What is GM's biggest problem?

[TheFarseer]

We ahve been hearing that their bonds are now junk rating and people have been wispering bankruptcy. What is the main culprit?

[MADem]

1. If they were moving product, they wouldn't have cashflow problems! n/t

[montanacowboy]

2. Keep pumping out gas guzzlers

and stymie all votes on the CAFE standards, repukes help the demise of GM, hahah

they outsmart themselves again.. stupid idiots

[Bozita]

11. Andy Card came to Bush from GM

[Kokonoe]

3. 20 years from now a buick will still look the same.

and a pontiac will look the same ect. ect.

[Chef]

4. Time Machines

Getting into one of their cars is like stepping Back into the 80's or early 90's. They are just too big to adapt to the changing market. About the only model they make with any difference is Cadillac. The Saturn is a Cavalier without the plastic doors and they have just about killed Saab.

[flamin lib]

17. I'm a Ford kinda guy but they are screwing up as fast as they can.

I agree that the finish work on GM cars doesn't seem to be as good as <pick a manufacturer, any manufacturer>. Little detail stuff like how the headliner fits and panel joints. The top end stuff seems OK--Cadillac, Corvette, and the big SUVs--but the volks mobiles just aren't up to standard IMO.

It's like Cadillac is a whole different manufacturer.

[flamin lib]

5. Don't know about GM, but Ford screwed the pooch when

they hired the Brit as CEO. He discontinued all of the luxury sport sedans--Thunderbird, Cougar and Mark VIII and replaced them with front engine, front drive four doors.

If he had introduced a 4 door version of the T-bird platform Ford would own every police and government contract in the US. Performance driving requires front engine rear wheel drive. Ask NASCAR.

Instead he discontinued the three most popular luxury sedans on the market. Then he got fired.

[Bonhomme Richard]

6. Greed and short term thinking.

SUV's were the goose laying the golden egg profit wise and that was their focus. Upper management has made their money and will move on while new management will be left holding the bag.

[madrchsod]

7. really bad upper management

which translates to the floor management and instead of mechanical engineering they build cars on cost engineering. health and pensions also drag down profits compared to furn` car makers. furn`rs do not pay for these benefits they are taxed for government coverage of their workers.

[TheFarseer]

8. a special thanks to the guy that voted A&B

No doubt the fact that they are producing cars like it's the 70's is playing a role, but the health plan and pension plan is hurting them too.

[LSK]

12. Heatlh care costs are going to start hurting a lot of US companies

Other countries (Japan, Germany) with national health care are not struggling with excessive health care costs.

[Worst Username Ever]

9. If they had been the first to make a quality hybrid,

they'd have made a mint. Hell, they could have been the premier hybrid maker in the US.

[wideopen]

10. b,d,f,g-

I think it's a combo of several of these things coupled w/quality issues. The foreign manufacturers are running circles around us in the quality/fuel economy dept.

[Bozita]

13. Didn't GM trash their electric vehicle program recently?

And I mean trash. They destroyed all of the cars and trucks in the program.

[Reverend_Smitty]

14. The same thing that was wrong with them in the mid 70's...

They continued to make massive gas guzzlers at the same time the price of gas was rising to record highs, they refused to change the way they did business and the Japanese were laughing all the way to the bank.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[sendero]

15. Short term thinking by management....

.... led them to gravitate almost exclusively to large cars and SUVs, and now, just like in 1973, they are caught with their pants down again.

It is really hard to feel sorry for these short-sighted bozos. Did they really think that gas would be cheap forever? With the kind of money they have, they should have seen this coming from years away.

As long as big company exec focus on a quarterly horizon, this crap is going to happen. It's really too bad, auto manufacturing is important to our economy.

[Chicago Democrat]

16. They actually believed that Big Engine, Bad Mileage and Emissions

and big SUVs were the way to go. They borrowed WAY TOO MUCH MONEY. Their designs suck. All of the above.