Chevy Volt a Failure - GM to Layoff 1,300

Still seems shortsighted. It's a long term capital investment in the future of the auto industry that should not be expected to payoff in year one.

 

You should have sold in the late summer of 2011 when I first suggested it. It was closer to $1,900 then, right?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/inside-the-market/premarket-gold-silver-prices-plummet/article6917057/?cmpid=rss1

Meanwhile, over the holiday break they had a Tesla in a showroom at the Westchester Mall. I loved the techy little thing. It downloads updated software overnight, so the car conceivably runs better over time. Costs $600 a year in maintenance. Must be strange to drive a car without a transmission going through gear changes, though.

 

Keep in mind that, as I pointed out, a dealership likely has lots of things it can spend $5,000 on. Maybe 50 of them have a positive net present value. The dealership is going to rank those opportunities in descending order and spend until it runs out of money. Wouldn't be surprised that for some dealerships, investing in this tool makes sense. For others, not so much.

 

In the car business, I think dealerships - especially GM dealerships - suffered most in the recent economic unpleasantness. And in the new world of incentives like "three years of free service," and in the new age of internet dealmaking and buying your car through your local bulk store, these would be tough times generally.

I'm guessing the margins aren't what they used to be anywhere in that business. $5000 for a single piece of equipment might loom pretty large.

 

Or cut into the budget for taking potential advertisers to lunch....

 

Still does not seem like a lot of money. With so much at stake for GM you would think they would try to figure something out like leasing the machines to dealers. Technology is apt to change anyway so dealers would not be stuck with obsolete tool.

Also likely that some of these dealers feel burned by large investments they made in developing Hummer brand and are now taking a wait and see.

There are roughly 3000 Chevy dealers so if GM were to put a tool in every dealer it would cost them 15 mil which does not seem like a big cost in the grand scheme of things.

Maybe there is still time to tack it on to The Sandy relief bill.

 

You can't expect a publisher to share an appetizer. You just can't.

 

Could we at least steer him to the calamari or the artichoke-spinach dip instead of the shrimp cocktail????

 

Just go to a deli that has the free bowl of pickles on the table

 

At Applebee's, she can split an appetizer and get two entrees, all for around $20.

That 52-week quarter-page commitment from the Chuckle Hut sells itself!