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June 20, 2005
GMC Redux
According to MSNBC.com, there's fixin' to be a dust up twixt the dinosaurs at GM and the always feisty UAW. Fingers are pointing like light sabers...
As GM's engine stalled this year, CEO Rick Wagoner has laid much of the blame on the automaker's runaway health-care costs.
Now, no one's here to say the UAW doesn't have the sweet deal from hell, always has (and should be looking at how to bend before it all breaks), so there's probably a fair amount of truth in that statement. A statement made all the easier to issue thanks to United Airlines, their pension default and PBGC. But our gentle readers know, as right-to-work as we are, we'd tend to go along with the union's situation assessment for the current slide in GM's fortunes.
The UAW fired back that GM can't "shrink its way" to prosperity, but instead needs to design cars people want..."..."If we don't fix some of the basic problems that exist when it comes to the product," UAW president Ron Gettelfinger told NEWSWEEK, "then it seems to me that no matter what we did, it wouldn't be enough. Ever."
Um, yeah. Your stuff's WEAK there, Mr. Wagoner. FUGly weak. Couple that with quality problems, the much-more-appealing products from the competition (American manufactured in many instances) plus the current price of gas, and it looks like GM stands for Gumby Made.
Posted by tree hugging sister at June 20, 2005 10:43 AM
Comments
Isn't "Wagoneer" a Jeep product?
Posted by: Mr. Bingley at June 20, 2005 11:04 AM
I'm sure he wishes he were...
Posted by: tree hugging sister at June 20, 2005 11:09 AM
Very true. They screwed the pooch with the horrible designs like the Aztec. They spent a bunch of $ on the GTO, to wide yawns (they were selling for $10k UNDER sticker at one point.) Trucks and SUVs are great, but this trend, too, shall pass, and they can't seem to get a car on the road that people are excited about (versus the DC 300 or the FoMoCos Mustang).
Posted by: Crusader at June 20, 2005 12:18 PM
But... but they're the "Hearbeat of America"! The ads say so, so it must be true!
Oh - wait - you say that was the ad campaign from 20 years ago? Detroit, we have a problem...
Posted by: Nightfly at June 20, 2005 01:11 PM
They were ugly even then, but at least the advertising was snappier. Now "The Heartbeat of America" needs a quadruple bypass. Nah, wait ~ life support, 'cause 'bypass' is what the consumers have been doing.
Posted by: tree hugging sister at June 21, 2005 11:53 AM