Rant Revival Re:GM

Plunderbund caught this story about GM closing an Ohio plant that manufactures SUV's and trucks, while increasing production at a separate Ohio plant that produces the small, fuel-efficient Chevy Cobalt.

The AP story that appears in the Dispatch contains these concluding paragraphs:

Detroit's automakers have been making the shift to more fuel-efficient vehicles, but not at the pace that matches consumers' drive to hybrids and high mileage models made overseas. Gas prices have accelerated the retreat from trucks and sport utility vehicles, leaving the Big Three at the most critical crossroads in 30 years.

The U.S. market is difficult for every automaker, with consumer confidence weak and 2008 sales expected to be the lowest in more than a decade. But it is most difficult for the Detroit Three, who have relied more heavily on sales of trucks and SUVs than their foreign counterparts. Trucks make up 70 percent of Chrysler LLC's U.S. sales, for example, compared to 41 percent at Toyota Motor Corp.

Last summer, I came across a wonderful quote from GM, which was originally made 53 months ago (Typically, a new model takes at least three or four years to get from idea to dealership). The entire post is reproduced below:

Friday, July 06, 2007

An oldie but goodie

My mother and stepfather are both GM retirees, and I know that there are a number of GM family members in the Ohio blogosphere. My mom's retirement saving would have been a lot better had they not been tied to GM and Delphi stock. This tends to make me angry when I think about it. To tell you the truth, Ken Lay may have stolen directly from his employees, but GM... 23 words from Robert Lutz, VP of product development in January 2004:

"Hybrids are an interesting curiosity and we will do some," he said. "But do they make sense at $1.50 a gallon? No, they do not."

If they had simply stolen my mom's money, at least somebody would have benefited.

Posted by bonobo at 7/06/2007 04:29:00 PM 0 comments Links to this post