Thomas
Anderson,#2Consumer Comment
Sun, January 21, 2007
GM and Ford are trying to compete with Toyota and Honda, et al. By Japanese law, I am told (I cannot read Kanji), the CEO of a Japanese company cannot be paid more than 6X of the compensation of the company's lowest-paid employee. The pay numbers I have seen do support this claim. Japanese execs do get chump-change when compared to the many millions of dollars the GM and Ford execs take, meaning that more money 'per car sold' is taken by the US execs leaving less net money 'per car sold' available for product development and quality. The Japanese engineering and design teams are usually 3X as big as the comparable US engineering and design teams. Those Japanese technical people are very capable, and they also have the luxury of investing enough time to carefully attend to the design details as well as being able to specify higher quality materials for their products. As GM's market share dwindles (while the execs' pay does not) these problems will only get worse as more money per GM car sold will be taken by the execs. But the GM engineers and designers will be the ones who get beaten up- not the execs.
Thomas
Anderson,#3Consumer Comment
Sun, January 21, 2007
GM and Ford are trying to compete with Toyota and Honda, et al. By Japanese law, I am told (I cannot read Kanji), the CEO of a Japanese company cannot be paid more than 6X of the compensation of the company's lowest-paid employee. The pay numbers I have seen do support this claim. Japanese execs do get chump-change when compared to the many millions of dollars the GM and Ford execs take, meaning that more money 'per car sold' is taken by the US execs leaving less net money 'per car sold' available for product development and quality. The Japanese engineering and design teams are usually 3X as big as the comparable US engineering and design teams. Those Japanese technical people are very capable, and they also have the luxury of investing enough time to carefully attend to the design details as well as being able to specify higher quality materials for their products. As GM's market share dwindles (while the execs' pay does not) these problems will only get worse as more money per GM car sold will be taken by the execs. But the GM engineers and designers will be the ones who get beaten up- not the execs.
Thomas
Anderson,#4Consumer Comment
Sun, January 21, 2007
GM and Ford are trying to compete with Toyota and Honda, et al. By Japanese law, I am told (I cannot read Kanji), the CEO of a Japanese company cannot be paid more than 6X of the compensation of the company's lowest-paid employee. The pay numbers I have seen do support this claim. Japanese execs do get chump-change when compared to the many millions of dollars the GM and Ford execs take, meaning that more money 'per car sold' is taken by the US execs leaving less net money 'per car sold' available for product development and quality. The Japanese engineering and design teams are usually 3X as big as the comparable US engineering and design teams. Those Japanese technical people are very capable, and they also have the luxury of investing enough time to carefully attend to the design details as well as being able to specify higher quality materials for their products. As GM's market share dwindles (while the execs' pay does not) these problems will only get worse as more money per GM car sold will be taken by the execs. But the GM engineers and designers will be the ones who get beaten up- not the execs.
Steve
Asheville,#5Consumer Comment
Sun, January 21, 2007
Tommy I am very saddened and I believe you are correct and this is wrong for any consumer in such circumstances. Right now, we are trying to get GM to answer to major problem Firestone uncovered on our 4 year old vehicle that can also lead to accident or death, and GM tells me there is no problem and say unless it was a GM delaership who services that vehicle, they have no further interest nor care and closed our complaint case! We are told in a recent service on our 2002 Grand Prix that both front ABS rotor hub assemblies and bearings are bad and cannot be aligned unless replaced. They told us this is a recurring problme they have seen from GM cars like this and yet GM tells me they have no recalls nor any knowledge of such problmes before our complaint. ALso, Firestone said the intake manifolds were leaking coolant inot oil crankcase which will cause engine to blow up! They said GM went from 8bolt system and high quality gasketing materisl to a 4 bolt system now, and poor quality gasket material that they have seen goign bad on enarly new vehicles; yet GM also tells me they have no recalls nor any knowledge about this. We cannot afford several thousands dollars in these major repairs and still owe a loan on this car, and this is the "high quality" GM parts they talk about? I think not! Had this vehicle been 10 years old or something, fine. But for such a opyung car to have such potential major problmes we are told are a defect from GM's manufacturing, will it take for me or my wife or son getting in ana ccident because the hubs fall off or we are killed? This is our only vehicle right now.
Buddy
Eureka,#6Consumer Suggestion
Thu, April 20, 2006
First of all, I am sorry for the loss of your daughter. The pain you are going through comes through in your writing. I was a paralegal for a defense firm in California for 25 years, and we defended a lot of one-vehicle accident cases, usually representing the dealership. A statute of limitations is there to make sure that cases can be tried fairly. After two years, witnesses move around, physical evidence can be lost, etc. Did anyone ever examine your daughter's car to make sure that the defect which was present in those models actually caused the crash? It may have been something else completely, even though those particular models of autos may have had that type of defect. An accident won't be caused until the motor mounts actually fail, and did anyone examine the vehicle to see if the motor mounts had failed, or are you assuming that because there was an accident in this vehicle, that must be the cause? I am very surprised that you weren't contacted by half a dozen Plaintiff's attorneys willing to take on your case immediately after the crash. Also, is your daughter's mother still alive? She could have filed a lawsuit within the two years, which you could have joined. In California, and I don't know about your state, the statute of limitations can be "tolled" if you are unable to proceed with the lawsuit. In your case, if you could have proven that you were medically disabled after the accident and could not have proceeded with a lawsuit, there was a chance that the statute of limitations could have been tolled. I would sit down with one last lawyer to see if you have a case against any of the lawyers who just turned you down flat early in your quest because of the statute problem. There are ways to get around this, and I'm surprised one of them did not suggest filing a lawsuit, and if it was dismissed due to the statute problem, proceeding to the Court of Appeal (or your state's equivalent) to plead for equitable relief from an unjust situation. Good luck to you, and I hope you can get some help from someone.