Thursday, April 12, 2007

New 3500

I has seen the new 2007 3500!! Has anyone of you? I like them. What do you think?


Dave

Friday, February 23, 2007

Gas Prices

What is gas Prices is your town? Why do you think, the gas prices go up, down, back, up?



Dave

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Chevrolet SCANDAL

I saw this on a message board and really liked it.

Frank wrote:

Have been driving my 07' Impala LS for two weeks now, this is the best car I have ever owned without question, quiet, beautiful, powerful, good MPG and it rides and drives like a Honda owner would dream about........................
SCANDAL is car magazines
who give it average marks, this car makes Toyota Camry and Honda Accord owners
blush, I think the editors of the car magazines should be blushing also, plus it has a
100,000 mile warranty, Chevrolet has won my loyalty again after 13 years of Hondas
and Toyotas. Chevrolet team who put this one togethor should get an award for good
design and build quality, makes me proud to be a GM customer again. This car should
have been car of the year, Accords and Camrys are not even close.


Jeff wrote:

Agreed Frank, I bought my wife the Impala LTZ and she loves it, I have driven trucks (Chevy) for years, so taking her car anywhere was usually a bit uncomfortable for me, not with this car though. She really loves the remote start and heated seats on these cold January days!!

GM is making many quality cars now...Spread the word, the media sure won't

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Bye! Bye! Buy By American

My morning news broadcaster woke me up this morning with the news that Ford Motor Company has decided to close several of its stateside plants and lay off thousands of employees. I may be mistaken and I may not really have a handle on America's economy, but in my book this really spells trouble and will have a land slide effect.
The reason I am dealing with this subject, is that I believe that God is judging the nation of America. I say this keenly aware that I may be placed in the same cage that Pat Robertson has been put in because of his remarks about Israel's Prime Minister, Sharon. By the way I think Pat Robertson just might be right in this particular instance. Anyway back to the subject at hand.
For a long time now you and I have been vaguely aware that more and more products that were made in the good old USA in the past are now being shipped to us from Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil and even Communist China. There is not hardly one electronic gadget that is completely made in the USA. Most of our kitchen appliances are made elsewhere and shipped into the USA. It has been wonderful that Americans have been affluent enough to afford these products. But am I just totally disconnected from reality when I say that these good times are coming to an end. My thinking is that we Americans have money, because we earned it the hard way, by working. We have so much work that we have to have alien helpers come accross the border from Mexico to get it all done.
Meanwhile the average working man or woman in America has been steadily demanding more in their weekly paycheck. Employers have negotiated, bartered, and merged as they try to keep up with the demands of American workforce. Quietly and steadily the workforces of other nations have risen in their abilities and productions to where big business has begun to realize they can have their products made in one of these foreign countries much cheaper than they can in America. So there is a steady switch from "Made in America", to "Made in someplace else."
The consumer in America barely heard the employees of Zenith when they were layed off as Zenith moved to Mexico. The Consumers didn't even notice when Toastmaster abandoned hundreds of employees in Missouri and set up shop in China. Americans are in a deep sleep. They are dreaming ot buying that Subaru or that Honda. They have no idea that they are about to be hit with a economic tsunami. They can't see God's hand working as he always does, first in mercy and grace, then in drought crop failures and financial troubles. Society breakdown is part of the last list of the ways He judges.

By Stan Metts

Monday, January 29, 2007

Toyota and Honda have advantages over GM and Ford

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- An enormous gap still separates the performance of Detroit automakers from their foreign competitors - and it isn't all their fault.

The stupefying $12.7 billion loss that Ford Motor Co. reported Thursday for 2006 comes one year after General Motors' equally horrendous $10.6 billion loss for 2005.



But for all the bad decisions these companies have made by not listening to their customers, they aren't entirely to blame. Structural inequities between the U.S. and Japan - notably in labor costs and currency - account for a big chunk of Detroit's problems.

Ford: Biggest loss ever
The evidence can be seen in a report prepared by the Detroit consulting firm Harbour-Felax, first released back in October and updated for Fortune. For anyone who makes a living from the domestic auto industry, it is depressing reading. An enormous and persistent gap separates the home team from the import companies - large enough to question the continued survival of the U.S. companies.

In the case of Ford (Charts), which recently hocked its corporate assets to help fund $17 billion in negative cash flow over the next 24 months, it raises questions whether the automaker can shrink the difference before its money runs out.

According to the latest calculations, the gap between Japanese and American carmakers' profits average out to about $2900 per vehicle, and the home team does not have the advantage.

Cost issues
A big reason is the cost of labor. As analyzed by Harbour-Felax, labor costs the Detroit Three substantially more per vehicle than it does the Japanese.

Health care is the biggest chunk. GM (Charts), for instance spends $1,635 per vehicle on health care for active and retired workers in the U.S. Toyota (Charts) pays nothing for retired workers - it has very few - and only $215 for active ones.

Other labor costs add to the bill. Contract issues like work rules, line relief and holiday pay amount to $630 per vehicle - costs that the Japanese don't have. And paying UAW members for not working when plants are shut costs another $350 per vehicle.

Here's one example of how knotty Detroit's labor problem can be:

If an assembly plant with 3,000 workers has no dealer orders, it has two options. One is to close the plant for a week and not build any cars. Then the company still has to give the idled workers 95 percent of their take-home pay plus all benefits for not working. So a one-week shutdown costs $7.7 million or $1,545 for each vehicle it didn't make.

GM execs put brakes on labor-savings hopes
If the company decides to go ahead and run the plant for a week without any dealer orders, it will have distressed merchandise on its hands. Then it has to sell the vehicles to daily rental companies like Hertz or Avis at discounts of $3,000 to $5,000 per vehicle, which creates a flood of used cars in three to six months and damages resale value. Or it can put the vehicles into storage and pay dealers up to $1,250 apiece to take them off its hands.

Chrysler experienced the vicissitudes of over-production last year when it built cars without dealer orders and was forced to store them in open-air lots all around Detroit while it frantically sought buyers. It damaged relations with its dealers and was eventually forced to cut production anyway.

the exchange rate is another uncontrollable factor that plays into the hands of the import brands. When the yen got cheaper in 2005, Harbour-Felax figures it was worth $1,054 per vehicle to Japanese manufacturers

On the revenue side, it is easier to apportion blame. The lack of pricing power by American producers, brought on by poor quality, unimaginative marketing and sales to rental fleets, cost them nearly $1,000 per car. When everything is added up, the average Japanese automaker reports revenue of $24,289 per vehicle - $2,692 more than the average domestic manufacturer.

All in all, the report paints a bleak picture. While Nissan (Charts) was making $1800 per vehicle during the first half of 2006, and Toyota and Honda (Charts) racked up $1,400 apiece, nine-month results for Ford saw them losing $1,400 per vehicle - a number that will go up when the fourth quarter's loss is tallied - while DaimlerChrysler (Charts) dropped $1100 and GM $333.

But cut Ford and the others a little slack. They have gotten themselves in a deep hole but they weren't the only ones doing the digging.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Let us know...

Let us know is any web site do not work, on the links. We welcome any comments about how we can make it better.



Thank,
GM-Dave and GM-Steve

Toyota to recall 533,000 Sequoias, Tundras

Toyota to recall 533,000 SUVs, trucks

Automaker says 11 accidents were reported because of a defect that makes Sequoia, Tundra difficult to steer.


TOKYO (Reuters) -- Toyota Motor Corp. plans to recall about 533,000 Sequoia SUVs and Tundra pickup trucks in the United States to repair faulty components that could make the vehicles difficult to steer.

Six injuries and 11 accidents were reported as a result of the defect, Japan's top automaker said Friday.

The latest recall covers certain 2004 to 2007 model year Sequoias and 2004 to 2006 model year Tundras, both built at Toyota's Indiana plant, the automaker's U.S. sales unit said in a statement

Toyota last year recalled more than a million vehicles in Japan and 760,000 units in the United States, but the publicity has done little to hurt it. Toyota boosted its global sales by 9 percent in 2006, fueled largely by a 13 percent jump in sales in the United States.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

We got the blog move over to new blogger.