Blog Category Results

GM is setting records again, and although it may not be the kind of record you'd want to set, it may not be as bad as the headlines might make it seem. On Tuesday GM announced it will take a $39 billion bookeeping charge, which almost certainly will be the biggest one-quarter net loss in the history of the auto industry. Fritz Henderson, GM's vice chairman and chief financial officer, told the Free Press the charge does not imperil the automaker's long-term financial outlook...

You know how the old joke goes. Doc tells a guy he has a bad heart. The guy says "I want another opinion." The doc says "OK, you're ugly too." UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and GM executives call the recent contract settlement a landmark agreement and say the it protects union jobs in America and will help GM compete with Japanese carmakers...

"This is like deja vu all over again." So spoke the philosopher Lawrence Peter Berra on the subject of history and the possibility that it repeats itself. And there's an AP story that should remind us all about the consequences of ignoring history. Caterpillar Inc. retirees are certainly feeling a bit of deja vu as they read the news about the settlement between GM and the UAW...

Cooler heads (or realists) prevailed and early this morning it was announced that the UAW and GM had come to a tentative agreement. The major sticking point of responsibility for retiree health care has been transferred to a union controlled trust. That shifts a $51 billion liability off of GM's shoulders...

The clock struck midnight (well 11am ET actually), no contract had been agreed upon, and UAW workers walked off the job in Indianapolis and some other GM plants around the country.  Some quotes from an early Chicago Tribune report: The strike, the first against GM since 1998, came after the two sides appeared close Sunday night to historic changes in the contract concerning health care and other benefits. Few observers had expected a strike because it comes as Asian automakers are grabbing bigger shares of the U.S. market and could be damaging to both sides...

In a recent story on AutoObserver, Knut Simonsson, executive director, Saab Global Sales and Marketing said that consumers will increasingly gravitate toward brands that evoke strong images of heritage or national origin as a way to satisfy their desire for more “context” for their purchases, and that GM is starting to “get it” in terms of leveraging Saab’s brand qualities. While some GM enthusiasts may be hoping for a return to past glory and being a colossus astride the automotive world, I think the days of GM being the all encompassing, everything to everyone monolith are over. It's a brave new world, and smaller, more nimble and responsive is the name of the game.  Consumers are looking for something unique in their vehicles, and are going to gravitate towards those manufacturers that can provide that for them...

It's hard to say how many people were affected by the late Don Herbert, more commonly known as Mr. Wizard, but he certainly turned on my scientific curiousity gene. "What if..." thinking leads to many breakthroughs and innovations and helps you avoid being added to this list of notable quotables: "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." --Decca Recording Co...