In 1980, GM had 50% of US sales. Now it is only 25% and declining. My father was a GM man - I'm a Honda man like a lot of younger people (unless they are Toyota). None of the top ten selling vehicles are GM. The mainstream media agrees with members here that poing out that GM tries to market, lobby..... anything except build a solid and fuel efficient car.
It's slow, but GM is dying. They no longer have the size to support the pensions and health benefits, plus they sorely need to build a good vehicle was mass appeal. The Oldsmobile was such a car, then they let it fade into history by the assult of Camerys and Accords - Buick and Pontiac will likely follow.
Gas prices will come down some, but I expect them to stabilize above $2.50 at least. This will shrink the sales of sub 20mpg vehciles that GM has depended on. Then GM will be faced with closing some big plants.
The outcome I'd
prefer to see is GM embrasing the hybrid and trying to sell more Saturns than Suburbans. I'm afraid GM is going to still try to depend on trucks and SUVs to save them and bleed more, having to offshore some of their operations, closing MidWestern plants. Fearing that, I'm wondering if more American jobs would be saved if Toyota bought GM plants and overhauled their management. Hate to say this, I might even think at some point having the Chinese buy non-military GM plants would be better than what GM is doing now.
BAS what do you all think of it?
