I think the main reason why U.S auto manufactures are loosing to the Asian manufacturers is because of their employee's. U.S auto factory workers are older and demand health care and other benefits, while Asian factory workers are younger.

I read in Time magazine that it costs GM 1500$ for every employee as compared to 300$ for toyota. Thats why GM is cutting back on their workforce and alot of people are getting laid off.

What good was an employee discount...when you don't have a job? Irony...

 

It was predicted by Mary Anne Kelly (a huge mind in the auto business) in 1995 that Toyota would buy GM within the next 30 years.

She went on to say that the leading Manufacturers of the future will consist of Toyota (number 1), Honda, BMW, VW, Daimler-Chrysler and Ford while the rest will eventually be bought out by one of those companies......unless a major change in economics (read: failing country) or industry (read: new technology) comes about.

 

ding ding ding

 

Toyota does it better for less. sorry, Toyota quality is always in the top 2...usually 2nd only to their own Lexus line. that says plenty!

 

Quality has little to do with this thread though. The US manufacturers are in the trouble they are because of the benefits they have to offer their employees. Take those same polls you're looking at and you'll notice that Hyundai is most likely in the top three and BMW and Porsche are notoriously near the bottom when it comes to quality. Do you agree with those statistics too?

I doubt it...

 

well, actually, it's a package deal. we can look at it from a marketing perspective, and you'll see what i'm talking about.
Product
Price
Place
Promotion
Production

see, having a deficit in any catergory would certainly cause the whole package to be lop-sided. and, if GM is indeed failing due to the fact that the unions and workers and pensions are sucking the company dry, then production is going to falter (which it is since now plants are closing); promotion is going to falter because no matter how much they advertise,it'll be impossible to create an ad campaign that will be able to nix the thought that the company is going down to perspective buyers; price will have to go up since the number of units produced will be limited; place...well, sounds like consolidation is in-order which means that the facilities will become somewhat liability...i mean, yes, real estate can be sold, but cost of building the place is now lost, cost of moving the equipment (if they do move it) will be a loss, if they don't re-tool (which would be a mistake in my opinion) then they will not be up-to-date to today's standards. see what i mean!?!?!? i'm sure there are other things left-out, and i have only scratched the surface of their woes.

 

lol @ a mitsubishi owner starting this thread.

 

I didn't notice that, but that is kind of funny. Mitsubishi is kind of like the Garage Sale of the Auto Industry.

 

Best post in the thread...hahahaha!


yeah,I want to get involved in the topic...but I can't stomach it.

 

On the topic of GM,

Working as a Saab tech, I always wonder in the back of my mind what I will be working on in the next 5 years. I bet I won't be working on Saabs.

Theres a couple other things they need to look into aside from the benefit/pension issues.

Why does GMC exist? What does GMC offer that a Chevy pick-up cant? At least most of the other brands have a certain crowd they associate with. The Yukon is the best selling SUV I think, but even all the Yukon and Denali trim stuff can be cut and pasted on a Tahoe.

Pontiac = "driving excitement?" The GTO I guess, but the G6 and all their other stuff seems rental car quality, just like so many GM cars. Unless you buy a top of the line model, you aren't really getting that good of a car IMO.

I see Saab biting the dust eventually as they seem to be in a frenzy to find platforms to base their cars on. The 9-2 is a WRX (since GM sold that share, the 9-2 is dead and there will be no more Saabarus), 9-3 is a Malibu, 9-5 is a opel/vauxall, 9-7 is a "modded" trailblazer platform. The 9-5 is about to hit 8 years old without any major upgrades other than anything asthetic and there is no news of a chassis for it (next impala rumored, but denied). Saab has been a source of money loss every year GM has had complete ownership.

One other thing that doesnt help is GM doesn't push hybrid vehicles as much as Toyota or Honda. Ford has that Escape, but thats using borrowed tech from Toyota. As much as some people don't want to believe it, hybrids are selling fairly well and I can't see how there would not be a good future for well marketed alternative fuel/hybrid vehicles (keeping tax breaks and other perks in mind).

quoted from another thread

As sad as it is, I totally agree.