Big Job Cuts coming to General Motors

[Kronx]

Ouch:
GM to Slash 14,700 Jobs in North America
https://apnews.com/3e51216360e14053ae3e4b3461db615b

 

[Fire-medic]

Wow, that's something! My friend from GM Tech Center in Warren MI retired a few years ago. Just in-time.

 

[Kronx]

Yea we got a GM Truck plant here in Wentzville, I wonder how it's going to be impacted. So now Ford and GM have announced job cuts. Im wondering if the Japanese manufacturers are going to be cutting jobs in North America soon as well?

 

[caseyjones955]

Yea we got a GM Truck plant here in Wentzville, I wonder how it's going to be impacted. So now Ford and GM have announced job cuts. Im wondering if the Japanese manufacturers are going to be cutting jobs in North America soon as well?

Over the last few years I have seen a whole lot of folks leave domestic vehicles for Toyota/Lexus and Honda/Acura, myself included. GM has been saturating the market with substandard product for decades. Their comeuppance is long past due but I'm sure we'll bail them out when they fail again. We fuck up pretty badly when we fail to allow free enterprise to do it's thing.

Ever notice how when GM/other domestic autos are advertised they often have blow out sales, like 0.0% interest for 5 years or $10,000 off? How often do you see Japanese have to do that in order to generate sales? I think the majority of the suffering will be GM, and the rest will probably feel the normal ups and downs that seem to be cycle with the economy.

 

[Kronx]

My local Toyota dealer has 0% APR for 72 months right now on a 2018 Tundra. And from most numbers I've seen on car sales data for the last two years, GM is #1 brand sold in the US and Ford is #2. Toyota is #3.

I just got a new car last month. Spent a couple of weeks driving all makes and models since this would be the first vehicle I could buy purely for myself. I ended up going with a Chevy and I love it. It didn't seem to be substandard to me compared to the other vehicles in its class and price point. Normally when I get a car I eventually will find something about it that irks me. So far, I haven't come across one yet, but I've only had it a month and I'm sure I'll find something.

But people have different needs/values for what they want in a vehicle. Maybe I'm just easy to please. A co-worker just got a 2nd Equinox. He and his wife bought one last year and loved it so much they got a 2nd one so he and his wife wouldn't argue who got drive the Equinox haha. But I wasn't surprised. I had a 2005 Equinox and liked it a lot as well. My daughter is driving it now.

 

[Fire-medic]

caseyjones955, my experience with GM during the last ten years is different from your observation. I bought a new 2009 GMC crew cab Canyon (Chevy Colorado) during the 2009 'Cash for Clunkers' late summer offer, w/the DOHC inline 5-cyl aluminum 'Atlas' engine, 3.7 liters (223 cu. inches; 242 HP & 242 ft lb torque) G80 limited-slip differential, 2WD; SLE2 package (power everything except seats; tilt, cruise, traction control, trailer package, including wiring for electric brakes; chrome running board tubes; AM/FM/CD/Sirius-XM; driving lamps; aluminum rims, etc. I now have over 110,000 miles, the engine has been fine, transmission too, one replacement of brakes all-around, one battery, and a couple of burned-out bulbs. Best mileage has been just over 23 MPG (expressway), though most of my driving is around town, 17 MPG. I would buy another. The new design Colorado/Canyon get better gas mileage though the V6 they now offer as the upgraded powerplant (3.6 liters, like the Cadillac SUV's and sedans/coupes) has more-than 20% additional HP.

My usual riding partner is a HVAC master license holder/ small business owner. He could drive anything he wanted. He buys Silverados and has a Chevy SUV for his wife, all new, he sells them after about 5 years, and has had similar experiences. GM I believe makes a good product, I'd rather have a used Silverado than a new Ram. In my case, I can use a mid-size truck instead of a full-size. It has a speed limiter (my GMC Canyon) but if you want to buy the software to override it, the guys on the 355nation.net forum, with the same engine and rear end package tell me it's good for a bit over 125 mph. I haven't bothered, my needs don't include "go-to-jail" truck speeds.

 

[caseyjones955]

I realize plenty of GM guys/gals out there. They have sure improved, no doubt. We have had tragic luck with them but we drive the snot out of them. Work trucks, overloaded regularly and oft driven by employees that just dont give a fuck. It would be different if they were trading in or just leased every couple years but we expect a minimum of 10 years from a work truck, we have tried plenty of the domestic big three and the F and E series trucks easily outlasted GM and Dodge by a very wide margin. The E and F series consistently do 20+ VERY hard years without the disintegrating cabs and maintenance problems that come with an aged and abused GM. I saw the same result when I was a Towtruck operator. Even the Chevy guys had F series towtrucks and no willingness to talk about why. I think anyone trading in every 3-4 years can buy anything and it will be fine. I personally cant make any sense of replacing a truck that has not truly worn out, unless your driving clients, which we dont with these. The longer a truck will last the better the bottom line is, the less it breaks down the better the bottom line. The F and E are now replaced with Mercedes powered vans which so far seem to be superior to anything we have used before, even from Ford.

That is my experience, I also note that I am in the minority among my friends as a Ford/Toyota guy. In short I need a truck to be a playa for a couple decades. I know what new trucks cost and it's madness, even for base cab/chassis. I'm just going to stick with what works and avoid what has not worked so well. Trucks are a huge line item expense for a business, or individual. If these Mercedes vans are anything like the Mercedes diesel cars I have owned then everyone will be quite happy. Mine is one story and many will be in contrary, and thats cool too, but it's hard to ignore what I saw during my towing career and hard not to base buying decisions on that.

 

[Kronx]

I have no disdain for Toyotas or Nissan. I remember back in the 80s when Japanese cars really started selling due to their better gas milage and dependability my family replaced all their American cars with Japanese. No regrets either. My uncle bought an 85 Toyota pickup and he put close to 400k miles on that thing and besides the normal stuff to replace(brakes plugs etc) the only thing he ever had to do was get a new water pump on that. We traded in our Buick for a Nissan and put over 250k miles with no major problems. Living in Mississippi for most of my life, there's both Nissan and Toyota plants in that state and so ultimately I wonder if Toyota and Nissan are feeling the same economic woes GM and Ford are feeling and thus possibly closing US plants.

I work for a big global company, over 300,000+ employees world wide, and they've probably cut at least 10k jobs this year globally. Yet somehow have stayed out of the news about it. There's a lot of other big companies that have done the same with big cuts and no headlines. There's a lot of economic indicators that are making economists/investors think we got another recession on the horizon and could hit around 2020. I wonder if some of these companies are already preparing for it.

 

[caseyjones955]

I work for a big global company, over 300,000+ employees world wide, and they've probably cut at least 10k jobs this year globally. Yet somehow have stayed out of the news about it. There's a lot of other big companies that have done the same with big cuts and no headlines. There's a lot of economic indicators that are making economists/investors think we got another recession on the horizon and could hit around 2020. I wonder if some of these companies are already preparing for it.

There are folks I trust implicitly saying exactly the same thing. I've been hearing 12-24 months but with how things are right now I chose not to wait. I really cant afford to crash with the market. I've stepped back until such a time that I am advised and it makes sense to start dollar cost averaging back in. I expect it will be quite some time.

GM bashing aside (I do enjoy it haha) I believe it makes sense that the companies that have already been struggling during the good times are going to fare worse when we hit a real recession. There are a few factors that could make this one rough and drawn out.

I do believe GM will fall if not bailed out again, I think it comes out the other end with massive layoffs and bankruptcy. Of course we wont let that happen, but if we did, I'm quite sure it would. By far the worst part of GM struggling/failing is the folks being put out of work.

 

[paulibiker]

The imports pushed GM to make better products in the 80's & 90's, but now have surpassed them IMO.

No full size pick-up is even close to the Silverado MPG.......