On Wed, 23 Mar 2005, marlinspike
You're about 35 years too late in this critique. GM is bleeding -- literally swirling the toilet. Their financial position is very much worse than is being generally reported. GE Capital just yanked their $2 BILLION credit line that was used to pay suppliers, so GM's terms with their suppliers are now effectively "Net...sometime...maybe". Think a lot of suppliers will put up with that for very long? A bunch of new 2007-2009 models have been cancelled. They have no hybrids, the price of gas continues to rise with no end in sight, and GM is publicly stating they're pinning their hopes on the new-for-2007 full size trucks and SUVs (none of which will be hybrids). Meanwhile, Toyota and Nissan and Honda are ramping up their truck production, and lots of people are buying.
And has been for decades, yes. The only reason it's taken this long for the bleeding to be generally apparent is because bloated GM contained so much blood.
Er...that's wrong. They screwed-up the GTO when they brought it here because they DIDN'T do the bare minimum to Americanize it. They OVERLY Americanized it, giving it an ugly "1.25-scale Cavalier" body treatment and buttorted other uglifications, softening the suspension, etc.
Wrong again. Turn on your TV, pick up a newspaper, hit the web, listen to the radio: GM is telling young people that they're hot prospects for a Chevrolet Cadavalier (oops, I mean "Cobalt"). That giant sucking sound you hear is a great big enormous collective yawn.
DS
