Saturn was on the drawing board back in the early '80s and the first concept Saturn looked like a Cavalier on a bad hair day. The Northstar engine was introduced in 1991, one year after Saturn was introduced. I've never heard anything about GM suing Honda over the Northstar patents, so any info you could post would be a most interesting read.

 

Yes, you need to worry about GM. And...

Endangered animals eating endagnered plants (oh my).

Hannah Montana having a wardrobe failure.

President Bush having an affair with Rosie O'Donnel.

Ok...seriously...Chevrolet is GM's flagship auto division. Yes, their sales are slipping downward (SUVs and Trucks) but their cars are selling...HHRs...Colbalts...Avero...even Impalas. GM is getting killed by the benefits they are paying to all those folks that took early retirement; it is in the billions. They need to restructure their cash outflow, but they will survive. Oldsmobile is gone...look for (ready for this)...Buick to be next. Mark my words.

Here's an article about GM in today's USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...m-shares_N.htm

 

Is anyone worried about the future of GM???

No, but an acorn hit me on the head the other day and I freaked.

 

That's one thing that concerns me right now, as I am working on a high visibility GM product. There has already been some belt tightening and some more offshoring occurring.

 

I guess nobody has any concern about Toyota's gains by killing people in the link that I posted. Slavery must be common with anyone working...

 

Chevrolet is not GM's flagship division. That would be Cadillac. Chevy is GM's budget-oriented, worldwide division. I doubt Buick is going anywhere unless Pontiac goes too. GM mostly consolidated the dealerships with Pontiac, Buick, and GMC under one roof much like Ford did long ago with Mercury and Lincoln. The strategy has actually been quite beneficial for all three divisions because it keeps Buick from having to build subcompact and compact cars, Pontiac from having to build large cars beyond the G8, and both from having to build trucks to get people in the door. The strategy makes for a more balanced sales grouping for the dealership and works quite well. Buick sales are up with the new Enclave, which was introduced at just the right time, and will improve with the new models coming out that were designed in the Chinese studios.

The "early retirement" buyouts and layoffs have already been capitalized and written off. People get all up in arms about the market capitalization but the only risk there is a major takeover. Like I said, you'd have to be insane to try and take over such a large organization. This is a DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE COMPANY. It's not like running or trying to liquidate Burger King. GM also has some of the largest CASH reserves of any company in the average. They have more than enough to ride out the trough in the economy and will do very well with the new products on the horizon for the next decade.

Goldman Sachs is nothing more than a bunch of speculators trying to make money on doom and gloom. "Sell all your GM stock and invest in oil so that our futures will go up even more!" It's yellow journalism that even ALLOWS garbage like that to be printed without some sort of disclaimer that you are making those guys richer by reading it.

 

hhrcrafty, do you think a filing would be in order for GM to really do a restructuring job? Seems that alot of companies that are having difficult times find it more reasonable to go this way.(ie-union disagreements, cash flow,etc.) A little easier to what they "need" to do.

 

This is not my word (Chevy = Flagship) it comes from a retired senior GM VP who was (he's since passed away) a close family friend. He used to say, "Chevy gets what they want when they want. They are the 'Flagship' of General Motors."

So that is where I picked up the term.

 

just heard on the news
number one wanted car... toy hybrid 40mpg
number 2 wanted... lexus 14mpg

go figure

gm will do ok... they have a couple of small cars with reasonalbe gas milage

but they like the other big three are going to have to scale down the size of their vehicles... the suv as we know it is going the way of the diosuar (and DOS) can t trade in a truck unless your buying a truck... trucks will survive... just more economical...

everything is going to have to be more economical... and changes in our thinking... look at the new milk cartons... they can be stacked... take up less room... more gals can be delivered using less truck space...

chrysler is laying off... mini vans and trucks

if gas goes to 7 or 8 dollars... invest in mastrans and bicycle co

 

I was trying to use a little levity, Ed. I know there's lot's of rumors, war stories and half truths out there, and I wanted to set the record as straight as far as I knew. I find it best to research accusations/claims on large publicly held corporations and when you do it, stay away from wiki.