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From GM’s ad in Automotive News (Dec 8 edition):
“While we’re still the U.S. sales leader, we acknowledge we have disappointed you. At times we violated your trust by letting our quality fall below industry standards and our designs become lackluster. We have proliferated our brands and dealer network to the point where we lost adequate focus on our core U.S. market. We also biased our product mix toward pick-up trucks and SUVs. And, we made commitments to compensation plans that have proven to be unsustainable in today’s globally competitive industry. We have paid dearly for these decisions, learned from them and are working hard to correct them by restructuring our U.S. business to be viable for the long term.”
29 Comments on “Bailout Watch 261: GM’s Mea Culpa...”
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That was just what GM needed to say, and what the public needed to hear. I hope, for everybody’s sake, that it was sincere.
How can you be the market share leader and let your quality fall below industry standards. As the volume leader it is your job to set high standards! Also, it wasn’t a matter of letting it happen, management literally caused it to happen. Under-designed parts and slipshod manufacturing don’t just happen. People make explicit decisions to cheapen the product in order to goose short-term margins. The excuse they are using is like that of a cheating spouse saying “it just happened”.
So GM feels it could really have a future since it intends “to lead the reinvention of the automobile based on promising new technology”. Bit late for that I’m afraid. According to this they are already at least two years behind in the game:
http://www.gasgoo.com/auto-news/1008578/BYD-to-sell-F3DM-with-blue-label-on-Dec-15.html
Sorry GM but when you crushed that last EV-1 you stopped being a leader in the field of “promising new technology”. Those leaders live in China now and by the looks of it your troubles haven’t even begun. Unless you think your Volt could ever compete with the BYD F3DM PHEV that will be launched two years ahead of it with a 60 rather than 40 mile all electric range at a $21800 rather than $40000 price of which battery cost is only $4400 rather than $10000,-:
http://www.gasgoo.com/auto-news/1008571/New-BYD-hybrid-gets-jump-in-China-s-EV-wars.html
And, if you really think you can “start repaying your money by 2011” why don’t you ask Warren Bufett for money? Oh wait… the smart money is already tied up in BYD…
Sorry GM but when you crushed those EV-1’s you pretty much crushed your future.
HAHA, OMG, is *THIS* the “Road to Redemption, BOOK DUO”????
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9901E3DF1F3AF93BA15757C0A9629C8B63
GM, do you really…R-E-A-L-L-Y…mean it THIS time???
HAHAHA… You can steal tax payer’s money, but you sure as HELL can’t make me drive your cars/trucks!!
Criminals!
I think the comments about the EV1 are ridiculous. GM has plenty of blame they should accept. The EV1 isn’t one of them. Those vehicles would have been very expensive and sold at a big loss. Plus until this last year or so there was virtually zero market for them. Read last months sales numbers. Best performing sales were in mid size SUV’s as a result of gas getting cheap for just one month. You would be hard pressed to give away a significant number of EV1’s right now today. Had the future of GM been bet heavily on the EV1 they would already be bankrupt.
Now will gas stay this cheap? I don’t think so, but until the world economy recovers completely I think it will. That might take a year or two, it isn’t at all hard to believe it might take five. Until gas gets expensive there isn’t a market for EV1’s or such. At current prices hybrids again make no economic sense to most buyers.
I personally would like an all electric car with decent performance and a 50 or 60 mile range as it would fill 90% of my needs. But such a car simply is not possible at a reasonable price. Until/if high performance batteries get cheap enough it isn’t feasible. They may never get cheap enough. Only when alternatives in fossil fuels become even more expensive, like somewhere between $5-$10 a gallon gasoline will it make any sense.
elsdude: the ev1 sure… but GM crushed the last ev1 4 years after the Prius’s debut and didn’t do squat with hybrids until they were waaaay behind the game.
There is blame there.
When I say “criminal”, I don’t mean it lightly.
Re. “hybrids”…well, General Motors HAD that too!!! Stop with the “misconceptions” and any other euphemism you can come up for the work “lie”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:GMEV1serieshybrid.jpg
This was displayed in China in 1999!!!
I LOVE it, now , as the poster up above states so clearly, the Chinese THEMSELVES will surpass GM at their very OWN GAME!!! …the one they PURPOSELY DESTROYED!
They completely PISSED IT AWAY!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1
I recall an ad campaign of GM’s many (many!) years ago that went something like
“At GM, our cars are changing – so is our thinking”.
As I also recall, the quality went down.
Maybe they could dust off that ad and try and convince me one more time.
At which point I’m thinking “Fool me once, shame on you..” line, and hey, unlike another prominent fellow, I KNOW how that one goes.
“We swear, this time we REALLY know we need to get better. Yeah, that’s the ticket.”
Tommy Flanagan is now working for GM.
Good money after bad. This is like trying to save the Titanic.
Dutchchris, as a person personally involved in “crushing” the EV1, I’ll tell you it was an unsustainable program. For one, there was no demand for them besides some fanatical celebs in LA, their performance in the real world was laughable, and GM could NEVER have made money making them. They were wise to end the program, and they learned a lot from it. However, they did wait too long to follow up with an improved product which may have been better suited to the mass-market. GM’s made some monumental mistakes, but ending the EV-1 project was not one of them.
all part of the dog and pony show, don’t believe anything other than Wagoner has intentionally driven GM into BK. the $4B he needs right now is the same amount he blew on the Fiat Fiasco. the Delphi Debacle was only the practice round for the eventual GM filing. it won’t encumber overseas assets and only US operations will come under court protection.
this is part of a master plan and why he was put into place to begin with. simply no other logical explanation. stupidity is not this sequential.
I find it funny and sad at the same time that Ford, Chrysler and GM are going through all this while their hometown Detroit Lions are on the cusp of going 0-16 this year…
>>>”…we violated your trust by letting our quality fall below industry standards…”
While you were saying that your quality was second to none. In short, you lied. We trusted you, and we suffered.
How do we know you’re not lying again? Why should we ever believe you again?
Here is a start: What is the compensation for my 73 Vega whose A pillars rusted out after a year and wouldn’t hold the windshield? What is my compensation for my 70 Cougar whose quarter panels so rusted within three years they wouldn’t even support bondo? What’s my compensation for the 76 Camaro whose carb blew up as soon as it was out of the then 90-day bumper to bumper warranty?
You don’t just get to apologize. You must make amends.
Not a suggestion of amends. Hence, this is just lip service. A junkie will say or promise anything to get a buck to continue the same behavior.
Did you read my comment at all esldude? Why do you insist on the myth that there are no affordable high capacity batteries out there when BYD will offer a 60 mile electric range PHEV for $ 21800 starting December 15th? Why do people still believe the propaganda the GM pundits feed them even if the proof of GM’s lies will hit the streets within a week?
golf4me: congratulations on successfully wiping out the EV-1. What GM learned from it is that it would rather die than do BEV’s. Well here is a newsflash for you: BYD considers the F3DM PHEV merely as transitional technology. Right now it’s sorting out the problems for what it really wants to do: mass producing BEV’s. You know the kind that GM in it’s infinite wisdom considered not to be viable. Well quess what: the only thing that’s not viable at this point is GM.
Anyone who writes the phrase “serving your personal mobility needs” should be beaten with a stick. For !#!@! sakes, they’ve been building cars and trucks, so just say so. To quote my old boss: “You should ask your college for your tuition money back.”
I am not convinced GM wrote this article.
Jared : Anyone who writes the phrase “serving your personal mobility needs” should be beaten with a stick.
Agreed!
ronin : You don’t just get to apologize. You must make amends.
Not a suggestion of amends. Hence, this is just lip service. A junkie will say or promise anything to get a buck to continue the same behavior.
Sometimes an apology just isn’t good enough and a relationship and an industry cannot be salvaged.
Amends = $2000 Cash Back, Red Toe Tag Events even on Cadillac and Employee Pricing
They already pulled this once. Is this going into the major city newspapers as a full page ad ?
Brazil has had the ethanol tech for many years yet you can only now get it in anything smaller than a damned Impala ? I saw my first e85 HHR last Thirsday on the way home from work.
They only promoted the E85 to get the bloody CAFE credits in the first place the cynical bastards.
Alt fuel capability was standard on the 2.2 S-10 in CA. Couldn’t get it any other way. Not even available on the Cavalier even though it was the same engine just east-west instead of N-S.
Yes it is a boondoggle,and a sop to the corn farmers, but they have had the tech since the 80s with GM Brazil. There are even conversion kits available over the Internet to make the changes on US spec cars.
Whether one ever uses E85 or not would be immaterial. Adding heavy duty fuel line parts, corrosion resistant stainless and altering the computer programming only makes the car a better value and of higher quality.
The “idea” that one can use an alternative fuel if necessary is enough to put one in my driveway. There are maybe 3 E85 pumps in all of CA. The “potential” to be able to continue driving should the worst happen is enough to give some peace of mind. And it’s here. Now. Not in 20 years like hydrogen. Not in fantasy year 2010 like the Volt. It’s been here. For many years, and yet…..
Let’s pull the GMT 900s forward…
Far easier & quicker to realize and less expensive to build than a vaporware Volt. Less complex than hybrid tech.
What sort of positive good will might it have given them to make all their cars E85 capable? Now they claim it will be 2012 before the offer it across the board.
Set aside the argument that corn derived E85 is a dubious objective. Image is everything and GM has a terrible one. Perception gap ? GM helped build it. This is just one small thing they could have done as a running improvement to their products that could have changed that.
How long did it take to get the Cobalt XFE ? 25/37 EPA. As good as their own Aveo.
The last IONs and the Cobalt were all PZEV [partial zero emissions vehicles]rated here in CA. Did they bother to even promote that fact or make all of the Ecotecs PZEV across the country? It meets and exceeds the most strict emissions standards in the rest of the 49 states. Ford is using the fact the Focus is PZEV rated in it’s ads and has been since 2007.No. And cheap and easy things to do to give themselves a “greener” image across the board.
Yet they import the “dirtier” Astra. At a loss. That gets worse mileage than what it replaced.
Instead we get the frigging Escalade “hybrid”.
The Pontiac G3 that gets 25 and 34mpg with automatic.
4 versions of a 5000 lb crossover.
Enough of this charade.I don’t believe any damned thing they say any longer.
That money will simply be incinerated.
Oh! Pillory us! We’ve not been green as we should!
Why should GM be sorry that they biased their product mix towards SUVs and Pick-ups?!
Gas was cheap, tip-me-over vehicles were hot and margins were high. Good move for shareholders, say I!
This is totally calculated! Heck, next we’ll see Rabid Rick in a post-Monica, Clintonian pout…totally full of self-pity, biting his lower lip. Begging forgiveness and hoping that America still forgets as fast as WJC demonstrated that we once did. ( http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/27898/thumbs/s-BILL-CLINTON-large.jpg )
@Buickman:
+1
John Horner :
December 7th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
How can you be the market share leader and let your quality fall below industry standards. As the volume leader it is your job to set high standards!
Well, that seems rather idealistic to me. Are you claiming that the market leader in draft ‘beer’ over there sets the high standard for beer? Or that the stuff you buy in Walmart sets the high standard for anything other than value for money (if that?).
Car makers make a product and then get what they can for it, in the market place. If the perceived value for money is there people will buy it, so long as say the compromise in quality, or aesthetics, or durability, against dollars, makes sense to them.
There is no natural relationship between volume and quality – the market leader can be a good quality product (say the iPhone), or merely an acceptable one (such as in wine for example – the big volume is in stuff that my friends wouldn’t use for cooking).
BTW, who does GM’s writing? Take this, for example:
“A collapse of GM and the domestic auto industry will accelerate the downward spiral of
an already anemic U.S. economy. This will be devastating to all Americans, not just GM
stakeholders, because it would put millions of jobs at risk and deepen our recession.”
“Will” you say? Don’t you mean “would”? Will implies a done deal.
so by saying the obvious and then adding that millions which by the way is a scare tactic will be effected will make us feel bad for them. Do they really think that this whole not wanting to bail them out is because we want them to say what they did wrong. it helps but no. we all know that they will be back again and maybe again.
The camaro is coming out in january it might be a hit now that gas prices have come down but with the uncertainty of the brands, sales might not be so well. That is the only big product that might produce a sales increase until the cruze and the volt comes out. which may or may not do anything and will not be until 2010. They need a hit now and i dont see it comeing anytime soon.
So i picked up on a couple of things while watching the bailout procedings a couple of times i heard i cant remeber if it was barney or chris say something to the effect of them going back in march after the short term loans run out for debter in possion loans. Umm arent those the loans that are given in bankruptcy. I believe that the government might give them the money to make it through till obama gets in office and then receive these loans when and if the short term loans are not used in the said way and goals are not meet. i could be wrong but i just got that feeling when i was listening. There were a couple of good speakers talking up bankruptcy. i just really hope that they talked some sense into the self interest only congress bc I dont want them to get any money outside of c11. it will go down the drain and they will need more.
Am I missing something?
The link in the post is titled “GM Facts and Fiction”. The url is the same minus the spaces. There is no GM emblem displayed. It is not signed or even assigned to anyone.
Are we supposed to take this seriously?
Day late. Dollar short.
GM is making the same mistake again by concentrating all there Tech knowledge on the “Volt” whereas they should be getting into a proper Hybrid small Vehicle as well as plain old Gasoline engines in small vehicles, they will never learn!
What is my compensation for my 70 Cougar whose quarter panels so rusted within three years they wouldn’t even support bondo?
Why would General Motors reimburse you for the failings of a Ford Motor Company product?
What’s my compensation for the 76 Camaro whose carb blew up as soon as it was out of the then 90-day bumper to bumper warranty?
Wouldn’t a carburettor technically fall under a drivetrain warranty?
dgduris: It isn’t about being “green” enough. It the mis management of funds spent in producing and promoting 4 mediocre versions of the same thing for every division time and time again, moronic tie ups with companies like Fiat and mindlessly putting all GM’s eggs into one basket.
The whole “green” thing is in reference to the “GM’s killed Kenny, the electric car” claims and how little it would have cost to have grabbed a PR brass ring.
Especially when GM comes begging to US taxpayers so that by 2012 50% of their entire line will be flex fuel capable according to their own “recovery plan”. [ I incorrectly said 100%]
Spending money on losers like Saab and Saturn , the Fiat tie up, the Subaru tie up, and selling their JVs with other companies at a loss: that makes shareholders “happy” ?
For all the flames thrown at Daewoo, it was probably the smartest long term stock holder pleasing investment GM made in the last 10 years. [Note: I said “long term”, something GM hasn’t considered until bankruptcy stared them in the face and “free” money to be had ].
Yes their SUVs were cash cows, but the signs of that market softening were apparent as early as 2002. It would have taken leadership to make sure that attention was being paid to other areas of their product portfolio besides SUVs, but pull those GMT900s forward.
Waggy’s mismanagement is the point and he’s taken them down a long road year after year. The “green” thing would have been easy to grab low hanging fruit. Instead, once again Toyota wins the PR war.