RSS 2.0 FeedGM’s Lutz Whines About Unfair Treatment
by Brad WarbianyAre you kidding me?
General Motors Corp. Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said he is looking forward to having a “car czar” in place so U.S. automakers have someone sympathetic to its needs in Washington.
“We will have someone to talk to about the pain being inflicted on use [sic] for no unearthly [sic] reason,” Lutz said Sunday on the sidelines of the North American International Auto Show.
Oh, “being inflicted on us”? That’s a questionably passive phrase, isn’t it? As if you were running a tight ship there at GM, but the business fairy decided for an unearthly reason to punish you?
Who’s fault is it that GM is failing? I’d say it’s GM’s fault. Unlike Honda and Toyota, you can’t seem to make a quality product in a profitable manner. Unlike BMW and Mercedes, you can’t convince dumb consumers that your low-quality product is chic. Your business model ensures that the overpriced cars that you do sell are done at a loss.
But hey, maybe if you examined why you use passive phrases like “pain being inflicted on us”, you might realize that perhaps you hold some culpability for the pain you’re in?
The USA’s Big 3 should be allowed to count cars imported from their foreign subsidiaries when CAFE figures are developed. It is a regulation that penalizes only the USA-based companies – not the Europeans, not the Japanese or Koreans. The upshot of this reg is that the Big 3 must build cars that are unprofitable to build in the USA in order to avoid fines on the others.
chsw
Comment by chsw — January 11, 2009 @ 5:45 pm[...] GM’s Lutz whines about unfair treatment (The Liberty Papers) General Motors Corp. Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said he is looking forward to having a “car czar” in place so U.S. automakers have someone sympathetic to its needs in Washington. [...]
Pingback by On the subject of incriminating double negatives « Blunt Object — January 11, 2009 @ 9:52 pmYou will drive yourselves crazy trying to reason with these people or figure them out. The US Auto Industry may be the one beauracracy on this planet more fouled up than the Federal Government.
Trust me – the executives have no idea how it works much less how to fix it – the line workers couldn’t spell UAW if you spotted them 2 letters and gave them a life line.
The whole thing is a run like a shell game masquerading as a pyramid scheme created with a stolen debit card backed by an overdrawn checking account.
Comment by Persnickety Curmudgeon — January 12, 2009 @ 4:28 pmStatements about GM’s ability to make quality cars avoids the fact that GM has this 800 pound gorilla on its back called the UAW. Lutz didn’t put it there. In fact, Lutz has produced most of the best new models at GM. Where are the cars that a bright guy like you developed? Didn’t think so. So learn something about the auto business before you start slandering folks as great as maximum Bob. You have no ethics, Brad.
Comment by kent beuchert — January 13, 2009 @ 7:39 pmTraditionally, haven’t other companies being crushed by 800 pound gorillas filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganized to eliminate that weight?
When did taking pretend money from the federal government and having every taxpayer pick up the bill with devalued currency become the preferred remedy? Oh, I remember: a couple weeks after they started handing it out.
If you were low on cash and a thug offered to hold up a family, seize their money, and bail you out, would you take it? Would you be noble for doing so?
Comment by Akston — January 13, 2009 @ 9:33 pm