[UltimateAdam]

Originally Posted by jsenn

I'll probably piss a lot of people off with this one, but we're all about opinions here at Camaro5, so here it goes...I think the reason GM is so slow with doing things is because of the union contracts. Toyota and Honda get their work done so fast overseas because they can go to anyone to make their products. They can say, "whoever can make this with this quality in this time frame for the least money will get the job". GM cannot. We are so hindered by the rules and regulations that our great grandfathers wrote 100 years ago that it is truly preventing us from moving forward or even keeping up with the times. ie The Camaro should have been out 2 years ago. The Volt should be sitting in my showroom today, the Beat and the other 2 concepts (trax and groove) should be 09 models so that we could whether the storm that is the gas crisis. How is it Mercedes can come out with the Smart car at the same time gas prices top $4/gallon? The answer is they always have a "plan b" that they can start on the drop of a dime to keep up with market trends. GM and really all American Auto makers have really done this to themselves. Instead of trying to own all segments of the market, GM said F*** it, we'll just make quality trucks. Now we have cars like the Aveo that are supposed to compete with cars like the civic...come on. Not that I personally would ever buy a Honda, but to your average consumer, The Aveo is a piece of junk in comparison. Yea, it may be $3500 less than the civic, but that $3500 in consumers eyes is well invested in a car that is as well built as that one is. I blame the big wigs and the Amercian public for being so un-supportive of the largest car company in the world for what's happening right now.

What can we do about it? I think the idea someone wrote earlier about inflating the stock market would be genious, however, it wouldn't happen that easily. Buying stock in GM at under $10 a share seems like a good idea to me because by 2010, the camaro and the Volt will be out, so if you sell at the right time, you should see a reasonable return. But I'm no stock broker so don't quote me on that.

All and all, if GM wants to move ahead, they need to get eith the times. The union is prehistoric at this point. The general public sees a union built car a piece of junk because no matter how these workers perform, they will still get paid and they will not be penalized if they miss a bolt here or a screw there. If these people were fighting for their jobs based on performance, our build quality would go up. Not that GM builds a crappy vehicle all the time, but I've definitely noticed a difference in cars and trucks that are supposed to be exactly the same thing.

I'll stop now to prevent the amount of hate mail sent my way.


---I wouldn't be afraid for GM until you see Chrysler fall...we're light years ahead of them.

Hey, agree with everything you said, just not that piece. I was driving my ex-girlfriends back in 2000