Majority of parts suppliers prefer not to work with GM

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -AP ^ | May 30, 2005 | DEE-ANN DURBIN

[Publius6961]

I supposwe that GM is not aware that getting a new supplier each year is obvious to the car purchaser?

I bought my last American-made car in 1962.

A repeat does not look promising...
All things being equal I prefer to buy American.
But not at the price of being a fool.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I sold coal to assembly plants in St. Louis and Belvedere, IL and it was always a pleasure to visit these facilities. The power supt at the Chrysler plant in Belvy was a little nuts. He brought a .22 rifle to work one day and started shooting the starlings that had gotten inside the power plant building.
It was the first time anyone could remember a union employee being been fired since the plant was built in 64.

[keysguy]

He could not have afforded private detectives besides it's too late for him. But I learned from his experiences.

[KC_for_Freedom]

2: Undercut your profit margins by a minimum of 5% per year

I don't know that this is not reasonable. It does depend on the starting cost and whether the item is already being mass produced. In contracts with the government they typically pay a base price for the first article and expect the price to come down as the company implements mass production and changes in manufacturing to simpler processes such as forging in place of hog out processes. It is not at all unsusal to see prices declining and to expect it. Not that GM does not know what they are doing with their union contracts and health care.

[Rodney King]

If anyone has been abused it is the GM independent dealers who have to sell their product to the public. After being squeezed out of any profit on the sale of the vehicle the dealers would come up with other profit centers such as after market accessories or service agreements or financing and GM would promptly usurp by making it standard or offering a similar product at a lower price. They then insist that the dealer maintain a high customer satisfaction percentage even though most of the customers dissatisfaction is with the product. GM also saturated markets with dealerships on every corner thus splitting up markets to the point that dealers cannot provided the advertising or customer service that is necessary to compete with imports. There is much more, but you get the picture.

Thanks for the info, although it is hard to have much sympathy for car dealers, who are all a bunch of liars.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

My stepdad and I investigated a small Chevy dealership (Chevy, Pontiac, Buick) and were amazed at the crap they took from GM. Cars would arrive without paperwork, not ordered by the dealer or if ordered, with the wrong equipment (and you were stuck with these dogs). Chargebacks and makegoods were always 120-180 days out.

[You Dirty Rats]

without them we would have a out cry for even more government labor laws or suffer the same working conditions as China, Inc.

How is it that Toyota and Honda can manage American workers very well without unions? Hmmm?

[Enterprise]

That was too bad. I realize it is tough enough to try to run a business, but even tougher to fight big businesses which deliberately cheat. I hope he is doing well or will be doing well in the future.

[oldbrowser]

My stepdad and I investigated a small Chevy dealership (Chevy, Pontiac, Buick) and were amazed at the crap they took from GM. Cars would arrive without paperwork, not ordered by the dealer or if ordered, with the wrong equipment (and you were stuck with these dogs). Chargebacks and makegoods were always 120-180 days out.

They have a gun to your head, they can always help you or hurt you by how quickly or how generously they fill your orders.

Back when the big SUV where in demand we would sometimes buy them from a dealer who had a surplus at full retail because we could sell them for a profit.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The dealership owner said when the first hot GTOs were produced, GM was long on three speed transmissions. Small dealerships got the 3 speeds. Larger dealers got the 4 speeds. If they bitched, they didn't get any.

[oldbrowser]

Thanks for the info, although it is hard to have much sympathy for car dealers, who are all a bunch of liars.

I agree their bad reputation is mostly deserved. Most of the honest people got wiped out by the unscrupulous competition and the factory.

[oldbrowser]

The factory reps would often offer you a package where you would have to take several of their unpopular models or colors to get some of their popular models or colors. Of course, if you were related to someone or if you were in their golf group then you were allocated more favorably.

[Last Dakotan]

Labor Unions provide strength in numbers...

Labor Unions are a business, nothing more, nothing less. They sell organization and negotiation for those who feel they can't do for themselves. Unfortunately the labor laws are so screwed up in this country that they can keep this business and cash flow even where they are not needed or wanted.

China Inc. owes much of its success to the American labor movement.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The dealer told us about that deal, too. Three dogs for two popular models, usually.
The guy also mentioned a funny story about how he had to take four identical white 1967 Bel Air 4 door sedans with 283/3speed OD transmissions. Amazingly, these sold in one weekend to four farming families who drove them for over 15 years. They got to know each other in the small community and would wave at one another in traffic. They looked like cabs.

[Realism]

How is it that Toyota and Honda can manage American workers very well without unions? Hmmm?

Japanese automakers without unions have fought off unionizing efforts by paying about the same wages as unionized rivals, hiring younger workers who aren't as likely to push for pension and health care benefits, and building plants in Southern states such as Tennessee and Alabama with less union support than Northern states.

[AlBondigas]

Actually the strategy was quite simple:
Locate the plant where there were NO 5th generation UAW thugs to employ.
Just turned out that the South often fit the criteria

[Ditto]

Success in business is choosing your customers wisely.

Very true, and it is somewhat amazing that some very large companies do not understand that concept nor understand that repeatable screwing over key suppliers ends up costing them in the long run. I recall one being amazed when we informed them that they were on our "Unacceptable Customer" list.

[Gritty]

What's good for General Motors is no longer what's good for the USA!"