[grasslakebasspro]

There is a story today on bassfan.com, under the heading of "dock talk" of Chevy Trucks terminating their sponsorship with BASS beginning in 2004. Chevy told BASS this move is due to budget problems. The two have been partners for 20 years.

In addtion, Chevy Trucks has released their entire Pro Staff and ending their sponsorships of most outdoor shows.

FLW could be next to lose Chevy Trucks.

 

[DRP]

I really found that news to be shocking. Maybe it's time for Ford to step up.

 

[Mac]

Ford won't do it,...they haven't been involved in Outdoors related sponsorships in years.....plus they're currently not in any financial position to do it. GM has said as a result of their association with BASS that they sold over 50,000+ vehicles accounting for over 1.5Billion dollars in sales!! That's unreal.....yet due to "financial and marketing strategy changes" they've decided to terminate their long standing relationship.

I'm betting that one of the foreign company's (i.e. Toyota or Nissan) may step up...but who knows...I'm willing to bet it won't be Ford or Diamler......too much $$$$$.

Don't feel too sorry for those Pro's who lost their deals either,.....every single one of them could go to a local dealer in their hometowns and get a sponsorship,..and with them not having to commit to doing "Chevy Nights" and every other promotional obligation they may have had to do,...it frees up another weeknight for them when they're on the road.....they'll be able to spend more time practicing and prepairing for the next tournament. We may not see a major auto company step up at all for a couple years......The folks that got hammered the hardest by this are the Trail owners,..i.e. BASS and (possibly FLW),.....with no more "official" (i.e. company provided tow vehicles),...they're going to be scrambling to find enough trucks to use at their events,....thus the "local" dealers stepping up.....we may actually see a smorgasboard of tow vehicles from now on, with local dealers from each company providing 3-4 trucks for each event. Who knows,.....a lot of ???'s still up in the air...

Mac

 

[No More Mini]

Ford has been involved...

What good would it do for a local dealer to sponsor Vandam or Brauer? They are away from the local area more than they are in it. Unless the dealer owned stores in a region of states (still would only be good in the South) I dont see why any one of them would do it. Although Art Ferguson is sponsored by Jerome Duncan....

The Chevy Truck Pro night was a good thing for most of the guys....they got paid to be there.....

Mini

 

[Mac]

OK then,..betya KVD's next truck has D&R splashed all over it!!..LOL Either way,...i seriousley doubt ANY of those former Chevy guys will be making truck payments!!!Some other mfgr or some dealer will gladly give them one,....IMHO!!

 

[grasslakebasspro]

Ford has been involved with bass fishing. I seem to remember Ford being a sponsor of Shaw Grisby' show last year.

It is a perfect time for Ford to get involved. An association with BASS would help them sell their newly remodeled F-150; FLW too.

Anyone have an idea of how many pros were affected by Chevy's decision? Locally, I believe KVD and Kim Stricker were on the team. I believe Larry Nixon was part of the team. Brauer?

 

[Mac]

When I say "involved" i meant at a national level like GM was....Ford sponsoring a few TV shows or individual angler's is not a national presence as far as what I was refering to.

Other Nat'l Chevy Pro's were: Tom Mann Jr. (He was the one who got the Team started via a friend of his who work for GM mrktg), Jay Yelas, Tommy Biffle, Larry Nixon,
David Fritts, KVD, Brauer and Kim Stricker. Jimmy Houston was too I think,....

 

[No More Mini]

I think you got them all....

Mini

 

[workingman]

Wow, GM must really be hurting! They probably didn't meet their quota this year for putting suppliers out of business, squeezing every last cent out of their suppliers or hammering their suppliers with unethical business practices. So now they have to pull back a few endorsements to compensate. I used to cringe everytime I saw their commercials when I was watching fishing shows (cringed just before I clicked it off).

Oh well, looks like the Pro's may have to purchase their own vehicle of choice. I recommend a big'ol Ford Diesel.

Honestly, I hope Ford looks at this opportunity and steps up to the plate...er....dock.

 

[Alex]

QUOTE(workingman @ Dec 12 2003, 08:35 PM)Wow, GM must really be hurting! They probably didn't meet their quota this year for putting suppliers out of business, squeezing every last cent out of their suppliers or hammering their suppliers with unethical business practices. So now they have to pull back a few endorsements to compensate. I used to cringe everytime I saw their commercials when I was watching fishing shows (cringed just before I clicked it off).

I know exactly what your talking about. I live through this everyday. Although if you think Ford or DCX are any better......your kidding yourself. I some aspects they are far worse.

 

[mrducks]

QUOTE(John Maniaci @ Dec 12 2003, 09:38 AM)Ford has been involved...

What good would it do for a local dealer to sponsor Vandam or Brauer? They are away from the local area more than they are in it. Unless the dealer owned stores in a region of states (still would only be good in the South) I dont see why any one of them would do it. Although Art Ferguson is sponsored by Jerome Duncan....

The Chevy Truck Pro night was a good thing for most of the guys....they got paid to be there.....

Mini
Cochran has had , or did have, a local dealer sponsorship for years. Why wouldn't someone pick up Nixon like that? It must pay off for the dealer....he did it for years. Think about it......having local pros...big time pros in your dealership....that cannot be bad. They write off the vehicle as a "demo", sell it after so many miles, they get exposure/advertising etc...It works in some cases. If I had a dealership in MI, I'd be calling Van Dam in a blink. Guys like that can sell you more vehicles than some snot nosed kid you'll hire off the street, that will cost you even more than a "demo".

 

[Mac]

QUOTE(workingman @ Dec 13 2003, 12:35 AM)Wow, GM must really be hurting! They probably didn't meet their quota this year for putting suppliers out of business, squeezing every last cent out of their suppliers or hammering their suppliers with unethical business practices.
Couldn't be further from the truth,....GM just paid over $2Billion into it's pension fund that was seriousley underfunded.....brought it up to par (fully funded) in less than one year! There's a gazillion retirees out there and even more coming in the near future!! Priorities are priorities.......if taking care of the people who worked for you for 30+years takes precedence over certain programs,..and unfortunately means cutting back everywhere to meet those obligations,..than that proves they're a company with the right priorities, IMHO. Ask any retiree..."would you rather have a paycheck or a Pro-Staff?"...I can bet you'd answer the same as they would!!! GM's kicking some serious butt right now....and the competition from over seas is fierce and relentless...
It's too bad that they have to squeeze everywhere they can...but it's the nature of the business...they're not doing it 'cuz they want to...they do it because they have to!

I don't feel any more "secure" in my job now w/20 yrs in,.. than I did the day I hired in! But like living in the USA,...there's no better place to be right now if you're in the auto industry! The days of "Generous Motors" are long gone.....and nobody is irreplaceable...just ask Bob Stemple. Even CEO's can and WILL be replaced if they don't produce......this "global economy" takes no prisoners.....only the strong survive and GM wants to survive.,...unfortunately, not everybody or every company can say the same. I just show up every day,...do my job as best as I can and hope for the best....it's all any of us can do!!

 

[workingman]

Couldn't be farther from the truth?!?! More like, the truth hurts!!! It's not some great thing that GM did, funding the pension plan. It's called the law. If the law didn't protect GM employee's pension plan they would be digging their claws into it faster than you can say Enron. The term "Generous Motors" has always applied to GM employee's, never suppliers. Squeezing is one thing, they have taken to a new level.

Let's start off with GM's bidding and targeting:
Have a bunch of company's bid a project from a junk bid package full of errors and omissions.
Tell everyone what the "target" number is so now everyone has an idea of what the low bid was.
Let everyone rebid the project with knowledge of what the low bid price approximately was.
Repeat these steps somewhere between 2 and a million times to insure that the "lucky" company that "wins" the order doesn't have enough money to do the job.
To add insult to injury, put bidders confidential cost cutting alternates out for competitive bids also.

This is just at the bidding stage! Once you "win " the order the fun really begins! They tell you that everthing that was missing from the bid package "you should have known that". Now we have to be mind readers! They make you take on additional work or cause the project to go into additional overtime and then invent some specification "that you should have known about" so they don't have to pay you. That's after they have put you through the hassle of supplying an quotation and a bunch of forms that are an accountants dream.

Bottom Line - you can't make money on a GM project. They won't let you! And if you find a way you can make money they will invent a way to stop you.

Now this is truely the sad part. GM has convinced their employee's that all these are "good business practices". They aren't good business practices, it's called unethical business practices. Years ago people wouldn't do business with you once word got out that you were a snake.

I appologize for placing my comments on this forum, it's probably the wrong place, but I kept it clean. I won't debate this subject anymore, I will let my actions speak. I was a GM man for many years purchasing many GM vehicles. Over the past few years I've used a GM Card that has over $3,000 toward a new GM car purchase. I'm going to purchase a new vehicle in the next few weeks and it won't be a GM product. I will cancel my GM Card and send a letter to GM as to the reason why. Maybe it will help and maybe it won't.

Like I said, the truth hurts.

 

[Alex]

You are right on Mac. GM has more in their coffers than Ford and DCX combined. The future of the later 2 was dicey at best 12 months ago while GM's profits continue to rise. GM really put the hurt Ford and DCX with the special financing deals and rebates a year ago. Which leads me to believe this decision was likely not finacially motivated. Which makes even more odd that they did it.

With that said all 3 are squeezing every nickel they can out of everywhere they can. Trust me on this one. Nothing and I mean nothing would surprise me anymore if it meant saving a buck.

 

[Alex]

Workingman, you are also 100% right. But just to clarrify. This is not a GM thing, this has become standard industry practice for automotive OEM's (Ford, DCX, Nissan, etc). Based on my experiences, I can honestly say GM is not the worst.

 

[Mac]

Workingman,..I understand, respect and appreciate your point of view,....although I have no experience in the bidding for and awarding of supplier contracts,..it does make me wonder,..why then,.do they(suppliers) continue to bid on GM contracts if it's such a bad deal or unethical at best??? Doesn't make sense to me if they're "not allowed to make money", that they continue to even work with GM......or Ford,...or DCX. Why aren't suppliers picketing outside the plants and raising a stink about it to the Fed.Gov. if it's illegal??....Why do suppliers continue to BEG to get a Big 3 contract?? The answers continue to elude me too, but GM is in business to MAKE money for it's employees, retirees, partners, and stockholders,...and at the same time,...delivering some pretty innovative and cool stuff.....obviously the customers and general public agree, since overall sales and profits are continuing to break records!!
Customers are demanding the MOST for their money nowadays and the choices availabale to us are virtually unlimited......and GM's found a way to be very successful in that environment...I hope the other's can eventually do the same for their folks,.....like you said,.."The truth hurts"

 

[Basstrap896]

Workingman,
You must be working on the car side of the house at GM.
On the Truck side we use a template that outlines the requirements on the SOR (Statement of Requirements).
We as engineers then review the template and add all of the system requirements to the technical specs. I work in engineering and with purchasing, I can only speak for the Truck side of the house. I've been in teck reviews with 6 different suppliers in the past 2 weeks. Anyone of the suppliers would love to have our business at 1.7 million vehicles a year (GMT900).Just my .02 cents

 

[Ranger482]

Mac, Basstrap, others--do you guys work at the tech center in Warren? My brother is an engineer there.

 

[Mac]

Yes, I'm in Warren now, and Joe's in Pontiac until March,..then he'll be in Warren too.
I was in Pontiac for 8 years or so until our dept. moved here this past July. Went from driving 8 miles one way...to 25,...arrghh!! All in the name of cost cutting and consolidation,......ohhh the truth is so painful!!! LOL!!

 

[No More Mini]

Ok yall, I hate to rain on your fun, but lets keep it on topic.....this is a tournament board ya know

LOL

Mini