This comes to us by our good friend Scott "The FbodFather" Settlemire.

Good morning, Camaro Comrades, Firebird Friends, and Corvette Cousins.

First - let me make it clear that what you are about to read is from ME and the opinions within the note are mine- and not necessarily those of the company for which I work.

Now - that said:

----Recently, there's been a flurry of emails circulating with a link to a YouTube video entitled: "General Motors is becoming China Motors - Commentary by Vince Wade."

I do not know Mr. Wade - I don't believe I've ever met him. I do believe he was once an investigative reporter at a TV Station in Detroit. It's my understanding that Mr. Wade may have an issue with companies that do business with China. I don't know what motivated him to put this video together - -

I also know that the video is full of false information and that it's damaging...... Moreover, it continues to make its rounds on the Internet - with well-intentioned souls actually believing it.

I personally find it sad that so many Americans love to believe the worst about our nation and the companies and the people that have helped to make it so great......

I want to set the record straight - because the video is full of erroneous information.

Now - you don't have to take my word for it....simply go to www.factcheck.org and see what that website has to say about the video.

Finally - AFTER the rebuttal, I've included another article - one that contains great news for our Environment, for our Nation - and yes, for GM....... - but it's unlikely you'll see it make its rounds on the internet - perhaps because it's a positive story on GM and the men and women who work hard each day to design, build and sell the world's best cars and trucks.

I encourage you to share this with family and friends - and IF you received the "GM is becoming China Motors" video -- would you please send it back to who sent it to you - asking them to set the record straight?

My sincerest thanks in advance...............

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GM's Global policy is to “build where we sell,” which lowers vehicle cost for the consumer and vehicles are specifically designed to meet the needs, demands of consumers within that region as well as meeting all local government legislated requirements.

GM does business in more than 120 countries.

Roughly 65 percent of GM sales are generated outside of the United States; in most cases, those vehicles are not exported from the U.S. for a variety of reasons including trade issues and local content regulations.

GM imports no vehicles from China to the U.S. For instance: every Chevrolet sold in the U.S., with the exception of the Spark, is built in North America

Chevy Malibu, Volt, and Camaro; Buick Enclave and Cadillac SRX, CTS, XTS, ATS and Escalade are exported from North America to China

GM started doing business in China in the 1920s and exited the market following the 1949 Chinese Revolution; GM returned to the country in the late 1990s in partnership with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC) and formed the Shanghai GM (SGM) joint venture to produce Buicks in China; --other auto manufacturers like Ford are racing to the China market to catch up to GM's sales success.

GM did not use U.S. government bailout money to build manufacturing footprint in China; since bankruptcy, GM has announced investments at 30 U.S. facilities totaling more than $10.1 billion, which has created about 18,000 hourly jobs.

Doing business in China requires every foreign manufacturer to have a joint-venture with a Chinese company; GM has strategic partnerships in 30 countries, including China, which positions the GM brand as a leading automaker in the world’s largest and fastest-growing automotive markets.

GM did not sponsor nor endorse a Chinese patriotic film recognizing the 90th anniversary of the Communist Party; the film was sponsored by Shanghai GM, a company owned jointly by GM and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., of which GM does not have operational control.



General Motors Global Sales Summary

Units
2012 Units
2011 % Change % of Industry
2012 % of Industry
2011 Point Change
North America 3,018576 2,925,256 3.2 16.9 18.4 (1.5)
Europe 1,607,176 1,750,599 (8.2) 8.5 8.7 (0.2)
South America 1,046,594 1,066,402 (1.9) 18.0 18.8 (0.8)
International Operations* 3,615,931 3,281,245 10.1 9.5 9.5 0.0
Total Global 9,288,277 9,023,502 2.9 11.5 11.9 (0.4)


GM North America = United States, Canada, Mexico and other North American markets
GM in Europe = Western, Central and Eastern Europe plus Russia/ CIS
GM International Operations = Asia-Pacific, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East
Note: Iran, North Korea, Syria and Sudan are excluded from sales volume and market share calculations; * 4,053,385 including Russia/CIS


General Motors and its joint ventures sold a record 2,836,128 vehicles in China in 2012. Sales increased 11.3 percent from 2011.




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Now - for some GOOD NEWS!

From FORBES Magazine:



How GM Makes $1 Billion A Year By Recycling Waste
By Jo Ann Muller


Feb. 21, 2013



If one man's trash is another man's treasure, General Motors has the revenue to prove it.

The automaker generates an eye-popping $1 billion a year reusing or recycling materials that would otherwise be thrown away - everything from scrap steel and paint sludge to cardboard boxes and worn-out tires. It's an unexpected but welcome revenue stream that comes from rethinking its approach to waste reduction.

Manufacturing is a dirty business. Industrial facilities in the United States generate 7.6 billion tons of nonhazardous waste annually, according the Environmental Protection Agency. Most of it ends up in landfills.

At GM, however, waste is viewed not as something to be thrown away, but as a resource out of place. By finding new uses for that waste - or selling it to someone who can - GM diverted 2.5 million metric tons of waste from landfills in 2011 (the equivalent of 38 million garbage bags).

When an automaker's stamping press cuts the shape of a car door out of a flat sheet of steel, for example, there's a large hole reserved for the window. In most auto factories, the leftover steel cutouts are stacked up, then sold to a foundry, where they are melted with other bits of steel and converted into scrap metal. That's one way to recycle, but the melting and reprocessing of steel costs money and consumes a lot of energy.

General Motors sees those leftover steel cutouts, roughly four feet square, as a marketable commodity. It sells them directly to a local steel fabricator, Blue Star Steel, which uses them to stamp out small brackets for heating and air conditioning equipment for other industries, skipping the foundry altogether. Everyone benefits: GM maximizes the value of that leftover material; Blue Star Steel saves money buying scrap steel, and the environment is spared additional greenhouse gas emissions from a foundry.

Worldwide, 90 percent of GM's manufacturing waste is reused or recycled this way - more than any other automaker, according to Two Tomorrows, a sustainability consultant in San Francisco. GM has a total of 104 landfill-free facilities worldwide, including 84 manufacturing sites that reuse or recycle 97 percent of their waste, and convert the remainder to energy. Its goal is 125 landfill-free facilities globally by 2020.

Aside from the environmental benefits, GM argues there's a strong business case for zero-waste manufacturing, which is why it's spreading the gospel of recycling and re-use to other companies and other industries. It even published a downloadable blueprint that explains its process for landfill-free manufacturing.

"Sustainability is a word that's used often," said John Bradburn, GM's manager of waste-reduction efforts. "But what's really important, if a company's going to do it, is that they need to not just take care of the environmental aspects by reducing their footprint, but the financial aspects as well, by making sure that work contributes to the bottom line," he said.

A project that doesn't seem cost-effective might become so if the company rethinks it using recycled materials or by finding a partner like Blue Star Steel willing to pay for excess materials. "Our output can become someone else's input," said Bradburn, a self-described "modern tree hugger" and 35-year GM veteran. "It really opened people's eyes - even within our company."

Of course, there is some cost involved in improving waste management. "A landfill-free program requires investment," said Mike Robinson, GM vice president of sustainability and global regulatory affairs. GM, for example, had to hire resource management employees in each facility to track and report waste generation for their site. "It's important to be patient as those upfront costs decrease in time, and recycling revenues will help offset them," Robinson said.

When GM started its commitment to landfill free manufacturing in 2005, it invested about $10 for every 1 ton of waste reduced. Over time, it reduced program costs by 92 percent and total waste by 62 percent.

GM officials say the key to recovering the highest value from manufacturing waste is managing all byproducts in one electronic tracking system. All GM plants monitor, measure and centrally report their performance on a monthly basis where it is evaluated against company-wide waste-reduction goals. By engaging employees in the recycling effort, the data also helps motivate factories to keep looking for creative solutions. If one plant finds a valuable use for a byproduct, it is quickly shared with other factories around the world.

GM also built a strong network of suppliers committed to working on "closed-loop" systems that recycle factory waste into new vehicle parts or plant supplies. For example:

Cardboard shipping materials from various GM plants are recycled into sound-dampening material in the headliners of the Buick Lacrosse and Verano to help keep the cabin quiet.

Plastic caps and shipping aids from GM's plant in Fort Wayne, Ind., are mixed with other materials to make radiator shrouds for the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups built there.

Test tires from GM's Milford, Mich., proving ground are shredded and used in the manufacturing of air and water baffles for a variety of GM vehicles.

Wooden pallets that can no longer be used in the factory are instead used for housing construction.

Scrap aluminum shavings from machining transmission casings are melted down and used to create more casings.

Paint sludge from GM's Lansing Grand River plant has been turned into plastic material and used for shipping containers durable enough to hold Chevrolet Volt and Cruze engine components.

Solvents used between paint color changes have been reformulated into a paint, cured and hardened with ultraviolet light, and applied to plant floors.

Of course, not every industrial byproduct ends up generating revenue, but it still can be useful. For example:

250 shipping crates from one Michigan plant were turned into raised garden beds for an urban garden in Southwest Detroit, providing nearby residents with locally grown food.

GM donated scrap vehicle sound absorption material to help insulate coats that transform into sleeping bags for the homeless, an initiative led by a Detroit humanitarian.

Scrapped battery covers for the Chevrolet Volt were converted into nesting boxes for wood ducks, screech owls and bats.

In a good bit of PR a few years ago, GM converted 227 miles of oil-soaked booms off the Alabama and Louisiana coasts from the British Petroleum oil spill into a production year's worth of air deflectors in the electric Chevrolet Volt.

Through these and other recycling activities, GM generated a total of $2.5 billion in revenue between 2007 and 2010. While about half of GM's plants are now landfill-free, the company says its progress is hampered in some parts of the world - and even in some parts of the U.S. - where the infrastructure to support recycling is lacking.

That's why GM met this week with a group of automakers, suppliers, waste management companies and government officials in Tennessee to promote more recycling.

"Compared to other regions where GM has plants, the Southeast has opportunity to build up its recycling economy," said Bradburn. "By connecting local recyclers - and those with potential - with area companies, we can start to address the gaps and build a more robust infrastructure that will help the auto industry and beyond to leave a smaller footprint.

 

I saw this email from Scott, I haven't even seen the video... but I can't believe people can be that gullible and believe stuff like this when Google is just a click away? Doing a bit of research yourself...

 

While I agree wholeheartedly that the person making this extraordinary claim is wack-a-doodle, I DO believe there is a shred of truth in there. And what I mean by that is, GM NA is letting GM's other markets dictate type of vehicles and styling of vehicles sold here in the U.S. That doesn't sit right with me.

Wasn't it recently that someone from Cadillac came out & said that the Arts & Science look will be toned down because it doesn't play well in China?
That's fine that the Chinese don't find A&S particularly attractive. But to change the look to suit them, when it clearly is a very popular look in the States is just wrong. So, in a way, that is kind of letting GM China set the tone for all of GM.
But listen, I get it. They're a HUGE market right now. I just don't think it's right that China dictates what our cars here in NA should look like.

Then let's talk about the new Colorado & Canyon. Those 2 global vehicles are not getting much positive feedback here in the States. I know GM is working on an update to them, but I'm not sure how far a new grille & bumper cover will go to make this vehicle desirable here in the States. It really could use all new, American-style sheet metal. I hope what GM gives us is just that. But again, another example of a non-GM NA entity driving GM NA.

And finally, while we haven't really heard anything out of GM about it's full size vans, I bet it's just a matter of time before GM cancels those and brings us those euro style vans. Again, ANOTHER example.

I understand GM wants to be global and cut costs and all that, but at what cost. Will they be happy when they've replaced all NA designed vehicles with foreign designed vehicles that don't/won't appeal to many Americans? Will they be happy when they've alienated all of their loyal customers?

So in a sense, Vince Wade is onto something. He had the....kind of fibers....for a thoughtful discussion, but then his train derailed.

I do believe GM is letting it's non NA operations have a little too much influence on what product we see here in the States.

 

^^You mean like the new Buick "crossover" based off a Sonic that can top $30k? Yeah, reading C&D's review of it, it was hard to believe what I was reading.

Buick is China's b!tch I gave up Pontiac, for this?

That is all...

 

I actually like the Encore. Wouldn't buy one for myself, but I'd like my 79 year old mother to get an AWD version. We're hoping that they move production to the States.

But you're right about Buick.

 

Here's an article about GM potentially importing cars from China.

GM China President says automaker could export vehicles from China to US

And especially this:

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Someday, hopefully after I'm dead, "General Motors" might become "Chinese Motors". Sad.

 

I still don't think the economies of scale of building a car in China and shipping it the U.S are there yet. Once it happens, you can bet GM and probably many other companies will be importing vehicles. GM has placed a gamble by betting on China, hoping that it will continue to grow as it has the past decade. Will it pay off? We shall wait and see.

 

Importing cars from China IS going to happen sooner or later. May as well get mentally prepared for it.

First, Buick sells far more cars in China than it does here. If it wasn't China, it would be expected that Buick would move their HQ over there.

Second, China is the planet's biggest car market, outdoing the US and Europe.... and it hasn't even reached it's full potential yet.

Third, the cost of China's labor is very low compared to the US. That negates the "economies of scale" yardstick. Add to the fact that many components are made in China anyway, and you get the feeling that if anything, GM is holding back moving some production to China and stalling on importing products from China.

Consider that the Holden Statesman would be very economically feasible being exported from China as their Buick Roadmaster. Holden exports kits already, China already makes the car under the Buick name. Export LS V8s to China, and have them install it in a few thousand Statesmans, and you have a Buick Roadmaster that passes all US regs (Holden engineered it) and costs GM nothing to make.

If we ever get the Riviera, it's likely to also be sold in China, which likely means it'll be made there.