GM woes

LarryE · February 3, 2002

thats it, thats why they are letting ford do all the sport vehicle building GM has became pussies, plain and simple. what happened to our GM of the past..

Our Gm wouldn't be worried about sport compacts, plastic, and safety concerns, Our GM would be worried about kicking fords ass in every category..

Now the F body's are gone, the silverado ss is a glimpse away, no coolside out, no mid level muscle car.. all we get is a ****ing 5.3L in the 1500's

Now that the F body's are gone Ford has launched another sport upgrade

http://192.188.146.69/03Cobra/scans.html

GM it's time to get your heads out of your ass and ricers asses and quit letting that ####ty Ford company be the only ones building a affordable sport car and truck.

NewbieZ71 · February 3, 2002

Come on LArry, how do you REALLY feel about it? Stop couching your words and let us know. ;)

Frank S · February 3, 2002

I have to agree with you Larry.

GM seems to be totally ignoring the younger buyers and are going for the speacialty market with likes of the SSR that are priced out of the range of most buyers.

At this rate they are going to be producing Cadillac type vehicles and that will be their downfall because you can't make up in price what you can sell in quanity.

NewbieZ71 · February 3, 2002

All kidding aside, someone educate me a little. Is this situation being driven by government regs on how a manufacturers total line adds up? I'm not phrasing it right..Like sports teams have a salary cap, dont they have certain rules about things like engine size and what their average MPG is for a line of vehicles? Have to average so many MPG over their whole line or a certain level of environmental performance? Doesnt this impact what they develop and does it have anyhting to do with what you are talking about?

Frank S · February 3, 2002

That's totally irrelevant becuase Ford's Triton engine line isn't rated as high on the EPA scale as GM's Vortec engines are.

IMO,it's more a matter of Ford being in touch with the vast majority of what consumers want while being able to fall within EPA guidelines than GM is by far.

LarryE · February 3, 2002

the epa ####s up everything, thats one organization I have total hatred through experience for

NewbieZ71 · February 3, 2002

We are talking about Ford and GM in total right, not just trucks? All vehicles?

pacodiablo · February 3, 2002

yes, GM is very far behind. they have begun targeting old poo with ugly new designs, 3800 V6s and whatnot....not to mention pewter

(im just joking shane!!)

Jpshostr · February 3, 2002

3800 V6s and whatnot.

I love my 3800 in my Grand Prix, its a good motor/chassis setup. What I don't like is I can't count how many platforms they build off of it.

pacodiablo · February 3, 2002

i bet the next gen camaros will only have 3400 and 3800 motors :0

Kansas Kid · February 3, 2002

IMO,it's more a matter of Ford being in touch with the vast
majority of what consumers want while being able to fall

within EPA guidelines than GM is by far.

Thats a pretty good assesment in my opinion as well. Ford

does a very good job of sensing what consumers want, and

they get their product to market when the consumers want

it. GM may have the same ideas, but they never get a

product to the market first. Kind of like GM keeping the 6.5

diesel around while the diesel truck market continued to

expand greatly every year. It looks like they have finally

gotten back on track in that regard, but its about 5 years

late....

Greg · February 3, 2002

Hello? Ford in touch with the consumer? Given their financial performance, they certainly aren't in touch with consumers' wallets! Jacques Nasser drove them into the weeds. Their quality stinks, as does their employee morale. The new Explorer is more like a minivan than a truck. The only reason the Taurus is among the top sellers is its rental car sales. Their only hope is a new, but unproven, leader in Bill Ford.

If you want to see consumers who feel in touch with their automaker, talk to some Accord, Odyssey, and Camry owners. Then again, what they say is pretty boring - the cars meet all their needs for transportation and run forever. Then they buy another one without the need for big incentives.

I'm excited to see what GM does with it's products under Bob Lutz's leadership. If they come up with some exciting new cars and continue to evolve strong truck offerings, they could make some big gains in market share.

Frank S · February 3, 2002

I too have hopes for GM under the guidance of Bob Lutz but I think you are missing my point Greg.

You say that the new Explorer is more like a Minivan than an SUV,we'll that may be true but I guess the same can be said for the Envoy/Trailblazer line.

What I am referring to is the fact that Ford will still after this year have the Harley Davidson F150,Mustang Gt,and Bullitt Mustang with the latter of the two still being somewhat affordably priced while being compared to the soon to be gone Z28.

The SSR will not be able to compete in this segment because it is not a 2 door coupe.It is a specialty vehicle that will most likely come at a higher price than the 'stangs will.

It is GM's own fault that they are going to be in this situation and it is going to be a problem.