CARBIZ

Although there certainly are arguments on both sides (no pun intended), we only need to look to the reunification of Germany if we want clues as to what may happen if the three countries merged. Germans have a lot more historical/cultural ties than Mexico/Canada/USA, yet their growing pains have been substantial. Parts of the former Eastern Germany are still like a war zone and unemployment rates across all of Germany are at the top of Europe. They've had nearly 15 years and they are still experiencing challenges.

LTB51 never lets facts stand in the way of his rants.

I don't think Boston or Rochester needs to worry about it just yet.

I've always been suspicious about all of these types of surveys. For any survey to be valid it needs to be totally random and compulsary. I believe demographics (attitude/culture/age,etc) play very heavily into whether a person would BOTHER to respond to a survey. Frankly, I am getting sick of statistics and surveys. They all lie. People's lives are being destroyed based on some government/business poll/survey, yet all of them can be twisted or distorted to say whatever the agenda wants. Color me skeptical, but Big Business is drowning in these surveys and it isn't helpful.

I had a low mileage, 13 year old K-car that gave me 24 Can. gallons per mile, which works out to be about 19 or so American gals. Horrible. But I know I was tough on that 2.2 and it was an automatic. Those old 3 speeds were truly slushboxes. I think a lot of vehicles lose significant fuel mileage in the trannies - at least non-GM vehicles anyway. With a 2.2 ecotec in the Malibu I am currently driving, I can get 28 American mpg, in city driving. It is amazing what 20 years difference in technology can make!

When I was in Brazil last year, I saw a 2003 Chevrolet Omega - a not even reskinned Cadillac Catera, in a dealer show room. Made me kind of chuckle. I think GM is on the right track with bringing Opel product to North America. There are a lot of amazing Opel/Vauxhall product in Europe/South America. However, one warning I would bring forward is the damage this move may do to the Chevrolet name in Canada. I know that Chevrolet is a power house in the U.S, carrying nearly half the sales for GM; however, in Canada, the numbers are much different. The Sierra outsells the Silverado, the Montana outsold the Venture, etc. Although the Aveo/Optra cars are a decent first start and have done okay here, any untampered-with Opel product given to Saturn will outclass the GM-DAT product for sure. I hope Oshawa is aware of this and has back up plans for the Chevrolet name in Canada. With the loss of the Oldsmobile line (which was alwas paired with Chevy up here), many Chevy dealers are hurting - more so than their Pontiac-Buick brothers. I can forsee Saturn becoming a power house up here, while Chevrolet withers on the vine. Overall, the impact on GM may be negligible, but to my way of thinking it makes sense for GM to promote Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac as the international brands to compete directly with Toyota internationally. If this is the direction GM wants to go internationally, then it makes no sense to me to be pushing the Saturn line so heavily in North America. Just my two cents.

A-holes are EVERYWHERE these days. I had a guy in an older F-150 cut me off on the freeway yesterday. He deliberately swung in front of me. We would've touched if I hadn't slammed my brakes on. I think he was mad at me for merging in front of him ( I signalled) and then slowing down (I had to - I was tailgating the guy in front of me who WAS slowing down). An older woman woman (about 4' tall - she could hardly see over the dash) in a student driver Corolla was weaving all over the place on the street. Student or not, the instructor shouldn't allow her on the road. What I have noticed is that when drivers get pissed these days, they get violent and will chase you! I have not mellowed with age and I tend to honk the horn or give the finger when someone cuts me off, doesn't signal, pulls a U-turn in the middle of a busy street, etc. But that is a dangerous habit, because I have been chased, had my car kicked ($300 damage to an Optra I was driving) and I've had to call 911 on another driver. The amazing part is that I am a BIG guy - 6'2" and I work out. These people are nuts to want to take me on. The biggest problem on the roads today (other than the serious over crowding) is rudenss. If people would just consider the guy beside/behind them before they make their move, we would all get along better.

My ex, who was 23 when I met him, was raised to believe that the dinosaurs are a New Age hoax. That was part of their teaching at the Pentacostal Church where he went at the time. When we were in the Sudbury Science North exhibit, and they have the spine of a brontosauras (or some such critter, it was 15 years ago!) strung up the middle of their huge atrium, he denounced it as fake. I challenged him to explain how the government couldn't keep Watergate under wraps for even a couple years, yet thousands of scientists world wide have kept the dinosaur hoax going for, what, 130 years? When reason meets dogma, it is a scary, scary sight.

I am an atheist, yet my current boyfriend grew up Jehovah's Witness, and my previous partner of 10 years was raised (but not was not practicing when we met) Pentacostal. I am still scratching my head on that!!

Personally, I like most of the new products coming out of Chrysler. Their recent styling trends, with vehicles like the 300 and Caliber, are very athletic and aggressive; however, I think they may be alienating a lot of the their core customers. They sold a lot of Dynasties and K- cars to someone. Just last week I had a 65 year old guy trade in his Neon for a Cobalt. He has owned nothing but Dodge for decades. His father-in-law has an Acclaim. They were a die-hard Chrysler family, but they are older and they don't like the looks of any of the current crop of DCX vehicles. There are still a lot of those old K-car-in-disguise vehicles out there that are coming up for trade in (these guys keep their vehicles 10+ years anyway) and they don't have anything from Chrysler that appeals to them. That can't be good for Chrysler's short term prospects.

How much would it cost to mail a box of Depends your way? Seriously, all the best today. My partner turns 37 today. Can't wait to give him his iPod 30 that I've been wrestling with for two weeks! Any presents yet?

I would agree that the ebony interior greatly improves things. Having lived with the Malibu off and on for the past 3 years, I have to say that its well laid out and functional. Yes, I agree that the plastic looks pretty cheap (especially on the LS), although some improvements have been made. The cloth seats are especially bad. We get used ones from the auctions and they are all horribly stained. From that stand point alone the previous generation was far superior. Why would they switch to this awful fabric?

The good news is that the average buyer of the F-150 and Silverado doesn't read crap like CR. Maybe some retired teacher, while flipping through the latest electric can opener comparison, will be enthralled with the high rating of the Tundra and rush out to trade in her '92 Camry for the new Tundra - maybe. Otherwise, truck buyers ignore what CR says and buy what they see/drive. What works for the average sedan buyer, versus what works for the average truck buyer is completely different. People who buy a Malibu or Camry are not trying to make a statement. They want transportation. People who buy a Tahoe or Explorer are (generally) making more of a statement. What does the T-100 or Rav4 say about the driver?

It is ironic how many closeted gay people are attracted to the Church, as if they believe devoting their lives to God will somehow purge them of their "sinful" feelings. Kind of like cutting off your penis because you're ashamed of being a man. Nottgonnahappen.com. The worst aspect of this is that these closet types become the most rabidly anti-gay rabble rousers out there, spewing all kinds of hate and venom against those of us who are leading productive, happy well-adjusted (well, okay, sort of!) lives. Franky, in the 21st Century, this totally disgusts me. There is no excuse for this type of behavior in this day and age. Forty or fifty years ago, I can understand people being deep in the closet, but not now.

An interesting read. I especially like the point about the junk bond status. Some of the reader's comments are pretty telling, too. I am not sure I like the headline, as though GM has been in a steady decline for 30 years. Starting off with nearly half the market in the North America, did GM really have anywhere else to go but down? Just as Toyota started off with a zero percent chunk of the market 30 years ago - it had nowhere else to go but up! There have been a lot of ups and downs for all of the Big Three in the past 30 years. All have faced financial ruin more than once. They are victims of being the biggest players in the world's most lucrative vehicle market. Japan Inc will do anything to conquer and control this market. Anything. The first item on their agenda is to keep foreign competition out. Has anyone seen recent figures on whether any of the Japanese Big 5 are making money in North America? Do they even break those numbers down? Or are they losing money, as did Hitachi, Toshiba and others, while they scale the ramparts?

It is a sad day, yes, but inevitable. Thirty five years ago, there was Chrysler, GM, Ford and VW. Toyopet, Datsun and others were a joke. Renault and Fiat were way off target. If you look at the models that the Big Three had then, each brand literally had 4 or 5 models. Trucks were, well, trucks. Nobody bought them, except farmers, contractors and people who actually needed them. Now, brands that barely existed then are now outselling much of what the Big 2.5 have to offer. I remember going to the Auto Show in '75 in Toronto (Malton, actually) and the GM area was half the building! Times have changed.

'67 Dodge Polara - had that one for a year back in '79/'80 '82 Dodge Rampage - had that for 4 years '87 Dodge Shadow ES - leased (thank God!) and dumped at the end '91 Caprice wagon - 6 years 150k miles, then wiped out on black ice '98 Blazer 4WD - 3 years, lease up currently - whatever the boss gives me

I can't say I disagree with you. To sell a car by its innovations and features is a little harder. As many people on this board have beaten to death, it is easier to carp about the "hard plastics" of a vehicle than remark about features that truly matter (quiet steel, power trunk releases, one piece stamped cargo beds, etc.). First impressions do tend to linger. A VW would be easier to sell, based on opening the door, but price, research, test drives, etc. would level the field a little more.

Here we go again....wait, let me go and masturbate on the dash of the SS in the show room. I'll get back to you on how plasticky the dash feels....

A diversified Board looks good on paper, but I believe the problem with many large corporations today is that nobody on the Board has any real ownership in the company they serve, nor do they necessarily even know anything about the business that company is in. Bankers and lawyers don't necessarily make good business people. America (and Canada) were made great by people who had vested interests in the companies they built: Ford, Chrysler, Bell, Goodyear - all great names we recognize, but do we really understand that the strength of their companies lay in these men's hard work and commitment, as well as talents? What vested interest does a Board member really have? If the company goes down, they just land another plum Board position on another Fortune 500 company and make their money there. Maximizing shareholder value is not necessarily the way to run a company, long term. We need to stop being so short sighted. That is one of the main reasons GM is in such a mess.

If people on this board - who one would assume are at least a little more informed and involved about the auto industry, cannot be convinced that the Big 2.5 have come a long way, then all is lost. Just to add to this othewise excellent post, it isn't just someone's bad experience with a 20 year old car that is the problem. Twenty years ago, Toyota and Honda had, what - maybe 5 or 6 models apiece on this side of the ocean? How hard would that have been to keep focused? I can name 5 or 6 great cars GM was building 20 years ago; unfortunatley, I can also name 5 or 6 not so great cars GM was building then, too. That is the problem: GM was probably juggling 40 models 20 years ago - some were bound to have been flops. The media will focus on those bad designs (Citation, anyone?) as examples of how bad Detroit is. We are already seeing cracks in Toyota's armour as they continually add more and more complex models to their line up. Not so much fun playing with the big boys, eh Toyota?

AMC had some limited success in the early 1960s with the Rambler, but they could't quite figure out the car market. The Eagle/Spirit was ahead of its time in terms of the AWD craze, but the cars were ugly even for their time. Maybe if Renault could have kept pouring cash into it and kept Jeep going until the SUV craze took off, it may have paid off. I wonder where DCX would be today if Chrysler had never bought Jeep? Jeep owned 25% of the SUV market at one point.

Move to Ontario: GM and the Clean Air Fund will give you $1,000 credit toward a new GM vehicle AND tow it for free! Otherwise, how much gas is in the tank?

Most of these countries are artificial entities established during colonial times, usually by Great Britain and France. I cannot believe that Bush and Co. would not have imagined that once the universally hated/feared leader was removed that the country would not dissolve into thousand year old tribal jealousies/hatred. It has happened in far more civilized "countries" like the former Czechoslovakia that imploded once a hated ruler (Russia) was removed. Why would Bush not conceive that could happen?

The standard seats on the SS are pretty decent. The only reason for getting the silly "Recaro" package is to get the LSD, which GM should have made available separately for cheaper!