I'm pissed that the leadership of these great companies couldn't get their business in order. I'm pissed when I look at the badge engineering that what passed for innovation and engineering in the 70's and 80's.
Remember when we'd see the exact same car marketed as a Chevy, Olds, Pontiac, and Cadillac – with the only difference between the cars being different grills, taillights and "sporty" stickers?
Consider the late sixties, early seventies Chevy Nova. I loved this generation Nova, but did we really need the corresponding Buick Apollo, Oldsmobile Omega, and Pontiac Ventura versions of the same car? How about the 80's delivery of the "import fighting" X-body cars: Chevy Citation, Olds Omega, Pontiac Phoenix, and Buick Skylark? Some executive marketing weenie must have thought we were all idiots. The crappy trend continued in the 90's with the Chevy Cavalier, Buick Skyhawk, Cadillac Cimarron, Oldsmobile Firenza, and/or the Pontiac Sunbird. The Cadillac Cimarron had to be one of the worst product decision in modern automotive history. Again the marketing weenies struck.
Please tell me the name of the marketing weenie at Pontiac that decided gluing plastic body cladding to their cars would make them "exciting". That guy must have moved to Chevy just in time to make the first generation of the Chevy Avalanche trucks as ugly as possible with the square wheel wells and the plastic "I watch too much science fiction" body cladding. (Thank God that Bob Lutz came in and killed all that plastic puke on the cars.)
You'd think GM would learn. But they don't, and they're still at it today. Who drives the Chevy Cobalt, Pontiac G5 or Saturn Ion? Why the hell did Pontiac need a freakin' G5? Why did Buick need an SUV? WTF?
GM's management has had 30 years to come up with a competitor to the Honda Civic and chose not to do it. Instead they delivered a parade of badge-engineered, over-marketed, under-designed cars every 5 years. At least GM was able to spend the R&D money creating all the glossy brochures and advertising the same car five different ways (those marketing weenies again).
This isn't the people building the cars, or designing the cars. It is short-sighted marketing weenie "how can we make some money NOW" thinking. It's newly-minted MBA "get rich quick and get out before the shit hits the fan" strategy. It's more "Be good to the shareholders and Wall Street and screw the workers and our customers" thinking. It's the kind of thinking that killed many an American business.
What if I was running GM right now? Sadly, I'd have to consolidate to three brands -- Chevy, GMC, and Cadillac:
- Chevy would pick up the few valuable Pontiac vehicles and consolidate all the light duty trucks and SUV's. Chevy would then compete for mainstream buyers against the Asian brands.
- GMC would exit the SUV business and focus exclusively on heavy duty and commercial trucks.
- Cadillac would be my premium line and would compete at the higher end of the market with the German brands.
I'm almost done. I've also had it with Fox News and their continual attack on labor and the unions. The unions build the cars as designed and approved by management. The unions didn't make the cars ugly. The unions didn't decide to try to sell the same car with 5 different grills glued to it. The unions didn't pay Rick Wagoner $14.5 million dollars in 2007. Did Rick do anything worth $14.5M in 2007? F.A. Henderson made $7.6 million in 2007. Bob Lutz made $7 million and I think he earned it just by killing the plastic crap at Pontiac. Finally a car guy!
I hope GM survives. I hope their management grows a soul, some brains, and learns not to underestimate their consumers.
Oh. I think my next car will be a Chevy Volt. I just hope it isn't co-marketed with a Cadillac Capacitor, Pontiac Proton, Buick Bolt, or a Saturn Shock.
Brad
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