[2banana]

1. Unions
2. Unions
3. Unions
4. Unions
5. Piss Poor Cars

[wendy1946]

Going from the 80s to the 90s there was a huge gain in the overall quality of American cars. I don’t see that as a serious problem; the problem is pricing their products out of the real world.

[yooper]

Actually, my experience over the last 10 or 12 years has been that GM makes the best cars and trucks. My father has a business which utilizes a fleet of all three makes, and the municipality I worked for for 11 years has a similar fleet. I've driven GM, Ford, and Chrysler products, and hands down, I'll take a Chevy any day. Ford cars were the worst, though they make a decent truck. Dodges were OK, but they really drink up gas and the tranny's seem to go to shit early.

What's the consensus here at FR on buying GM stock, which ended the day at $3.09 a share? Is it a bargain, or is it an exercise in flushing money down the terlet?

[ChiMark]

I’ll disagree on the quality point.
The cars are hardly piss poor.

Their fixed costs are killing them.
The other side of this is the cost of government regulation.
Compliance with a myriad of pollution ,safety and EEOC laws add to the fixed costs of production. Producing euro style
cars overseas has proven very successful for G.M. but guess what?
you can’t import these vehicles into the U.S.per
union thug agreements. Another prohibitive tariff which hurts consumers and the company.

If G.M. is to fail, let it fail. There is a better chance for possible reorginization through bankruptcy.

We don’t need a government run albatrosse.

[ptshredder]

Bye the way, I also drive an almost 22 year old Toyota pickup that I put $300 into 19 years ago to replace a head gasket.
All 3 of the automakers deserve to go down. They made their bed with the unions and they can all suck water as far as I’m concerned. Not a dime for a bailout.

[rdb3]

1. Unions

2. Unions

3. Unions

4. Unions

5. Piss Poor Cars

1. Yep

2. Yep

3. Yep

4. Yep

5. Yep, except for the Cadillac.

[steve8714]

Unions haven’t gotten anything management didn’t give them since Truman. Truman pretty much promised the companies the union wouldn’t hurt them, and privately may have threatened them.