haypops

I think that Pontiac as a niche performance car for the PBG sales channel is a non-starter. The three brands appeal to different age groups, not different horsepower aficionados. GMC well sell to young families and the Buick to more mature managers, and their families. The Pontiac is best aimed at young 20's singles/secretaries. To that end the niche lineup would include the G6 coupe and convertible(no sedan). Add to that a Solstice coupe but no roadster. Crime is likely to increase in society and the safety of the ON Star feature should be emphasized. The Sky as only a roadster can be sold as a Chevy.

following article is an interesting way of looking at what is happening now. The rest of the story

It is my understanding that Pelosi has close ties with the military hardware producers and is not particularly liked by labor or the progressive movement.

IIRC there were several months where the shy did outsell the solstice. The idea of the roadster going to Chevy is an interesting one. One complicating factor is that the original presentation of these cars had Chevy getting the gorgeous Nomad like wagon. It wouldn't have been impossible to switch to the roadster but awkward. The real mistake was making kappa so in-flexible.

I haven't seen the add you people are referring to. The add that rubs me the wrong way is the VW add claiming American woman are getting pregnant just to have an excuse to buy German engineering and they they show a Chrysler minivan masquerading as a VW.

Usually fresh product is the answer, but in todays economy its all about how much money any given manufacturer has saved up.

We do what we can and hope for the best.

Thanks for the detail. This makes a lot of sense. Getting back to the original topic: How's that for a "cascade effect onthe US eonomy"!

Sounds like a responsible plan to me. I've heard that when paying down multiple credit cards, it isn't a good idea to close them up. It is important to keep the ratio of $$ owed to credit limit low and a closed credit card decreases the total credit limit. My youngest daughter is making the same plans the you are. Her husband's job has twice disappeared because of job lay offs, but the third time seems a charm. Good luck to them and you too!

I read somewhere(sorry no link) that BMW was indeed feeling the pinch. I mentioned SC based on "Senatorial" statements and votes.

Between Canada and Sweden, almost $7 billion dollars have been promised. If SC and AL win out on this bailout/bridge loan debate, our GM cars will come Mexico, Canada, or Sweden. Does that mean GM's core brands will be Chevy and Saab?

The decreased price of petroleum products needs to work through the system for a while and decresed cost of diesel fuel, fertilizer, etc. will show up in lowered food prices in a while. In the mean time "I feel you pain". :-)

Two absolutely correct concepts. A third that smk hasn't considered is the sizable drop in petroleum costs. This is like a tax cut and stimulus package rolled up in a gift bow.

I'm pretty used to things not going my way politically. Generally when the dust clears there is some small crumb of compromise that I can take solace in. The auto industry bridge loan situation has me worn out. When at first the administration decided to not transfer funds from TARP, I was disappointed. All was not loss, however. There was something to be said for making sure that Congress got it's say. Later the congressional leaders pretended there wasn't restructuring of the Detroit 3 already in progress. It didn't fit the facts, but it wasn't the end of the world to have Ford and GM come back with their homework assignments completed. As a matter of fact it offered some interesting insights into future detail. The do-again in front of congress gave the manufacturers a good chance to advertise their "green ware" too. This last exchange, however, seems so much more final and so much more cynical. It's not even a Democratic vs Republican thing or liberal vs conservative thing. It is one part of the country, the South East taking on the rest of the country. Although the South's victory was immediate and sweet for them, I think the future retribution will not be to their liking.

Because of the inherent lack of transparency of a privately held company. I'm not totally against a loan to Chrysler, but that is one of the main reasons for not doing it.

Neither the Republicans or Democrats involved agree with you on that statement.

The WSJ says that is not at all true. Paulson insisted on total freedom of use of th efunds and the restriction congress made wa to the amount.

from NBC's first read

No the S series.

The automotive reporter for the Wall Street Journal said that the UAW was NOT given enough time by the Southern Senators to evaluate their latest attack proposal.

The proper comparison would be the transaction prices for Corolla and civic. Saturn's did bring in higher transaction prices than these (refering to S series).

I read that the las test kink in the negotiations is that Senator Crocker of Tenn. is leading Republican Senators against the Democrats and the administration. He wants to make sure that all bond holders loose 2/3 of their investment before the government will help. Other stipulations too. Just venting again, but hay about all job bank employees be given an address at Spring Hill Tenn. plant then close the place up and let the State of Tenn try to deal with the massive unemployment compensation requests.

Get well soon! It really does suck to be ill.

I heard a radio interview with Dan Neal? of the Los Angeles Times yesterday. He is the auto media critic that had that big run in with Lutz over the G6 a couple of years back. He made the point that Senator Shelby was NUTS if Shelby thought there would be an auto industry in Alabama after GM went out of business and the tier 1 suppliers went down for the count with them.

At the introduction of each new generation of Camry, Toyota announces that they either over built or lately under built and cheapened that generation. Volkswagen admits that its cars have been unreliable and promise improvements. It seems to me that GM's statement was more muted than these examples.