OT: Whats up with this?

GM at it with out money.

http://news.yahoo.com/american-auto-bailout-france-100824412--abc-news.html

Rick

Hmmm....maybe they think they can sell Volts to
the French, wonder how many GM will ship over
there before they figure out the electricity over
there is different. Part of me also says WTF?
another part realizes that automobile
manufacturing is a global business and anyone
wanting to stay in the game needs presence in the
Asian, European and American markets. I think
Mercedes Benz's unwillingness to play nicely with Mitsubishi when they both had a stake in Chrysler
doomed the merger and will eventually lead to
Mercedes leaving the automobile business. But GM
getting tied up with Peugeot? I can't see an
upside, European Operations (Opel) are still
loosing money, their presence in Sweden (Saab)
just filed bankruptcy after they blocked the sale
of it to the Chinese and it will probably be dissolved. How many Swedes will wonder why they
have money to dump in the bottomless pit that is
the French Auto industry but can't meet it's
obligations at Saab? It'll be interesting to see
what falls out. We have the Nissan-Renault
alliance, The Chrysler-Fiat alliance, Volkswagen
announcing it's intentions to become the largest
manufacturer of Automobiles in the world, Ford
reorganizing it's organization with a new strategy
where it divested itself of foreign brands (Volvo,
Land Rover, Mazda and Jaguar) and trying global
operations/marketing under one name and of course
the current #1 Toyota, what's their plan to stay
#1?

Strange thing this motor industry! Over here Peugeot and Toyota
sell the same cars with different badging. Does that mean GM is now
involved with Toyota?
Sam

I don't know... The only thing I know about GM is when I worked for a company call EDS. It was Ross Periot's old outfit. It was purchased GM.

Here tell the first Board meeting between Ross and Stemple (Sp?) who was Chairman of GM at the time was Ross asked Stemple "Why don't you make a car that people want"? This was back in the early '80's...

GM and toyota have been working together on joint ventures for 25 years. In the late 1980's one car was sold as Chevy (Nova?) and a Toyota (Corolla?) were both built on the same assembly line in California. I think that venture was called NUMI. I designed some assembly equipment for the plant.

The funny thing is critics loved the Toyota model and hated the Chevy model. Same car different name plates and trim.

hopefully gm will learn something about quality automobiles...Peugeot Citroen may have shaky sales but its from all the financial stuff going on with the euro...most people bad mouth foreign cars cause the chances of finding one in somebody's back pasture to rob parts off of are none.

(quoted from post at 19:06:36 03/09/12) .

The funny thing is critics loved the Toyota model and hated the Chevy model. Same car different name plates and trim.

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Critics in any field usually have no idea of what they are talking about.

(quoted from post at 15:06:36 03/09/12) GM and toyota have been working together on joint ventures for 25 years. In the late 1980's one car was sold as Chevy (Nova?) and a Toyota (Corolla?) were both built on the same assembly line in California. I think that venture was called NUMI. I designed some assembly equipment for the plant.

The funny thing is critics loved the Toyota model and hated the Chevy model. Same car different name plates and trim.

Click to expand...

The Geo Prizm ( sold by chevy dealers ) became the chevy prizm, sold by chevy. The were the corolla.

(quoted from post at 13:39:15 03/09/12) I don't know... The only thing I know about GM is when I worked for a company call EDS. It was Ross Periot's old outfit. It was purchased GM.

Here tell the first Board meeting between Ross and Stemple (Sp?) who was Chairman of GM at the time was Ross asked Stemple "Why don't you make a car that people want"? This was back in the early '80's...

Click to expand...

After GM bought EDS, EDS was used to rape GM. EDS took over all data processing and computer operations, and the phone systems. A ordinary PC on a desk would cost 15K, per year, a standard phone would be $500 per month. This resulted in the manufacturing divisions being guaranteed to lose money, while the EDS division was guaranteed to make money. And hire a lot of ex GM execs as consultants.

I don't think Ford had any choice in getting rid of their foreign companies. It was the main factor in keeping them out of bancruptcy.

But, you could drive the Chevy into a parking lot full of Union guys and still drive it out after work. If you drove the Toyota badged car it would get keyed, tore up or stripped before your shift was over.

Idiotic decisions such as this is what got GM in hot water in the first place. Peugeot/Citroen have never been well known in the "States". How many dealers do you know of? Yes, for a few years the Geo Prism was a joint venture between GM and Toyota. My daughter has a 95 Prism with almost 400,000 miles on it and never anything major done to the engine or transmission. As far as Ford divesting itself of its foreign brands, They likely would never been in that position if it were not for a former CEO named Nassar, who damnear put Ford into bankruptcy by buying those makes in the first place. He was fired in 2002 or 2003, but like so many CEOs, he laughed all the way to the bank. When a member of the Ford family took control, he began to sell off all those "furrin" brands and that is what kept Ford from needing a bailout when the others did.