Posted on 09/30/2011 3:30:29 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Federal bailout funding may have prevented General Motors from going through a normal bankruptcy process, but it has come at a significant price in terms of reputation and potential buyers.
Fifty percent (50%) of American adults are less likely to buy a GM car because of the bailout. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds just four percent (4%) are more likely to buy from the company that critics refer to as Government Motors. Forty-two percent (42%) say the bailout has had no impact on their buying plans one way or the other.
The flip side of the data is that 51% are more likely to buy from Ford simply because it did not accept bailout funding. Twelve percent (12%) are less likely to buy from Ford, and 34% say the bailout has had no impact. Twenty-five percent (25%) of adults say they or someone in their family avoided buying a GM car because of the bailout. Again, Ford is on the other side of a great divide. Nineteen percent (19%) say they or someone in their family bought a car from Ford because it did not take bailout money.
The bad news for GM is that these findings have changed little from a year ago, so negative perceptions of the bailout linger despite the repayment of a substantial portion of the money.
(Excerpt) Read more at rasmussenreports.com ...
The new Volkswagen Passat will be made in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
I might buy GM, but it wouldn’t be a new one.
Wasn't trying to sell you one damn'd thing, just relating my experiences, so you may climb down off your high horse now.
On the contrary, the Saturns never actually equalled the imports until the very end, when they started importing Opels as Saturns. Even when it first appeared, it was a generation behind in all respects. The engines were buzzier and the cars were noisier than the competition. The interiors looked like alien excrescences. Build quality was *close* to on par with the imports, but that was it; contemporary reviews prove that out. They were all hoping that a more refined and revised model would come out soon and it didn’t. The only Saturns that actually rivalled the Corollas and Civics and the like were the Astras and the Sky, which are actually Opels/Vauxhalls from the much more competitve European compact car market. Those were on par and better than their competition in many ways, but by then it was too late and nobody bought them.
The dealership experience was something else; unlike GM’s other brands, it was uniformly good there.
Daimler, who lied all along and sank the company, and just at the end Cerberus - who foolishly believed that the Germans wouldn’t lie when sale time came.
At no time since 1998 was Chrysler in charge of its own destiny and the product failures and decisions forced on it were not its own. As I said, the bailout of Chrysler leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I won’t be buying one but I also won’t be militantly advocating against them as their failure was not their fault and the US Government was partially complicit in their failure through the FTC.
GM, on the other hand... no, they were completely responsible for their own failure and just wanted to avoid the consequences of their decisions. This should never be rewarded, ever - but it was.
When you go buy parts for that GM, you’d be supporting GM either directly or indirectly.
I’d buy my parts from a junk yard.
You’d still be supporting GM indirectly. In oversimplified terms:
If you buy parts from a junkyard, this tells the junkyard that these cars are desirable to purchase for the purpose of parting out, so the junkyard will buy more.
The junkyard buying more junked GM cars will cause increased scarcity of GM cars in the region and prices of GM cars will rise.
GM used car prices rising will enable GM to (eventually) crow about how their cars’ resale values are doing great in a TV ad (as several makes have done for various reasons).
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More directly, many junkyards track what parts get sold from what car. This information is sold to parts manufacturers and GM, who know what parts break often and can plan making more of them to sell in the aftermarket. This, of course, helps sales of parts to those that won’t go to junkyards...
Go to the big box store and get Chinese parts for your GM. That is what I do. I flat out refuse to go to the dealer for ANYTHING on my pre-obama chev van. If I can’t get it from the aftermarket parts store i go to the self serve pick a part. Rarely do they ask what the part came off of. They have flat rate pricing. Normally a part is <15 there. A complete engine is 125 bucks.
I bought it a month or so ago. I am not proud but I had 600 bucks to spend on a van and I needed it with in a week for a new job.
it was the first van to come along that fit the requirements so I bought it.
I don’t plan on keeping the van long. its making me money and I have already started the Ford Econoline/Benz sprinter fund to replace it.
You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a lawyer
If I were to say to you
Girl we couldn’t get much hoigher
Come on baby loight my foyer
I solved the problem by... not buying GMs.
I find I have to go to the junkyard a lot less, as a pleasant side effect. Even my Jaguars break down less than my neighbor’s Impala.
The GM boycott didn’t really affect me - I’m one of that 42% that wouldn’t have their buying decision changed, because there was no way in Hell I was going to buy them based on their prior track record (not just historically, but with me personally.)
(... despite the repayment of a substantial portion of the money.)
...using the $8,000 per volt subsidy that Obama gives GM. Of course, that’s never counted as part of the bailout!
Don’t forget how Obama reversed over 200 years of contract law by forcing the Chrysler bond holders behind unions in line for Chrysler assets, thus stealing money from them.
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