balthazar

I didn't "ignore" the reasons GM is doing this, surreal; I talked on both 'economies of scale / capital' and 'engineers co-operating' in my posts above. If anyone has any other motive reasons, feel free to expound. I'm sure they did find some profit to be made off that venture. Needless to say... GM has pursued numerous ventures with good intentions and undoubtedly compelling figures that have up-ended in short order. My question still stands about the longer-term / broad picture of handing your proprietary 'milestone' BE hardware over to the competition (who has none such of their own). But when I read GM's recent Corporate PR from Barra, I'm less & less convinced she / GM view themselves as being in competition anymore, and that instead, all the OEMs are going to gather around the (digital, of course) campfire and hold hands, as one conscious entity under the stars. Whatever - just ignore my question then if too annoying.

^ It wasn't a 'doom' scenario then, however; once Edsel Ford passed and Ol' Henry took the tiller again ('43), it was clear he was past his prime / ability to doing so. He retired a 2nd time in Sept of '45, so he wasn't heading up the company long that 2nd time.

If GM doesn't 'need' Honda's engineering input, why solicit it? - - - - - Most of the industry itself, since... the beginning, looks at it more like, say; Major League Baseball. These companies are in competition with each other (duh). When the Mets & the Phillies meet up, the Mets don't say 'Hey; you're behind 9-2. Why not use our lead-off hitter - he's @ .403 right now! Then we can have a higher aggregate game score... you just have to pay us .05% of his salary per at-bat!' If it's legit that 'Ultium represents a milestone achievement in electrification', then let the chips fall where they may, and if that includes honda falling 'so far behind' : ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. GM 'doesn't need' honda and doesn't own honda anything. That would include whatever minor 'economies of scale' such partnership may generate (offset by every lost sale to an Ultium honda/acura); GM doesn't need it. GM made $10 billion in net profit in a rough year last year, and they claim they'll have 30 BE models on sale 30 months from now. That'd put GM near the leading edge of BE volume (by model count).

Henry Ford passed away today, 75 years ago, in 1947.

Colorado Springs, CO ~

I looked hard at the F-150 when shopping, but when optioned as I wanted, as soon as I selected the Powerstroke 3.0, it kicked out both the color & rims I wanted. It was a close 2nd. [Ram, BTW, was thousands more expensive in a comparable trim]. The trans is co-developed by Ford & GM. Nope- doesn’t bother me. Although I did see a recent article on Ford having 10R80 issues on the F-150. I know they are tuned/tweaked respectively. But this was never about my purchase particulars, it was a question RE competition within the industry. As far as honda engineers, is anyone saying GM NEEDS honda engineer input to get the job done?

^ Red resto-mod is a ‘66-67, but the bottom car is the ‘63-65 body; 2 different body shells. The white wheels are abominable, but the rest is pure Buick Styling : It’s incredibly hard to do any significant improvements, stylistically, to a ‘66-67 Riv. Tho not as popular or iconic as the ‘63-65s, they are near perfection in line, proportion and detail. Not that the earlier cars are easy to improve upon either…

Would you be in favor of GM purchasing a major percentage of Honda?

Sometimes - that's the way the cookie crumbles in commerce.

So... I don't 'get' how automakers compete with each other, and I claimed 'the end is nigh for GM' while I was at it. Interesting interpretation. - - - - - Robert - have any cross-corporate engine-sharing examples you can think of?

1942, I believe in Colorado. U.S. Mail vehicle, purpose-built for excessively muddy areas ~

From a R&D standpoint, that's true. But obviously the margin on a complete vehicle will be more than on one component of such. Then there's the tactical advantage of 'that Buick Encore has a 320 mile range, but the Honda CR-V only goes 200 miles; let's go check out Buick'. Changing a hardcore loyalist's opinion is commonly futile, but there ARE 'open-minded' consumers out there, and electrification presents a 'ground floor' where a number of consumers are going to 'reset' their biases. Look no further than the adoption of Tesla. * Not that folk were biased against Tesla, but it was an outsider that's made significant inroads among consumers. - - - - - I'm not approaching this as 'consumers care/don't care who made the powertrain', but as 'GM has a strongly competitive BE platform... and honda doesn't'.