Well, I have never said Toyota was that much better than Ford...I have never had a problem with a Ford. My brother works for Harley Davidson in their financial HQ in Chicago, unfortunately, things are not looking so rosy from the inside. He'll be done with his MBA in about 6 months and then he'll probably leave.
Uhhh, yes I do. Fifteen years of being trouble free has essentially made me loyal for life to Toyota. My only memory of a GM was when I rented a brand new Trailblazer and the engine shut down on the NJ Turnpike. That spoke more to me than any advertising I will ever see.
List of reliable luxury cars based on CR AND/OR JD Power...how many were GM...zero. http://www.forbes.com/2006/02/17/cx_dl_0220featslide.html
Great Ralph. Lets compare one segment. Do you ever look at anything objectively, you are almost as bad as me. And you guys are the ones filling out the CR surveys. I rest my case. Here is Toyota's bread and butter: http://autos.yahoo.com/newcars/comparison/...81&carid1=15172
Nice couple of articles for all of you GM BK experts to read. http://www.forbes.com/columnists/2006/02/2..._0221flint.html http://www.forbes.com/columnists/global/2006/0213/023A.html
Yes, I know what you mean...just adding a little bit of mystery. Not often I have a tidbit of insider information.
Re: Bankruptcy Bankruptcy != going out of business As pointed out, the airplanes are still flying and it gives them the ability to take some draconian measures that our society prevents them from doing normally. A good counterexample was the Cali electricity crisis. PG&E and SCE screams bankruptcy and the government bends over. Bankruptcy != the lights go out, but it would have meant we could tear up those crappy agreements. But we would have had to listen to the investors and stockholders whine. Well the gov got his and now there's endless litigation to get our money back, but its all going to the lawyers.
Wow, opinion pieces by Jerry Flint...not that he's not knowledgeable, but it's his opinion. Remember all the analysts who were smitten with Enron in the summer of '01? Now Moody's, with dozens of analysts and being responsible for rating debt, lowered GM into deeper junk status "saying it is increasingly concerned that high wage and benefit costs are making it difficult for the automaker to compete outside of bankruptcy."
Depends...how much of that profit was made in the car manufacturing sector of the company (GM made some profit in finance and insurance but was in the red in auto manufacturing in 2004) and how much long-term debt is GM carrying? http://www.gm.com/company/investor_informa...info/index.html http://www.gm.com/company/investor_informa...load/gm04ar.pdf
Malorn, Do your homework. Analyze the annual reports, quarterlies, and the updates (10Ks, 10Qs). It's scary reading, don't atempt after dark.
I can't imagine that anyone who drives a Toyota wants GM to fail. It's kind of sad in a way that someone so tied to GM would not only want GM to succeed but to do so by doing it at Toyota's expense. It's also telling because it's rather emblematic of the culture of a company that would rather compete with the sense of detroying the competition rather than just being the best at what it does.
I bought my second GM vehicle in 1980, and I had a Ford before that. The second GM vehicle lasted 6 years, I replaced the transmission 3 times, and was totally worthless afterwards. I paid a premium to buy a Toyota to replace it in 1986, and that Toyota is still running and in my garage today with minimal maintenance! Worst thing I did to it is replace a timing belt. For the math-deprived, that's 6 years for the GM product, and (so far!) -TWENTY- years for the Toyota! Give it up, malorn. GM needs a SEVERE overhaul.
