2 to 1… and although it is a matter of opinion and taste, i think side by side with no company badges, the average person would like the Vibe more…
It’s like if Toyota threw their badge on the Malibu and called it a Camry… the Malibu has been good for Chevy, but im sure if it was badged up as a Camry everyone and their left nut would want one.

idrinorbarsaku – you’re funny. love that cow analogy.

anyclearer – Remember that when GM and Toyota started that plant, GM was producing Geos. The plant originally built Toyota Corollas which were also the Geo Prizm. Higher volumes for GM back then.

NMOFGM- wtf? Both automakers have good quality. Get over it all ready! I hate Toyota but what are you gonna do? Honestly, you comment this way to make us angry. Show some respect and leaave this website! This is not the best news though. They could have merged the next Tacoma and the next Colorado/Canyon together and the partnership can live on, but i guess no one on any side of the pond is smart enough to come up with that. It would work, because developement of the next Colorado is in its early stages and i haven’t heard a word on a new Tacoma, can anyone tell me anything about that? Please respond.

Vibe is more expensive than Matrix – why wouldn’t Matrix be expected to outsell Vibe?

GM is doing this because they need to leave some valuable nuggets in the old GM bankruptcy. This just opens the door for Toyota to quietly buy the other 50% at a discount while providing some value to the bond holders who have been completely screwed by Obama.

obamaepicfail.wordpress.com

Thats the sad truth Andy. People just are not convinced. Last year Chevy sold 160,000 Malibu while Toyota sold 350,000 Camry’s.

I’m sorry, 180,000 Malibu and 435,000 Camry. Thats 250,000+ difference!

Whatever, PB. It’s GM who kills Pontiac, who also has no use for another joint venture product. GM’s aim is to slim down. Any company going through Ch.11 Reorganization is going to have to “shaft” some creditors because they have too many debts and not enough cash flow.

GM and Chrysler are just two bankruptcy cases that has gotten way too many press coverage and opinion from people who has no clue about why there is bankruptcy law in this country to begin with, or from those with their own political agenda.

what killed the bondholders, pb, was gm failing, not obama…facts 1, pb 0

The time for GM to get out of any joint venture couldn’t be better
I don’t have any problem with them leaving
They benefited much more than ‘Yota did
No question it helped them learn how to actually build a quality car, dating back to the old Geo Prisms, which won quality awards.
The market reaps the benefits of a more quality-conscious GM to this day.

GM reneging is not exactly news.
Toyota sjhould be thanked for sharing their vaunted TPS system with anyone, much less their primary domestic rival.

Toyota did so for political reasons
While GM sat at the feet of the master
Toyota took over the market
If GM had an ounce of management,over the course of this agreemet, they’d be sitting pretty, with a strong, sound product portfolio, and a 25-30% share
But………..

I love how the desperate blame Obama for GM’s numerous misdeeds.
DrFill

id, why do you keep lieing. We both know the Vibe was not GM’s most reliable car. Please stop making things up to try and prove your point.

The relationship meant to teach GM Japanese productivity, quality, management techniques and JITI(just in time inventory). Since GM has been incapable of learning anything from Sloan’s days, they screwed this opportunity. Now we will pay for their learning disability till they finally close doors (give ‘em 2 years and another 50 billions of your children taxes or debt)

leftwingagenda-

While it is true that GM’s lousy performance was the initial injury to bondholders, the Obama administration worked hard and leaned hard on a federal judge to throw out 200 years of American jurisprudence on bankruptcy. And while that may not mean anything to you, it has sent shockwaves through the legal and business community. Towards the end of the last semester, many of my law school class discussions began touching on the dangerous road that one federal bankruptcy judge and the Obama administration has put us on. If you read any Chinese newspapers, as I do, you would be aware that the Chinese government and many Chinese businesses are now desperately worried about how much they can trust their American investments.

The Chinese government is threatening to slow down/stop their buying of t-bonds and a part of that has to do with their fear that the GM decision is a signpost that indicates the U.S. government has no interest in following its own laws. The driver for foreign investment in the U.S. is trust. Trust is established through contracts and a consistent application of contract law by our courts. The GM decision indicates American intentions to abrogate those responsibilities. There is a possibility that trust will evaporate.

The mistake you have made is that you seemingly believe that the president and his administration simply wiped out the bondholders as chapter 11 might have done; however, what you are ignoring is that, instead, the administration GAVE AWAY the bondholder’s place in the pecking order to the unions (which many of us “conspiracy theorists” see as nothing more than political payback). Just keep this in mind: You have no right to take my property and give it to someone else. Those union workers invested no capital. They worked for paychecks and benefits. Bondholders risked their money, which created jobs for the union workers. Destroy the bondholders in one company and you will see the beginning of the end of trust in American investments. I can’t explain what little a law student knows about contract law to you in a post, so I guess I’ll end with hoping it all works out. I have no incentive to be a bondholder in any American companies. My investments will probably go overseas to companies that incorporate in countries that respect the contract.

“Not having OPEL’S AND HOLDEN’s engineering expertise and design is going to hurt GM badly and it makes us Americans happy as clams. Die GM. Die.”

There, fixed that for ya.

Go to Wikipedia and look up Toyota Blade, its much better than the Matrix. Then Look up Toyota Allion, it is much better than that piece of **** Corolla we have now.

Dissapointing, sprockets.

“The Chinese government is threatening to slow down/stop their buying of t-bonds and a part of that has to do with their fear that the GM decision is a signpost that indicates the U.S. government has no interest in following its own laws.”

Ha, maybe the US can just get back to making its own money it needs without paying interest. The downside? The value of the dollar goes down.

Wait, that happens either way!!!

Sprockett, do not get your comment. GM still will have both Opel and Holdens engineering expertise. They will most likely still be partially owned by GM and the biggest part GM wants is the Engineering portion.

Borat, GM learned very well. They out score Toyota in plant productivity. About even in quality/dependability and utilize JIT.

“GM is the only manufacturer to consistently improve year-over-year overall
in the history of the annual report. The company’s Toledo, Ohio, transmission
plant was the most productive transmission plant in North America for the
second year in a row, at 2.37 hours per transmission.
Additionally, three of GM’s assembly plants, five of its engine plants and
two stamping plants were ranked in the top 10 in productivity in their
respective categories.”

Again, GM will make a good profit next year. Now that their legacy cost are behind them watch out.

The Chevrolet Nova, the Geo Prizm, the Chevrolet Prizm and (with apologies to Borat) the Pontiac Vibe- quite the little list of truly forgettable sh*tboxes. If there was opportunity for GM to make something of this relationship they completely missed the boat. They might as well have spent the last 25 years growing dope in the basement. Maybe they were and that was the problem.

It’s called making fun of NMOFGM, you know, a joke.

Look, the new Camaro is nice, but don’t be an idiot and pretend that it is a 100% American made and 100% American engineered vehicle, because it isn’t. Pontiac calling the G8 the rebirth of CAR in America with V8 power is flat out stupid.

Thank goodness. The Vibe is a joke… Toyota has nothing that GM should ever want. Their cars are bland and geriatric and just generally lacking personality.

Toyota poor reliability and low quality brought General Motors down. Good riddance to NUMMI.

GM. An American Revolution

Obviously NMOIFGM, your just saying that stupid sh!t to antagonize and try to be funny, but for those of us who actually work for NUMMI, your saying good ridence to the employment of 5,500 families. Your stupid banter is just assinine and childish. Grow up already. It’s Toyota’s poor quality that brought GM up to standard.
I love how all you bloggers think you know so much about our company when you know absolutely nothing. Many Toyota built vehicles are more American than many of GM’s. The new Camaro? Canadian. G8? Australian. Considering Camry’s, Avalon’s, Sequoias, Tundras, engines’…are all made in America with hundreds of US suppliers.
RAINEMAN says Toyota has nothing that GM should ever want? Uh, how about cars that people actually want to buy? If that was the case then GM might not be in this predicament it’s in now.

I never liked this deal. Rivals should not cooperate. Simple as that. There is so much false crap spewed out here I cant even begin to fire back. Lets just say that those who believe Toyota was teaching GM so much and GM brought nothing to the party are simple minded idiots.

Hmmm, lets see. GM learned first hand about Toyota’s lean manufacturing prodution systems ( which has been utilized in other GM plants, this I know since I’ve been to them) and Toyota learned about American business practices like understanding the American workforce and dealing with unions. Yeah I guess nothing was learned from this. The last 25 years have been a waste of time.
SHAVER never liked the idea anyway so I guess we should all pack up and go home.

skoobs-

On the whole you are right in pointing out there are many benefits that flow from overseas manufacturers into American industry; however, I would like to make one slight correction. You say that GM learned about Toyota’s lean manufacturing production systems. That is probably true, but you are neglecting that Toyota (formerly Toyoda) learned that manufacturing process from GM, Ford, DuPont, Chrysler, etc. engineers after WWII. My step-grandfather was one of those engineers. And those American engineers had surely built their knowledge on ideas imported long ago from other nations. Again, the tenor of your message is technically correct, but nationalism (espoused by many on this site for both American and foreign automakers) does serve a legitimate business role.

Another aside I would address would be your contention that Toyota and other foreign marques are aiding the U.S. by providing jobs. This is technically true. Yet, there is a delicate balance inherent in such a supposition. It is quite important that we keep manufacturing jobs alive in the U.S. because we desperately need to retain know-how. Nations that BUILD things are rich nations (there is a seeming historical trend in service-based economies growing much slower than industrial based economies). Toyota is helping us to maintain that hands-on knowledge. However, such relationships deprive Americans of managerial experience (Toyota is famously closed to the idea of allowing American-born managers to rise too high in their ranks). Moreover, the massive profits are headed overseas. Therein lies the balance. Are we getting as much as we’re losing? There is nothing overtly wrong with questioning the value of our free-market dealings when there is persuasive evidence showing that certain foreign companies are not abiding by free market principles (which must be pure to function correctly and avoid protectionism). Consider that one of the few American Toyota executives of any note has accused Toyota of developing and marketing the Prius with the aid of government monies. This is clearly antithetical to how Japan has expected American car companies to work. I could go on, but I only mean to show you that there are legitimate reasons for the vitriol you seem to feel some of the domestic cheerleaders are spewing.

Lionwithoutpride, great post, I agree 100% and I would’ve posted the exact same thoughts to Skoobs who clearly has no clue about GM’s role in Nummi. Now that Toyota is out of the picture, GM can move on to producing the finest, most reliable cars on the planet rather than worrying about what quality and relibility Fockups they inherited from Toyotas moronic employees. Example: no more Vibe to bring down GM’s stellar quality.

Toyota products are the epitome of garbage, everyone knows it and that is why Gm will continue to prosper in the future. No foriegn garbage to hold them down.

Toyota will die. Victim of the American Revolution that is General Motors

Lionwithoutpride – excellent essays, both of them. Thank you.

Johnny, I agree with you on all points. One comment however, there is huge market for cheap, liable crapboxes, and the company that develops most reliable boxes and lowest price will have capital and ability to build cars for enthusiasts. GM has lost that lovely feeling.

We all know, in the Toyota umbrella, that the idea for Toyota’s manufacturing principles originated in America. That is clearly stated in the TPS history. However, Toyota worked on it and made it better. That’s called Kaizen. Something that someone of your intelligence would know. Toyota is well known for promoting within, and as such many NUMMI executives have gone on to high level positions within Toyota. So perhaps it will be just a matter of time until you see American born managers rise to the higher ranks as you have pointed out. You are so correct when you say that “nations must build things” to maintain a viable economy, however, when was the last time you went to Wal-Mart and bought an “American” brand that wasn’t made in China? My gripe is with ‘persons’ like NMOFGM. Apparently, from his point of view, Toyota, for some reason has been holding GM back all of these years. Now that GM has pulled out of NUMMI all of GM’s hurdles will be cleared and they can proceed with building great vehicles that everyone wants to buy like Pontiac Aztecs and Chevy Malibu Maxxes. How does that make sense? You cannot discount the impact that Plants like NUMMI, Kentucky, San Antonio and all of their suppliers have on their respective local economies. And as far as the “fockups that us Toyota employees” create for GM, I don’t see one GM vehicle at the top of their respective vehicle segments in the just released JD Power survey. Enough said. I’m done.

as always i have a completely different take. this move is nothing more complicated than chevy (gm) burying pontiac as quickly as possible. anyone who dreams gm will bring back pontiac at a later date is on some serious medication. case closed…

Hey Skoobs, you forget that JDP (and CR) is a marketing firm that is paid off by the Japs in order to maintain their “reputation for reliabilty and quality” something that has been a lie for 40 years. GM doesn’t need to pay for the kind words because everyone already knows GM clearly stands for quality and reliability. Once you have owned more than 1 General Motors vehicle that goes 800 thousand miles with nothing but routine maintainence while all the POS Toyotas and Hondas are in the scrapyard by 50 thousand miles, you know GM’s reputation is world class, something that JDP and CR don’t want to acknowledge because they get no advertising dollars from GM.

Millions of Americans trust GM for the highest levels of quality and dependibility. And they only trust imports because firms like JDP and CR tell them to. They’ll learn once their car goes in for a major repair once the warranty is up! Meanwhile the rest of us will continue to laugh and snicker at them as we are driving our flawless, perfect GM vehicles for decades without a worry.

America has chosen and General Motors is our brand. Buy GM. An American Revolution

Need more oil for GM: well f*cking said, mate! Every day I pray to Jesus, hoping GM will sever its relationship with Toy Ota, I’m so glad that it’s finally happened! Once and for all, GM will rid itself of the jap filth that has ruined its reputation for so long.