GM headed by Keebler elf & a soft drink peddler?

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Not that this necessarily spells doom but what do you think about GM's future with folks like this at the helm? o No:

 

I sent an email to the guy who wrote the column with my opinion on the matter. See if you agree or not?

Hi,

I read your column. One Possible positive note or "glass half full" scenario to this whole thing "could" be that with these youngsters aboard (their lack of automotive experience aside) maybe Buick will end up with cars which can be marketed to a larger group of people other than just being limited to those with pacemakers and blue hair. I know they are not design engineers, but maybe a little young punch is what GM needs. (as long as they don't ruin the company of course)

My opinions on the GTO is that it looks like any other generic rice burner from Japan. Just another sedan muscle car "wanna be".

I belong to a very large Buick club which also contains quite a large contingent of other musclecar brand guys. We are all on the pulse of the "performance" car market. Hell, we ARE the performance car market, we all drove or owned and still do own, such classics as the Olds 442, Buick GS, GSX, Grand National and GNX, Pontiac GTO's (the real ones), Ford Mustangs, Cobras, Torino GT's etc. You get the picture. Anyway, we are all on the same page in thinking that the performance car market in this country is a joke (save for the Vette, Viper, GT-40 Ford, who can afford those anyway?) and we are getting our asses handed to us by the Japanese and Europeans on a daily basis when it comes to "real" performance oriented vehicles.

Musclecars appeal to a huge part of the automotive population, not just enthusiasts, but regular people.

The retro style theme is trying to make a comeback across several auto makers. Reason? Because the older cars had more style and appeal, more character. There is no character in these newer cars to speak of. They are merely cookie cutters of each other with very slight variations in trim.

We need real musclecars back. I guarantee they would sell a ton if they were built right and had more appeal than current boring models. As far as I'm concerned, GM went down hill in 1988, when they went FWD and the Buick Grand National became a memory. That car was WAY ahead of it's time, and is still kicking serious ass on the street due to it's amazing ability to respond to performance upgrades.

U.S. Auto makers need to get their heads out of their you-know-whats and understand that the LARGE part of the population who once drove the aforementioned legends, now have a bit more money and a desire to re-live their youth.

You can't re-live your youth in a Pontiac Aztek or a Chevy Lumina. No matter how "sporty" (yeah right) you try to make it seem. Boring is boring. Putting an emblem on it that says "sport" isn't quite enough........

Thanks for listening to my rant!

Ken

 

Hats off to you Greg, couldn't have said it better myself!:TU:

What's the matter with these guys, anyway?o No:

 

Corporate greed mixed with alot of stupudity = Bad Business!:moonu:

Anymore I'm almost ASHAMED to fly GM banner, I think I'll just fold it up and put it in a drawer somewhere!

 

Funny thing, if a guy knows houses, he can build `em well. A "House guy".

He builds what people want, he sells them at a good price. Sure he makes more money selling mortgages on the houses, but the fact that paeople like his houses is what keeps him alive.

Just ask my Grandfather. He made more money that I'll ever see building half a town. He was just a housing nut.

Funny thing, if a guy knows software, he can build programs well. A software guy. He known the in's & outs, can make things that solve problems. Sure, the business makes a better profit on some of the peripherals like networks & hardware, but the software gets people in the door.

Just ask me about Leviathan Software. I was just a guy who liked to code.

Just because a businessman is trained & highly paid, it doesn't make them an industry expert. I'll put success down to industry experience over training, skill, research, and capital any day.

GM might want to remember this the next time it hires.

 

"What's good for GM is good for the country."

 

Yo Clint! Is this you???

http://www.leviathansoft.com/mercury/EmailValidator/

 

i agree.. i do love the style of the 1997.5-2004 regal gs though... the only car i really like the style of i guess out of buick's line up... and the performance in GM is seriously lacking... the series 2 and 3 3800's are great and all, but the transmission can barely hold up to the torque it puts out.. so any mods just shorten the life of the transmission.. the engine on the other hand will outlast the rest of the car...

the gto.. bland.. sorry, i love the old gto's but this new one looks more like a civic with a pontiac front end... bleh on that.. and especially on the sticker price...

as far as the style of the old cars.. ya, they did have more character couldn't agree more, thats why my first car was a 1972 Skylark.. looked a heck of a lot better than buying a Z28 camaro thats for sure.. and ya know, i didn't have to worry about crap breaking either.. i swear i've been on the skylark pretty good sometimes and it just keeps going... the 375 tranny is built like a tank in this thing... wweeee burn outs are fuN

all around.. younger guys may help buick appeal to more people, agree with that as well.. maybe we'll see something similar to a GN or GNX come back? if only they can get it right that is... maybe don't bring the name back but the heart of the car can come back... give that sleeper look back to us makes me wanna go buy a t-type or GN now...

 

Pretty close!

Actually that's a friend of mine who happened to have the same taste in company names!

My actual corporation name is Leviathan Solutions. Programmers make problems, Developers solve them. We're a word-of-mouth comapny with a select client list thus my website is a clients-only viewing. They get a daily update showing where thier projects are at.

 

I can see the pepsi guy helping out in a big way. it sometimes takes someone who doesn't know the market to shake things up a bit pardon the pun. I know in the position I'm in now in this engineering I see a lot of flaws in the paper trail and lots of wasted hrs in sorting thru the mess. Sometimes all it takes is a fresh pair of eyes. The diffrence is that the Pepsi taste has always been the same and they try to gear it toward the same market. 16-35 yr olds or so. in the auto market though its much larger of a market. sure pontaic has the same or simmilar age range though.
A lot of it comes from the design and the push to get something out the door that is wanted by people but you can't tailor to everyone, and that is what seems is being done now by GM. trying to make one car that works for everyone. they should go back and hit the names and what they were. chevy was all around to entry level type cars. olds and and buick were slightly more luxury minded. and caddie well its a caddie and let saturn hit the younger crowd. Olds was doing what buick did with its unique style and performance just before they were given the axe yet they killed it prolly because the bean counters didnt think they sold enough cars to the people but its because they were trying to talor to everyone. olds hit up the 18-45 yr old market it seems. hmm.. can you narrow it down any??