Sounds like the union is caving now also. They are getting rid of that stupid thing where they lay people off. Have them go hang out in a building for a year while getting paid 95% of there salary.
Printable View
Sounds like the union is caving now also. They are getting rid of that stupid thing where they lay people off. Have them go hang out in a building for a year while getting paid 95% of there salary.
Well the Union is screwed no matter how you look at it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Knownothing
No matter what happens, they are going to have to give up a LOT of ground.
The labor costs for a GM worker are around $70/hr. Of that, around $30/hour is actually the cost to support/pay that worker.
The rest of it is legacy costs. Paying for health care for people who retire at 50. Paying pensions etc.
That is what is burying GM competitively. Just as the bad mortgage debt is the poison that's killing the credit markets, legacy union costs are killing the Big 3. Until they are free of it, there is essentially no way for them to move forward competitively.
We have a 2007 Aura and we LOVE it. We looked at the Altima & G6 at the same time and got the decked out Aura for the same price as the basic Altima while being much bigger on the inside than the G6. We have had 0 problems and Saturn is great to work with. We were actually looking at getting an Outlook in the next year, but maybe not now.
Not Pontiac:realmad: I have loved all the Pontiacs that I have owned.
I have owned both a Monte Carlo and a Grand Prix (for all intensive purposes the same car). However, they both had completely different feels to them. They're both the same car, and yet not.Quote:
Originally Posted by jumbopackage
I've driven both, and they both feel the same to me. And not in a good way.Quote:
Originally Posted by jdoggivjc
Just when they finally got Saturn right they drop it and the new pontiac G8 is amazing
Yep. The Caddy CTS and Pontiac G8 are the only two American cars that can play in the performance luxury market.Quote:
Originally Posted by CycloneTony
I'd bet that car will return as a Chevy model.
The G8 is the best Pontiac has and it will stick around. They are already branded as Chevy's in the Middle East. Really they should just keep Pontiac more as a model rather than a brand. For now just the "Pontiac G8" model. I think we are headed toward GM being the brand and everything else being a model anyway. They started sticking the GM chicklet on all GM's a few years ago to get people used to the idea.
The G8 is yet another example of Badge engineering.
It's a Holden Commodore.
It's a great car, granted, but it's not a Pontiac.
Pontiac has good cars, that are sporty sad to see them go. Chevy will need to adopt a sporty car or GM will lose a lot of business. Why cann't Chevy take Pontaic under its wing pick the best and most popular cars and go with it. They could also merge Buick and Caddy. GMC does have better style than Chevy, they could take that put Chevy on it and do away with GMC.
True, but now you are in the same realm as Audi = VW.Quote:
Originally Posted by jumbopackage
The real badge engineering was in the '80s, where GM was trying to pass off Cavaliers as Cadillacs, and the only difference between a Chevy and a Pontiac was maybe the grill, tailights, and emblems.
There is a huge economic benefit of using one platform for different models.
Like most GM's it's as much shared GM technology as possible. In this case designed by Holden. The GTO was a Holden, designed and built there, really badge engineering; but even it had an engine and drivetrain from the US boys.Quote:
Originally Posted by jumbopackage
Chevy will get the G8 or at least GM will keep it. Buick has to stay because of China. Buick doesn't fit with Caddy anyway and it would get axed if not for the China sales. GMC going away makes sense.Quote:
Originally Posted by kingcy
What? Audio and VW share NO common vehicles like that. They did in the early 70s, but haven't in years. Audi vehicles are built on VW group platforms (they are a VW group marquee, after all), but few Audis are built on the same platform as any VW product. Aside from the A4/Passat, the only other example would be the TT, which is on the same platform as the Golf/Jetta/Tiguan. The TT is totally different than any of the VW cars it shares a platform with.Quote:
Originally Posted by herbicide
Noone is going to mistake an A6 (42,000-48,000 or so) for a Passat (26k or so). They are clearly different cars aimed at clearly different markets. Even the A4 and Passat are different enough that nobody will mistake one for the other. A4 pricing picks up about where Passat pricing leaves off. The two are a great example of complimentary lines that do not overlap.
The ONLY thing different between a Holden VE Commodore and a G8 is the grill, taillights and emblems. And Holden is essentially the same market as Pontiac, which is essentially the same market as Chevy which is essentially the same market as Buick.