Word: gm
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...cheap, homely, unreliable and, well, maybe a cut above Yugos and Trabants and the like, but not by much. Even their makers now admit that American compacts have been, for the most part, junk. Listen to Ford's Jerry Auth, a marketing executive: "Small cars built by Ford, GM and Chrysler were considered inferior -- and they were." Says Chrysler's Walter Battle, a planning manager: "They were regarded as basically underpowered, and maybe not safe." No wonder Detroit accounted for only 40% of the U.S. small-car market...
...models. Now hitting showrooms % is a new type of compact, one that approximates the flowing, sculpted looks and sheer drivability usually found only in sports and luxury cars -- in short, a kind of Everyman's Porsche. Ford's Contour and Mercury Mystique, Chrysler's Cirrus and Dodge Stratus, and GM's retooled Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac Sunfire will feature from 120 to 170 h.p. (vs. 90 or under for many older compacts). Formerly upscale-only features like dual air bags, antilock brakes and automatic mirror controls will be standard, while options include leather interiors, dashboard CD players and special antitheft...
Listening to Don Flow, 39, who owns nine import, Saturn and GM dealerships, mainly in the Southeast, raises the same question. "The old game," he says, "was let the buyers beware, crush 'em if you can, make as much as you could off everybody. Better to make a kill now than a friend for life. We basically also made our customers turn into s.o.b.s. If a really nice person walked in, they were a lay-down in front of us. The industry had a lot of fun with those techniques...
Roger & Me dealt with the effects of General Motors layoffs in Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan, and was structured around his efforts to meet with Roger Smith, who was then CEO of GM. Shambling, wearing sagging jeans and badly in need of a haircut, Moore sought out the elusive chairman in posh offices and clubs. He pursued his subject doggedly, and his innocent, straight-faced directness with the public relations executives and others keeping him away from Smith gave the film a subdued hilarity...
...Hours after NAFTA was signed, General Motors notified Detroit Steel of Indiana, which manufactured springs, that GM was pulling their work out of Indiana and sending it to Mexico. GM will save 40 cents per spring. Before NAFTA the tariff on springs imported from Mexico was 40 cents...