IfICouldWouldYou?

I guess MITI is done with the American auto industry and figures it is time to tackle the airline industry. Great. In twenty years we will have to get our tanks and our jet fighters from Asia.

I'm at work now and laughing so hard I'm going to get myself canned!

But don't you get the feeling that each 'generation' is merely the facelift that the previous model deserved? I get the feeling the Aura was 'held back' to give the Malibu something left to say. In this competitive market place, GM can no longer afford to do that. Each iteration must be all that it can be. The P-B-GMC amalgamation will help things. Chevrolet/Saturn? That would make sense, too. I don't see how Saab and Hummer can fit into things. Olds was a mistake, but maybe it was a trial balloon to see how future brand cancellations would float. I'll bet newer GM franchise agreements have tons of escape clauses. We can argue all we want about mistakes and problems that got GM into this mess, but the cold reality is that a 20% market share cannot support 8 divisions. No business model can be based on that. There can only be contingencies and retreats. I dont' believe Pontiac or Buick need to go away, but their model duplication does.

Gee, it's almost like Canada is a different country or something.

Are you always this optimistic? You know, Mohammed Ali used to be the world champ, but the incompetent fool lost the crown...... The 45% market share was GM's to lose. You sound to me like a cheerleader for Japanese trade. It is absolutely no shame if GM holds onto 20% market share. How many companies out there have 20% of anything? There is lots of room for GM, Toyota and Ford to co-exist. I personally take the attitude that competition is great for everyone. I just grow a little concerned when I see too much bias, whether it comes from fans or from the media, which in my opinon is getting lazier and lazier. GM's market share slide has slowed down and will soon stop, I believe. Reverse? I doubt that will ever happen. But, hey, it's all good.....

Agreed, but when my neighbor bought his TL, the best he could come up with when I asked why he chose it over, say, a Grand Prix, at the time was: "I was told it was a good car." Then I had some fun with him and asked if it was a 6 or an 8 cylinder. He had no idea. Horsepower? Not a clue. Of course, he also had no idea that it took premium gas. Was he ever shocked. Made him miss the days of his Taurus, actually. Yes, I also remember my GF's Pony that had the driver's door handle fall off on its 3rd day. The Koreans have made incredible strides in the past dozen years - from complete jokes to contenders. We all agree that the goalposts keep moving, but I also see many of my peers buying imports only because 'so-and-so' said so. It is also like an avalanche that gains speed as it rolls downhill. The more of your neighbors who buy imported vehicles creates more of an impression that the imports are doing something right. I had to battle my mother-in-law when she got her Park Ave - she was leaning toward a BMW because the girls in her bridge club had them. I took her to test drive one and she was not impressed. I knew she wouldn't be.

The problem is that all types of farming creates a huge 'footprint.' At least Brazilian sugarcane is a more efficient process than corn, but I doubt we will ever see that in THIS country.

It has taken Mother Nature 100 million years to brew the oil that we are burning up in a mere 100. In the Laws of Very Big Numbers, we are at a fork in history where a little more effort now may save us from a lot of effort in 20 years. Or we can just say screw our kids, and all buy Tahoes.

.....speaking of 'resting on their laurels,' GM is not the only one guilty of doing that. I just rented an Accord....YECH! Talk about cutbacks. Prop rod? The shock towers take up half the trunk! The engine sounds like the 737 we just got off. I've never seen such grey plastic! I saw the Malibu in Detroit and compared to the new Accord, it is leaps and bounds ahead. I'd bet on the General.

.........back on topic. This reminds me of a case about 25 years ago where a 14 year old kid was crossing a bunch of train tracks while wearing his Walkman (new technology at the time and has lots of detractors then). A train hit and killed him. There was a hue and cry to ban Walkmans while (get ready for this) walking. I thought that one of the major goals in automotive technologies was to make a car quieter, no? All this social pandering is getting tedious, like firetrucks roaring up and down the street at 4 a.m. with their sirens wailing - why is that? Oh, because some union safety study indicated they HAD to have their sirens on full blast. At noon, that makes sense - at 4 a.m., not so much. [Oh, sorry, one of my pet peeves.] I have a major philosophy in life: $h! happens. Sometimes, as a society, we cannot and should not, cater to every single self-interest group. It sucks to be blind, no doubt, but we are getting slammed from self-interest groups on every front. There are safety precautions that make sense (like having those chirping street lights in front of a school for the blind, for example), but if these safety Nazis had their way, every town and village would have to pay (and that means you and I) to have every traffic signal - nay, every intersection, equipped with those wretched chirping traffic signals. Instead, let's spend the money on finding cures for blindess.

No wonder Detroit is having headaches these days! There simply are so many good, let alone amazing choices out there. As good as Cadillac and GM have become, is it any wonder they cannot support 30%+ market share? Audis are damned good looking vehicles, these days. I would be hard-pressed to decide between the two myself.

Set the monster from Cloverfield loose in Toyota City?

You people are ignoring the most significant challenge that face(d) Rick: legacy costs. Look at what happened to the airlines. 9/11 certainly didn't help them, but it was the upstarts showing up that had newer (cheaper) planes and no legacy costs, plus cheaper pilots that really started to undercut the American airlines. Does that sound familiar? Toyota and Co. had a clean slate when they embarked upon their mission of conquest in the '80s. Not so Detroit. We can all sit back and say that it is not our fault that GM is saddled with more than a 100,000 retirees, but it is a reality that the Rickster has had to face. Try product planning for the future while taking care of grandma and grandpa every day. See how much $, creativity and energy YOU have left.

Actually, the Regal GS would have been a better vehicle for the potholed, rutted roadways around Michigan. Driving a BMMer will bruise your kidneys on these wagon trails!

Toyota plays to win....and rewrites the rules. He with the deepest pockets writes the rules.

GM has invested very heavily in Canada, under the Beacon Project, including moving research, design and engineering facilities to Canada. What has Toyota/Honda done? Oh, that's right: tax breaks for opening in Woodstock. On a related note, I was very keen on following the Democrats, but Obama made some very interesting comments about 'fair trade,' and I have to admit, I agree with him. I am an avid Free Trader, but there are gaping holes in NAFTA and WTO. He came dangerously close to blaming the Mexicans and NAFTA, but then he recovered himself. Truly, it is our constant hunger for cheap, imported goods that is slaying the manufacturing jobs in the U.S. - and Canada. Obama is correct in saying that labor laws should be brought under the auspices of NAFTA. It isn't doing future Mexican generations any favors by allowing our manufacturers to bypass environmental and labor laws by skipping over the border.

I once owned a '79 Datsun 510. Great little car. Good on gas. Fun to drive. Cool 'louvered' rear deck. Sadly, the body started to go (just like my ex-GF). Rust was the great enemy to those early Datsuns, which is why I prefer Ford and Chrysler, for the most part.

CHECK....AND MATE. Toyota has a few aces up its sleeve just yet. :AH-HA_wink:

Vipe, I've seen your pics....you can do MUCH better than that!

I really want to like the HHR. The outside is very cool. I agree with the author that the inside is too 'plasticky.' It seems this vehicle has always suffered from money spent on the exterior, cool features and power, but the cash ran out when it came to the quality of the interior materials. Spend a few more dollars on plastic and less on incentives.

I used to love Mad Magazines feature,"Snappy answers to Stupid questions people ask." Samples: Day at the beach. A man in a swimsuit, soaking wet is coming out of the water. Passerby asks,"Have you been swimming." Possible comebacks: "No, I just strolled over from Europe." "No, I was just out walking my pet fish." It's funny how often you get asked dumb questions, only to think of a clever response after the person has left.

How is Volvo doing in your neck of the woods? I had a friend who worked for a Volvo dealer (actually 2) and recently left. He told me that Volvo was in a lot of trouble, sales-wise and may even be pulling out of certain markets. That would be alarming to me if I was going to separate myself from $35k of my hard-earned money.

Ven, Elton John called and he wants his rose-colored sun glasses back. People are not as stupid as we once thought they were. They will cross-shop. The 'I've got to talk it over with my wife' exit line is just that - an exit line. Since the automags do their comparisons with the other Lambdas, the public will take notice. And forget about Saturn not playing games with price! 'Oh, Mr. Customer, I just thought I'd call you because our wholesaler called back and gave me $1,200 more for your '86 Citation.' Perhaps they don't have AutoMalls where you live, sir. When a customer can see an Acadia parked next to a RX, how can they not compare it?

You guys are splitting hairs: the Aspen/Durango is an obvious rebadge, as is the Tahoe/Yukon. It takes more than a new set of headlights and a grill to fool the public - that is something Detroit hasn't learned yet. The G6/Aura look nothing alike, I would agree; however, the Aura/Malibu's origins are showing. GM even contemptuously called the Suburban the same for GMC and Chevy for a while - gimme a break! A lot of Detroit's woes can be traced back to their perennial contempt for the intelligence of the American public. Detroit has to get out of its ivory tower and wake up. Why can Ford build a great car in Europe (the Focus), yet deliver a near POS in America? The entire reason Plymouth died was its irrelevance in the market place, only accelerated by the K-car fiasco. With the badge and grille swapping that ChryCo did in the '70s (Imperial/NewYorker/Newport/St. Regis debacle anyone?), it is a wonder that company is still in business.

It seems everyone in Detroit is having to do a lot of navel gazing these days. Still, there is hope: if the once mighty Plymouth can be gone, then perhaps one day we can wish for Toyopet being vanquished from these shores, too.