I have said it tome and time again. They should never have been bailed out. Only by allowing them to fail totaly would they cut out the cancer and reform as a lean competitive company. GM is like a 700lbs. man that keeps promising to lose weight and each time they restructure the man lose's 5 lbs and declares himself victorious even though he is still 600+ lbs of fat and morbidly obese! The entire culture at GM and athe way in which they think on both sides of the fence on the managment side and the Union side booth need to go the way of the Dodo bird or the Dynasaur.
It wills till happen they will still fail. GM's problem has been for years that they do not build anything that people will pay full price for. No one expect their truck buyers really likes what they make but once they start rebating them it get's to be a deal they just can not pass up. So they have trained their owners to wait for rebates,incentives etc........ When you sit down at a table the first thing they do at the dealership before you even start talking is they start discounting their vechile from MSRP with out even making so much as a peep about price! In the 20 year it has been almost unheard of for anyone to pay less then sticker on a Toyota if you did get it for less then sticker it was not much less and it was part of a national adverttised sale.....
The difference is that Toyota has built things that their customer base and conquest customers are willing to pay full price for. That is a huge difference.
Toyota also use's a lot of platforms not models per say that are globaly and that is a huge saving for them. Same thing goes for engines you can have mild modifications for different markets but should not have to have completely different engines for each market......IN GM's case they would not be able to compete in Europe at all ifnot for Adam Opel's engine line up! GM's 60° V6 does not sell well in Europe and they do not have a light weight high reving turbo diesel in their domestic market at all.On top of that many European and Asian countries have engine displacement tax's starting on anything larger then 1.8-2 Liters in displacement depending on the country domesticly GM has never offered an engine that small that I am aware of?
THe GTO was Autrailian and I think they did a poor job of marketing it! It would have sold like hot cakes with some push behind it. THe Astra should have done great as a Saturn and again no real push.....
Their has always been a "Not Invented Here" mentality with GM and it can not even get along with it's own divisions in other countries! Their has always been to much of the "good ole boy system" at work with in GM instead of everyone asking what is best for my company it is always "what is best for me"!For 7 years I put up with that nonsense! I was tempted to quite because I was getting so tired of it! I even started looking at Toyota North America hoping I could get in with them! In my mind a true profeessional always does what is best for his companies long term survival but I am a rare person I am told.
It wills till happen they will still fail. GM's problem has been for years that they do not build anything that people will pay full price for. No one expect their truck buyers really likes what they make but once they start rebating them it get's to be a deal they just can not pass up. So they have trained their owners to wait for rebates,incentives etc........ When you sit down at a table the first thing they do at the dealership before you even start talking is they start discounting their vechile from MSRP with out even making so much as a peep about price! In the 20 year it has been almost unheard of for anyone to pay less then sticker on a Toyota if you did get it for less then sticker it was not much less and it was part of a national adverttised sale.....
The difference is that Toyota has built things that their customer base and conquest customers are willing to pay full price for. That is a huge difference.
Toyota also use's a lot of platforms not models per say that are globaly and that is a huge saving for them. Same thing goes for engines you can have mild modifications for different markets but should not have to have completely different engines for each market......IN GM's case they would not be able to compete in Europe at all ifnot for Adam Opel's engine line up! GM's 60° V6 does not sell well in Europe and they do not have a light weight high reving turbo diesel in their domestic market at all.On top of that many European and Asian countries have engine displacement tax's starting on anything larger then 1.8-2 Liters in displacement depending on the country domesticly GM has never offered an engine that small that I am aware of?
THe GTO was Autrailian and I think they did a poor job of marketing it! It would have sold like hot cakes with some push behind it. THe Astra should have done great as a Saturn and again no real push.....
Their has always been a "Not Invented Here" mentality with GM and it can not even get along with it's own divisions in other countries! Their has always been to much of the "good ole boy system" at work with in GM instead of everyone asking what is best for my company it is always "what is best for me"!For 7 years I put up with that nonsense! I was tempted to quite because I was getting so tired of it! I even started looking at Toyota North America hoping I could get in with them! In my mind a true profeessional always does what is best for his companies long term survival but I am a rare person I am told.
