Word: gm
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Perhaps most frustrating, GM's American factories are now nearly as productive as Toyota's U.S. plants, yet Toyota has the advantage of not having to pay health-care bills for a small city of retirees, population 340,000. One GM worker supports 2.65 retirees, adding $1,100 in "legacy" costs to each American-made vehicle, says Sean McAlinden, an economist at the Center for Automotive Research. While the Japanese government pays for most Toyota retirees in Japan, GM shelled out $3.6 billion to pay for retiree health care just last year. GM's turnaround plan is a high-wire...
...peril for Toyota is that it repeats GM's mistakes by overexpanding. With new plants in far-flung places from China to the Czech Republic, Toyota has added capacity for an additional 1.5 million vehicles a year by 2006, bringing annual production to 8.5 million vehicles. That's a lot of metal to move at a profit, and it's only getting tougher. Rising commodity and energy prices are increasing manufacturing costs. And looming interest-rate hikes, the bane of new-car sales, may make even today's volume tough to sustain...
...same time, Toyota is losing ground in the vehicle-reliability race. Hyundai last year nudged past Toyota (excluding Lexus) in J.D. Power & Associates' initial-quality survey. GM has narrowed the gap with models like the Buick Century. Even the indomitable Camry has slipped, dropping from first place in 2000 to eighth in 2004, as consumers report fewer problems with competing models. (Camry complaints aren't appreciably higher...
...investment has made Detroit's pickups more competitive than its cars. And Detroit can still count on the stubborn-guy factor. "I'd consider driving a Chevy, but that'd be about as far as I go," says Don Strumberger, 62, a lifelong Ford man from Dubuque, Iowa. A GM spokeswoman says 94% of folks who buy a GM-manufactured Silverado purchase another GM truck...
There isn't much good news from General Motors these days. Its once dominant U.S. market share is slipping. Steel and labor costs are mounting. Profits are evaporating. But there's an unexpected bright spot in Asia: GM's South Korean unit, GM Daewoo Auto & Technology. In 2002, GM and its partners acquired the choicest assets of bankrupt Daewoo Motor for $440 million?and it looked like they overpaid. Daewoo's market share in Korea was shrinking and its factories were running at half their capacity. Union members tried to thwart the deal by rioting around the main factory near...