Private Motors II
My take on GM’s problems, as of October, 2007. Regular (and always interesting) NER commenter Chris can be found here too.
Then, “Popular Mechanics” summary of GM’s problems. More rational and less resentful than mine.
Side note: GM’s advertising campaign is one of the more contemptible features of its management buffooneries:
When talk-radio hosts are stumping for the Tahoe and Escalade weeks after both cars have been dropped from the line and their assembly lines closed down….
When the same hosts are claiming that the Buick * is “the best selling automobile in China…”
When GM’s jingle hook is proclaimed by a juvenile voice moaning in tones of mid-orgasm ”Can’t stop thinkin’ about it!”….
Or when the announcer tells you that “when you go shopping and want the best, you ask the clerk what he’s got in the back”. Who the hell does that? And why is the best stuff kept in the back?
When all this happens, no one with any brains is in charge.
* A poll I can’t cite showed in 2007 that the average Buick owner’s age was 66. The “doctor’s car” had slowly become the “doctor’s patient’s car”.
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2 comments
Another juicy bit, when the gas prices started dropping, GM reopened the Texas plant and quickly produced more Tahoes.
There is a market for them, they’re powerful can do buggys. If you can afford one, you probably can afford the gas.
The real question is do you need one. Most of the soccer mom swells didn’t (they were making a statement which turned out to be I can’t afford this) and many others didn’t either, so much for fads in the automotive world.
Moi, I’d buy one just to piss off the enviro pigs.
Great Blog by the way!
I travel to China 3 or 4 times a year, and the Buick IS the most respected car, it is a symbol for the new middle class of high quality affordable cars.
I agree that the use of Talk Radio Hosts to sell their cars is a bit much, but the problems run much deeper as I pointed out in My BLOGs. The Auto Industry does not have a plan to succeed and they are hammered by being the high cost producer.
As a potential forced investor [read that tax payer feeding yet another bailout I’m trying to stop] I want to see a plan to use the money wisely.
Paul
The Lee’s Summit Conservative
www.leessummitconservative.blogspot.com