GM and FORD Merger

[77thor]

this would be big news....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060918/ap_on_bi_ge/gm_ford

[Flicktitty]

Hmmmmmmmmm, that's kind of odd..... i don't think it could happen

[Nix]

I dont see that ever happening.

[Myles]

would be interesting to say the least.

[BrandoGT]

That would be crazy, if they merged I wonder what their new name would be?

[DirtyMax]

if they merged I wonder what their new name would be?

Some sort of Acronym for: 2 Bankrupt Companies Operating as 1

[Prince Valiant]

Yep. GM styling with ford engines. :goof

[wikked]

If they both declined comment... wouldn't that give it some credibility?

If it wasn't true, they'd just say "there's no truth to this" and be done with it.

[Slow Joe]

Some sort of Acronym for: 2 Bankrupt Companies Operating as 1

BMCO - Bankrupt Motor Company?? :rolf

[GRAMPS SS]

you know years ago there was talk about the same thing, but nothing happen then...like 80's.....so i don't think it will happen this time either

[Myles]

well the article did stat that they talked on and off for awhile, GM also talks alot to other companies about doing things like that, but never makes any actual statements cause of how unlikley it will happen.

[TopStreetDsm]

6 speed auto trannies sound fun... As long as dodge doesnt get involved:rolf

[Feature Pony]

umm does that mean I could take my Mustang to GM car shows just like AMC cars go to mopar shows?

[TURTLE]

6 speed auto trannies sound fun... As long as dodge doesnt get involved:rolf


hey now... at least benz builds the auto trannies... well, most of 'em..
hell, wtf am i saying.. we're all in a world a hurt if das crrrryzla get's in it...:goof

[BrandoGT]

umm does that mean I could take my Mustang to GM car shows just like AMC cars go to mopar shows?

You could probably even get your mustang serviced at a gm dealer. :rolf

[Al]

Just a few days ago, Ford was commenting about becoming private again and buying back its stocks while they were cheap (as if they would become worth anything in the near future).

I think Ford should allow Honda to design all of their engine heads and GM should continue to work with Toyota.

[Waver]

Just a few days ago, Ford was commenting about becoming private again and buying back its stocks while they were cheap (as if they would become worth anything in the near future).

I think Ford should allow Honda to design all of their engine heads and GM should continue to work with Toyota.

Why honda when they already have mazda doing that for some of their 4 and 6 cyl models?

In all honesty, as much as a merger of that proportion would help out everyone involved, I hightly doubt that will happen...

[88Nightmare]

kind of off topic, but I thought I read somewhere that Toyota recalled more vehicles this year then they actually made (including last model years vehicles)

[HRSEPLA]

I knew GM would come to their senses and give up, "If you can't beat 'em, Join 'em!" lol:)

[Greg@GLD]

I knew GM would come to their senses and give up, "If you can't beat 'em, Join 'em!" lol:)

+1 for Sam!!! :thumbsup

[Waver]

I knew GM would come to their senses and give up, "If you can't beat 'em, Join 'em!" lol:)

I didnt even look at it that way

[88Nightmare]

ill just stick with my silverado :D

[HRSEPLA]

I didnt even look at it that way


Read between the lines, must we, young Jedi

[jbiscuit]

scottie K's street car would have one hell of a warranty on it then!

[Crawlin]

HAHAH at J's comments.

And you are correct on the Toyota thing. But you can't stop the bandwagon. GM and Ford would be in SUCH a better spot if the media would write SOMETHING positive about them. People that complain about styling of say a Chevy Malibu, and go and buy a Camry are just idiots. The two look SO similar.

You have a GM or Ford Recal of 100,000 cars/trucks and it's all over the news, on every main website, blah blah blah, but this million car recall from Toyota went unnoticed by all those same people, and only had a short blurb about it.

The new warranties from Ford and GM aren't even bringing up any kind of news press for them. And it's all because it's the media bandwagoning afraid to be the "only one" to write something positive. 5year/60k miles from Ford and 5year/100k miles from GM? Who's got a better warranty than that, that doesn't HAVE to have a warranty in order to keep their customers. If Kia and Hyundai DIDN"T have those warranties, customer's would never be repeat because of all the shit that went wrong in that 25k-75k mile range

[Al]

Why honda when they already have mazda doing that for some of their 4 and 6 cyl models?

In all honesty, as much as a merger of that proportion would help out everyone involved, I hightly doubt that will happen...

Honda builds better engine heads. The primary advantage is that Honda holds the patent on VTEC, which is one of the biggest factors in fuel economy.

Focus vs Civic: One has more power and better fuel economy and reliability. Which one is it?


kind of off topic, but I thought I read somewhere that Toyota recalled more vehicles this year then they actually made (including last model years vehicles)

Toyota still builds vehicles which are waaaaaaaaay more reliable.

[Crawlin]

Our Toyota store is JUST as busy as our Chevy store in the service department ;)

[Slow Joe]

Al, I'm going to pick on you a little... Uhhh GM has worked with both Honda and Toyota... The V6 in the Saturn VUE is a 3.0L Honda Motor from my understanding

Ford works with Mazda, which if no one else here has noticed they share alot of technology...

Toyota did have a HUGE recall on their vehicles, I forgot what it was... The funny thing is that they didn't get a bad rep for that...

The Ford Focus had a recall saying that the "rear bearings MAY go bad from road salt" and look at the rep the focus got...

The Crown Vic PI was called "unsafe" because of "explosions when hit from the rear" YET studies showed that it was how the municipalities equipped the car, not how the car was setup from the factory... Yet some municipalities decided to pull the cars becasue they thought it was Ford...

I'm not knocking Foreign Vehicles, or American vehicles... In my mind they're a horse a peice... They all have their fair shares of problems, but they have different consumers... The consumers of the foreign vehicles are willing to pay more for maintinence when they need it. The consumers of American vehicles aren't. They want everything to be innexpensive and never break. Then when things do break it's the end of the world and it's a horrible vehicle. It comes down to the fact of the demographic of customers. A person purchasing a Honda or Toyota most likely has more money and if there is a problem, they say "Ok, Fix it". Where the customer with the American car most likely is on a tighter budget and goes "No, this car is a peice of junk".

Al, here is where I pick on you again, you drive an Import, an Audi to be exact. Isn't it expensive to maintain? Your average oil change on a VW or Audi through a dealership is what, $70? When you replace parts on it don't it cost more than an American car? And don't it happen almost just as often?

[Slow Joe]

And Al, I'm not picking on you to be mean, I'm just using you as an example since I know you're a fan of Imports... I've never owned an Import honestly. And I've had some good reliable vehicles...

[Cjburn]

What bothers me most, is that people look at the name Toyota and automatically assume that it's a Japanese car. Yes, Toyota is a Japanese company, but they build the majority of the cars in America. It's becoming cheaper for "foreign" companies to spend money to invest in the American workforce, and they build new plants in America. While at the same time, GM, Ford, Chrysler ship jobs to different parts of the world to get away from their union labor.
Secondly, I've a TON of different service departments, since I'm in the uniform business. The major difference between the two is that at an "American" manufacturers service shop you see 10 times more dead engines/trans's under benches than you do at these "foreign" manufacturers service shop. Ford, Chevy, Chrysler, Mazda, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, GM, Buick, Pontiac, Mitsubishi, you name it, I've been at least one of these service departments.
Lastly, foreign manufacturers seem to take care of their customers better. Lexus has warrantied their 3.0 V6 in the RX300 and ES300 up to 213,000 due to the sludging problems these motors have. Toyota is having a lot more problems with their cars than they'll let you know. Cheaper plastics and questionable build quality are creeping in. Hell, I have a very good friend who's been a Toyota tech since he was 12 (father owned a small Toyota service shop since the mid 1970's) and he'll even tell you that their overall quality has fallen off in the last 10 years.

[Poncho]

if that happens looks like ford will finally have a NA v8 worth giving two sh1ts about....

and GM for once won't be the last to show up to the game w/ styling. hello, I mean I love my GTO and all, for what it as as a "whole" car, but it's styling is like a toned down version of my old grand prix.

if the big three combine at least we'd have one decent car w/ nothing to bish about..

[Slow Joe]

if that happens looks like ford will finally have a NA v8 worth giving two sh1ts about....


Last I checked the 5.0L 302 was a good motor... and the 3V 4.6L... (In new Mustang GTs)

[Poncho]

still not to GM HP standards from 8 years ago though.

[Karps TA]

GM is getting the short end of the stick in the media. They have more cars that get over 30mpg then any other mfg including Honda and Toyota. However the media will instead talk about the Hummer being a gas guzzler. The interior quality of the cars I never thought was any worse then a Toyota, but they've dramatically improved them anyways.

The only real complaint I have is this going away from trusted brand names and going to names like G6 and Lucerne. And the sticking tons of money into a brand like Saturn that has zero history, and ignoring brands like Pontiac that badly need a new face.

That and the fact that they don't seem to fix known problems. I just had to have intake gaskets replaced on my Monte's 3400. Intake gaskets have been a problem on that engine, and the previous 3.1 liter for like 15 years. That's ridiculous to still have a problem that long.

[88Nightmare]

HAHAH at J's comments.

And you are correct on the Toyota thing. But you can't stop the bandwagon. GM and Ford would be in SUCH a better spot if the media would write SOMETHING positive about them. People that complain about styling of say a Chevy Malibu, and go and buy a Camry are just idiots. The two look SO similar.

You have a GM or Ford Recal of 100,000 cars/trucks and it's all over the news, on every main website, blah blah blah, but this million car recall from Toyota went unnoticed by all those same people, and only had a short blurb about it.

The new warranties from Ford and GM aren't even bringing up any kind of news press for them. And it's all because it's the media bandwagoning afraid to be the "only one" to write something positive. 5year/60k miles from Ford and 5year/100k miles from GM? Who's got a better warranty than that, that doesn't HAVE to have a warranty in order to keep their customers. If Kia and Hyundai DIDN"T have those warranties, customer's would never be repeat because of all the shit that went wrong in that 25k-75k mile range

excellent post! +1 :thumbsup

On a side note, I was looking into possibly leasing a brand new diesel because if how im loading mileage on my Z71, and I went to Dodge City on 27th and Layton to check out a Ram, and found none on the lot. After a salesman approached me and introduced himself, he informed me they had to pull all their Rams off the lot after a model wide recall on the airbags. I didnt hear a damn thing about that on the news. We technically werent even supposed to be down in their lower lot just looking at them, but dealerships cant let anyone drive them around the lot or test drive them on the road. That makes me extremely excited about buying a Dodge. :punch: Went up the road a piece back to Braeger to check out 3/4 ton silverados and found they only had 2, one 2006 and one 2007. Apparently chevy is selling medium duty trucks like hotcakes. Dodge had rows and rows of rams of every option, color, cab size and wheelbase :rolleyes:

[GRM-REPR]

It would be a great idea. I proposed it back in late June when G.M thought of merging with Nissan (who also isnt doing all that hot). I would rather see Ford and G.M merge. Considering Chrysler isnt even American owned anymore, it's been the BIG 2.1/4 for years.

Ford and G.M could make a great alliance to maintain the integrity of the American Auto, which is in dire need of help. It wouldn't be the first time they have joined in one way or another. They have collaborated in the past. Good, let them join, because in the extreme near future, as in next year, China is introducing their entry level garbage into America. EVERY auto maker will suffer slightly. These junkers will take even more biz away from American Automakers and Foriegn....

Just my 2cents, and not just because I drive American. It has most to do with our country selling off everything that USED to be made with American Pride.....

[Flight_740]

All both companies need to do is get rid of the damn union and they can afford to build decent cars again. It's the damn employees that are sinking both ships.

[GRM-REPR]

What bothers me most, is that people look at the name Toyota and automatically assume that it's a Japanese car. Yes, Toyota is a Japanese company, but they build the majority of the cars in America. It's becoming cheaper for "foreign" companies to spend money to invest in the American workforce, and they build new plants in America. While at the same time, GM, Ford, Chrysler ship jobs to different parts of the world to get away from their union labor.
Secondly, I've a TON of different service departments, since I'm in the uniform business. The major difference between the two is that at an "American" manufacturers service shop you see 10 times more dead engines/trans's under benches than you do at these "foreign" manufacturers service shop. Ford, Chevy, Chrysler, Mazda, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, GM, Buick, Pontiac, Mitsubishi, you name it, I've been at least one of these service departments.
Lastly, foreign manufacturers seem to take care of their customers better. Lexus has warrantied their 3.0 V6 in the RX300 and ES300 up to 213,000 due to the sludging problems these motors have. Toyota is having a lot more problems with their cars than they'll let you know. Cheaper plastics and questionable build quality are creeping in. Hell, I have a very good friend who's been a Toyota tech since he was 12 (father owned a small Toyota service shop since the mid 1970's) and he'll even tell you that their overall quality has fallen off in the last 10 years.


You have many good points. However, Toyota is pure Japense in every sense. They build their R&D plants out here in our country because our politicians want their money, business and respect. With all the knowledge you seem to have on Toyota, then you would know what is sold here from Toyota to us, is JUNK compared to what they offer in Japan personally. The cars are nothing alike. Their engines sludge up because they didnt research our air qualities and such like they do their. When I worked at Acura, they had more TSB's that should have been recalls than I ever saw at my 6 years as a Ford tech. Toyota has been busted BIG time in Japan in front of whatever their version of Supreme Court is here. Fraud is one of the big points. Secondly, turns out many, many more recalls should have been sent out from shotty garbage parts and bad engineering. If you think your seeing them now, just wait. Turns out their will be many more recalls. And I agree with someone previously stating on this board: when Ford and GM have recalls, it's world wide. How come Consumer Reports (who kisses foreign ass), didnt print the Tundra recall??? Why?? Cuz they would look like friggin' morons.

Think about it, this isnt 1978 where America builds big bulky piles of sh!t that get 2 miles to the gallon. America is ranked 2nd to Japan in reliability and customer satisfaction. Euro= last. Granted I'd like to see some more style but they do build good auto's......

[Flight_740]

Think of GM as a job provider and a health insurance provider, not a car maker.