GM to announce cuts this morning

[Kevin]

So is GM stock right now a buy? Only $10/share... 50 year low. Amazing.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by Kevin

So is GM stock right now a buy? Only $10/share... 50 year low. Amazing.

I think it's probably a buy right now. I think it will go up again long term and could be a very good investment right now, but I'm an optimist. There's an old saying (was it JFK?) "As GM goes, so goes the Nation". Makes one wonder if that's still true as it was at one time. It's definitely true for Michigan though. We're having a tough time. We've had tough times before and fought through it and I think we will again, but it's hard to stay optimistic. Or maybe it just hits home because I was a GM baby, the daughter of a GM upper level white collar guy and GM fed me and clothed me. Maybe I'm just more emotional that it's GM. But when I look down my street at the number of abandoned houses, I'm afraid to see what happens if there become still more.

This announcement wasn't as drastic as what some of the news folks were predicting (GM keeping only Chevy and Cadillac) so I think there's a bit of a sigh of collective relief. Then again, those thousands of white collar jobs are mostly from Detroit and Warren (my home town). And those, yeah, those are going to hurt.

[madmax]

Originally Posted by LionInMI

Ford stock's a deal right now too, about $5/share. Buy, buy, buy! (my children's college funds will appreciate it )

Originally Posted by chopper816

i would buy ford stock!!! its kinda low right now, but if you want something for the long term, its a wise investment.

Chopper said buy when it was at $7 a share. How did that workout?

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by madmax

Chopper said buy when it was at $7 a share. How did that workout?

LOL. Probably depends on how you define "long term". I remember when Kerkorian made the news a month or so ago when he wanted a big buy-in to Ford stock, it rose into the high-$8s then. I'd say it's still a good long-term investment, it's Ford Motor Company, for god's sake. It, like the other big car manufacturers, obviously needs to adapt and change, but it's not going anywhere. Mulally did wonders for Boeing, give him time and I bet he'll deliver Ford too.

[madmax]

Originally Posted by nittanyalum

LOL. Probably depends on how you define "long term". I remember when Kerkorian made the news a month or so ago when he wanted a big buy-in to Ford stock, it rose into the high-$8s then. I'd say it's still a good long-term investment, it's Ford Motor Company, for god's sake. It, like the other big car manufacturers, obviously needs to adapt and change, but it's not going anywhere. Mulally did wonders for Boeing, give him time and I bet he'll deliver Ford too.

What makes you think Ford can adapt?

It looks to me like the auto industry does everything they can not to adapt. The Model T actually gets better mileage than many cars on the road today.
When I think of the Ford boardroom, I picture a bunch of 80 year old guys sitting around waiting for gas prices to drop.

Boeing is in a different position than Ford. Boeing has a virtual monopoly and their only competion is Airbus. Boeing's problem was in production not sales. They could not meet demand. Boeing needed to streamline prodouction and cutout some of the BS custom options and get rid of Stonecipher. They were offering over 100 different shades of white paint.

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by madmax

What makes you think Ford can adapt?

It looks to me like the auto industry does everything they can not to adapt. The Model T actually gets better mileage than many cars on the road today.
When I think of the Ford boardroom, I picture a bunch of 80 year old guys sitting around waiting for gas prices to drop.

Boeing is in a different position than Ford. Boeing has a virtual monopoly and their only competion is Airbus. Boeing's problem was in production not sales. They could not meet demand. Boeing needed to streamline prodouction and cutout some of the BS custom options and get rid of Stonecipher. They were offering over 100 different shades of white paint.

I'm a fan of Mulally and was impressed when Ford announced his hiring as CEO. I disagree that there's not a similarity between the task of turning around Boeing and turning around Ford. Out of the 3 large auto manufacturers, I think Ford's been making the best management hiring decisions and at the moment, has the quickest potential to adapt and rebuild market-share again. JMO. http://www.busmanagement.com/pastiss...8777&issue=181


ETA: yes, I know it's a blog, but who better to get a pulse from than from real motor-heads, right? http://blogs.motortrend.com/6240683/...-it/index.html

[jon1856]

Originally Posted by madmax

What makes you think Ford can adapt?

It looks to me like the auto industry does everything they can not to adapt. The Model T actually gets better mileage than many cars on the road today.
When I think of the Ford boardroom, I picture a bunch of 80 year old guys sitting around waiting for gas prices to drop.

Boeing is in a different position than Ford. Boeing has a virtual monopoly and their only competition is Airbus. Boeing's problem was in production not sales. They could not meet demand. Boeing needed to streamline production and cutout some of the BS custom options and get rid of Stonecipher. They were offering over 100 different shades of white paint.

Autoweek had a story covering some of this awhile ago; I may have posted it within another thread-just found it:
http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...023/LATESTNEWS

Very big difference on what was required and asked for in a vehicle then and now. The above story covers only the past 10-20 years.