The Impact Of The Big Three On Me

[davebeckym]

I agree with you Greg, back in the 70's when the Japs started smoking the big 3 with their small cars the big 3 said "Small cars are loss leaders."

As people realized the quality of those cars, they were able to raise the prices to the premium they get today. Mainwhile the youth who were buying the small cars moved up to bigger cars, trucks, vans, and SUVs as they became available.

The big 3 lost because they were looking at the next quarter while the Japs were looking at the next decade.

 

[dhalltoyo]

We are our own worst enemies!

In the early 60's the U.S. had an extremely fuel efficient V-8 (265 C.I.D.), a sweet little in-line 4cyl in the Chevy Nova and a horizontally-opposed air-cooled 4 cyl engine to boot (Corvair)!

All very fuel efficient engines. Vietnam was gearing up and all factories were running 3 shifts. Americans had plenty of money to spend. Greedy as we are, we cried for MOPAR, Hemi's, 409's, 426's 427's etc. Big and faster was the order of the day.

The Covair air-cooled 4 cylinder got sold to Mexico. They got millions of them running around down there. The in-line 4 cylinder and that 265 C.I.D. went to a couple others who are south of the boarder. Yep, all those fuel efficient marvels were replaced by gas guzzling iron. Who cared; everybody was making money hand over fist.

But wait a minute! Along comes the first oil embargo, gas lines and fuel rationing. The Big Three get caught with their drawing boards void of anything that even resembled a fuel efficient vehicle. Working from a deficit position GM slaps together a VEGA. You know, the car that rusted on the showroom floor. Hmmmm. Great technology. Duh! Ford and Chrysler faired no better either. I will give Lee credit for trying to wake up Chrysler's executives (They took pay cuts across the board). And the K Car platform was a utilitarian design that was a step in the right direction (Was same chassis for the sedan and the minivan). Toyota does the same thing with the Camry and Sienna Van.

Are things getting better? From an engineering standpoint I would say they are improving. From an attitude perspective things remain status quo. The folks at the BIG Three still are quite removed from the concerns (Reasonable concerns) voiced by the consumer.

For example, I wanted to carry the new two-stage fuel filter system for my new 2006 Duramax Diesel in the van. Just in case I got a run to Laredo and nobody down there had one in stock. 30 days ago I asked the dealership to make sure they had one in stock for my regular maintenance and an extra one that I could purchase for a back up. I was in today for an oil change and they still don't have one available. I called around throughout the GM organization and nobody has this filter kit. I asked the service manager how GM can sell me a $30,000 van and not provide basic maintenance replacement parts? His reply, "I wish I had an answer for you."

OK, so what I am supposed to do if I don't have one available before I roll the next 6,000 miles and hit the GM maintenance guidelines for a replacement. That's right! I have to park the van and wait on GM to provide me with a filter.

Oh, by the way. I called Racor who makes the filters for this kit and they have plenty of those components in stock, but I can't buy them because GM has proprietary rights. That's cool, because I am all about a FREE MARKET ECONOMY, but I would certainly appreciate GM getting off of its backside and lending me a hand.

Over the years, this has been my repeated experience with the Big Three. That being, "We are so big that we can do what we want to do." What's it going to take to change that mindset. Shutting down more plants, idling workers and losing marketshare.

Hey, I bought your van. I am doing my part. Now please do your part!

 

[greg334]

Dhalltoyo

I am a little confused? Sorry but I hope I don’t insult you with what I am about to say. I owned a lot of cars in my life, many from the 50s and 60s.

You said – “In the early 60's the U.S. had an extremely fuel efficient V-8 (265 C.I.D.), a sweet little in-line 4cyl in the Chevy Nova and a horizontally-opposed air-cooled 4 cyl engine to boot (Corvair)!â€

Ok the 265 was in the 55 Chevrolet, the next engine was the 283 which came in 57. The 348 (beginning of the Big Block era for Chevy) came in 58. I owned each year with each of these engines. The 283 was actually a better engine than the 265, I got around 25 MPG – but all was the same basic design that was made until the late 1980’s. I got to tell you that the best engine GM actually had during these years was the Buick Nail Head but when the race on Sunday, sell on Monday took off, the Chevy moved ahead of the HP race as did Pontiac, I had a 65 2+2. Oh yea don’t forget Buick/Olds had an aluminum V8 – 215, in the skylarks in 61- 63 (maybe 64) and they also had a V6. The V8 was sold to Rover and was put into the 1970 Range Rover and I think it is still in production today.

The 4 cylinder you mentioned I didn’t see in a Chevy II (Nova) in the 60’s (correction welcomed) but I had a 62 Pontiac tempest (lemans – pre GTO) that had a 4 cylinder in it. I was told by John Z that the 4 cylinder was a joke that made it into production; some engineer thought it was funny to cut a Pontiac V8 in half and put a bell housing on it. Buick also had a 4 Cylinder for export but I only saw one of those. The tempest was a neat car, engine in front and transmission and rear end (independent rear axle too) in the rear. I drove mine to death but the thing it the mileage never got above 19 MPG.

Corvair was a 6 cylinder – air cooled and in some models turbocharged. I think that this was the zenith of engineering and production for GM’s engine groups. This is the only GM product I never owned – but drove and worked on many of them.

Now I am not including the off shore GM products (Holden, Opel, etc..) where some of the most neatest engineering feats were placed.

OK here is something else to throw into my comments; the Vega was another thing that needed tight production tolerances – SOMETHING WE STILL DON’T HAVE IN THE INDUSTY TODAY! The cylinder walls were created through a careful process in the lab and the first few hundred turned out ok but if there was a rebuild of the motor, or if it over heated or ran low on oil the cylinder wall bonding broke down and well just turned to a 250 lb cube of junk.

Also there is no BIG 3; Chrysler is no longer part of the domestic auto company group, just as Toyota is not. Chrysler is a division of a foreign car company and if you didn’t notice there is more production being shifted outside the country.

Again hope I didn’t insult you.