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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5 comments:
Reason & Logic says: My next vehicle is a GM truck, just like Senator Brown (R) MA. It is the ride to the future.
Hey Barry Manilow,
I thought I would provide a simpleton's explanation of the automotive industry's problems since you don't seem to understand the topic.
American automobile manufacturers cannot compete with foreign companies because the unions have driven the labor costs beyond a sustainable level. If an American autoworker makes $30 an hour, and some slope head in the orient is willing to work for $1 an hour, the oriental vehicle will be have a much larger profit margin. With higher profit, more can be poured back into R&D. With free trade, American manufacturers cannot compete. The fault lies not with the executives in the auto industry, but with the unions. The unions have basically destroyed the industry by using their collective bargaining power to "shakedown" management for years. The autoworker's union has done a great job in obtaining great wage and benefits packages for its members, however these costs became so excessive that the automakers could not compete price-wise with the low cost and better quality foreign models. The U.S. autoworker's greed fucked himself out of a job.
The only way to save the auto industry is to impose a protective tariff on foreign goods. Pat Buchanan had it right. If another country wants to sell their goods in our country, they need to buy an equal amount of goods from our country, otherwise we will end up with a trade imbalance like we already have.
I have been a member of the UAW, and have slaved away on an automotive production line. I have also been a Plant Manager for a Tier 1 and 2 automotive supplier, so my conclusions are based on first hand observations, from both the management and hourly viewpoints
It is unfair for fools like you to vilify auto industry executives because they make a lot of money. The true root cause of the problem in the U.S. automotive industry lies with the liberal controlled unions. They lost their jobs due to their own greed. Now, liberals like you are trying to find a scapegoat to blame it on. Typical liberal behavior.
I'm a Saturn person. I'd buy a Saturn Shock, but the Chevy Volt is ugly.
Hey Anonymous Dave M.,
Agree that US labor costs more, and that it is a contributing factor to the US automotive difficulties.
My point was that you can't blame the unions for poor product design and the arrogance of badge engineering we saw in the 70's and 80's. Heck, it took them way too long to kill off Oldsmobile -- executive hubris all the way.
You're wrong about not being able to compete without tariffs. Ford is making money. GM is recovering and is now a stock market recommended "buy". Toyota is succeeding and its trucks are measurably more "domestic" (in terms of % of parts) than Fords. Thus other companies are doing well in this market.
My comments on executive wages were targeted at specific executives who made horrible decisions. Those executives didn't deserve their pay. Read more closely and you'll see that I mentioned that Bob Lutz was worth every dollar.
Your insults are funny -- "Barry Manilow", "fools like me"? Really? You haven't changed much. Nor has your arrogance and inclination to attack and insult instead of striving to understand.
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