the source is 5thgen.org
http://www.5thgen.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6917

 

Translation: If you're looking for a full-size truck or SUV, buy one now.

 

Damn imagine being up for promotion.........

 

I thought there was a pretty good mark-up on trucks... ?? Why reduce the number made?

 

Camaro still coming out?

 

A friend of mine went to his boss looking for a buyout (he's planning on going back to school for his PhD), and got offered a fairly significant promotion instead. If you're a younger guy, there's probably plenty of opportunity coming your way in the next few months as the company buys out the old-timers in an attempt to save money (promoting a guy with 5-10 years of experience will likely still result in a cheaper compensation package than keeping around the dude with 20-30 years of experience, unfortunately).

Much of the announcement looks like platitudes combined with re-arranging the deck chairs on a large sinking ship. Of course, there are a couple interesting points:

- Reduction in the motorsport budget. Probably not a great time to be a Chevy driver in NASCAR. A much more serious concern (IMO) would be the impact on meaningful development activities, such as the C6R program.

- Delay of the next-generation V8. Don't plan on seeing a GenV any time real soon.

 

To keep supply and demand at market equilibrium.

 

Other than the fact that the market fell apart?

GM's announcement is slightly confusing. The planned reduction in truck output merely brings the automaker's production back down to the current demand level. It's not like they're looking at the current demand and then subtracting another 300k units/year.

 

To reduce cost maybe?

If you dont sell what your making, your margin doesn't really matter.

 

Right, I mean other than that.

 

I guess this means they'll kill the health care, but increase pension to give them an opportunity to buy Medicare supplement?

 

That's the way I read it. It's smart for two reasons, as I understand things:

1) It replaced a variable cost (future medical costs) with a known fixed cost.

2) It takes advantage of the available extra money that's supposedly in the company's pension fund (which I'm guessing was freed up by the last few years of buyouts, because GM's previous pension funding situation was rather poor).

 

I wonder if his 'plan to survive' includes GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner taking a pay cut as well?

 

As I posted in the other thread...I don't know anyone who has traded in their car...or bought a used high milage beater because gas bothered them so much. Think of it this way. If you use 25 gallon tank of gas a week...the difference between gas being $2 and $4 is $50. That is not the kind of money that hurts people who are buying $30K+ cars, trucks, and SUV's. That is less than a dinner for two at Outback a week.

What is killing sales right now is people can't get out of their current vehicle because the trade on their SUV's sucks. And then after getting burned on the trade..and everything the read about the SUV being dead..they buy a car. Even worse, now people can't refinance their house and get cash to buy themselves out the SUV trade in hole (which i suspect happened a lot before). All this mixed with everything costing more like groceries (you think gas is high), and the media making it seem like the sky is falling...there are plenty of reason to not buy a new vehicle not related to gas milage. I think we will see gas drop signifigantly in the next year..making a lot of this mute.

 

I think its more related to the fact that people have less money to spend on new stuff like a car when everything else costs so much. Gas prices sure have sealed the fate as the two-pronged attack on 35k+ cost of SUV's on top of the fact that people dont have the money.
Smaller, cheaper cars will be the future untill the economy can stabalize.
Unemployment is up, prices are up, banks are failing, unless you have been saving up or need a car right now, I dont think its going to happen.