DETROIT - If Toyota Motor Corp. has eyes on taking the title of world's largest automaker from General Motors Corp. next year, it won't happen without a fight. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16475612
GM is pounding its chest but have no bite at all. Do they even have hybrid cars? How the hell are you going to compete in a new high gas price world without any cutting edge technology? They need to partner with Toyota just to borrow the technology. I'm sorry, but those huge Yukons are obsolete now.
GM hasn't been ready for a fight for over a decade now. It'll be like taking a candy from a baby. ... and the soon to be released Malibu? yuck. American car manufacturers just need to have better tastes.
and then some...I like how Miller countered that they are not even worried about being "#1"... Just build a good product and concentrate on those intangibles and the rest will take care of itself...
I just read a review of the Saturn hybrid small SUV in Consumer Reports. I can see the Toyota execs shaking from fear. No wait, they are laughing so hard they are falling on the floor.
GM's balance sheet is a joke... Half a trillion in debt plus pension obligations that they won't even own up to. Current liabilities 3-4* current assets... It's a shell game and will take only a minor sales downturn for them to wipe out... If gm's credit rating goes down a few more notches - there will be hell to pay too as all sorts of their credit is conditional upon a certain debt rating. they sold a majority stake in the only asset they had worth owning. its a sad joke. THey are not at all focussed and they are going to go bankrupt. Just a matter of time...Wagoner is a joker. The changes he made are cosmetic... They should dividend the cash out to shareholders and collapse the bitch and start over. This is what will happen anyway - so why not do it on their terms and give the unions a comeuppance... warren buffet made a great remark about gm a few years back - in essence that is was now a health care company operating a car manufacturer. i think i read 1 in 8 american pensions is paid by gm currently. 1500 per car goes to health costs as opposed to toyotas 400 or so. yet the market rewarded gm with a 60% bump last year... only in america...
GM should have said this as soon as they saw Toyota grabbing market share in the U.S. not when Toyota is 2 places behind GM. GM is not going to win......Why buy a GM when you can buy a Toyota....
GM's only hope in the long term are its silent negotiations with China. It may move a lot of its operations to China and perhaps that will allow them to survive if it happens. Ford is in little better shape btw: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070107/ford_s_car_gambit.html?.v=6
Lutz makes mark at GM "It's beautiful. And it's symbolic. It represents the change coming at GM. It's going to draw attention to GM and show that its product development is going in the right direction." "We're finally seeing the Lutz influence at GM, and the cars he has bragged about for so long," agreed Joe Phillippi, principal of AutoTrends. "We've asked, 'Where's the beef?' and haven't seen it, but now we do and it's a huge step up for GM." Wagoner gazed at the convertible and noted to Ed Welburn, head of design for GM, that heritage cars such as Camaro are something Toyota doesn't fool with -- possibly because it can't. "We've gotta do more cars like this," Wagoner offered. http://www.pe.com/lifestyles/stories/PE_Fea_Driving_D_lutz0303.2b25165.html