[longtermmemmory]

This speech is a bit old but it shows GM's problems were pre-2000 and were growing. (clinton era) As a old car fan, this interested me. It also points out how some to the recent corporate problems are not so recent. Turns out the Clinton "era" made the 90's truly the decade of deceit in more places than the oval office.

From reading the article it is a least a year or more old. Much of what was said has come to be true.

Interesting footnote was the mention of the failure of the GM EV-1 electric car. You would think a bigger failure than the edsil would have made the press somewhere.

[kellynla]

The American car industry went in the toilet in the 70's. Now if they would take the bodies off the 50's cars and place them on top of today's technology they would run the table on the foreigners. The fifties cars had character. Everyone knew the difference in a 57 Chevy and a 57 Ford. Today if you took the badge off the cars you couldn't tell one from the other. Cookie cutter cars is what we have today. In the old days everyone looked forward to September when the new models would come out. Today they all look alike and ten years go by before anyone can tell any difference.

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[pikachu]

Interesting footnote was the mention of the failure of the GM EV-1 electric car. You would think a bigger failure than the edsil would have made the press somewhere

The EV-1 failure does not matter to the press exept to tout as a way to be environmentally friendly. Never mind that it takes mroe recsources to make, run, and then dispsoe of an EV-1. The old 'style over substance' crap rides again

[Slyfox]

I ask you, if you didn't work for GM, would you drive a GM car?

I don't work for GM but my dad did and so as his offspring I am entitled to a discount on new GM vehicles. I would like to have a car that is similar to the Toyota Corrola or the Honda Civic. Anything on the Chevy list? No. My better half would like a four-door, full-size truck just like the Ford. Anthing on the Chevy list? Nope. My sister just bought a Corrola, even though she can use our dad's discount. I have ten brothers and sisters and more and more of them are NOT taking advantage of Dad's discount. How long will it be before we aren't using it at all?

At one time, I wanted a Blazer with a third row for extra seating. Year after year, I would ask the Chevy dealer when GM was going to make one. All he could do was shrug his shoulders. I don't like mini-van's but I had four kids and needed the extra room. I ended up getting a full-size van using my dad's discount, but I really, really wanted a Blazer. They are finally making the third row but who cares? I have lost interest in getting one.

This author is absolutely on the money.

[billbears]

Now GM did hire someone from the outside, a French woman from Renault. Now I like French women, and I wish her well, I am sure she is talented. But please explain to me who buys French Renaults besides the French...and a few Spaniards. Who? Nobody. Why can't GM find an American who understands the American culture, and who can create a PT Cruiser, or a Thunderbird?

Somebody needs to read this speech at Ford now. I know he mentioned the Thunderbird but it's latest rendition is just plain ugly

[Grut]

Still, nobody can make excuses like American industry.

[daviddennis]

The fellow who wrote this seems a bit too full of himself, but GM management has been hopeless for years, and for exactly the reasons he mentions. Just read any automotive buff magazine and you'll get the same basic message. "The Decline and Fall of the American Auto Industry" by Brock Yates is incredibly dated now, but a great read.

I think the EV-1 cost significantly more to make than its price, so if they'd sold more, they would have lost more money. They wanted to tell the California folks: "Hey, we tried, we made car the car you want, we lost money and hardly anybody bought it anyway. You can see that we won't be able to make your requirements."

Whether that's worth $250-million odd is hard to determine. I can't hate the EV-1 because owners really seem to love the cars, which is a pretty rare statement to make about a GM product.

On the other hand, they finally wised up and hired Bob Lutz, who is one of the most impressive automotive executives in the world, and a spectacular product guy. I think that's really going to help the product culture at GM.

I think Chrysler should have appointed Lutz CEO, since he deserved a chance to run an auto company. Maybe he'll get that chance at GM.

D

[shadowman99]

"This is the board that has never updated and will soon kill the Camaro. That should take a good part of the excitement from Chevrolet. GM executives don't seem to understand that the art in the auto business is building desirable vehicles, not killing models and closing plants."

As a Camaro owner I can't tell you how mad I get that they killed the f-body platform. A thirty year legacy dies at the feet of SUVs. F---ing stupid.

[saminfl]

The stock price: it is as high as it is because of Hughes, bought by Roger Smith. Without Hughes I figure GM could be selling at 35.

In 1985 they paid 5 billion for all of Hughes. In the early 90's they sold the defense part to Raytheon for 9 billion, and the satellite part to Boeing for a bunch more and now Echostar wants the rest. That is a pretty good profit for GM. However, the best electronics company in the world no longer exists, and it is because they (Hughes) ended up with the same sort of managers as GM.

[HamiltonJay]

GM is arguably the worst run corporation in the world. They only manage to survive because of sheer size, nothing else. There is a manager in GM, won't name names, who has been accused of sexual harrassment no less than 4 times, every time management just reassigns him. There is no accountability and absolutely no direction. It is committee leadership run amok.

It is disheartening really, the have so much available to them and do nothing with it. Produce poorly built vehicles, launch what had to be the ugliest vehicle ever "aztek", have no quality control and don't seem to even realize how bad they are... its sad really.

[VOA]

bump

[Constitution Day]

Interesting. Bookmarked for later.

[gcruse]

When was it, back in the seventies?  Was that when GM
stood the union down, the lobbied Congress to place import
restrictions on Japan because it was killing the American
car business?  Well, they got their restriction.  The GM brass
then immediately paid themselvie multimillion dollar bonuses
and jacked up the price of their cars.

The day I read that, I said I will never buy another GM
product as long as I live.  And I have not.

[Springman]

Bump for later.

[DeFault User]

Even Ross Perot tried to tell them much of this. They bought him out and kicked him off the Board to shut him up.

[XBob]

I saw a new 2002 Chevy Impala a few months back in a parking lot. Mostly full of Toyota's and Nissan's and Dodges. I can't recall seeing another.

[Criminal Number 18F]

Great article, thanks a mill for posting it!

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F
(1965 Mustang, 1989 Corvette, 2000 Ranger... who grew up in his grandfather's Oldsmobiles long before GM lost the plot in the mid seventies)

[dirtbiker]

While Gm does make good and durable products (small-blocks come to mind), their styling has been in the crapper since the '70's. My brother is building a kit (Humvee) using a GM 4X4 truck chassis, his daily driver is a Toyota PU. The closest I came to owning a Chevy was a LUV truck (actually an Isuzu). Their diesel engine program was outdone by every other player in the game (Ford and Dodge). It was Roger Penske that saved Detroit Diesel from extinction at the hands of GM non-management! Even today, their new Duramax is made by Isuzu, which means they finally have a diesel worth owning! (Remember the first 350 diesels they had, the ones that broke cranks and camshafts every 20,000 miles or so?) The styling is bottom dwelling, ex. the Avalance, Aztec (What's up with this?) What's next on GM"s agenda, Government intervention with higher tariffs on imports cause nobody wants to buy their product?