[Silver Streak]

Originally Posted by fastball

I completely understand your frustrations. I want to be clear that I am not being hypocritical here because I will buy a Camaro.

I want GM to be the best they can be. Problem is, while I have seen massive improvements over the last 4-5 years in product, I still think there is much more room for improvement. That is why I have given much praise where it is deserved but I also am not afraid to point out areas where I think the company is continually flawed. I want to buy American, but I won't let American companies rest just out of ideology. That's part of what got GM into a pickle to begin with - core customers buying and saying their products were great when, lets face it, there was a time when they weren't anywhere near.

Please understand that I think the Camaro is a great car - it is by far the best car I a have seen out of GM EVER. The body panels have no gaps. For all of my ranting about the interior is it still a very high quality interior (I pissed some people in line off at the auto show because I spent about 10 minutes just feeling the knobs, switches, and other pieces/parts in the car)...... but there can still be improvement that I think would have happened if it were not for a still malligned cost structure that GM has to deal with.

I am in clinical engineering at a well known Cleveland hospital and we have to submit at minimum 6 cost savings reports/ideas to my boss every fiscal quarter - at the same time, we must continue to provide top quality service and maintenance on all critical life support systems and equipment. No corners cut, but still under budget. Believe me, I know how trying that can be but it can be done.

What we don't have to deal with are legacy costs. I won't flush this thread down the political toilet, but I will say that GM didn't HAVE to agree to provide healthcare to every person back when these contracts were negotiated. GM could have had 401k or other investment options for retirement instead of a company funded pension. Most people in this country have a 401k or 403b or other retirement investment options (whatever they're worth now is not the point - they're not burned by the profits of a single company, but many different ones). Most people in this country have a healthcare plan provided by a third party and they pay a monthly stipen out of their paycheck to keep it, and have deductables and co-pays and other expenses. Even at the hospital we still have to pay for it.

The legacy costs, company funded pensions, company funded healthcare, no matter who is to blame, they were completely avoidable, and for that I do blame the powers that be at GM. Not you, or Scott, or anyone else who really don't have anything to do with it. In fact I think you do a hell of job considering the circumstances...... which is why I'm sure every car you make would be so much better if the right cost structre was there.

Sorry for the rant. I don't mean anything I say personally, it's my completely objective view of the modern global automotive business from someone who's followed pretty much every car from every car company in the last 20 years.

I love how people think it is such a bad thing to take care of an employee after they retire. Sorry you feel that way! No GM didn't have to do that but they did and I think they are better for it. The problem is people are letting the foriegn companies dictate what and how our American companies should operate. That is BS! Sickens me to think that people just don't care about retirements and benefits for those who have spent their whole lives working for it! So your answer is to avoid it. Why don't you write your reps and tell them you want the laws to favor american companies and not foriegn companies, why don't you stick up for your own instead! I don't understand this kind of mentality at all.