GM posts best sales since '08 despite recalls

[Sayjac]

"GM reported its strongest monthly sales sales since 2008, even as the automaker has recalled millions of autos this year."

Comments are entertaining/amusing reading, like here.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/03/news/companies/gm-car-sales/

 

[dparm]

Big recalls usually take a few months to actually hurt sales numbers. We saw it with the Toyota "unintended acceleration" and Ford Explorer "Firestone tire" debacles.

Here is an analysis of what I mean:
http://jalopnik.com/will-gm-be-forced-to-pay-for-its-recall-transgressions-1581130536

 

[rjundi]

A friend of mine a Ukranian guy wants his first American Pickup truck. The GM stuff is scaring him although he loves the new one as it is like a car. He is coming from his first MB, a 2012 MB E class diesel lease.

He is a cash buyer looking and scared off. My parents are the same and will head back likely to a Toyota or Subaru again looking for new car since as their last purchase was 2000(Tundra and Forester).

My wife is the same in terms of a family vehicle that handles infant and 6 & 8 year old well.

 

[Tzu]

People must LOVE the free coffee and pastries in the lobby as they wait for their recalls to be finished. I think it would get annoying going back again and again on the same vehicle, but maybe it just doesn't bother some people. Imagine how much more money they could make if recalls were few and far between? Wait, I just read the article title again.....never mind.

 

[Oregoonian]

Originally Posted By: dparm
Big recalls usually take a few months to actually hurt sales numbers. We saw it with the Toyota "unintended acceleration" and Ford Explorer "Firestone tire" debacles.

Here is an analysis of what I mean:
http://jalopnik.com/will-gm-be-forced-to-pay-for-its-recall-transgressions-1581130536

+1.....wait 3 to 6 months and IMO, the sales will drop like a rock.....and your used GM vehicles will be worth significantly less.

 

[fdcg27]

IDK.
The recalled vehicles are obviously an old GM product.
Could it be that GM is now making cars that people actually want to buy?
Maybe buyers too young to remember the really bad stuff from decades past are considering new GM vehicles on their merits without being influenced by old stereotypes?
Even the recalled vehicles are pretty solid cars that seem only to have suffered problems when their ignition switches were used to hold weights more appropriate to a well installed wall hook.
GM is back.
Let the hating continue.
The buyers out there won't pay much attention.
If I were in the market for a new pickup, I'd probably be negotiating a deal on a new Chevy.
The Ecotec is not to my liking while the Toyotas have a poor price to value ratio, and nothing outlasts a pickup from GM or Ford, although I'm not too sure about the turbo Fords.
Nice to see GM making a solid return to a decent market share.

 

[Silverado12]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
IDK.
The recalled vehicles are obviously an old GM product.
Could it be that GM is now making cars that people actually want to buy?
Maybe buyers too young to remember the really bad stuff from decades past are considering new GM vehicles on their merits without being influenced by old stereotypes?
Even the recalled vehicles are pretty solid cars that seem only to have suffered problems when their ignition switches were used to hold weights more appropriate to a well installed wall hook.
GM is back.
Let the hating continue.



The buyers out there won't pay much attention.
If I were in the market for a new pickup, I'd probably be negotiating a deal on a new Chevy.
The Ecotec is not to my liking while the Toyotas have a poor price to value ratio, and nothing outlasts a pickup from GM or Ford, although I'm not too sure about the turbo Fords.
Nice to see GM making a solid return to a decent market share.



Dodge makes a good truck too. I had a new Ram 1500 from 2001 and it is still alive and kicking. Lots of miles on it now.

 

[Nate1979]

No one cares about these little issues. I think people do not consider them serious issues that would influence their future purchases, especially for new vehicles. I think partly this is due to the issues happening under "old" GM pre-bankruptcy and the new management is getting out in front of the issues early.

 

[sciphi]

It's not like you can buy a new Cobalt with a defective ignition switch. The newest ones are 3 years old at this point, and the recalled ones are 5+ years old.

 

[whip]

Originally Posted By: Oregoonian
.....and your used GM vehicles will be worth significantly less.

That's great news for people like me that buy used!

Originally Posted By: rjundi
A friend of mine a Ukranian guy wants his first American Pickup truck. The GM stuff is scaring him although he loves the new one as it is like a car. He is coming from his first MB, a 2012 MB E class diesel lease.

He is a cash buyer looking and scared off. My parents are the same and will head back likely to a Toyota or Subaru again looking for new car since as their last purchase was 2000(Tundra and Forester).

My wife is the same in terms of a family vehicle that handles infant and 6 & 8 year old well.

Toyota has just as many recalls as GM. Why do the GM recalls scare him, but the Toyota ones don't?

 

[SteveSRT8]

hahaha the GM hating continues full force.

Tell me more tales. Resale is most definitely HIGH on my tired fleet trucks. Other automakers like Toyota have just as many problems, and with arguably newer vehicles.

IMO after around 5 years or so the original mfgr should finally be relieved of responsibility for the cars/trucks anyway...

 

[BearZDefect]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
...

IMO after around 5 years or so the original mfgr should finally be relieved of responsibility for the cars/trucks anyway...

Except that some of them tout 10 year warranties.

 

[DAC17]

People just have to use their brains and look at what's available now. As someone pointed out, the Cobalts are long since gone. I have a Volt and C7 Corvette, and they are both great cars. No problems whatsoever.

To each their own, I guess.

 

[artificialist]

You can't know how good the new GM cars are unless you enter the future.

So if I think that many of the new GM cars are going to suck, I have numerous pieces of proof. The 80s were supposed to make up for GM's bad cars of the 70s. The 90s were supposed to make up for the 80s. Now the 2000s are becoming a problem. Most Toyota models were better.

If GM cars were as good as the competition by the year 1988, and the unions were under control, the fraud that happened in 2008 would never have happened.

 

[dishdude]

Quite a few of my cars have been GM, no complaints here. No breakdowns, no major repairs, resale value has always worked out for me. From the sounds of a few people on here, I should start playing the lottery.

 

[Bamaro]

Originally Posted By: artificialist
You can't know how good the new GM cars are unless you enter the future.

So if I think that many of the new GM cars are going to suck, I have numerous pieces of proof. The 80s were supposed to make up for GM's bad cars of the 70s. The 90s were supposed to make up for the 80s. Now the 2000s are becoming a problem. Most Toyota models were better.

If GM cars were as good as the competition by the year 1988, and the unions were under control, the fraud that happened in 2008 would never have happened.

That sounds more political than objective

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
Quite a few of my cars have been GM, no complaints here. No breakdowns, no major repairs, resale value has always worked out for me. From the sounds of a few people on here, I should start playing the lottery.


Agreed. It's just ludicrous.

Like the AFM engine issues which were horribly overblown on the Internet. GM makes more than a million V8's in a year. Even at 1/10 of one percent failure rate that's a TON of bad engines...

 

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
Quite a few of my cars have been GM, no complaints here. No breakdowns, no major repairs, resale value has always worked out for me. From the sounds of a few people on here, I should start playing the lottery.


I've been saying the same exact thing for years on here, and with a car that many of the import nameplate ONLY crew somehow believe is one of GM's worst. I guess they will STILL be saying that when I have 750K miles on it with no major problems??

I think I will buy a Mega ticket tomorrow, thanks for reminding me!

 

[Nayov]

So basically, the economy is getting good, but don't tell anyone, if you get my drift.

 

[supton]

http://www.manufacturing.net/news/2014/0...p;type=headline

Quote:
General Motors says a pattern of incompetence and neglect, not a larger conspiracy or cover-up, is to blame for a long-delayed recall of defective ignition switches.


Isn't that what we've been saying all along, GM and incompetence go hand in hand?

[Sorry, couldn't resist a jab when I could. I mean, they themselves admitted to it! I suppose that's one step up from my beloved Toyota, who never claim fault.]

Moving on:

Quote:
Barra called the 315-page report by attorney Anton Valukas...


315 pages!

Quote:
Barra said Valukas interviewed 230 employees and reviewed 41 million documents to produce the report...

All over:
Quote:
In 2005, the company failed to make a repair that would have cost an estimated 57 cents.


57 cents!

Quote:
A year later, engineer Ray DeGiorgio — who was among the 15 workers fired — approved a change in the switch design but didn't follow GM's policy to change the part number. That made the problem much more difficult to track for investigators later on.