The UAW is the largest capital draw that GM has to contend with, particularly with regard to the amount it is required to pay for medical insurance for retired union workers. This is a situation that GM has been working to fix--as far as I know they've actually got a plan in place to shift that cost from GM to the UAW itself which will put them in much better standing.
As for Chrysler...Well...I've owned two Chryslers in my life and both had reliability issues. When I've rented Chryslers in the past I've been generally un-impressed with their quality or and fun factor. I'm not a fan of the company or their products, I probably wouldn't feel so bad if they were to go through an orderly shutdown and sell off of some of their more notable brands.
I mean look at it this way, Daimler lost tens of billions of dollars on Chrysler before they were able to shuffle it off to another holding company. That holding company is now in the process of trying off load that huge sinking ship...Yeah...all bad. The only people I know who still care about Chryslers are Jeep and Viper fanatics.
As for the cars nobody wants to buy argument...well...for GM I'll counter with the idea that they've just got too many brands (Chevrolet, GMC, Pontiac, Saturn, Buick, Hummer, Cadillac, Opel, Vauxhaul, Holden...the list goes on...) and too many self competing products within those brands in the same markets. It's not that they've made vehicles that nobody wants to buy, they've just made too many of them and in such a wide swath of differing trims and brands that consumers can easily confused.
It is not uncommon for a car from one GM brand to compete against the same car with slightly different sheet metal and interior from another GM brand...at the exact same price point! They've also tended to over produce some car models to help offset their obligation to comply with federal CAFE standards for their over-all fleet production.
Globally, the car market is shrinking right now and pretty much all manufactures are feeling it. The US automakers are feeling it worse than others due to bad deals with unions, over production and stiff competition from very compelling Asian and European products. In order to survive the American car companies are going to have to become smaller, shed their excess capacity, excess brands and excess model overlap--especially GM which has made some kind of sick religion out of that sort of thing.
Yeah, the US auto industry is pretty hosed right now and for so many reasons it actually hurts trying to think about all of them. It will survive though there definitely will be losers in this game...the problem is that everybody with a stake is fighting tooth and claw not to be that loser.
Actually I forgot to mention, it was in the news yesterday that they seem to have reached an agreement with the UAW. From what I heard they dropped a bunch of benefits, cut salaries for new employees by a LOT, etc... but in exchange the union will run a company-paid fund for retired employees' medical insurance.
I like the P.T. Cruiser (maybe not as much now as when it was new)... When I asked about Chrysler to pegla he said PTs are the only Chrysler he ever sees on the roads in the Netherlands.
As for Chrysler...Well...I've owned two Chryslers in my life and both had reliability issues. When I've rented Chryslers in the past I've been generally un-impressed with their quality or and fun factor. I'm not a fan of the company or their products, I probably wouldn't feel so bad if they were to go through an orderly shutdown and sell off of some of their more notable brands.
I mean look at it this way, Daimler lost tens of billions of dollars on Chrysler before they were able to shuffle it off to another holding company. That holding company is now in the process of trying off load that huge sinking ship...Yeah...all bad. The only people I know who still care about Chryslers are Jeep and Viper fanatics.
As for the cars nobody wants to buy argument...well...for GM I'll counter with the idea that they've just got too many brands (Chevrolet, GMC, Pontiac, Saturn, Buick, Hummer, Cadillac, Opel, Vauxhaul, Holden...the list goes on...) and too many self competing products within those brands in the same markets. It's not that they've made vehicles that nobody wants to buy, they've just made too many of them and in such a wide swath of differing trims and brands that consumers can easily confused.
It is not uncommon for a car from one GM brand to compete against the same car with slightly different sheet metal and interior from another GM brand...at the exact same price point! They've also tended to over produce some car models to help offset their obligation to comply with federal CAFE standards for their over-all fleet production.
Globally, the car market is shrinking right now and pretty much all manufactures are feeling it. The US automakers are feeling it worse than others due to bad deals with unions, over production and stiff competition from very compelling Asian and European products. In order to survive the American car companies are going to have to become smaller, shed their excess capacity, excess brands and excess model overlap--especially GM which has made some kind of sick religion out of that sort of thing.
Yeah, the US auto industry is pretty hosed right now and for so many reasons it actually hurts trying to think about all of them. It will survive though there definitely will be losers in this game...the problem is that everybody with a stake is fighting tooth and claw not to be that loser.
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I like the P.T. Cruiser (maybe not as much now as when it was new)... When I asked about Chrysler to pegla he said PTs are the only Chrysler he ever sees on the roads in the Netherlands.
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