District of Columbia Auto Repair Shops

DC Car Consumer Discussions

News report that Mullaly will "drive' to DC

by xrunner2 on Tue Dec 02 08:02:11 PST 2008

Don't forget Oldsmobile started by Ransom Olds in 1897. When they killed that name it was the oldest longest running name in US automanufacturing. I think they would have been wiser to dump Buick and Pontiac and keep Oldsmobile. Just one of many screwups by Wagoner. Didn't GM/Olds ultimately get the Aurora right? Then, they killed it. But, didn't the Aurora not have the "Oldsmobile" name shown anywhere on the body? But, Oldsmobile name sounds stodgy. Just like Buick. These names don't have the cachet of names such as Lexus, Infiniti, Acura. Toyota, Nissan and Honda were brilliant in creating these luxury brand names. Congress should not give a loan unless Big 3, especially GM, present well detailed plans of cutting costs, getting rid of redundant vehicles, etc., that are ready to be implemented early next year. All salaried and hourly costs will have to be cut drastically for the near term. Union needs to cooperate and be willing to rewrite contract. But, still the problem with too many dealerships. Will GM ask Congress for some kind of relief to allow them to modify their agreements with dealers?

Re: I agree - YOU"RE FIRED! [bpizzuti]

by nwng on Tue Dec 02 07:42:50 PST 2008

ford really does have the potential to be the detriot 1. mually shows up in dc just to show solidarity with the other two losers, and a shot to score some dough from uncle sam. I hope he will use some of that money to give us a better focus, fiesta, and the c-max! Ford saw the writing on the wall much earlier than the other two.

Re: [62vetteefp]

by kernick on Mon Dec 01 09:36:34 PST 2008

Soon however there will be a point where capacity will cross sales and then prices will rise. I think in this sentence you mean "utilization" in regards to costs, and sales in regards to revenue. Utilization is how much of the capacity of the plant is being used currently. The capacity of a plant is a fixed-number - as in how much can a plant make when run 24/7 (with labor available, and accounting 15% or so for planned and unplanned maintenance). You are correct though in that the less a plant produces and sells the higher cost of each unit produced. That is because no matter if the plant makes 100, 1000, or 10000 units there are costs that have to be paid - property tax, insurance, wages, basic utilities, security, advertising, and pensions & benefits. These are fixed costs. Because GM has so many of these costs, that is why they could sell so many cars for so many years, and still lose money year after year. As their sales have decreased over the years, GM kept spending as if they had a larger market-share. This was and is the problem. How do you get your costs lower than your sales revenue and make money. GM and the others have for years failed (mismanaged) this basic business principle, and have not acknowledged this until the last minute. They had no contingency plan for when the economy turned bad, and they have no financial reserves. And the evidence of the DC meeting is that they still have no clue on how to change their business, besides a few tweaks in a year or 2. The best thing would be for 1 of the Big3 to go BK and liquidate, and have some other investors come in and setup a system that will manage things better.

Re: [sergio19]

by allmet33 on Tue Dec 02 06:32:05 PST 2008

I'm just glad to see they aren't resting on their laurels.

Re: NOVA-DC-MD '09 w/ Tech Auto [loveyoursmile]

by petermc on Tue Dec 02 01:16:16 PST 2008

Redwood City (Hopkins) Acura. It's a smaller dealership, but the price was right and the guy I worked with, Jerry, was really awesome. I didn't drive the car there, but he mentioned they do a 20 mile test drive. Once I worked out the price via email, it was a done deal, no bs.

Re: Looking for verification [jj24]

by iwantvan on Mon Dec 01 12:49:34 PST 2008

You can look at www.fitzmall.com to see the best prices in the washington dc metro area. The 08 inventory is getting small, but there are some models you can compare. I believe the prices are at about 2000 under invoice. We also have the 2000 rebate in this region.