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Maybe coincidence, but ever notice how GM and Chrysler seemed to start failing when they stopped making "true" luxury cars?
The nicest Chevy car you could get was the Impala after the Caprices demise in 1996... I mean, c'mon - even the Impala was not that luxurious.... most of their other cars gained stiffer suspension, etc.... pretty much the same deal with the rest of the GM line. Now Buick is going toward more of a sporty line of cars... which may gain new customers, but I think they are going to lose alot of the old traditional Buick buyers... the Lucerne is nice, but its no Roadmaster or Park Avenue of the 90s. Remember how many Buick Centurys and Oldsmobile Cutlass Cieras they sold in the 80s and 90s... especially 90s models. I still see tons of these on the road. I bet if GM still made these they would still sell like hotcakes to the older set.
I dont know, just seems its strange when all of these car companies started changing things in the 2000s. May have nothing to do with it though.
To answer the OP about where the profits went I've read some posts from former employees of GM or people who knew folks that worked there, right here on CD. The lavish expenses and the ignoring of cost cutting recomendations certainly didn't help. Some of these folks were mid-level managers and they knew it was insanity but worked under a don't question it , just do it mentality.
I've witnessed this phenomena firsthand even in a non-union environment in Michigan. The company outsourced my job and when I asked what do want me to do now, they asked if I liked to read. Well yes, I do, so they said bring a book with you when you come to work, and that's what I did for the last year I was there.
GM exists to make it's employees happy, not to make it's customers happy, and paying people for doing absolutely nothing has a way of catching up with you after awhile.
I have to repeat the chorus of people who have said that GM's and Chrysler's failures are multiple and cannot be pinned on single issues. It was the culmination of the following, in my opinion, of what felled GM and Chrysler.
It should be noted, however, that certain parts of GM "got it", like GM in China, GMC trucks, Cadillac, and to a limited extent Chevy. Chrysler, in effect, got taken over by a big corporate bureaucracy which by definition is horrible when trying to run a company. A corporate bureaucracy trying to run another corporate bureaucracy will ultimately fail, and I think the holding company that owns Chrysler now realizes this.
The failings:
- Doing business the way "it had always been done", i.e., not innovating
- Racing to the bottom: doing it cheaply rather than the right way has its consequences that will be measured when competition picks up on it. You can either innovate which brings prices down, or you can do it cheaply, but doing the latter will eventually catch up to you when the others are innovating.
- Ignoring public opinion and honestly believing "What GM does is good for the country"
- Ignoring the potential for foreign competition. Just because Toyota, Hyundai, and Volkswagen were horrible cars to start, they retooled and advanced to rival and overtake them.
- Making inefficient vehicles that broke down all the time. Toyota taught us in the 1970s that cars needn't break down all the time. GM went the opposite route - they actually designed cars to break down at predetermined intervals to force maintenance and planned obsolescence.
- I have to keep hitting on the "quality" of the brand. By racing to the bottom and making sluggish old people's cars, Cadillac finally got out of it and made cool, hip cars, starting with the Escalade. Yeah sure, people decried it becoming a "black person's" car, but you know what? It saved the brand. I have a feeling other brands in the umbrella finally got it, but it was too late.
- Ignoring automation and bowing to union pressure to keep things inefficient. The way things "always had been done" again.
Ford eventually realized that they needed a total outsider with talent come to the reins and Boeing snubbed Mulally - much to Ford's gain and Boeing's loss. It was a sad day in Seattle really ... Mulally really loved airplanes and loved the company. I really hope Ford keeps him because it is Mulally who is saving Ford now.
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Ford eventually realized that they needed a total outsider with talent come to the reins and Boeing snubbed Mulally - much to Ford's gain and Boeing's loss. It was a sad day in Seattle really ... Mulally really loved airplanes and loved the company. I really hope Ford keeps him because it is Mulally who is saving Ford now.
Note that Mulally is an engineer and not a finance person. That is probably the biggest reason for his success.
Maybe coincidence, but ever notice how GM and Chrysler seemed to start failing when they stopped making "true" luxury cars?
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IMO, GM's problems started long before this. I would recommend that you go read what DeLorean had to say about his time as a GM VP who was put in charge of the Vega's development back in the late 60's early 70's. it was the corporate culture that destroyed what otherwise would have been a great car and drove ten's of thousands of customers away from GM.
I think that GM's final nail in the coffin of it's luxury car reputation happened with the 1982 Cadillac Cimmaron. This was an overpriced, underpowered, Chevy Caviler rebadged as a Cadillac. They were hoping to counter Merc & BMW with this vehicle and it was a total fail. The company was on a deep slide to irrelevancy at this point and if it had not been for the SUV/Truck fad that was to come, they would have sunk below the ocean possibly a decade earlier.
IMO, the only real significant success that GM had in the 80s was Saturn. They didn't really come up with a new car, but rather a new way to sell cars that people loved. They gathered a huge following then after having pull this off, they systematically went down a path to destroy it.
I think it's sad that the only way a Ford Motor can compete with a Chevrolet motor is for them to force more air into it.
GM has used blowers on many of their cars, too, bub. I just think youre jealous because Ford's blown cars usually kick Chevy's arse (minus the current ZR-1) all over the road and back again.
I think its sad that the only way a Chevy can compete with Porsche or Lamborghini is to bump up the displacement and force more air into it. Ever heard of a ZR-1 Vette? Or perhaps the Typhoon? Cyclone? How about the Grand National? Bonneville? LSS? Turbo Firebird? Grand Prix GTP? Soltice GXP? Cobalt SS?
As shown on several examples, GM/Chevy uses forced induction on many of their cars, too, in order to compete. Take care then, buh-bye now.
As for the Cadillac Cimmaron, GM did have a pretty quick turbo four about the time it came out. Instead of rushing to get the Cimmaron into production, they could have taken a year or two to improve the body's structure, completely revise the suspension, and offer the option of either the turbo four or the 2.8 V6 (which was later the standard engine) and offer both with an available 4 or 5 speed manual. Such a set up could have worked. It still wouldn't be BMW fighter since the car was front wheel drive, but it could have been a big step up from a Cavalier,...but their asking price for the Caddy name was outrageous.
Oldsmobile went out in what, 2004? I remember though when inthe 90s (80s too) that Oldsmobile sold alot of cars, especially to people over 50. They must have sold 1,000,000 Cutlass Cieras just from 1990-1996.
I think one thing that will help GM now is to offer more of those "Holden" styles here in the USA. That Buick Park Avenue offered in China would sure look nice here and the Chevrolet version (Caprice) is expected to come here, but as a police car only. Now that is foolish on GMs part. That car needs to be offered to the public, because IMO, the Impala does no cut it as the flagship Chevrolet.
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