I enjoyed it. Thanks for posting it :-)
I watched my mom take her Chevy to the shop THREE times for the same recalled part when I was 12 and have not bought a GM product since. Ford lied about the cruise control problem on my F-150 and when they finally did the recall, the recalled part went from being availble two months (November) after the recall was announced to 'we might have it in February'. I know 'bad parts happen' but geez Detroit, do not rub my nose in it.
Mike
Hope he's got the guts to print his email address.
What, like putting their economy in the toilet for the last 16 years?
They did that intentionally, eh Ricky?
This is a bunch of self-serving tripe from the man whose job is guaranteed by a board of directors staffed with a significant number of men who've been cut loose by other failed companies that THEY drove into the ground.
Point the blame arrow where it belongs: toward the management that failed to bring more than couple desirable cars to market in the past 3 decades!
While GM has some successes its bread and butter lines like Chevy are in deep trouble. Compare a Mazda 3 with a comparably priced and equipped Chevy Cobalt ...just slamming the doors tells you the difference. What GM vehicle offers a 10 year/100,000 mile warranty? Let's not forget... Pontiac Aztec. I drove Chevys for 35 years, but am far more satisfied with my 2005 Hyundai.
So fast? GM nearly went bankrupt in the early 1990's. They and the other members of the "Big Three" have been losing market share in cars for decades. There is a simple reason for this, Rick: Your cars stink.
Despite public perception, the answer is not that foreign automakers are more productive or offer better-quality or more fuel-efficient vehicles.
GM and the rest have defined "quality" as elimination of defects. That's ridiculous. GM hasn't had a product competitive to the Camry or Accord for over twenty years -- and mid-sized cars were their bread-and-butter. The problem isn't in the factory or with the Union -- the problem is this, Rick: Your cars stink.
Simply put, we are committed to doing a better job of designing, building and selling high-quality, high-value cars and trucks that consumers can’t wait to buy. No excuses.
It's been over twenty years since the Camry was introduced. Oldsmobile was destroyed by Toyota and Honda because the Cutlass Supreme / Ciera was awful. Oh, but NOW you are going to make cars competitive with Toyota & Honda? What's taken so long? Does anyone really believe you have suddenly develpoed a design and engineering process that can make a mid-sized car people want to buy?
Foreign automakers have just a fraction of these costs, because they have few, if any, U.S. retirees
You didn't fund your retiree medical expenses while they were working, and that's not your fault? Toyota and Honda in Kentucky and Ohio should pay for YOUR bad contracts from decades ago?
American automakers and other traditional manufacturing companies created a social contract with government and labor that raised America’s standard of living and provided much of the economic growth in the 20th century.
"Social Contract"????? So now we have an alleged exponent of American Capitalism using Socialist formulations? Rick, the only reason your company paid those benefits is because you and the UAW agreed on contracts. The UAW earned a fortune for their members; that was perfectly OK when your cars were selling for large profits, but now your cars STINK and the value added isn't there. After DECADES of making fabulous profits and the highest wages in the country, now you have the crass nerve to whine about a "social contract"?????? Poor Baby!!
Another factor beyond our control is lawsuit abuse. Litigation now costs the U.S. economy more than $245 billion a year, or more than $845 per person. That’s more than 2 percent of our gross domestic product. No other country has costs anywhere near this level. And, the perverse thing is that, in many cases, the majority of courtroom settlements go to the lawyers and other litigation costs, not the injured parties.
A fair point, but your competitors face this problem too -- including Toyota and Honda.
Another major concern is unfair trading practices, especially Japan’s long-term initiatives to artificially weaken the yen. A leading Japanese automaker reports that for each movement of 1 yen against the dollar, it gains 20 billion yen in additional profitability, or nearly $170 million at today’s exchange rate. No wonder Japanese automakers have noted that their recent record profits were aided by exchange rates.
When all else fails, open the Iacocca playbook and blame the Yen exchange rate. Last time I checked, Rick, Toyota and Honda do not pay their North American suppliers and workers in Yen -- it's done in dollars. They also don't collect Yen for cars sold in the United States, either. Toyota is not a "Japanese" company any more -- just as GM is not an "American" company. They are both GLOBAL companies with hugh and series investments around the world. That's why, as you said, GM now sells more cars outside of the USA than inside. The Yen has NOTHING to do woth the FACT that Honda and Toyota's plants in the United States are selling cars and making large profits in US Dollars while your crummy plants lose money because your cars STINK.
It’s critical that government leaders, supported by business, unions, and all our citizens, forge policy solutions to the issues undercutting American manufacturing competitiveness.
Instead of looking to the Federal Government to fix your Social Contract, Rick, try driving down I-75 and visiting Honda in Ohio and Toyota in Kentucky. They can show you how companies headquartered in JAPAN do a far better job designing, assembling and selling cars IN AMERICA FOR AMERICANS than your fossilized company.
Running to the Federal Government when you got your butt kicked in the marketplace is really lame, Rick. You and your company have a great future together with the 'Rat Party -- going NOWHERE FAST. Buh-Bye!!
G.M.'s problem stems from weak management and aggressive and corrupt unions who can't see beyond tomorrow.
G.M. through poor management is saddling the American taxpayer with the burden of their weakness as is stupidy in union misrepresentation of the workers. That malfeasance will result in the greatest disaster in the U.S. business world since the Great Depression.
No flame from me, brother. I agree with you and what some of this article says as well. I've been attacked myself on here for expressing some of these thoughts, which is a shame. The truth is that the unions ARE the reason for the higher wages, benefits and such that all of us enjoy. My blood boils when I read those dumb union rags (Solidarity - Ugh!), but like most things, there are good and bad and to throw the baby out with the bathwater seems very foolish and not in our best interests.
What many people don't understand is the Japanese business practice of declaring economic warfare on the American manufacturers. That is one big reason I refuse to buy Japanese branded vehicles.
Useless statistic to help the CEO spin the facts.
Fact is And GM offers more models that get over 30 miles-per-gallon and also more models that get under 30 miles per gallon highway than any other automaker. They offer more models period. Their fleet avg. is higher than the foreign name plates and that is the stat that counts.
GM's small cars get really bad gas mileage for being small. Their large cars do get pretty good gas mileage hwy but they do it by having less hp than the competition.
HILLARY/WAGONER-CARE 2008
Rick, you have to fess up to your longer term problem:
Quality.
Now that you have hammered Delphi into the ground, the only way they will make it at todays parts pricing formula is to cut corners and take out quality control. Meanwhile Delphi is going to massacre their wage base, so no-one will give a shit about doing the job right.
You've hammered all your independent supplier base by requiring a 2% cost giveback every year of a multi-year contract, after you hammered out all the profits and underpaid for tooling just to be awarded a contract, so they can only make it by cutting back on quality control.
Now you've told thousands upon thousands of employees that they will be out of work at plants all over the country. Watch for no-shows, sleeping on the job, forgetting about installing that bolt correctly, or outright sabotage, 'cause their employment future is dim, so why should they give a shit?
Future quality is the final straw that will flush GM down the toilet!
How about Chevy....
Some argue that we have no one but ourselves to blame for our disproportionately high health-care “legacy costs.” That kind of observation reminds me of the saying about no good deed going unpunished. While appealing to some, that argument ignores the fact that American automakers and other traditional manufacturing companies created a social contract with government and labor that raised America’s standard of living and provided much of the economic growth in the 20th century. American manufacturers were once held up as good corporate citizens for providing these benefits. Today, we are maligned for our poor judgment in “giving away” such benefits 40 years ago.
Another factor beyond our control is lawsuit abuse. Litigation now costs the U.S. economy more than $245 billion a year, or more than $845 per person. That’s more than 2 percent of our gross domestic product. No other country has costs anywhere near this level. And, the perverse thing is that, in many cases, the majority of courtroom settlements go to the lawyers and other litigation costs, not the injured parties.
This sickens me.
I will never again purchase a GM product.