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 automaker’s CEO.
As is often the case, President Trump’s 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: GM’s shareholders live around the world, and many of Toyota’s 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.
GM’s restructuring was always in the cards.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
I remember driving a Citation for distance one night on a very wet road & everytime it hit a little water,I thought it was going to leave the road. Had to slow way down to feel safe. It seemed a better car than some I’d driven(mostly small Fords)but not by much. I wouldn’t spend my money on one for myself. This car was a corporate vehicle. This was not a problem with any of the Buicks or the Olds that I owned.
I am wanting a small SUV but they all look as you said like mommy cars. I would go for a Nissan Frontier but they are quite expensive, even the used ones. I drove a 2001 Mercury Mountaineer for years and loved it, my son is still driving it with nearly 200K miles on it.
Considering a used Frontier and possibly a Volkswagen Tiguan at this point. I have to have AWD where I live.
My first Nissan Sentra ran 150,000 miles with nothing but oil changes and other periodic maintenance at the recommended intervals. Experience was repeated ever since with the Nissan Rogue, Murano, Quest, Maxima and Altima models (my wife purchases them too). My AAA card has not been used since except to get discounts at hotels, etc. But I was towed at least a half dozen times prior to 1985.
I actually consider Nissan more of an "American" car company than Ford and GM because they have manufacturing plants here in the U.S. and (so far as I know), they have not been infested with the UAW.
Did the TIRES have any tread left?
My sister started out with a Honda Accord and loved it in high school and college, then to an Altima which she drove into the ground. Got married and bought a couple of Expeditions they drove into the ground, then the fun began. She bought a BMW sedan, liked it but not loved it and gave it to her daughter eventually. Her last Expedition was dying and she gave a GMC Denali a try, electrical issues from day one for a brand new vehicle and it had to go.
Then she stared doing research and test driving, a lot of vehicles. She wanted a crossover SUV and drove BMW, Lexus, Infinity, Accura, Mercedes and landed on an Audi SUV, says it is the best vehicle she has ever owned.
I purchased a base model Buick Verano in 2013. Driven over 140K miles it is pretty much bullet proof, quiet, tight and was a good deal @ $21K, delivered. Too bad Buick doesn’t build a 3/4 ton diesel truck.
The hilarious part about this is that one of the reasons they needed a bailout 10 years ago is because they’d over bet on trucks and SUVs and when gas prices went through the roof they didn’t have the car inventory for the new market. Now they’re bailing on cars again. Anybody wanna put money on what happens the next time gas spikes and stays up?
Thanks. Explains a lot.
To quote Forrest Gump ‘Stupid is as Stupid does’. can you expect anything better from Obama and his cronies. They have to live on government welfare.
I have a 2007 Pontiac G5. It has 200,000 miles will all original equipment including battery and I still get 30+ miles per gallon. great car with a lot of zip for getting around and that is the line that they dropped.
GM employees got 8 more years of work than they had any right to expect. That awful company should have been put out of its misery in '09. Everything after that was pure gravy.
Cadillac XTS and CT6.
I just bought a used ‘09 CTS, and so far, so good. It may not be a Beemer or a Mercedes, but it is a good driving car. It handles well, is economical, quiet, peppy - Direct Injection DOHC VVT V-6. I wish I could have afforded a CTS-V!
The ‘08 CTS was Motor Trend’s Car of the Year, and, according to Motor Trend, the ‘09 is an improvement.
Because Ophonybama told them to!
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