Hummer about to die

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kbrousseau

Guest
This doesn't really surpirse me. I doubt anyone will pcik Hummer up with the way things are these days.

Never been a fan of them anyway.
 
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Dirk

Guest
H1's are way cool, but H2 and H3 I have no love for. I don't know if anyone is in a position to pick them up. The whole auto sector is tanking globally.

"Saturn, Hummer and Saab generated an average pretax loss of $1.1 billion a year between 2003 and 2007, according to the Globe and Mail."
Why wait so long? If I ran a company and 3 of my products generated a 1.1 billion loss, i'd have cut them loose earlier, before the whole company gets dragged down. And notice how it said pre-tax loss......big money is all about shuffling the dollars around.

:rant on:
And they go on to state that GM burned through 6 billion... thats BILLION....holy fawk....in the fourth quater. And then they say that they need 11 to 14 billion to stay in business....wow ...that will only carry them for half a year. Then what? Ask for more tax payer dollars again and again.

I say if they cannot manage their money better....sink, we'll be better off without crappy products, overpaid unskilled assembly line workers and greedy shortsighted execs.
:rant off:
 
R

Root Moose

Guest
I heard that Saab filed for bankruptcy last (this?) week.

Supposedly GM is divesting of itself of Saab (just walking away) and Saab has approached and gotten approval from the the Swedish Parliament for loan financing to continue to operate... for now. I think it makes sense for Sweden to have as many auto manufactures as they can keep afloat so I think it makes sense for the Gov't bail out in this case.
 
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Dirk

Guest
I read about Saab being helped by the Swedish gouvernment and possible a private investors group.
Opel in Germany is in a similar situation. They have been owned by GM since the 1920s IIRC.

it will be interesting to see if any of these names, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall and Wuling, will be around in a year or two.
 
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Root Moose

Guest
That is a good read. I'll need to read the rest of it later to see if I can pick it apart a bit. :)

GM needs to consolidate under one or two "brands". Kinda like the Japanese makers it may make sense to have a "bread and butter" line and a higher end line (e.g. Honda/Acura, Toyota/Lexus, etc.).

Holden is Oz so they are safe provided they survive (they will I think). Likewise Opel (survive?).

So who gets the axe? I'm guessing everything except Chevrolet and Cadillac. Which is kinda dumb in a way... People don't want Cadillacs, even the new stuff that is decent (for what it is) has a really up hill image problem in their market to swim against.

In my mind it should be Chev/Pontiac. Chev has always been bread and butter with the exception of the sporting stuff like Camaro and Corvette (and a few others). Pontiac has always had a image of performance and upmarket without being "snobby". Or at least that is what they were shooting for. :)

Move all the light trucks to GMC. Or keep it Chev and destroy GMC light truck.

Buick? Couldn't care; short of the Grand National they've never made anything I'm remotely interested in. Same for Saturn, short of the Sky (which Pontiac sells as the Solstice) couldn't care.

Ford seems to be on the right track. No bail-out and riding the wave as it were.

Chrysler? Besides the Jeep line I really don't care. Even at that, big deal. They have good ideas (300C and Powerwagon) but I'm not a fan otherwise. 300C is particularly annoying. Could be such a good car if it had brakes and better fit-n-finish. ChryCo interiors are always so plastic nasty.
 
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