The End FOr GM Is NEAR........

[Glides]

I would put any non-4cyl car up against an import any day in quality. The GM 350 and Ford 351 are the 2 best engines ever made for power, reliability, and ease of maintenance.

I agree. American 350's are, hands down, one of the best engines ever made.

Those Jap imports were great for MPG and for longivity, but they have no power at all. If you babied them they lasted forever, but if you were pushing them on a daily basis they just didnt last.

This statement though, I cannot agree with. Engines are engines in the longevity department. You baby them, they last. You don't, they don't. V8's are no different from 4 bangers in that respect. I know just as many 4 banging imports that need rebuilds after beating them as I do V8s and the same with ones that don't.

Fast forward to this decade. There is no appreciable difference in quality between a GM vehicle over an import. IMO americans still cant make a 4cyl for shit and they make you shoose between power or reliablilty when they do. American trucks are still the best in the world though and Americans still build the best V8's in the world.

Can't agree with you here either. Germans have the quality leaps and bounds over American cars. The Japanese have taken refinement to incredible new levels. Americans have sadly, lacked behind. I would spend more for an Audi or a VW then I would for the Emerican equivelant any day of the week simply because most American cars feel cheap. They are just sadly, not solid cars.

Americans had too long clung to the all or nothing theory of car building. What that means is that you either had a Cadillac or a Corvette. If you owned a Cadillac, it rode like you were going to church every day of the week. The exact opposite for the Corvette. Only recently have they started to combine the 2. Germans have been doing it for years, so have the Japanese. The CTSV is a prime example of combinations. But it is considered a "Niche" market car. BMWs have been luxury and sport or many many years.

Ford has grasped this concept of car building, that is why it is popular in other areas of the world. Problem is, the cars that you can get in other areas of the world, Ford won't release here until recently. GM has finally started seeing the light, but it's too little too late.

Now, what you said about the Unions, I wholeheartedly agree with. Unions ar eMUCH harder to get out then people think. But if there is a time to do it, that time is now. Soaring unemployment rates combined with an Auto Workers strike will do nothing but bring hoards of unemployed to fill the positions that the strikers leave open. That will take care of workers end of it. The political end is much harder. The Unions lines pockets with cash in hella large amounts. Politicians are made and broken by the Union.

The Union was a great thing back in the beginning. Workers were being treated unfairly and something needed to be done. But this ain't the days of hard knuckled Hoffa style tactics. This is the new world, where there are laws that protect workers and the unions are simply not needed and are a dinosaur of corruption.

[BanginJimmy]

Now, what you said about the Unions, I wholeheartedly agree with. Unions ar eMUCH harder to get out then people think. But if there is a time to do it, that time is now. Soaring unemployment rates combined with an Auto Workers strike will do nothing but bring hoards of unemployed to fill the positions that the strikers leave open. That will take care of workers end of it. The political end is much harder. The Unions lines pockets with cash in hella large amounts. Politicians are made and broken by the Union.

The Union was a great thing back in the beginning. Workers were being treated unfairly and something needed to be done. But this ain't the days of hard knuckled Hoffa style tactics. This is the new world, where there are laws that protect workers and the unions are simply not needed and are a dinosaur of corruption.

Cant argue with anything else you have said and I will agree with you about the Germans. They make one hell of a car over there.


We also agree on the unions. I'm not so much worried about having the actual workers because there will be plenty of people willing to work for GM. The problem is politics. Politicians can have a HUGE impact on the ability of a major corporation like GM to operate. If they want to expand they need political support for any number of reasons. Can GM operate without political support, yes, but I cannot see the unions giving up that easily. Remember, there are a few hundred people that are employed by the unions and they have a huge amount of power in Washington.

Unions have indeed outlived their origional purpose. They are no longer protecting anyone, they are strongarming business into paying outragous amounts for what basicly amounts to menial labor. They are also making it impossible for a business to compete globally and are forcing some to close their doors. I have been seeing these commercials trying to get new industry into Michigan, but if anyone is smart they will stay as far from there as possible. The union mindset is extremely strong there and they will quickly organize.