Where Would General Motors Be Without the United Automobile Workers Union?

Mises.org ^ | 4/19/06 | George Reisman

[Recovering_Democrat]

This is a question that no one seems to be asking. And so I've asked it. And here, in essence, is what I think is the answer. (The answer, of course, applies to Ford and Chrysler, as well as to General Motors. I've singled out General Motors because it's still the largest of the three and its problems are the most pronounced.)

[AGreatPer]

"but since we purchased it with 1,500 miles on it, not new, we were out of the loop."

Most contracts were written that way back then.
It is pretty much the same way today, UNLESS, the origional buyer has got the service from the dealer and done on time and at a premium price. (My comment: anti-trust is being ignored today) You must have accurate records. 100,000 miles warranty, my arse.

They are still getting away with it.

[TheBattman]

GM Vehicles would be of higher quality, and cost at least 20% less (and quite possibly more).

[Texas Fossil]

Regardless of what is right or wrong, that will be my last GM auto. Still have an old Silverado Pickup, but will never buy another GM vehicle again....

We may all be riding horses again if Obozo has his way.

[TheBattman]

My step-father grew up in Detroit (and in fact, he and my mother are moving back to that area later this month...).

While he is relatively conservative overall in political matters - FAR too many years of brainwashing by a union environment and one negative word about unions and you are cross-ways with him.

[TheBattman]

ping for later

[3boysdad]

I just bought a jacked-up ‘86 Ford Bronco for my alternate getting around town in the winter time vehicle so I can preserve my very nice F-150. I never, ever, considered a vintage GM product because of the nationlization of a once great American company. I’ll stay Ford until I die.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Where Would General Motors Be Without the United Automobile Workers Union?

More to the point...

Where Would the United Automobile Workers Union Be Without General Motors ?

Cleaning toilets if they were lucky.

[brityank]

Sorry to say, it's not just GM or the auto industry that is at fault:

One of the ugliest consequences of the loss of economic freedom and respect for property rights is that it makes such spinelessness and gutlessness on the part of businessmen — such amorality — a requirement of succeeding in business. Business today is conducted in the face of all pervasive government economic intervention. There is rampant arbitrary and often unintelligible legislation. There are dozens of regulatory agencies that combine the functions of judge, jury, and prosecutor in the enforcement of more than 75,000 pages of Federal regulations alone. The tax code is arbitrary and frequently unintelligible. Judicial protection of economic freedom has not existed since 1937, when the Supreme Court abandoned it, out of fear of being enlarged by Congress with new members sufficient to give a majority to the New Deal on all issues.

For the most part, business will not go up against the government. Rather they will use their influence through lobbyists to get favorable terms to conduct their craft looking to maximize their short term profits, and not caring of the influences their accepted regulation has on the market place at large. Wilson and FDR began the destruction of American Industry. Obama intends to complete it.

[brityank]

Well said; thank you.

[Wiggins]

With my Chevy S-10, the first problem I noticed was the steering getting loose. I took it to my local dealer and they told me the front end was shot. This was in between paint repairs. They replaced most of the front end coming to about $750.00 all covered under warranty. Shortly after that the engine started overheating. They replaced one cylinder head. A few months later they replaced the other. Again covered by the warranty. The next thing I noticed was a thumping and grinding noise under the rear of the vehicle. That was the torsion bars. Again covered by the warranty. The Alternator and Power Steering pump went next. Warranty also. I may be forgetting a repair or two but when the transmission went the dealer told me that GM engineers wanted to inspect the truck. I remember seeing these two so called engineers in white coveralls with all sorts of equipment going over every inch of the truck. They would not even talk to me. When the transmission was finally repaired and I went to pick up the truck, the dealer informed that GM decided to give me a full refund, about $1200.00 for the amount I paid for the extended warranty. After combing through the contract I found the small print that gave them this option. From now on was on my own. The next day I traded the truck in for a 1996 Toyota Tacoma pickup. Needless to say that I put almost 300k miles on the Tacoma before selling it to one of my neighbors who drove it out to California and back. The only repairs to the Toyota were normal wear and tear items. I bought a new Tacoma in 2006 and that one runs like charm too. For a short time I was foolish enough to think that GM was going to give me new vehicle. They will never make a fool of me again. The 1996 Toyota is still running fine to this day.

[dhs12345]

Wow.

Worst of all, they refunded your money to you effectively getting them out of the extended warranty contract. What a bunch of slimebags.

I would have put the engineers on the spot and asked them for an explanation. The engineers would know what was going on.

Any wonder why they were going bankrupt? Too bad they didn’t go out of business. I have no sympathy for them.

After our K car, we bought a very reliable Toyota 4Runner. We have had it since 1993 and it is still doing very well. It is rated the all time best SUV and apparently the resale value is still really good. It has the 22R engine.

We could have traded it in during the cash for clunkers — NO WAY!!

[Wiggins]

I tried to get them to commit to an explanation and they wouldn't respond. However, I did after many phone calls to their customer relations department get a so called explanation to the peeling paint issue. The rep told me that the peeling paint was actually caused by a new type of process eliminating primer. They refused to put it in writing though sticking to the acid rain excuse. The late 1980s and 1990s is where, in my opinion, GM lost it's dominance as the number one car manufacturer. I wasn't the only one to have these problems and they could have at least made good for them. It would have cost them some money but would have helped their future reputation. I sold my 10 year old Tacoma with 300k miles to a neighbor for $3800.00. I had people calling me literally within hours of putting a for sale sign in the window.

[dhs12345]

Interesting.

And they were “surprised?” I bet not. The engineers knew. It was a way to cut costs — remove the primer step in the paint process, save production costs.... make more money. Only it turned out to be a design flaw and a reliability failure.

Agreed — a company can make a very unhappy customer happy if they make an effort to correct the problems. Means that they’d have to go “above and beyond” if the car or truck has numerous problems. What is at risk is a return customer.

GM didn’t do this for either of us.

Your situation: they canceled your extended warranty. They decided it was too costly for them to continue repairing your vehicle. In effect, they admitted that your car was a lemon.

Our situation: GM stopped paying for repairs immediately after the warranty expired. Repairs and problems that happened before the warranty had expired. I could have argued with GM but why bother. We wanted to dump the POS car ASAP. It was a hazardous driving the car.