Car Chat

[Soup DeVille]

If they don't throttle hydro it can be too much power in the grid, or just wasted power.

They'll throttle down the other producers first for the most part.

[AutobahnSHO]

They'll throttle down the other producers first for the most part.

I would hope so!

[Morris Minor]

One of my neighbors just traded in his Q7 for a BMW X7. I can barely show my face around here with my lowly CX-5 & old Obama-era Infiniti.

He opted to pick it up at the BMW performance driving school in South Carolina. They took him out in one of their track vehicles & went through all the braking, stability & skid prevention goodies. Had a blast.

His five-year-old Q7 was quiet - he said the X7 is pretty well silent.

[FoMoJo]

Nice...Ford Explorer Men's Only Edition Celebrates Women In Auto Industry

The Explorer Men's Only Edition isn't what you think, though – it's definitely not a macho or manly special edition. As weird as it may sound, it's the exact opposite – a mid-size SUV celebrating the significant role women have played and will continue to play in the auto industry.

[MrH]

[Laconian]

[CaminoRacer]

Coming soon: caveman only edition!

[giant_mtb]

Women's Only Edition, to celebrate men's contribution to inventing the automobile:

[Soup DeVille]

Okay, so what they did was remove items from the vehicle that women had a role in developing. Kinda weird; because they included GPS as a woman's invention. And I'm sure there were many women who helped develop it into what it is today, but like all complex systems, it was developed over an extended time and took the cooperation of thousands.

A good attempt maybe, but in the end a mixed message.

And really it ends up highlighting that there's still most of a vehicle there...

[FoMoJo]

Okay, so what they did was remove items from the vehicle that women had a role in developing. Kinda weird; because they included GPS as a woman's invention. And I'm sure there were many women who helped develop it into what it is today, but like all complex systems, it was developed over an extended time and took the cooperation of thousands.

A good attempt maybe, but in the end a mixed message.

And really it ends up highlighting that there's still most of a vehicle there...

I believe this is who they're referring to...Gladys West

[Eye of the Tiger]

What about the trans-intersex-asexual-lizard people edition? Assholes.

[FoMoJo]

What about the trans-intersex-asexual-lizard people edition? Assholes.

It's not their month.

[Eye of the Tiger]

It's not their month.

There aren't enough months for everyone who isn't a straight white male.

[FoMoJo]

There aren't enough months for everyone who isn't a straight white male.

It seems that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Pride Month (April/June) get a lot of months.  Maybe they can squeeze in a week or so for the Trans-intersex-asexual-lizard people.  Don't know how big a group they might be, but they might have to organize some marches or parades to get a little more publicity; though I'm not sure if the lizard people want to be recognized.

[Soup DeVille]

What about the trans-intersex-asexual-lizard people edition? Assholes.

I blame them for the GM reverse lights that light up when the car is not in reverse.

[Morris Minor]

What? Just an indiscriminate blanket buyout offer to any white collar employee who'll take it?
I can't believe that they'd risk losing the most marketable talent they need for move forward (EVs, electrical engineers, vehicle automation, software.)
If this is true, the cream of the crop will leave, and they'll be left with the legacy folks.

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2023/03/09/gm-offers-voluntary-buyouts-to-majority-of-u-s-salaried-workers.html

[r0tor]

That looks like a pretty pathetic buyout - max of 12 months salary and having a ridiculously overpriced COBRA healthcare option?  The only takers will be people who were already set to retire or quit in the near future

[Soup DeVille]

That looks like a pretty pathetic buyout - max of 12 months salary and having a ridiculously overpriced COBRA healthcare option?  The only takers will be people who were already set to retire or quit in the near future

Or looking to move to another job already.

[GoCougs]

What? Just an indiscriminate blanket buyout offer to any white collar employee who'll take it?
I can't believe that they'd risk losing the most marketable talent they need for move forward (EVs, electrical engineers, vehicle automation, software.)
If this is true, the cream of the crop will leave, and they'll be left with the legacy folks.

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2023/03/09/gm-offers-voluntary-buyouts-to-majority-of-u-s-salaried-workers.html

Like Big Tech, GM no doubt sees sustained tough times on the horizon (confirmed by the near implosion of Silicon Valley Bank this week, which is approaching Lehman Brothers signposting). Ford and Stellantis will announce similar in the coming days or weeks.

Plus, I'm a firm believer in the principal that the number of employees doing most the work is the square root of the number of employees. As one can see, the larger the corporation, the more prominent the effect, so there will be a prominent self-selection which will only benefit GM.

The deal is actually quite good: 1 month of pay + 1 month of COBRA reimbursement per year of service. Employees are quite unlikely to do as well in a layoff or bankruptcy restructure.

A portion of the talent you mention is already outsourced (same as at Ford and Stellantis).

[MrH]

Like Big Tech, GM no doubt sees sustained tough times on the horizon (confirmed by the near implosion of Silicon Valley Bank this week, which is approaching Lehman Brothers signposting). Ford and Stellantis will announce similar in the coming days or weeks.

Plus, I'm a firm believer in the principal that the number of employees doing most the work is the square root of the number of employees. As one can see, the larger the corporation, the more prominent the effect, so there will be a prominent self-selection which will only benefit GM.

The deal is actually quite good: 1 month of pay + 1 month of COBRA reimbursement per year of service. Employees are quite unlikely to do as well in a layoff or bankruptcy restructure.

A portion of the talent you mention is already outsourced (same as at Ford and Stellantis).

It's already dead.   Full implosion.  That was crazy quick.

[Morris Minor]

I found another article - looks like the offer is only going out to people with five or more years of service. So maybe the more recent hires have skills more aligned with where they want to go.
Wild guess: Close down Buick and drop the GMC clones?

Maybe they should rationalize the model variants - for example there are boatloads of permutations of the big SUVs.

[GoCougs]

I found another article - looks like the offer is only going out to people with five or more years of service. So maybe the more recent hires have skills more aligned with where they want to go.
Wild guess: Close down Buick and drop the GMC clones?

Maybe they should rationalize the model variants - for example there are boatloads of permutations of the big SUVs.

Unions have a huge lock on shutting down brands. Plus, Chevy + GMC trucks outsell Ford trucks, so the ramp up of Chevy manufacturing capacity will take extensive time and effort (to also include union headaches).

As much as I am dour on the future of EVs, Tesla, Rivian and Lucid staying the f*ck away from unions will only help them as tough times (including bubbles) keep coming.

[Morris Minor]

Yup. I  don't know how the unions deal with the move to what are essentially robot-assembled rechargeable laptops on wheels.


My uncle used to work for a telecoms company in Liverpool. It was a big unionized shop where they assembled electromechanical telephone exchanges. Solenoids, springs, stepping motors, relays.


Then computerized electronic switching came along. No moving parts. It was brutal because old skills were irrelevant.

[CaminoRacer]

*CX-30

[Eye of the Tiger]

That looks cumbersome

[AutobahnSHO]

I found another article - looks like the offer is only going out to people with five or more years of service. So maybe the more recent hires have skills more aligned with where they want to go.

New hires make less. They can pick the slack when all the experience leaves, right?

IF the company can navigate re-inventing itself, they could do ok when those youngsters get into the swing of things. Then of course they'll get asked to leave later in their careers....... And the cycle starts over again!

[Morris Minor]

New hires make less. They can pick the slack when all the experience leaves, right?

IF the company can navigate re-inventing itself, they could do ok when those youngsters get into the swing of things. Then of course they'll get asked to leave later in their careers....... And the cycle starts over again!

GM's problem is that it's still learning how to produce EVs at scale. They've produced about 1,000 Lyriqs since production started a year ago; they aim to produce  about 36,000 this year. (Last year Tesla sold around 252,000 Model Ys.)

[r0tor]

GM has lots of issues ... Too much engineering talent is probably not one of them though.

[Morris Minor]

Just outside of the town near us is a fenced gravel lot.  Vaguely remember driving past before & there was just some some & road construction equipment & few utility company-type trucks parked there. Anyway, now it's packed with new Jeeps of all kinds. Friend of a friend hearsay but I heard also there's a parking deck somewhere in Athens GA full of unsold Stellantises. [cough]Interest rates![/cough]

Also:
https://youtu.be/coO5atvPwkw

[AutobahnSHO]

crazy.