John Horner

StingRay wrote:


StingRay, don't you have anything better to do? No I will not
apologize. You still have done nothing to address the real issues of
GM's horrible business position.

There remains an exceeding high chance that GM will follow the US steel
industry, the US airlines and now Delphi into Chapter 11. Perhaps
there are some crank posters on the 'net who are saying this, I really
do not care. There are also highly respected credit rating agencies who
have said the same thing by lowering GM's debt to junk bond status. A
junk bond issuer is by definition one with an exceedingly high risk of
failure. If you think that the only people making these points are
those with a short-sellers axe to grind then there is no convincing you.

You accuse me of having my head in the sand, but I would say that any
thinking person who does not see GM's current strategic and tactical
position as being precarious in the extreme is in fact the person with
their head in the sand. High legacy costs, high cost structure, too
many divisions and models leading to insufficient marketing money to go
around, the failure of the Bob Lutz miracle machine to put a fleet of
compelling vehicles on the ground .... the list goes on. Meanwhile
Toyota is kicking butt in almost every segment. Hyundai is growing like
gangbusters with good-enough low priced cars and China is breathing down
everyone's neck. Honda and Nissan are playing counterpoint roles to
Toyota very similar to the way Chrysler and Ford did in the 1950s and 1960s.

Accusing me of having my head in the sand for saying that these issues
are the important ones and that the identity true or false of usenet
posters is a non issue doesn't really make you a credible commentator
StingRay. Heck, I'm even using the name my parents gave me at birth,
not taking the name of a long dead Corvette as if it were my own.

No apologies here. GM is in deep S*** and the sooner all parties
involved recognize that fact the sooner there might be some hope of
turning it around. But there is no sign that GM management or the
geniuses in UAW leadership have come anywhere close to getting how badly
they have screwed it up. GM management needs to jump WAY ahead of the
train and lay some bold new tracks. They have needed to do this for 30
years now and have never pulled it off. Lots of promising half-steps
like the EDS deal, the Nummi deal, starting Saturn, buying Hughes, etc.
But all of it has been for naught. GM is an even more screwed up
company today than it was 30 years ago even with countless strategies,
CEOs, inititives and such which have come and gone. Today we are seeing
more of the same.

At first the Employee deal for everyone was a big hit, but it fizzled.
Where is the follow up Everyday Low Pricing, One Price Shopping that the
customer wants? GM doesn't have the stones to do it.

I could go on, but it is pointless.

John