Chevy name dropped

[Terry M.]

Re: Chevy name dropped

Terry, everyone who has ever mentioned your former role as editor of The Corvette Restorer to me, has told me you did a superb job.

Why did you quit.....?
Inquiring minds want to know....

Ridge

Ridge,
Thanks for the kind words. I enjoyed the job.

This is not the time and place to discuss events surrounding my leaving the Editors job -- however, in the last issue I edited (and I don't have access to my desktop at the moment to give you the date) I wrote about my reasons for leaving.

[Ridge K.]

Re: Chevy name dropped

Thank you Terry for the reply.

I guessed that it was probably a reason that you are just way too much a gentleman to discuss in open forum.

I'll try to get my hands on a copy of that last edition. I was just a kid then, ....but I'll bet I can find an old copy!

[Terry M.]

Re: Chevy name dropped

Thank you Terry for the reply.

I guessed that it was probably a reason that you are just way too much a gentleman to discuss in open forum.

I'll try to get my hands on a copy of that last edition. I was just a kid then, ....but I'll bet I can find an old copy!

Give me 'til the weekend and I'll try to get you an electronic version of the article. I have it in the desktop, but it is in the bedroom and it is past our bedtime. Depending on what I can convert it to, I might have to email it to you.

[Stuart F.]

Re: Chevy name dropped

While working with GM for 22+ years, and for a number of years in retirement there after, I always referred to GM as "Generous Motors" (some used to say "Generous Mother"), but after loosing our healthcare at the beginning of last year and looking forward to loosing our pension in 2012, I'm less inclined to use that description and am leaning toward a combination of "Government Mother Somethings", Ha!

Don't get me wrong, I'm philisophical about the matter. I'm grateful for the good years and realize nothing lasts forever. Just sad that so many good hard working people are getting messed over. They don't deserve it.

Stu Fox

[Chris H.]

Re: Chevy name dropped

One of the reasons GM did go broke is because of those Generous Motors beni's that continued after everyone else got rid of them. Pensions today are not that common anymore. As is the totally free health care we used to get. Just cannot compete with the bottom line at other companies that do not have that overhead even if they build their cars in the US.

The letter was written not to get rid of Chevy. Internally that is what we call it also. What was wanted was the official documents/advertising use Chevrolet, our brand name marque, to make sure it is common throughout the world. In Germany/India/China/Russia Chevy is not synonymous with Chevrolet to those markets and could cause confusion.

[Stuart F.]

Re: Chevy name dropped

I believe one reason for the concern is, as we discussed on the board before - that being the PC angle.

Much of the "bennies" we received as salaried GM employees were based on the "Foreman's Formula" principle, i.e. that a salaried Supervisor or Foreman should not be in a position where those he supervises make more in compensation and benefits than the boss. Most of these extraordinary benefits were negotiated away by the company with the Unions in order to keep the product flowing, maintain a good bottom line and please the stock holders. What the Unions "won" was, for a long time, passed on to the salaried in kind or in a form of reasonable equality. That seemed to hold true until about the early 90's when the company decided to look for and found other ways to lessen the impact of new contract give-aways to the Unions on the backs of the salaried who had little recourse besides their own two feet - and many did walk. COLA went away, then a gradual errosion of healthcare and other benefits. It came to an era similar to why I left working on contracts in South Vietnam. It just didn't pay any more and only those with a strong personal interest (family) or sense of loyalty stayed on. I, by mistake, got an offer for an early retirement some 9 months before I had enough points (yrs service plus age), so I took it and never looked back.

"Employment at will" is a two way street. You just got to make sure to protect yourself and your family's interest as best you can. No Union there to get you less work for more compensation. I abhore that principle.

Stu Fox

[Tracy C.]

Re: Chevy name dropped

It hasn't been that long ago and we were lamenting the fact that "CHEVY" had replaced "CHEVROLET" in the advertisments. My guess is the new ad agency read this thread (Sangerhausen's hilarous "Ralphie" post specifically..) and booted the CHEVY ads.

https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthre...brand&uid=7920

[Phil D.]

Re: Chevy name dropped

Just in the last week, I've been seeing TV ads for "Chevy Silverado" trucks spoken with a Ricardo Montalban sort of Spanish accent. It just sounds weird because even with all the Hispanics here in Fort Worth, I've never heard Chevy or Silverado spoken with such an accent.

[Richard G.]

Re: Chevy name dropped

Just the standard Corporation thinking. Marketing has their fingers in everything even how employees refer to the employer. God help the poor soul that screws up and refers to GM's Chevrolet brand as Chevy. The rest of us can do as we please.

[John H.]

Re: Chevy name dropped

GM has since back-pedaled furiously with a damage control program, after being ridiculed by virtually every breathing human being who knows what a car is; it's now OK again for anyone to say "Chevy" . When there are more people in Marketing than there are in Engineering, Manufacturing, and Assembly combined, they can turn almost anything good into a nightmare.