[Larry Lucido]

Okay, this statement:

“Wagoner confesses in his opinion piece that GM has “a weaker sales mix–essentially, we’ve sold fewer high-profit SUVs and more lower-profit cars.”

doesn’t match this statement:

“Detroit pumped out way too many gas-hog pickup trucks and SUVs – meaning, Escalades, Excursions, Suburbans — and did little to retool their plants toward what consumers wanted. That’s because Detroit earns much, much more money off of these cars versus smaller cars such as hybrids and fuel-efficient vehicles.”

Or am I misreading?

[Jack of all Trades]

I read this article yesterday, and had the same thought. The writer sure seems to have a preconceived conclusion and just threw in some quote hoping for validation.

My read is that either the market for high margin vehicles (trucks) evaporated, or GM specifically targeted low margin vehicles for sales growth. Perhaps she's dinging them for not seeing a market shift to econoboxes five years ago, and retooling themselves. Hindsight is 20/10 in the blame fixing game.