Wow, Hyundai really has stepped it up. Good for them. Good analogy by the member relating Hyundai to AMD, just sounded right
Originally posted by: NFS4
Originally posted by: SuperSix
Originally posted by: NFS4
Hyundai is gonna clean up with these puppies
Hyundai eyes luxury cars, hybrids
Christ - even Hyundai sees the value in mid-sixe luxury RWD - GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS GM!!!
Morons...
Uhhh, Cadillac CTS
The CTS starts around $31,000, which isn't too far off from where the Hyundai would be.Originally posted by: Citrix
Originally posted by: NFS4
Originally posted by: SuperSix
Christ - even Hyundai sees the value in mid-sixe luxury RWD - GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS GM!!!
Morons...
Uhhh, Cadillac CTS
the masses cant afford a Cadillac.
Originally posted by: Doggiedog
But Wagoner will be hard-pressed to get enough relief on medical costs, at least before the scheduled contract negotiations in 2007. The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in Ann Arbor, Mich., estimates that GM could save at least $1.2 billion a year just by closing the gap in co-payments and deductibles between different kinds of employees. A single, salaried worker pays at least $100 a month toward health costs, while hourly union workers pay no premiums and only a $5 co-pay on drugs. But so far, the United Auto Workers leadership has shown no sign that it's willing to reopen a contract that still has two more years to run. When GM's Group Vice-President for labor relations Gary L. Cowger suggested synching up the union and nonunion plans, UAW Vice-President Richard Shoemaker quipped: "If GM wants to give the salaried workers the same health-care plan we have, we're happy to share."
What a bunch of self-serving pr!cks.
If or when GM throws these guys out the door, I'll be laughing my ass off. If this guy doesn't realize what's been happening to the airlines industry or companies like Lucent, he'd better start reading up now.
Why? Unions built this country!!!Originally posted by: CPA
Originally posted by: Doggiedog
But Wagoner will be hard-pressed to get enough relief on medical costs, at least before the scheduled contract negotiations in 2007. The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in Ann Arbor, Mich., estimates that GM could save at least $1.2 billion a year just by closing the gap in co-payments and deductibles between different kinds of employees. A single, salaried worker pays at least $100 a month toward health costs, while hourly union workers pay no premiums and only a $5 co-pay on drugs. But so far, the United Auto Workers leadership has shown no sign that it's willing to reopen a contract that still has two more years to run. When GM's Group Vice-President for labor relations Gary L. Cowger suggested synching up the union and nonunion plans, UAW Vice-President Richard Shoemaker quipped: "If GM wants to give the salaried workers the same health-care plan we have, we're happy to share."
What a bunch of self-serving pr!cks.
If or when GM throws these guys out the door, I'll be laughing my ass off. If this guy doesn't realize what's been happening to the airlines industry or companies like Lucent, he'd better start reading up now.
I so hate unions.
Originally posted by: ivol07
Originally posted by: jmgonzalez
from the forbes article: Both companies have a pipeline full of new products. After the Tucson and Sonata, Hyundai will replace its Accent, Elantra and XG 350 sedans, and add a larger Santa Fe, with three rows of seats, and a new minivan.
I've already sent this to my wife and told her that her dreams of getting a Yukon are over if a Santa Fe is coming out with three rows of seats.
The New Accent's web site
Azera's web site ( XG 350 replacement)
There isn't any info on the new Santa Fe's looks yet but some spy shots and an artist rendering of what it's supposed to look like have been seen.
Go Hyundai!
Originally posted by: Jenova314
Originally posted by: SuperTool
Hyundai is like Samsung of cars. Toyota is like Sony of cars.
Except Toyota hasn't quite lost it like Sony has.
You clearly don't know anyone who works for a company like Walmart. Unions are needed just as much today as they were in the past.Originally posted by: jmgonzalez
There was a reason why unions started, but now they are destroying the companies that they work with. Employees are no longer treated as bad as they were in the past.
Unions suck!
Originally posted by: Muadib
You clearly don't know anyone who works for a company like Walmart. Unions are needed just as much today as they were in the past.Originally posted by: jmgonzalez
There was a reason why unions started, but now they are destroying the companies that they work with. Employees are no longer treated as bad as they were in the past.
Unions suck!
To get back on topic, Hyundai still has quality issues. Thanks, but I'll pass.
Originally posted by: Jenova314
Originally posted by: Muadib
You clearly don't know anyone who works for a company like Walmart. Unions are needed just as much today as they were in the past.Originally posted by: jmgonzalez
There was a reason why unions started, but now they are destroying the companies that they work with. Employees are no longer treated as bad as they were in the past.
Unions suck!
To get back on topic, Hyundai still has quality issues. Thanks, but I'll pass.
You clearly underestimate the importance of Walmart. Do you believe the mom/pops stores that it supplanted were able to break into the Chinese/European markets? Walmart wins not only via lower wages, but also relentless efficiency. If you truly believe that artificially inflated wages for mom/pops grocery employees are sustainable in the face of global market competition, then I'm afraid you need to enroll in Econ101. In the quest for living wages and salaries for relatively unskilled labor, Unionized Americans are costing the entire nation their competitive edge. As I've said before, who is to say that they deserve a salary comparable to those of engineers and technicians, when in fact they're only screwing bolts onto cars? Who is to say that they deserve to have free health-care when white-collared workers must pay $100/month just to buy a plan with copayments? Who are they to have all these benefits, at the expense of dragging down the entire company and all whom it employs? It would be an unfortunate day when the foot-stomping and guilt-tripping by the UAW finally buries them alive.
In my high-school days, I used to be pro-union. Ever since the dockworker's strike took place along the west coast, I had lost all respect for them. They were demanding a raise on top of their 6-digit salaries, at the expense of over $1B/day to the US economy. Shops were unable to restock, exporters of consumables bled red ink, and kittens began sporadically dying. But hey... in the end, they got their raise. They were simply protecting themselves from the evil corporations, right?
Regarding Hyundai's quality issues. You're right, and I suppose I would pass for the time being as well.
Edit: Latest news! Woohoo, go unions! Shot yourselves in the foot, did ya?
Edit: Latest news! Woohoo, go unions! Shot yourselves in the foot, did ya?
Solomon Samson, S.& P.'s chief rating officer, cited two ways G.M. and Ford could improve their fortunes. First, he said the companies would be in better shape if they could win concessions from the United Automobile Workers on health care benefits, particularly for retirees. Union leaders, however, said recently that they would not be open to talking about significant changes in benefits before the next round of contract negotiations in 2007.
The other strategy would be more fundamental: make more cars and trucks people want to buy, he said.
"If one of these companies managed to hit a lot of triples and home runs, that would have the potential to stabilize things," he said. "Obviously, we're not banking on either of those."
bwhahahahaha.Once upon a time there were great big companies in a land called Detroit . Often they were attacked by foreign invaders. Being all-powerful, Detroit flicked its would-be rivals aside like cigar ashes on an expensive suit.
Thus, when another attempt was made to raid their kingdom - this time by Japanese with funny names like " Toyota, Datsun, and Honda," the laughing from the land called Detroit brought such tears to its American executives' eyes they couldn't clearly read the sales charts that illustrated the start of an alarmingly diminishing market share.
That's awesome.Originally posted by: ub4me
Originally posted by: Sheepathon
A good article by Forbes about the Sonata and Hyundai.
The U.S. market--largest in the world--is Hyundai's biggest target, but it's also betting heavily on Europe and on fast-growing China and India, with new plants in each region. With militant labor unions in Korea, Hyundai also plans to use India as an export base for small cars. In fact, Hyundai was the top seller in China in January and February, beating Volkswagen and GM.
Very impressive
Hyundai's turnaround began under its workaholic Chairman Mong-Koo Chung, 67, whose father founded the company in 1967. Long the heir apparent and aching to run the prominent auto unit controlled by his uncle, Chung was instead stuck during the 1980s with responsibility for Hyundai's aftersale service and dealerships.
Back then Hyundai Motors' sole purpose was to churn cars out of factories. It showed that volume took precedence over quality in the 1980s and 1990s.
But it was Mong-Koo Chung who had to clean up the mess. Irate customers complained to dealers, and costly repairs were made on Hyundai's shoddy cars, all by his unit. Finally, in 1999, after the Asian financial crisis and a breakup of the company, his father handed Mong-Koo the reins to Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, moving the uncle aside.
Chung's first step: Replace the bean counters in top management with engineers. Then he began working methodically on a strategy to challenge Toyota for leadership in J.D. Power's quality rankings. He hired a raft of consultants and worked closely with J.D. Power experts to benchmark the world's best auto companies. He sent Korean quality task forces to the U.S. to study weather and road conditions, as well as driver habits.
Chung expanded the quality department tenfold, to 1,000 people, and made it report directly to him. He also encouraged employees to share their ideas for improvement, promising bonuses that averaged $150. At Hyundai's Asan factory, outside Seoul, workers have dropped 25,000 ideas into the suggestion box, of which 30% have been adopted. One worker won $500 after noticing that the Sonata and the XG 350 sedans had differently shaped covers over their spare tires. Sharing the cover saves the company $100,000 a year.
Chung, a freckled, round-faced golf lover, starts each week with a demanding quality meeting at 9 o'clock Monday morning. As many as 50 engineers, designers, suppliers and factory managers are summoned to a large conference room for three hours. Cars are displayed on turntables, or even on hydraulic lifts, so that Chung and his quality experts can see the problems firsthand. "He's not looking at it on paper; he's very hands-on," says Robert Cosmai, chief executive of Hyundai Motor America.
Chung is so obsessed with quality that he's been known to take the unusual--and expensive--step of modifying a car's design midway through its life cycle, or even delaying a car's launch to resolve niggling issues.
The new Sonata's launch in Korea was held up for two months after the newly empowered quality department identified nearly 50 problems it wanted fixed. Employees at the Asan factory, where the Sonata is built, worked feverishly to fix such things as a tiny error in the size of the gap between two pieces of sheet metal near the headlight, even though it wasn't obvious to the naked eye and didn't affect the car's operation. "It was narrower than 0.1 millimeter," says Sang Kil Han, the quality manager who noticed the gap and then worked every weekend and until 10 p.m. nightly to identify its cause. Sixty factory managers, assembly-line workers, supplier experts and engineers from Hyundai's nearby research and development center pored over the problem for 25 days before it was solved with special training for those assembling that part.
Drive tests revealed a rattle coming from the Sonata's front doors. It took two months to fix: Engineers replaced the plastic strip at the bottom of the door with a more rubbery polymer at a cost of 40 cents more per car. Had the same problem occurred five years ago, "we'd probably leave it," says Don Hyung Jo, manager of the Asan factory quality control department.
Most automakers keep tabs on customer complaints and deal with them all at once, when a car is due to be redesigned. But Hyundai scrambled to respond in 2003 after Santa Fe, New Mexico buyers complained of wind noise. Engineers redesigned the side-view mirrors to reduce friction and relocated a crossbar on the vehicle's luggage rack. The result was impressive: Santa Fe's initial quality score improved from 149 problems per 100 vehicles on J.D. Power's 2003 study to 93 the following year.
No doubt why their quality has being improved.
Originally posted by: Muadib
You clearly don't know anyone who works for a company like Walmart. Unions are needed just as much today as they were in the past.Originally posted by: jmgonzalez
There was a reason why unions started, but now they are destroying the companies that they work with. Employees are no longer treated as bad as they were in the past.
Unions suck!
To get back on topic, Hyundai still has quality issues. Thanks, but I'll pass.
How the heck can you blame unions for GM's problems? Did their union decide to ignore the foreign competition? Did their union decide to use cheap materials in their products while during that same period, their competition had products that were made from quality parts? Did the union decide to forgo creating a product that uses an alternative fuel or a hybrid? Was it the union's decision to stick with the same ho-hum design? Did the union decide to pay their CEO almost 3 times what Toyota's CEO makes?Originally posted by: jmgonzalez
Originally posted by: Muadib
You clearly don't know anyone who works for a company like Walmart. Unions are needed just as much today as they were in the past.Originally posted by: jmgonzalez
There was a reason why unions started, but now they are destroying the companies that they work with. Employees are no longer treated as bad as they were in the past.
Unions suck!
To get back on topic, Hyundai still has quality issues. Thanks, but I'll pass.
I never liked Unions as they are now after seeing what they have done to companies like GM.
As a stockholder in Walmart, I don't like them even more.
Originally posted by: Muadib
How the heck can you blame unions for GM's problems? Did their union decide to ignore the foreign competition? Did their union decide to use cheap materials in their products while during that same period, their competition had products that were made from quality parts? Did the union decide to forgo creating a product that uses an alternative fuel or a hybrid? Was it the union's decision to stick with the same ho-hum design? Did the union decide to pay their CEO almost 3 times what Toyota's CEO makes?Originally posted by: jmgonzalez
Originally posted by: Muadib
You clearly don't know anyone who works for a company like Walmart. Unions are needed just as much today as they were in the past.Originally posted by: jmgonzalez
There was a reason why unions started, but now they are destroying the companies that they work with. Employees are no longer treated as bad as they were in the past.
Unions suck!
To get back on topic, Hyundai still has quality issues. Thanks, but I'll pass.
I never liked Unions as they are now after seeing what they have done to companies like GM.
As a stockholder in Walmart, I don't like them even more.
Stockholder or not, if you approve of Walmart's labor practices, then you sir are scum!:disgust: