Hey Ricky and Bob………I asked you both a couple times about doing small cars with Europe diesels. All you wanted to do was trucks, sport utilities, and the Camaro. I’m sure glad I had a 40+ mpg Toyota when the $4 gasoline hit. Even your Aveo was crap – people were better with the Cobalt, which you continue to ignore. Where is the fuel-efficient direct-inj gas – or diesels at? You had many intelligent folks inside GM that could not get an audience with you. Bob Lutz initially was around, but even he now has too many people around him to hear what the troops are reporting. Bob saw some great folks when he wanted to produce the Solstice. GM has/had the talent to work smart and fast, but only when they can comminicate with the people who make program and budget decisions. Lutz is too isolated to be very effective now. Bob, hope you see this. Leave your helpers and security staff behind – go to the build floor, talk to the real car people like yourself inside GM, and keep the good ideas coming and try to repair the morale. Please note….there is NO MORALE within the troops anymore.

Leave Lutz, but GM needs a new leader. Come on Ricky, you know you aren’t the one to save GM.

As to the comments about GM engineers being asked to work 100 hours in the future, is that we were working 80 hours years ago without compensation. And after being at GM for 17 years the last time (my second time at GM), I worked with VERY TALENTED contract engineers and technical folks – some with 15-20-25 years, and they were abused their entire time at GM and forced out with NO COMPENSATION. The U.S. Govt should be ashamed of allowing those folks to go all those years without forcing GM to hire them, with no benefits, retirement, ect. GM is no different than Ford or Chrysler – to be fair.
Also, as good as GM’s cars are, many cost cuts – or lack of true developmental testing has allowed some poor powertrains issues to come about. The intake plenums in 3800 engines, and the head gaskets in 3400 and 4.3 V/6 engines is deplorable. I have paid for several of each, and there is no viable reimbursement program. Ford quality is terrible (ask my wife, who worked there and had several), and friends with really poor Chrysler products. Toyota, Honda, and Nissan all have their issues even if their owners won’t admit, but there is no excuse of this from the Big 3.
But I for one after 30 years of loyalty to the brand have been shoved out, no retirement, no benefits – and no intent of ever buying a new GM car again. I did buy 22 new cars over the years, but never again!
Sorry GM, but my Scion has only been back for maintenance. It’s not a perfect car, but after turning your back on me after many years of asking me to work 6 days a week, 14-16 hours a day, with threats of termination and no O/T pay – you get what you got coming. It’s time for Ricky to go, and reduce product portfolio. Concentrate on cars and diesels – hybrids and electrics will come when they are ready. Give people cars they can afford to buy – AND OPERATE.

The Opel Insignia, a midsize sedan/wagon with a range of 4-cylinder four-cylinder turbocharged diesel and gasoline engines and 6-speed transmissions that gets between 31.2 and 49 US mpg on the European hwy cycle. Even the 217 hp 2.0 Turbo gets 40 mpg on the hwy cycle.

The revised Chevrolet Aveo v1.5 with new Dual-VVT 4-cylinder engines that gets 50 mpg or better on the European hwy cycle, and even in the US with a larger engine, uses less fuel than the brand-new Honda Fit.

GM launched one major CUV this year—the Chevrolet Traverse, and with it upgraded engines with improved economy for existing models. It doesn’t get 14 mpg. It gets 16/24 mpg, better than most midsize CUVs much smaller in size. Hwy fuel economy is as good as the Nissan Murano and Toyota Highlander, and none are any better.

Even GM’s older, BOF SUVs, the Tahoe and Yukon, get better than 14 mpg. A base Tahoe with 4-speed auto gets 14/19 mpg, better than a newer Toyota Sequoia with a 5-speed auto, less power, but only 14/17 mpg. An even larger Suburban with a larger, more powerful V8 gets 14/20 (comparable to a V6 Mazda CX-9), and upgraded versions of the Tahoe/Yukon with 6-speed auto get as much as 15/21 mpg. And these are not new trucks like the Sequoia, they were rushed out early in anticipation that they would not sell as well in later years. While a new diesel will improve economy further it is mainly intended for work trucks—there is no further investment planned for such large BOF trucks. BTW Toyota already has a similar diesel engine for use in it’s large SUVs (produced by former parent company Toyota Industries), but has no plans to offer it in the US, despite the fact that Tundra sales have fallen twice as fast as pickups from more economical American rivals. Like Honda, it may be finding US emissions regulations too hard for diesels.

US product launches in 2008 have focused on powertrain improvements: the new DI engines in the large CUVs, 6-speed autos in the 4-cylinder midsize sedans boosting hwy economy to 33 mpg—class-leading and better than many compacts. And yet, despite this, despite being well ahead of the Camry and Accord for years in JD Powers quality surveys, despite winning Car of the Year awards 2 years in a row with the Aura and Malibu (beating the Camry and Accord respectively), no-one wants to buy them. Bad habits are hard to break. New Dual-VVT engines in the Cobalt and fine-tuning have boosted power and economy for the Cobalt to as much as 37 mpg hwy for manual models (a 6-speed auto arrives with the Cruze, already launched in Korea), and while sales boomed for a while while gas was high, they’ve crashed again now that gas has fallen. It could be worse, they could be trying to sell the Sentra. No-one buys those either, but why would you when the Versa is cheaper, just as big and uses less fuel.

Jealousy, in your failure in life, is screaming through that pathetic post .. I own you.

Buy gold, loser … I even help chimps like you in desperate times.

No the Euro companies, if we are talking BMW and Benz have made great cars which is why they deserve any money if /when it is given out. GM Ford and Chrysler made crap and sold it to stupid Americans who thought it they bought GM they were buying patriotism. GM should go down and burn like Impulsive on a sailor during fleet week
GM doesnt deserve sa dime !

I remember 1973 very well. If you’d walked up to me that year and told me that 35 years later, General Motors’ key vehicle launch of 2008 would be a hulking quartet of 7-passenger CUVs that get 14 mpg, I would have laughed in your face. 14 mpg is what our ‘72 Plymouth Satellite wagon got. Even then we knew it was a dinosaur.

Piper? Play.

The Australian government is promising a little more than $US2 billion, but not until 2011, by which time it may be too late to do anything but pay Toyota to switch production from the Camry to the Corolla. Ford has already decided to switch production from midsize to compact cars, and GM may follow, if the money can be found. Toyota is the holdout. They, like Ford and GM, are asking for tariffs to be maintained instead.

But then oil prices spiked, catching everyone by surprise, even Toyota with a brand-spanking new big truck plant which has been sitting idle for months. Even Hyundai Kia, who picked now to bring out a new BOF midsize SUV just as the market tanked. And then the housing bubble burst, thanks to decades of government interference (at the instigation of Democrats and the acquiescence of many Republicans) in lending aimed at opening the housing market to more people (the ones now losing their homes). At first this crimped sales of work trucks favored by builders and contractors at every level, but as foreclosures boomed, lending losses began to spiral out of control, credit for all borrowers began to dry up, exacerbating foreclosures as people could no longer refinance. As housing prices plummet, home equity disappears. Businesses unable to refinance existing lines of credit begin to fail. Unable to access capital, commercial and consumer lenders cannot finance purchases of equipment, vehicles, homes, appliances etc. This particularly impacts car sales. Buyers cannot find finance. Dealers cannot finance inventory. In this environment not even Toyota, paradigm of efficiency and gross margins, cannot make money. North American losses of $353 million in the last quarter are just the tip of the iceberg. The true cost of doing business in North America for Toyota this last quarter was actually more than $US800 million, as export earnings from Japan crashed due to the correction in the value of the US dollar. With nearly 50% of the domestic market (supported by seven sales channels—Toyota, Toyopet, Corolla, Netz, Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino) and export earnings from other regions this loss has been absorbed by the Japanese arm. With sales continuing to fall there is worse to come for Toyota, but at least the currency losses will be contained by falling exports. All of which is merely to point out that if GM was run as well as Toyota, with Toyota’s margins, they would still be losing money in this market, hand over fist. Despite good performances in Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe, they don’t have Toyota’s rich protected domestic market to support losses in North America. Having dug themselves out of a hole, with the light starting to shine through, the domestic industry has been shot in the back. Congress unfortunately agrees with most of you—they think this is GM’s fault, not theirs, and they don’t want to do anything about it. They will not recall congress to authorize funding because they think the domestic industry should be shut down. If people lose their jobs and the economy tanks, it’s ok, they can blame Bush, and people will believe them.

Don’t underestimate the effect. If GM fails, then suppliers will fail, if suppliers fail then Ford and Chrysler go with them. 3 million people in the industry and local businesses dependent on them will be unemployed, within months. Millions of people depend on GM alone for healthcare coverage, and the supporting funding has not all been transferred to the VEBA fund to support them. With an additional 3 million people out of work, the economic situation will be horrendous. The direct economic impact will cost governments several times the cost of rescue package, and unlike the investment being asked for, will never be recovered. That does not include the flow-on effect to the rest of the economy—an economic black hole sucking more and more people into it. Toyota’s recent North American losses will pall into insignificance. Businesses across the country will be forced to lay off more and more workers as spending collapses, At that stage the US government will not be able to finance the stimulus package needed. Social Security is nearly bankrupt already.The highway fund is already bankrupt. There is no cash hoard from past surpluses to spend. Tax revenue will crater even without further tax cuts. If the government does not spend the paltry $50 billion now to invest in Detroit now, it really will be the end of the world as you know it.

These people learn nothing — ever.

As a potential new part-owner of General Motors I command that Buick, Pontiac, and Saturn be killed off immediately. Hummer must be sold by Friday to some Indian loosehead. Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC will continue with no more than ten nameplates sold at Chevy, five at Caddy, three at GMC. And GM will commit today to producing no more pure gasoline-powered vehicles by 2015.

Listen to your new owners, you idiots… the American people.

Everyone’s ‘favorite’ GM apologist has really been “drinking the koolaid” but sadly it hasn’t killed him yet.

Anyone who wants to see GM go down and all its employees lose their jobs is insane.

The suppliers who supply parts to GM, Chrysler, and Ford also supply parts to Toyohondasan. If suddenly the Big 3 go bankrupt those suppliers will not have enough cash to remain in business, meaning your beloved foreign auto manufacturers will not be able to build the cars you will only buy.

After the Big 3 go under, the suppliers go under, then every company that caters to these companies start to fall like dominoes-the restaurants, barbers, dry cleaners, office supply stores, advertising agencies, etc etc all go out of business leaving a mass of unemployed who will now be dependent on the Govmnt for unemployment, health care, pensions, then most likely welfare.

We are talking about millions of jobs and billions of dollars over what GM needs as a bridge loan to get them through this crisis.

And while they may have brought some of this on themselves product wise, that is mostly in the past, and they are competing against companies that do not have to pay health care for their workers, from countries that did not give the same market access as we gave to their companies.

Lastly, ALL of the car companies are failing right now-Toyota down 25%, Honda and Nissan and Mercedes down big time. Noone saw this coming, if it weren’t for the credit crisis this discussion would not be taking place. Since it is and they all have great product coming out next year when hopefully the credit crisis will have eased they need a bridge loan to get them there. This is not unreasonable considering the Federal Govmnt does absolutely nothing to aid our manufacturers while all foreign Govmnts do aid their industries.

To sum up-It will cost us MUCH more later than doing something now, both in monetary terms and psychological.
It may not bother you to see the USA have no Homegrown Auto companies left, but I guarantee it would bother Real Amercans a great deal.

THE TRUTH TO THE FACT IS, THAT FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WILL BALE OUT THE BIG 3, THEY DID IT ONCE BACK IN THE EARLY 90′S FOR DODGE, THEY WILL DO IT AGAIN, YOU CAN BLAME WHO EVER YOU WANT THEY WILL GET IT, THERE’S GOING TO BE A DEMOCRAT IN OFFICE AND THE UNIONS PAID BIG MONEY FOR IT, IF THEY GET THERE WAY THERE WILL BE A NEW “IMPORTATION TAX” FOR FOREIGN AUTO MAKERS, MAKING THEM TO START BUILDING THERE CARS STATE SIDE, AND SO THE UNION WILL GET IN ALL THE U.S. PLANTS REGARDLESS OF MANUFACTURER…
“WHAT, DON’T TELL ME YOU GUY’S DIDN’T GET THE MEMO”…

Needforoil
The only terrorists are bloggers like you and Management like GM’s
More evidence that you shouldn’t blog with handcuffs on
DrFill

The CAFE stander should be in the 35mpg long time ago, not 2012. What we need is a real car guy to run the auto business, instead those loser who think they can run this business. Look at all those GM and Chrysler car and truck looks like crap and ugly, that’s why no one want to buy it and the quility are sucks too. Some one just have stick their foot in to those CEO and top manager’s ass, and fired them one by one and reform a stander pay for CEO and managers.