Well it looks like GM stock is dropping like a rock.
$11.31 a share,as a low for the last 50 plus years......
GM said that they will not make a profit in 2009.
GM also are not making anymore trucks this year and GM
should have been a tad smarter.They are closing 4 truck plants.
I feel GM stock will be less then $10 on Monday,makes you think if our Camaros will be made in china the way things are going lol.
Gm is in very bad shape.
But as for our Camaro SS,I feel we still will get them at invoice or a tad over it.
Maybe GM and Ford will have some sort of a partnership very soon.....

 

I just deleted a second post.....don't know what it is about this that sets me off. Maybe it's the constant market speculation or the over-use of the word "invoice". I'll be quiet now.....

 

They need to do a couple things.

1. Fix their problem with bad dealers.
2. Make a product people will buy, not a product people will statistically buy.

 

you know i was gonna write or post a thread about it and im glad itwas started. i noticed that and i think Johnny is right. I was wondering if GM will give better deals when the camaro is released. As for the company, it really hurts me to see it drop like that. GM has to start competing head on with the imports or its going to sink faster than we could ever imagine.

 

I'm going to post this response to a thread of the same topic in the Automotive forum:

Maybe it's not as bad as it "seems"? Maybe we're crying "the sky is falling!" a little too soon???

Hopefully things work out. GM is a big company. I'm sure they will .

 

GM is probably going to eliminate it's dividend, which is the correct thing to do, and that's causing everyone to reevaluate the value of the stock.

However, the company is only worth $7B, so this puts them in easy takeover territory ... if anyone wants them.

 

I'm tempted to buy some GM stock while it's down. I'm fairly sure it will come back up eventually, so now is the time to buy buy buy (or hopefully mid-July when i get my money it will be).

 

Johnny, although I agree that GM is in serious trouble right now and to a large degree it's their own fault, you're way off in one particular area. Expecting GM's troubles to mean cut rate pricing on their vehicles (I know you are confused about the meaning of "invoice", which actually means dealer price).

The idea of the game is to get as much as you are asking for a vehicle. If Camaro is hot selling, GM will be selling them without any discounts or rebates (a defacto price cut since GM would be paying the public to buy their vehicle). Dealers will be making the difference of invoice and whatever they mark up the price to (dealers get 100% of markups, not the manufacturer).

A car like Camaro will almost certainly have zero rebate, discount, or incentive since 1) the cars will no doubt have high demand initially that will outstrip supply, and 2) since the factory manning hasn't been finalized & GM can still adjust production to where actual projected sales will be unlike a vehicle already in production that needs to cut production.

As for Ford and GM merging, don't see that happening. GM and Ford have teamed up to develop a new 6 speed automatic transmission for FWD applications. I also see GM & Ford getting together in the future and combining resources for various other parts like wiring, pollution systems, and electrical systems in order to save costs.

But an outright merger is pretty much out of the question because there would be no benefit to either company (the real reason for mergers). Both GM and Ford have operations in the same markets globally. Both have very successful overseas operations. Neither one has the resources to straighten out the liabilities of both companies combines. Both have very different corperate cultures (Ford's is essentially a family business where the CEO is allpowerful as long as he has the family's backing, while GM is a board run bureaucracy where even the CEO doesn't have the freedom to do what's necessary to adapt to quick changes in the market).

Ford actually did have enough cash to buy GM about 8 to 10 years ago, and when Mercedes Benz bough Chrysler, Chrysler had more money in the bank than any US automaker. But with all 3 fighting tooth and nail to change from being truck companies back into car companies as fast as possible, no one is going to have time to even think about merging let alone do it. Combine resources on some subsystems, likely. Merge, not likely.

 

I'm not a financial advisor, but as one citizen to another?

Here's one issue for me, and I'' try to minimize the politics and mitigate my comments to skirt it from being a rant...

1 in 15 folks, if my uderstanding is correct, in the U.S.A. have their jobs connected to the car business.

In my own personal observation, neither political party gives a *&^t whether our industrial base holds on.

There are a ton of monday morning quarterbacks on the internet that have zero vested interest in how things play out. It's the nature of the venues and not having a dog in the fight usually matters very little when folks are make sweeping statements, from my experience.

Were the truck/suv market so foolish to pursue, what exactly explains the Japanese big 2 making such a concentrated effort to penetrate that market?

The price of fuel at the pumps has done more than any political posturing to change things. CAFE regulation changes at this point are moot as I believe much of the new regs were meant to socially engineer trucks and suv's out of the bargain.

There has been a rash of what I believe to be unfathomed financial stupidity being played out by vehicle buyers of late... by that I mean rushing in an upside down state out of one vehicle into a <usually> lesser one because of pump prices.

The political arena seems to offer us that there is a brave new world which doesn't rely on manufacturing basis, and much being said by the candidates is little other than "snap finger" solutions.

I'm just another human being driving my way on through the present fog. Fortunately I know where I'm going.

GM needs to continue beating the drum to all that will listen to what GM has to offer.

GM will absolutely respond to a changing market and all those who have a vested interest will adjust, adapt, and keep after it.

The majority of the stock market took a bit hit. This is a truth...

Another truth is that GM builds really good vehicles.

Whatever you do, consider the big picture. Regardless if it's in financial choices, patriotic considerations, or common sense.

I apologize if I have crossed any lines in making this post.

 

Guy,
In my personal opinion, Chrysler is the "dead man walking" and the likely merger candidate. Maybe to a more Asian based interest rather than a home based enterprise.

Time will tell. It could be a real foothold play for someone, maybe.

 

Lets' look at that premise...

What do other dealer's do that GM doesn't require from it's dealer network? Specifics would be nice. What do other manufacturer's dealers do that GM dealers do not do?

And then:
What product will people buy? Let's take the Chevy Malibu as an example. Mid-size cars are still a big market. Car for car, where is GM not covering that base in spades?

 

[QUOTE
And then:
What product will people buy? Let's take the Chevy Malibu as an example. Mid-size cars are still a big market. Car for car, where is GM not covering that base in spades?[/QUOTE]

Statistically people will buy a hot car because of the looks. Consistently people will buy a car because it is a quality built car...And I am not talking about assembly I am talking about corner cutting for cost cutting...

 

I'm really missing what you are saying here... are you suggesting the Malibu is a cost cutting excercise, a hot looking car, or a quality built car? I don't think I'm catching your point from your reply. I apologize for the lack of reception of your point on my part. Could you elaborate?

I don't think one could truly show that trucks or suv's are off on sales due to any of your suggested reasons... Granted, looks are subjective. Sales are off for something other than you suggest.

 

As Chrysler has just announced that they, basically, expect the 2009 Ram to save their company............ and that truck sales will bounce back to where they were (you know, because we have so much of a precident as to what happens when fuel prices double) after a short down period.................. I agree with you completely.

They sound as out of touch as GM sounds panic'd.

 

Truck sales are down because they have a direct correlation to fuel. What im saying is if the malibu or any car for that matter is truly a qaulity car you cant judge that from the first model year, in terms of quality, that is something that you at least need( and this is generous) two years to tell...Right now the malibu, (which is a handsome car) is a impulse buy.. In the past Gm has taken the approach especially on cadillacs and the northstar headgasket problem, the percentage game those headgaskets will go out but what percentage would be caught under warranty as opposed to after. Not a problem if it was a two, three, four maybe even a thousand dollar fix but a four to ten thousand dollar problem on forty and fifty thousand dollar cars makes no sense unless you are playing percentages and there was no recall of factory fix... Sorry I am ranting...
GM IS MESSING UP THIS CAR thats what I am saying. All this time and this car will not be the future of automobiles it is not thermonuclear technology it is not the presidential g man getaway car. This for all purposes is a sports car or sports coupe. If saleen was able to make a few 5th gen camaros on the gto platform gm could have done the same, and progressively improved on it instead of takeing it out of the market for EIGHT YEARS. The concept was out four years ago..Well now you have a interesting predicament enthusiast are going to buy this car regardless it could be a cobalt badged as a z28 and they will buy it...unfortunately they are not the ones that gm is worrying about...Its average joe that needs to be impressed...(For all those who will say the camaros sales were decreasing....Two words PONTIAC AZTEC, enuf said.