Posted on 11/28/2018 3:40:51 AM PST by reaganaut1
Faced with the bad news from GM which is discontinuing several passenger-car lines, shuttering five North American factories, and laying off thousands of workers President Donald Trump responded with his habitual bluster, telling GM they better damn well open a new plant in Ohio, and boasting that he was very tough on the automakers CEO.
As is often the case, President Trumps bluster is unhelpful.
General Motors almost certainly is doing the right thing, as painful as that is going to be for the workers who lose their jobs and for the communities that had relied on and taken pride in those factories. GM is moving away from its less profitable (and, in some cases, money-losing) passenger-car lines to concentrate on building trucks and SUVs which is to say, on the things that GM is good at, the GM products that customers actually want.
The sedan business has long been a low-return proposition for GM, which is following the lead of Ford, which is reducing its American production to trucks, SUVs, and the Mustang. GM has long been neither fish nor fowl in this market, which is dominated at the low to middle price points by Asian, mostly Japanese, marques, though many of those cars are manufactured in the United States, such as the Kentucky-built Toyota Camry. Who is an American automaker is an increasingly complicated question: GMs shareholders live around the world, and many of Toyotas employees live in Texas. At the other end of the market, Cadillac and other domestic luxury brands have long been excelled by European competitors. That left very little room in the market for GM to find a profitable perch.
GMs restructuring was always in the cards.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Folks, you can set your clock by the regularity of reaganaut1s anti-Trump thread posts.
I’ve noticed that, too. These Democrats and their fellowing travelling Never Trumpers hate Trump more than they love their country. Instead of suggesting we work with POTUS to find a solution they “I told you so” cheer 15,000 Americans losing their jobs.
I purchased a 2014 Nissan Altima 18 months ago. Despite issues with the a/c (not good in Texas), I love this car. We've had several long distance trips, it's a joy to drive. Even driving at 75+, it gets 35 mpg.
“What is unhelpful are the cheap slurs hurled by the elitist a$$wipes at the National Review.”
Totally true. When GM whored itself to Obola it became Government Motors, avoiding a beneficial bankruptcy. In doing so,it forfeited its legitimacy as a private corporation. That makes our PRESIDENT Trump its real boss.
I don't cheer it, but it's not the business of the President or the Federal government to tell companies what factories to keep open. If Trump thinks GM should not electric car subsidies, he and Congress should get rid of those subsidies for *all* car companies.
Anyone who lived through the 80’s and has a functioning brain cell wouldn’t by a car from an American company at gunpoint.
Even today, Nissan, Toyota, Honda, even Hyundai are head and shoulders above Ford, GM and Chrysler.
Ford said the same thing a couple of months ago. No more passenger cars. The MBAs at both companies have looked at marketing numbers and said "hey, we sell more trucks and SUVs that cars, we should just focus on them. Plus we make more on each one sold. Why do we still make cars?"
Of course now that SUVs and trucks are all there will be, anyone wanting a passenger car will have to go to Chrysler, Japanese or Korean. They likely won't say "I was going to get my new driver daughter a small car but GM stopped selling them so Ram truck with a hemi it is for her!" They'll get a Toyota. So I predict GM lose sales instead of monopolizing the remaining passenger car market picking up former Ford car buyers. Ford too, for that matter.
I get a lot of rental cars and I will say this: I never accept a Chevy. Not because they are bad, per se. But rather because whoever their master designer is likes to have really small rear windows with corresponding poor rear visibility. I always feel like I'm rolling the dice when I change lanes or back out of a spot. No other manufacturer has this issue as consistently as Chevy does, not even other GM brands. Don't need to deal with that so I don't take them unless that's all they have on the lot.
NR, remaining faithful to the Cheap Labor Express to the end.
Woody Allen was right, it DOES belong on the pornography rack.
Government Motors lost me as a customer when the cronied with Obutthole and screwed all of the bond holders to payoff the unions.
Now, they are trying to undermine the President, primarily in the midwest.
To hell with them!
I bought a car this year:
Trubo gas engine (for altitude performance comoensation)
Manual transmission (for shift busyness avoidance)
AWD (for max traction)
Station Wagon Body (for hauling stuff)
A mini SUV
the answer is simple...
oshawa is an old outdated plant that should have been closed 20 years ago...
lordstown has the most militant labor union of all GM plants...
hamtramck has the second most militant labor union in all of GM...
i feel badly for the other “collateral damage” plants that have to close, but not these three ( i would never buy a car made in lordstown )..
It is sad day for the American car business just like the bad deal Harley made during the Obama years. Trump has killed the elite deals but it is going to kill these companies. They were all counting on higher profits with a Hillary win.
It was the people's money. Why isn't Congress the boss?
True.
“Anyone who lived through the 80s and has a functioning brain cell wouldnt by a car from an American company at gunpoint”
and the 70’s were WAY WAY WAY worse for American car quality ... i vowed then to NEVER EVER buy another American engineered vehicle ... and I never have ...
Battery powered cars are too expensive.
No resale value either. Dead after 7 years, maybe 10.
#32 People getting bigger. View the new vehicles of the future
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/s-kdRdzxdZQ/maxresdefault.jpg
My mom had a ‘99 Buick Century.
I’m 5’ 11-1/2”, 280#, built like a football player,
and could EASILY get in and out of.
Rented a Chevy Impala for a trip this summer,
definitely had to maneuver to get in and out.
I remember renting some mid size cars 4-5 years ago.
I was bruised after day 2, from trying to get in and out of the car.
My hips were hitting the seat back or door frame and the steering wheel.
Tilt wheels don’t tilt. They just raise or lower 2”.
Also rented a Toyota Camry this summer.
Easier than the Impala to get in and out of.
It also had an honest to goodness TILTing and sliding steering wheel.
Camry was much better car than the Impala.
Ford and GM look to be the next Sears.
Now keep in mind the next time oil shoots up they won’t be able to give them away. They simply refuse to build good cars anymore and produce over priced crap.
Honda builds the Civic and Accord and makes money. Toyota builds the Camry and Corolla and makes money. Throw in your other Japanese and Korean companies and they all make a nice car and make money, why? UNIONS.
GM should have went into chapter 11 and reorganized and jettisoned the UAW in 2008, but Bush and Obumbler wasn’t having that.
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