Replies

GM drove away a lot of people with decades of subpar automobiles. Many of those people went to the Japanese and are now quite happy. GM hasn’t yet matched the Japanese in most passenger car categories but they have improved. The problem is that most Japanese, and now Korean with the emergence of Hyundai, customers are satisfied. GM can’t just build an equal car to win them back, they must build a car that is clearly better and they’ve yet to show they can match things like the Accord.

They also screwed up by putting too many eggs in the SUV market. They let those profits keep them going. Once that bubble burst, as you knew it would, they ended up in trouble.

“The problem is that most Japanese, and now Korean with the emergence of Hyundai, customers are satisfied. GM can’t just build an equal car to win them back, they must build a car that is clearly better and they’ve yet to show they can match things like the Accord.”

Yup, when faced with a choice between say an Accord and a Malibu...if the prices are similar, people are going to go with Honda. That doesn’t mean that GM doesn’t make a good products but people remember when they didn’t.

“GM can’t just build an equal car to win them back, they must build a car that is clearly better and they’ve yet to show they can match things like the Accord.”

Well, the new Malibu, which plays in roughly the same segment (or did, although the Accord has now moved up to “large car” status), has gotten great reviews and won a lot of awards. It certainly looks the part of a handsome, but bland Japanese-style transportation module. I’m still skeptical, though, because by most accounts the previous generation Malibu was a pretty crappy effort. Will that nice-looking interior hold up over 5 or 10 years? Will it turn out to have some horrendous drivetrain problem which GM and its dealers will refuse to deal with properly?

you hit the nail squarely on the head -- folks no longer trust GM like they trust Toyota.

Also, you're right -- GM cars now match Toyota in quality.

I think GM can make a turn-around if it stops making fuel guzzler immediately and concentrates more on Chevvies. Remember that Hyundai, in the course of a decade, changed it's image from a really bad quality car to a Japanese-car level quality automaker

GM drove away a lot of people with decades of subpar automobiles.

Right on. I remember back in the 70s, we were talking about lemons we had run in to and one guy said, "I'm lucky. I must have got a Wednesday car." We asked him what he meant and he said that the auto workers were all hung over from the weekend and it took two days for them to come out of it. In the meantime they didn't give a damn and turned out a car/truck that was shoddy. On Thursday and Friday they were looking forward to the weekend. In the meantime . . . Thus, the only time a good car came off the line was Wednesday. I thought at the time that was a Helluva commentary on American workmanship.

Unions weren't the only problem however. While Michael Moore is rightly on the S%^t List, his "Roger and Me" gave a scathing view of GM management and the damage they did in their downsizing. Not really a documentary, more of a movie in that chronology is out of whack and scenes are staged. There is one unstaged scene, though, that has always stuck in my mind and IMO epitomizes Corporate America's view of the people who work for them.

Upper management throws a posh party and while all the self-styled Brahmins wander around with drinks in their hands and mouth inanities, they pass "living statues". They hired some of the workers they had just laid off for the part. To me, it was a wonder one of those "statues" didn't break out an Uzi and clean out the stable.