it looks like GM is becoming less American day by day. They loosing market at home but gaining it in Asia and Africa.

And how many GMS & Chevy truck made in Canada and Mexico they would sell in Africa and Europe?

Our Global economy has changed the rules for what defines “American”. Selling lots of cars overseas does not make GM any less American. They are making a profit where they can, and what could be any more American than that?

Mike you are right. Selling cars overseas does not make GM less American. Being owned by Arab oil sheiks and Russian oil oligarchs does. Russian oligarch just bought over 5% of their shares and board did not say a word. There was fight with WWI hero who owned 10% of the shares over direction of the company to the point that guy sold his holdings and vacating the board seat.

This success is great just as long as GM does not make Toyota’s mistake and let its quality go down the crapper.

Hey, seriously – nothing wrong with selling anywhere possible. Most Japanese makes sell more abroad than in the home market, most european brands sell more in foreign markets than in their home countries, and the US makes have learned the hard way that reliance on one market only subjects you to the economic and political winds of that market.

As for the race for the worldwide #1 seller spot, it looks like it’s gonna be a photo finish. 50k units difference at midyear is not a lot, and can be made up for quite fast with a couple innovative model releases (GM has more currently scheduled releases, I think) or an incentive or two (both Toyota and GM play that game). Will be fun to watch.

Ricardo it is not a photo finish. There was not a photo finish 2, 3, 5 years ago. It is called a momentum. There is a strong sentiment on WS that GM will get its bearings (why do you think former communist bastard bought so much stock?), but I took my money out. Maybe I will pay with my pocketbook and I am wrong, but I don’t recall photo finishes few short years back. As a matter of fact 3 years ago when Toyota was bumping into Ford pundits were giving then (and actually Toyota board was agreeing) at least 10 years to catch up with GM. BTW, if Toyota get screwed by their own quality stupidity (I doubt that they will in the long term) there is Renault-Nissan with Hyundai in a rear view mirrow of Toyota.

1% differnce is a photo finish in 2007. In 08 or 09 I have no doubt Toyota will sell more units, but this year it’s a photo finish, Autonut.

BTW – stock-wise both GM and Ford are better bets today than Toyota or Honda. T & H are pretty high on the market and so the upside is limited, whereas all GM & F need are a couple good quarters and you will crank great rewards, and a well placed sell order will limit any downside (although there is not much left). And yes I do put my money where my mouth is.

I bought quite a bit of GM stock a little over a year ago at $20.20 a share. Trust me, I’m very happy with pushing almost a 100% ROI in that short time frame. I estimate my sell point at around $70 per share by late next year. With the new CTS and Malibu, GM should see some nice sales bumps this fall in a market segment they have no where to go but up. That coupled with the new UAW contract allowing them to finally build cars on a level playing field with the Japanese, getting out of the rental car business, and the Volt only a couple years away, you’re crazy for not buying this stock. Keep up the good work GM, my bank account thanks you. I’ll be sure to use the extra cash to buy that 08 CTS.

At the moment I think there are quite a few opportunities outside of auto sector.
Ricardo, based on your reply on another forum you don’t need cars or money to find place for your mouth

LMAO, Autonut. Combine that other thread about getting chicks with this one about putting my money where my mouth is and I suppose you can conclude that I pay for poon.

Then again, in the end, we all do one way or another. Ha!

Please explain to me why selling cars to rental companies is bad? I’m sure i must be missing some issue here. I know lots of people who rented a car, liked it, then bought it for their next family car. Around my home it doesn’t seem to effect companies image, but does it elsewhere? I’m just curious.

it wouldve been hilarious is dmbpearl wouldve written that the extra cash would be used to buy that 08 M3.. but thats just me.. ok back to studying..

im studying medicine abroad in a central american country and beginning march ‘08 the united states will be initiated the new CAFTA which is a free trade agreement with a few countries (nicaragua, costa rica, dominican republic, etc.) what i do know is that a brand new AVEO over here costs upwards of $17k and an Avalanche is around $65k..
this free trade agreement should light up the eyes of GM/Ford/Chrysler shareholders bc with the decrease in taxes will come a drastic increase of sales..
in an economy where a base yaris costs $20k and a cobalt will cost $14k where is the sale going to go?

so who knows dmbpearl, perhaps you could wait a little bit more and cash in to get the CTS-V

67_L-88, I also dont think rental sales are bad as a business decision, but it tends to flood the resale market relatively quickly because rentals get sold rather quickly with high miles and to maintain competitive fleets.

If I were a manufacturer, though, I would consider build specific models only for the rental/taxi market, and not push them in the main market or build a retail model relyin on them. The Ford Taurus is a good example – they can build them cheap, they look okay, are very practical as a taxi or a rental, no one wants them at a retail level, so pull the things off the retail market and move it exclusively to the rentals and taxis, and for resale purposes be sure to offer replacement parts. Then build more exciting and desirable retail commuter appliances aimed at specific end user markets and go at it, thus removing a good portion of the resale anxiety purchasers have. Fords and GM vehicles that are not flooded with rentals are competitive enough in the resale arena to do okay.

67_L-88 companies usually sell to rental conglomerates vehicles they can not sell to customers. That was tactic used by Ford and GM to boost unit sales. Rentals do not pay the same price as individuals and profits are lower per vehicle. After 2-3 years in rental fleet the vehicle is sold to public at a lower cost. Rental companies can do that: the vehicle already payed for itself being rented and it was purchased for less to begin with. It does not directly affect manufacturer except the cost of used car goes down. Now if a consumer bought the same car and wants to sell it he is screwed by cheaper cars on the market from rental fleets. This is long term problem. Ford and GM are trying to wean themselves from this habit and taking write outs because of this.

Ricardo, we already covered some economics and anthropology so I try to keep conversation light . u r correct we all pay for our play.

Remember, the core business of rental car companies may be to rent cars, but their main by-product is to create used cars. And the only problem being they’re used cars that are only two years removed from a car lot where that same car is being sold new for twice the cost. At least when a retail consumer sells the product used it’s normally after the manufacturer has introduced a redesigned version four to five years later.

Over the past several decades GM and Ford had no choice but to sell (and cheapen) their products to rental car companies, primarily because of the horrible UAW contracts they tied themselves down with. It was either that or allow those employees in the Jobs Bank to sit around and build nothing while still getting paid. Better to use that sunk cost and break even than lose money out the mouth AND ass. Now that this problem has been solved, they can right-size their work force and focus on building the right amount of cars without the fear of a flooded secondary market.

And Remember, the only real advantage Toyota had on GM as far as building “better” cars was the fact that they paid their employees $25 to $30 an hour less and didn’t have to put $2,000 from every car sale back into health benefits for retirees. Of course GM had to cut a few corners over the years to stay in business. You give someone twice the amount of money to build something and of course it’s going to be better. It should be. Well, this advantage is going to be almost gone and over the next five years the world will be shocked at what GM and the other US auto manufacturers will be able to do. Toyota will also gain more and more retirees themselves over the next several decades. It’ll all even out soon enough.

If you ask me, it’s amazing what GM has done over the past 15 years considering what they’ve been up against, be it someone self-inflicted or not. Someone over there should be given a metal for getting them out of a jam that for all intensive purposes would have bankrupted many companies years ago. I know, I know, I need to get GM’s joey out of my mouth.

Of course, history will judge all of this and I think GM will be vindicated. But that’s just my opinion, what the hell do I know.

R-Head, autonut: good stuff.

Stop trying to write off GM as less American than Toyota or whatever. The truth is that GM is 100% more American than Toy will ever be (unless they move their HQ to the United States).

GM’s revenues and net profits and everything else ALL benefit the AMERICAN economy. Toyota’s revenues and net profits go BACK TO JAPAN. They contribute to the Japanese economy. Toyota’s contribution to the US economy is VERY minimal – they just pay workers. That’s it.

1% is NOT a photo finish. If second place on a mile-long racetrack was 1% of the distance behind first, he’d be nearly 53 feet behind first. Hardly a photo finish.

And when we’re talking about nearly 10,000,000 units, that’s 100,000 units difference. Which is about half of one manufacturing plant’s capacity these days.

They are close, but we’ll see how they match up for 2007CY.

The fluffer must be at work. I’m sure as soon as he gets the production started, he’ll come here and spout off how this means GM sucks.

Mind you, Inline6, that the 4% rise in one quarter (Q3) effectively offsets a 1% shortfall over 4 quarters – hence a potential photo finish. GM’s doing strongly abroad and has some new highly anticipated models coming out domestically, so as I said it will be fun to watch.

Who wants to be number one?
Number 1
Retailer: Wal-Mart >>>>>> Sucks Ass
Software: Microsoft >>>>>> Sucks Ass
Beer: Budweiser >>>>> Sucks Ass
Retaurant: Mcdonalds >>>>>> Suck Ass
These companies are all #1 in ther respective fields and some are great stocks at times. But I cant buy or support any of these companies crap.
Who gives a **** who is number one? I’ll drive my BMW out to a good restuarant and have a few pints of local Micro-beer, while you guys figure out whos number one in crap production to appease the sheep at Con Reports.

and look up directions to the restaurant on your Mac!

Getting back to the GM issue, I think GM will become an attractive option once again in the the North American landscape.

Although I’m impressed with the Korean cars (Kia, Hyundai), I have to say those slitty-eyed gook dogeaters are totally pricing themselves out of the entry level market. In Canada, the Hyundai Veracruz tops out at $45,000. ???!?!?!?!?! You’re $10,000 away from a base Cayenne at that price. Makes no sense.

Sorry, trailed off there. So, given the Koreans evacuating the entry level price point stratum someone has to fill it in. Ergo, GM will fill that void with cheapo versions of otherwise great European marques, like the Astra and Aura. And those new Lambdas, which look ****ing GREAT for GM SUVs. That Saturn Outlook is a looker….

deantj: I’d like to see your list of slurs. I sometimes have problems comming up with them. Particularly for eastern Europeans and those from the Subcontinent.

Why do you call the Zipperheads Gooks?

And what race/ethnicity/nationality are you Deanster?

Ah, yes….. I could tell you, but it would narrow me down. There is only one person of my age, race/ethnicity, and profession in the city I live in, and you could find out who I am very quickly. Then I would have to slaughter the entire forum! LOL!!!

Cmonnnnnn. There’s gotta be more than one pollock livin in your city, Deanster!

Deanster – 19 year old, aboriginal Australian, unemployed?

Well i don’t care if the russians own part of GM because GM has the best V8s you can get and who built the GM V8 the russians. They made that thing like an AK-47, simple and powerfull.

Hay Deanster thats not nice (Romanians “****ing thieveing gypsies”) my girlfriend is romanian and shes a gypsie but shes not like that at all and Russians “****faced descendants of Mongols.” Anyone from Kazakhstan/Uzbekistan/Turmenistan or one of those other ****ty breakaway ex-Soviet Republics. remember Aleksander Burmanesski he is half ukrainian and half russian but born in ukrain, also Romania was never part of the U.S.S.R they stayed away from them, they were part of the austrian-hungarian empire, that is why there language sounds more like german than russian.

but as i think about it are you just trying to set someone of as a joke or something because i half to admite its quite funny but not in disrespect to thoughs people, but in the wording. HaHaHa “****faced descendants of Mongols.” Its true though Aleksander was Always ****faced from his home made vodka.(he was my dads best friend because they are both from the ukrain) and now that i mention it my dad was always ****faced too.

Classic, your parents were into watersports?

‘Lambo’ is a direct descendant of a pair of monkeys at some city zoo … he doesn’t qualify for any of Deanster’s titles.

Well Ricardo im not all to sure what you meen by water sports, but no there into hunting. O **** now that i mention it i forgot its the start of the new hunting season better get the .338 ready for some bison and the 16ga for ptarmagin.

oh yeah deanster i know my grandfather used the term gook in korea and same with my dad in vietnam, it is definately from the era you suggest.

deantj: i almost needed oxygen affter your Eastern European slurs. I’m all set for the Olympics now.

Zipperhead is a vietnam term. Their heads look zipped open when you shoot them in them