As GM has singularly failed to focus on a single plan to save the artist once known as the world’s largest automaker from bankruptcy, The Detroit Free Press’ Mark Phelan once again steps into the breach (dear Horatio). Last seen shilling the Chevy Traverse on GM PR TV, Phelan has agglomerated a couple of recent audiences with the automaker’s top brass to winkle-out The General’s strategy, or lack thereof. CEO Rick Wagoner: “‘There are two things we have to do better than anything else,’ Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner told me this week: design and advanced-propulsion technology.” Like… the Volt! Hence the timeline of Phelan’s lead: “A handful of cars and trucks General Motors will introduce over the next eight years may determine whether the automaker survives to celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2108.” EIGHT YEARS? What’s the rush? Meanwhile… “We don’t know yet what the rest of the upcoming vehicles will be,” Lutz admitted to the Motown cheerleader. “But we know what they have to do: establish GM as a leader in technology, fuel efficiency, design and performance.” And then Phelan sneakily fills in the blank, offering the following without direct attribution. “GM must also finally clarify its muddled brand strategy. Chevrolet and Cadillac must reestablish themselves as global leaders.” (In fact, Phelan suggests GM may “retrench” to those brands without suggesting how that could possibly occur. Cough. Bankruptcy. Cough.) So, that’s better branding, design, advanced propulsion, technology, fuel efficiency, performance, value-for-money and reliability. Just kidding; they didn’t say anything about value-for-money or reliability.
Find Reviews by Make:
Read all comments
The Asian invasion of the North American car market passed a significant milestone with Consumer Reports 2006 ranking of Japanese models as its top choice in all ten vehicle categories. Not a single Toyota, Honda or Nissan model was included in the magazine’s used car lemon list. GM’s durability specification calls for key parts to last only 80,000-miles! Of 34 used car models reporting an unusually high number of problems six were Chevrolets and five GMCs. Thirty-one of the 44 most satisfying vehicles were Japanese.
Decades of severely shitty cars and unscrupulous business practices finally caught up with the Detroit-3. A steady stream of horrible vehicles that paled in comparison with Asian and German competitors’ reliability, satisfaction and fundamental desirability squandered generations of buyers. Embittered by low quality products and reprehensible customer care millions permanently abandoned the domestic brands. Sales collapsed with ruinous financial consequences. Chrysler’s demise is near, Ford is circling the bowl, and GM may be bust within a year. They are lobbying hard for a $50-billion U.S. government bailout. Failing this, they’re gone!
Another Beautiful Freep Article this morning too:
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080914/BUSINESS01/809140410
The article that appeared in today’s paper was one of the most poorly constructed “pep ’em up” articles I’ve read in a long while. Because of that, I scribbled out bits and pieces of it and rewrote some parts to convey more accurate truths. Kinda fun!
“But we know what they have to do: establish GM as a leader in technology, fuel efficiency, design and performance.”
This reminds me of the time my friend walked into a body-building/health supplement store asking if they had a pill that would make him: stronger, taller, smarter, and better-looking.
“We don’t know yet what the rest of the upcoming vehicles will be,” Lutz admitted to the Motown cheerleader. “But we know what they have to do: establish GM as a leader in technology, fuel efficiency, design and performance.”
What passed for a turnaround plan at GM could always be succinctly summarized as “do better.” From Lutz’s comment, GM is relying on the very same plan to extract taxpayer funding for GM’s operation.
What a farce.
Leader this and leader that. What in the (fucking, Im angry) world is leadership? Is leadership being popular? Yea, do what ever makes you popular right? Like build SUVs ,but dont look forward to the entangables. Build pretty (or atleast different looking) cars, but since thats popular why think about anything else, like reliability? Go after brand cache, and then badge engineer because its a badge that really means something, right? Add technology because its cool, its not really important how much it costs or if its really needed. Reliability and quality, thats hard and expensive right? Thats a last option, only a worst case scenario. Like if Im going to fired and all my money is going to get taken away, and I’m going to have to do community service and go to jail and be consiencous and feel pain, Oh wait no one can make another do something If they really want to. I need to say the serenity prayer.
Being a leader is simply doing the best you can to head in the direction you believe is best. GM s bosses are perhaps heading in the direction they are going in becuase they do not understand (ie. feel the emptyness of) their actions. Oh well, lets see how things go.
The whole article strikes me as a puff piece designed to make Wagoner look like he deserves his $15.5 million a year job, so maybe Congress won’t demand his departure.
The Traverse drives me crazy. GM needed another Lambda? What’s next, a Pontiac Lambda? A Saab Lambda? A Hummer Lambda? Sure! Why not?
GM’s business model seems to be, “Since we planted lemon trees, you will now want lemonade.”
Change!
Hey Gardiner Westbound, I hope you like crow, you should try it with barbrque sauce, because GM is not going anywhere! Get used to it!
Gardiner Westbound: “GM’s durability specification calls for key parts to last only 80,000-miles!”
I’m not disputing you, but I’d really like to know more about this peek inside the manufacturing process. Was it included in spec’s sent to vendors? What sort of key parts? Is it a “mean time before failure” specification (meaning many will fail before 80,000 miles) or a minimum life standard?
Do you know whether T/H/N put similar conditions on the components they buy? If so, what do they require? This could really be an insight into the reasons for different durability of D3 and Transplant products.
Yeah I would be interested to know how one specs a part for 80000 miles.Saw an early 90s Buick the day it passed a safety and emision test 280 klms on the clock.Must of not programed the 800000 failure point on that one eh.
And bowtie: You nailed it GM will be here for a long time.
Gardiner Westbound: “Not a single Toyota, Honda or Nissan model was included in the magazine’s used car lemon list.”
They SHOULD have put the 2002-2003 Nissan Altima 2.5 on that list. Try looking up the serious engine problems they had for that model for those years. I’m talking major engine failures and excessive oil consumption that led to replacement engines for customers within warranty, and a total denial of help to people out of warranty. There ought to be a class action lawsuit over that one.
“They SHOULD have put the 2002-2003 Nissan Altima 2.5 on that list”
Yes, it kept me from buying an ’07, becuase Nissan swept that problem under the rug…
From what I was able to glean from the Web, the 2.5 uses exhaust valve overlap (open for the “suction” part of the power stroke) as an EGR method; as it turns out, the pre-cat was damaged by overheating (due to faulty ECM programming), and ceramic particles were drawn into the cylinders, leading to bore scoring, excessive oil consumption and (in some cases) blown engines!
The real shame is that the 2.5 is a fine engine, but this problem (which was “fixed” by an ECM reprogram and other changes) steered me away from Nissan — but only extensive Web research dug up the issue.