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Posted by Keith in Washington on Tuesday, June 02, 2009 at 11:26:33 :
In Reply to: Re:once it leaves the Factory it is the Dealers Car posted by MIKE STONE COTM JEROME,IDAHO on Tuesday, June 02, 2009 at 09:17:42 :
If I understand, GMAC got into the housing finance business and took a big hit. They (GM) haas also been adding a lot of incentives over the last 10 years or so. This just advances the buying of cars by the consumer by a few years. They can't pass up the deal. Well you can do that for only so long before the consumer can not buy any more and your sales go south. All those incentives also cut your profit margin which did not help.
I believe that GM and other US car companies have a long road ahead of them before they regain any market. First they need to change the way they do business. Second they really need to improve quality and the consumer's perception of their quality. They messed themselves over in the past with poorer quality when the imports were improving quality. US companies need to improve their quality image with the public which may take 10 to 20 years. Yes they have improved a lot but the consumer does not trust them at this time. The bright spot for years was trucks. All of them made pretty good trucks that were dependable for the most part. However that market collapsed with the gas price increase and the imports are now introducing something other than compact trucks.
I am not sure what will happen with the unions, but there needs to be some significant changes. The gravy train is over and they will need to tighten up some like a lot of the rest of us have over the years due to competition. Not fun but it will need to happen.
We will need to get the government out of the game very soon. They will kill the auto makes with overhead and inefficiencies. The government is also not there to run companies nor do I see anything in the constitution or other documents giving them the right to take over and run parts of the private sector.
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