GM to close 4 truck plants due to high fuel cost.

[bubba]

http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/03/news/co ... topstories

NEW YORK -- General Motors announced plans Tuesday to shut four truck and SUV plants that employ thousands of workers, saying high gas prices are here to stay - and, with them, consumers' growing preference for more fuel efficient vehicles.

[DMB2000uk]

Well its sad for the amount of jobs that will be lost, but I hope this is a trend towards there being more fuel efficient cars over there rather than it being hip to drive a SUV.

lol at me using the word hip in a sentence.

Dan

[unfaithfulsfan]

As Mama said in the Waterboy, "The chickens are coming home to roost..." People around here are selling their big trucks and SUVs for next to nothing, taking huge losses just to get out from under the high operating costs. One of our neighbors told us it costs over $135 to fill his F150. I feel sorry for the plant workers, too, but I still have to snicker everytime I see a Hummer at the gas pump.

[vicaphit]

I bet it doesn't take very long to empty the gas tank on an F150 either. I am glad I have always driven small, efficient, cars. No need to change my ways because of gas prices. Though I would LOVE to get a Buell Blast for the summer commutes.

[T-Shirt]

I saw a local news story about a car dealership here that was getting truck tradeins on trucks just 4/6/8 months old, as people realise they don't need the big truck 99% of the time and now want a smaller car.
Great time to buy a truck (either new or slightly used) if you need one.
Many available below cost.

[skier]

I bet it doesn't take very long to empty the gas tank on an F150 either.

about 4 hours of highway @72mph with the 5.4L Triton V8(the biggest V8 stock in a f-150, the smaller is 4.6L; in an F250, thats a whole nother story, you can get 6.0L gassers and V-10 diesels in F350s)

but how many tanks does that F150 Have? some old ones have 2, each about 15-20GAL(or maybe thats just the F250, but im pretty sure 150s had 'em too)

anyways, SUVs were going downhill fast either way like the minivan(which they are in my opinion )

it really sucks that 2500 people per plant will be laid off though closing major job markets doesnt help the economy either, putting even MORE strain on the government for un-employment

[martini161]

my dad has an suv and he has started to ride his bike to work. he said he paid 75 dollars to fill it this weekend and this is at cheap nj gas prices. i really laugh when ever is see someone filling one of those 6 wheel super duty pickups that use disel

[bubba]

My worry is for my dad. He works at the GM plant here just outside of STL. When the other plants close the higher seniority union workers can apply for transfer and could very well 'bump' my dad from his job, even with him having 10yr seniority. If that happens the job market for his line of work isn't the greatest around here, tad over saturated, nice tool and die shops have a line out the door of guys trying to get in and the rest are !@#$ holes with lines of guys wanting out.

He's no spring chicken anymore either, it would suck to have to start at the bottom again at his age.

[stev]

The strange thing is, the AAM that had the strikes actually helped GM in the long run by not producing those trucks and vans. The strike fund helped the workers get by for those weeks, only to see the plants close anyways.

GM like Ford should have seen this coming like de-ja-vu of the oil crunch on the late 70's, but now on a global scale.

They should have know that making big gas guzzling trucks and cars would result in this again. Plus, selling more cars in Asia causes more oil/fuel demad over there too.

GREED is the name of the game. Even you and I are a part of it due to 401K and IRA's wanting better returns.

[geokilla]

Notice how it's always the American auto makers that have to close their manufacturing plants? It's never the Japanese auto makers that have to close them. In fact, I don't think I've heard of a Japanese auto plant being forced to close down in North America due to their vehicles not selling well.

GG The big three. Work harder to catch back up to those excellent imports.

BTW, not trying to spread hate or anything...but I personally would never purchase an American car. Imports ftw ^_^.

[Methious]

I don't know, a gas hog goes down enough in price I might get one for short trips. I only average about 40 miles a week outside of service calls. Service calls well the customer pays for the gas/snacks/food/porno I happen to pick up.

Longer trips I've been getting 42 miles to the gal for years it's called Kia Rio.

[smack323]

I have an SUV - Jeep Liberty ... unless gas get up to $6-$7gal I can't see myself getting something smaller. we go camping, canoeing, 4x4'n usally two weekends per month in the summer May-Sept.. I dont know how i would fit all that gear into a small Kia Rio. much less strap a canoe to the top. Lucky for me i only put about 10 miles a day on my Jeep so i can make it 2 weeks between fill ups.

In the Milwaukee area car dealerships cant keep the compacts on the lots.. most dealers have waitng list. it would be nice to see GM come up with some new compact cars that they could build at those plants..

[Zelig]

I have an SUV - Jeep Liberty ... unless gas get up to $6-$7gal I can't see myself getting something smaller. we go camping, canoeing, 4x4'n usally two weekends per month in the summer May-Sept.. I dont know how i would fit all that gear into a small Kia Rio. much less strap a canoe to the top.

I can strap my 2 kayaks on top of my parents' Toyota Matrix just fine.

Although usually I take my Chevy S10, since the Matrix isn't particularly well suited to going on back roads to get to nice streams.

[moon111]

Don't forget that GM loves to play politics to get money. When a car plant is threatened to shut down, the governments sometimes throw allot of money at the 'problem'. At the Oshawa plant they were talking about shutting down one plant down. But in actual fact, they were just going to make two into one big plant. But it scared the government enough to send some cash their way. My father-in-law works for a rental company and says those 8-6-4 engines are awesome for fuel economy compared to the normal engine plants.

At work, I'm either driving a V-10 or a Chevy with a 502 cubic inch (7.2? litre) engine. Who's worried about gas prices?