Why America Is Shunning GM

Reader Comments
Back to blog

I think the detroit car people should model there plants and business after toyota or honda, the company i worked for said they would do this but they only did the things that benifited mangement and ignornerd the workers. The ceo,o are the most greedy and poor business people i have ever seen in my life, they need three iacca,s (they dont make em like that) a talented man who puts his job and its duties first insted of milking the company and making one after another bad decisions, then when everything falls apart blame the union,( they are contracted workers, they dont run the company) Japineese companies are run differently and it has paid off, its more than quality, its about building quality and then backing it with customer satisfaction. Like the crysler mini vans had transmission problems for yrs, did not stand behind them and did nothing to fix the problem. I dont see how they can repair there problems now at this late date, all three have a lousy reputaion and if they started right now it would take a long time to rebuild it, and they have no leaders that even care. they are long on self indulgence and short on business know how. We had a young ceo at our plant and the only thing he was any good at was self indungence and shutting down plants.
Frank Allen

Frank Allen of TX 10:49AM June 09, 2009

Boycott ANY company getting bail-outs:
GM, Chrysler, AIG, Citi, Bank of America, etc.
Just refuse to do any business with them. Go with credit unions if you can.

Paul of CA 9:38AM March 23, 2009

why do they build those souped up cars that was built in the (70s) when they didnt give a dam about the kids that got killed and the envirment, emishions, gas mileage ! know there building them why?
you want to help the envirament so you dump the cars that are farly good on gas mileage and emissions for these gas gaulzing hot rods why!
money money talks you cant fight the goverment there going to do what they want and thats give them the money!!!!

keyieo of WA 3:08AM January 27, 2009

Try calling GMAC and ask for aid with their leasing program. Their answer is similar to a loan shark F. U. Pay Me after taking tax dollars one would imagine they would soften their position.

CMG of CT 8:09AM January 08, 2009

Don't forget we are bailing out a bunch of venture capitalists. They bought most of Chysler from Daimler on the theory they could "fix" it and flip it back to the public in a public offering. Lookslike the taxpayers are the fix. It gauls me to bail out these people.

Bingo of NC 5:11PM December 30, 2008

I bought three Chryslers in a row. All three were junk. A 1997 & 2000 Jeep Cherokee and a 2000 Dodge Truck. When my rear-end went out for the third time at 38K where was Chrysler...sorry we could not get it right the first two times but now your over your warranty by 2K miles...so you now get to pay. That was the last Chrysler I will ever buy.
Ford burned my out with two Mustangs with nothing but problems. Again, no help from them to repair their junk. And yes, G.M., I had two of those as well, a Vega and a Camero...both with nothing but problems. I have a car for transportation, not to keep running it back and forth to the dealer only to have them say "sorry, I could not duplicate the problem....that'll be $300.00 please."
Now I drive a Mazda. The first year all I did was change the oil. Not so with my American cars!
My point? If they cannot run their business correctly and make nothing but bad cars passed on to us for big bucks, then they need to go out of business like all other companies that make bad products and duck out when the products fail. Although, Ford is 51% or so family owned, don't think they will let their legacy go so easily.
Keep in mind, all other car makers have plants in the U.S. Let the employees from the big 3 go to work for the other makers whose business will increase due to sales picked up from the loss of the big 3.
If nothing else, slim them down to only the best and trash the rest, including their high paid, do nothing, execs who just pass off bad products. Accountability folks!!!

G. Scott of CA 8:01PM December 26, 2008

mr.bush gives businesses 100% tax write off for exsensive suv's.goverment causes the problem,now they can help.besides who will build future retro cars/the japs don't have any.

manfred of CA 2:23PM December 26, 2008

This bailout of the auto industry is disgusting.
It's nothing more than Reverse Robin Hoodism--
robbing the poor to give to the rich. What does
the average US taxpayer make in a year? Like
44K? I know. Let's take money out of their
pockets to subsidize a bunch of 100K factory workers
and management/executives that make way more than that.
I'm originally from Detroit and wish it would get out
of it's obsolete and bloated cocoon and join the rest
of the modern world. These Chicken Littles from GM keep lecturing us on economic collapse and how the
human species will be extinct within a year unless they
get their handouts. If they're such economic experts, why
did they go belly-up to begin with.
The "cuts" they're proposing are nothing more than
symbolic and do nothing to address the systemmic problems
that have made them who they are-- antequated dinosaurs
with their hands out. So GM is going to sell a few airplanes
and the CEO will work for 1 dollar a year. So what? That
changes nothing. They're losing 2-3 billion a month.
Why do people even worry about what the CEO makes anyway?
He's only 1 guy. Does it really matter whether the CEO
makes a dollar a year or 45 million dollars a year when the
company loses 37 billion a year?
GM and Chrysler can whine all they want about the credit
crunch, the bad economy, 4 dollar gasoline, the price of
tea in China, etc. Why then is it that none of the other
car companies (Nissan, Ford, Honda, Toyota, BMW, Volkswagen,
etc.) need taxpayers to bail them out?

Curtis Young of OH 9:32PM December 19, 2008

If a single company has financial problems, you say oh well, that's business. but when an entire industry has major financial problems, something else is probably going on. The quality of American cars has improved so dramatically in the last 10 years or so. There is really no comparison to the vehicles of the 70s, 80s & 90s. however the perception of low quality still lingers. Remember that a worker has to build as required by their boss.No matter how good or bad an employee is, poorly engineered products will not preform well. Management decides what to build and sell.Management also decides whether to fix a problem, or let the lawyers handle it. Management decides what level of quality the cars will be. Most if not all of the foreign auto plant in this country have received enormous financial incentives such as free property, no property taxes, government backed loans, and other perks totaling hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. Here in NY state where I live, new businesses locating here get all the breaks while existing companies like the one I work foe (an office equipment manufacturer) are taxed so heavily that our rates are high to start.Regulations from the Federal Gov, State gov, County gov, OSHA, EPA etc require so many people(probably hundreds) to work without producing any value-added benefit to the product.When you figure in the protectionism from Europe, South America, & Asia, making it impossible to sell there without more people deciphering their jargon (ISO 9000, ROHOS, ect) You may not know it but most countries won't let American products in without a fight. Union workers do have good wages & benefits, & I understand why people are asking for concessions. I wonder if the non-union workers & especially the executives are also making a lot of money. Perhaps we should demand they also bring their pay in line with the average US salary. I heard that the head of Ford made 22 million dollars. American executives are making 200 to 1000 time the wages of the average worker. Foreign executives make 10 to 20 times the average salary. With much better results. The Board of Directors of virtually every large US company is just a good old boys & girls club that enriches themselves at the expense of everyone else. Can you imagine getting paid $20-$20,000 for every meeting you attend. They do. Finally, I want to remind everyone that since the US Government caused a large number of their problems, the least they can do is to help them find solutions the will help keep millions of people employed. The UAW is only a small part of the people affected. Parts suppliers, tool & Die shops, machine manufacturers Steel, aluminum, plastic manufacturers, Tire companies, wires, glass, nuts & bolts. All these industries will loose jobs & many will go out of business.The American economy needs manufacturing to be strong

Chuck Carr of NY 8:37PM December 19, 2008

We are building a better car than has been built in many years,people have such a short memory when it comes to import cars.When they first hit our shores they were cheap flimsy and you couldnt get parts for them, but there quality did get better. We as Americans need to get in behind our manufacturers and buy American autos cars and trucks,for the good of our economy and the American people, and dont forget those good people that brought us Pearl Harbor. GOD BLESS AMERICA

RANDY BARNETT of MS 6:30PM December 19, 2008