Mark Steyn quote on GM

[priderocks]

For those of you who may not have heard of Mark Steyn, he is a very witty syndicated columnist. Here's an excerpt from his column today;

"General Motors has 96,000 employees but provides health benefits to over a million people. They can never sell enough cars to make that math add up. In fact, selling cars doesn't help, as they lose money on each model. GM is a welfare project masquerading as economic activity."

[HemiOrange70]

I am a GM fan, but the decisions they have made make me wonder. The 05 Mustang was a huge hit and now the Challenger, then GM does the Camaro, pay huge bucks to have it star in the movie transformers and then make the public wait two more years before they release it. Also, they tore down the camaro/firebird plant in Quebec and put in the contract that camaors or firebirds would only be built in that town, now they are paying huge compensation to that town. GM should keep to building cars.

[Chryco Psycho]

I have no use for GM , I bought my last one decades ago , the spend $$ on advertising not engineering , virtually every part is built to the minimum spec to last for the warranty period , they have never been over built , for example you never see a Dana 60 in a GM , even the 12 bolts is barely as strong as the 8 3/4 if that . The big problem with this is if we lose a car mfg you will not see the rise of a new one , the government has made car building so restricted & expensive no one will be able to step up  & build new cars like they did in the early 1900 s

[71chally416]

virtually every part is built to the minimum spec to last for the warranty period , they have never been over built

Pretty hard to argue with that. I've even seen 2bbl carbs from the factory with just 2 studs holding the carb down. That's two less than a Slant-6   

[NoMope Greg]

I have no use for GM , I bought my last one decades ago , the spend $$ on advertising not engineering , virtually every part is built to the minimum spec to last for the warranty period , they have never been over built , for example you never see a Dana 60 in a GM , even the 12 bolts is barely as strong as the 8 3/4 if that . The big problem with this is if we lose a car mfg you will not see the rise of a new one , the government has made car building so restricted & expensive no one will be able to step up  & build new cars like they did in the early 1900 s

   With a few exceptions, such as some Corvettes, GM hasn't built a car I'd be interested in since 1975. 

[Stacked440]

I haven't owned a GM product, but almost every single one of my friends has, and not one has not had a major mechanical issue.  Never owned one, never will.  The windows in my 88' volvo 740 still roll up and down just fine with 195k miles, my cousin with a 2004 Ion has an inoperable drivers side window...and inoperable trunk solenoid, and a blower motor on the verge of death...with 70k miles on the car.

[Chryco Psycho]

Ions are GM
every GM I have owned or driven for a company vehicle has had Major failures from engines diffs , trannys , even brakes do not last on GMs , I had an Astro van , you could just get 20,000 miles on the front brakes consistantly , I later had a 94 B100 Dodge , the brakes started squealing at 80,000 , I figured it was about time , bought new pads & the originals were just glazed & were only worn maybe 60 %