GM CEO confirms GM-Proton talks
General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner has confirmed that GM is in talks with Proton, but says at this level they are at the conversation level, nothing extensive yet. He also declined to state any possible outcome, or whether the talks have been positive or negative so far, saying it is too early to anticipate a possible outcome.
GM is currently looking for partnerships in various growing markets like China, Russia, and India, and Asia is also one of it’s targets for rapid growth. Proton might play a crucial role in GM’s plans for this region.
January 17, 2007 @ 5:20 pm
GM – PROTON???
No MERIT at ALL! Get out lah GM. KAKACAUCAU only!
January 17, 2007 @ 5:23 pm
American DESIGNed is SUCKS!
High Fuel consumption, Huge size, Bad handling, Expensive, ulgy looks, High maintenance………anymore…..etc……infinite.
January 17, 2007 @ 6:34 pm
thy should have a shout , those american multi nationals have political powers as well so thy could sneak in….not sure if it works out,thy do have so many brands under them,so many platforms to share…bt financially thy r abit weak…very tricky indeed
January 17, 2007 @ 6:34 pm
Um…..at least, GM is better than Proton lah…not matter in design, management, quality….
January 17, 2007 @ 8:23 pm
I am loathe to see GM tie up with Proton. GM is a company run by bean counters saddled with mediocre platforms and technologies. GM practices brand engineering to the extreme (witness what they did to Saab in the US.)
January 17, 2007 @ 9:20 pm
I agree they suck, fuel guzzling vehicles. Up to now the chevy line in malaysia is not that impressive. One I don’t know what has radiator grills which looks like a pig.
January 17, 2007 @ 11:18 pm
By the way in US, the american car is cheaper than japanese car but more expensive than korean car. American car quality is not good, heard that my friend’s friend ford suv was burn in his garage.
January 17, 2007 @ 11:35 pm
GM is the biggest car manufacturer of the world, over Toyota and Volk AG group too. But, i wonder why they want Proton? As i know, they already coorperate with DRB for the Chevrolet badge. This must be have the hidden agenda, and my dirty mind say they want the facilities here, not for product development together. I don’t think this Motor Umum (General Motor) is better than Volk group and PSA.
Please choose carefully Proton, make the wise desicion.
March is coming soon..
January 18, 2007 @ 8:25 am
GM does not have any desirable models in this part of the world. It would be another take-over to silence the competition. Once they are in, they would probably provide some mediocre platforms to the proton engineers to gnaw on…which could take years and without much improvement.
Next, to assist its multi millions investment in Korea and Thai, they would then use proton as a platform to dump their vehicles overhere.
GM is definitely not a good choice. I see it as merely as a move to take over for sake of helping a local partner to survive while feeding its own interest to ensure its other investment in this region survives.
Definitely have no great intention to depart any technologies to the locals..
January 18, 2007 @ 9:31 am
I hope the GM-Proton tie up won’t materialise.. Now Proton seems like want to play some tricks to boost their share price… Maybe later they will say BMW, Merc, Audi etc bla bla… have interested with their cooperation.. All bullshit. Let’s wait and see what’s the outcome on March. Most probably the G would say ‘Oops, we decided not to sell Proton to foreginers, Malaysia Boleh’.. or ‘We need more time to consider every possibilities’…
In the end, never trust the G..
January 18, 2007 @ 10:59 am
if can have hummer h3x under proton badge not a bad idea. 20′ chrome rim with all chrome sound bling bling 2 hiphop group.
January 18, 2007 @ 3:30 pm
That day proton say no talk or don’t know about any talk going on with GM and today GM say talk is going on. Proton PR department is a crap, same as the car they produce. Always releasing crap news which has no significant impact at all on the merger exercise. Just shut up and only announce the most important news to the rakyat when the government has confirm on the merger/tie up or whatever crap they have decided.
January 18, 2007 @ 4:31 pm
I wonder how “Proton Camaro” is gonna look like…..
January 18, 2007 @ 8:09 pm
GM are just taking the advantage from the current FTA talks between our G’s and the American. E-Nabill was right. They have the political power to do so. They just want to “kacau daun” at whatever ongoing talks that Proton has right now. Kacau VW, kacau PSA Peugeot. Bloody capitalist!
January 19, 2007 @ 4:22 pm
They all look at Proton as stepping stone to penetrate Japanese Market..no other reason than that…but then the more parties showing interest in Proton is good for the Government…since they will compete to give their best offer to win the deal…hope that whoever chosen to partner Proton will make the company better and produce car that is better in quality and fittings.