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John Cadogan of Australia (autoexerts.com.au) has been predicting this for a long time now. The general sentiment is that Holden (owned by GM) pulled a fast one by taking government handouts, and then turned around and shut down domestic production anyway, with the idea that they would eventually pull out completely pretty much a given.
Bottom line is that Holden in Australia allowed its perceived vehicle quality and support to fall below what a large percentage of the buying public deemed an acceptable level - Holden, Ford, FCA, VW, Nissan and others are considered "dub" brands to many buyers, who have been continuously shifting their purchases to those manufacturers who are perceived to have better vehicle quality and support (mainly Toyota, Honda, Kia, Mazda and Hyundai). Exactly the same thing that has happened in the U.S.A.. Is this because the "legacy" manufacturers were hobbled with older manufacturing plants primarily located in states with higher labor and especially, legacy pension costs? Maybe. Likely. I just don't know for sure, and think it's a shame that the traditional U.S. manufacturing brands have had their a**es handed to them by the Japanese and Koreans over the past five decades. But in certain areas, I think that poor decisions on products that fail prematurely and do not compete well with the competition, are their own danged fault. A lot of folks blame the 1973 oil embargo for starting it all (opening the door to imports that had decent reliability and more importantly, much better fuel economy), but Detroit had been making poor decisions before and especially since then, with seeming impunity and arrogance. Bad Decision.
That being said, I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new Ford Bronco. Hope it turns out better than the new Explorer.
One problem that I have read on in the past that's easy to understand is that market tastes in other countries is simply different than in the US. Americans, more so than people in other nations, tend to like really big vehicles with macho styling and big engines, that are big and fast, and get lousy gas mileage. So many American vehicles simply don't have the mass appeal in other nations that they do in the USA and our offerings that do great here just don't translate that well to appeal overseas. If you look at the vehicles being produced by Asian and European makers for their local markets, they tend to be smaller and more practical and fuel efficient. Gas prices alone can explain much of this, but part of it is just different cultures too.
It is distances more than culture. In Europe, 780 miles takes you from Sweden to Paris. In the US if you went that distance from El Paso to the east, you would still be in TX, and that mileage up I5 in CA from the border, wouldn't get you out of CA. Big distance results in big vehicles.
John Cadogan of Australia (autoexerts.com.au) has been predicting this for a long time now. The general sentiment is that Holden (owned by GM) pulled a fast one by taking government handouts, and then turned around and shut down domestic production anyway, with the idea that they would eventually pull out completely pretty much a given.
Bottom line is that Holden in Australia allowed its perceived vehicle quality and support to fall below what a large percentage of the buying public deemed an acceptable level - Holden, Ford, FCA, VW, Nissan and others are considered "dub" brands to many buyers, who have been continuously shifting their purchases to those manufacturers who are perceived to have better vehicle quality and support (mainly Toyota, Honda, Kia, Mazda and Hyundai). Exactly the same thing that has happened in the U.S.A.. Is this because the "legacy" manufacturers were hobbled with older manufacturing plants primarily located in states with higher labor and especially, legacy pension costs? Maybe. Likely. I just don't know for sure, and think it's a shame that the traditional U.S. manufacturing brands have had their a**es handed to them by the Japanese and Koreans over the past five decades. But in certain areas, I think that poor decisions on products that fail prematurely and do not compete well with the competition, are their own danged fault. A lot of folks blame the 1973 oil embargo for starting it all (opening the door to imports that had decent reliability and more importantly, much better fuel economy), but Detroit had been making poor decisions before and especially since then, with seeming impunity and arrogance. Bad Decision.
That being said, I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new Ford Bronco. Hope it turns out better than the new Explorer.
It is distances more than culture. In Europe, 780 miles takes you from Sweden to Paris. In the US if you went that distance from El Paso to the east, you would still be in TX, and that mileage up I5 in CA from the border, wouldn't get you out of CA. Big distance results in big vehicles.
Well, in the context of Australia, the distances are pretty massive especially between their major population centers while the best-selling vehicle in Australia is the Toyota Hilux which isn't exactly tiny. Sure, there are bigger vehicles out there, but the Hilux definitely isn't a compact city car.
John Cadogan of Australia (autoexerts.com.au) has been predicting this for a long time now. The general sentiment is that Holden (owned by GM) pulled a fast one by taking government handouts, and then turned around and shut down domestic production anyway, with the idea that they would eventually pull out completely pretty much a given.
Bottom line is that Holden in Australia allowed its perceived vehicle quality and support to fall below what a large percentage of the buying public deemed an acceptable level - Holden, Ford, FCA, VW, Nissan and others are considered "dub" brands to many buyers, who have been continuously shifting their purchases to those manufacturers who are perceived to have better vehicle quality and support (mainly Toyota, Honda, Kia, Mazda and Hyundai). Exactly the same thing that has happened in the U.S.A.. Is this because the "legacy" manufacturers were hobbled with older manufacturing plants primarily located in states with higher labor and especially, legacy pension costs? Maybe. Likely. I just don't know for sure, and think it's a shame that the traditional U.S. manufacturing brands have had their a**es handed to them by the Japanese and Koreans over the past five decades. But in certain areas, I think that poor decisions on products that fail prematurely and do not compete well with the competition, are their own danged fault. A lot of folks blame the 1973 oil embargo for starting it all (opening the door to imports that had decent reliability and more importantly, much better fuel economy), but Detroit had been making poor decisions before and especially since then, with seeming impunity and arrogance. Bad Decision.
That being said, I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new Ford Bronco. Hope it turns out better than the new Explorer.
There's a general weakness in the Chinese automotive market that predates the coronavirus outbreak and panic, but that certainly didn't help. However, GM is getting hit much worse than the average automaker and you can be damn sure that it's not powerful unions and decades of pension mismanagement that's hitting GM built cars in China.
If GM keeps closing factories and eliminating brands, in not too many years there won't be anything left of it.
The next time the economy takes a downturn, GM may not be worth the effort to preserve it.
Do you really miss Saturn/Olds/Pontiac?
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