Slamnasty

45% sales drop for the Ford Ranger does not suprise me one bit. It's easily the oldest small truck around, and no competition whatsoever for the new Japanese small models. It probably still does fine against the Colorado and Dakota, but a Frontier would crush it in just about every way.

Chazmo

Hard for me to have sympathy. Yeah, I'm sorry for the folks who'll lose their jobs, but GM's had nearly 30 years to get its shit together. Only so much can be gained from international acquisitions -- GM (still) needs to deal with its domestic inadequacies.

spessx

Sad news for GM and I hate to see it. How would you guys suggest they turn it around?

I would start by scrubbing the product line - how many versions of the Suburban do you need? Suburban, Tahoe, Escalade, Denali? Are all of those necessary? Do the same thing for every platform.

Maybe they should also cut down to three brands to make their portfolio easier to manage - Chevrolet, Cadillac & Saturn. Of course I guess they could also reposition Pontiac. The new slogan could be "We build fleet cars".

-s

Chazmo

Excellent question, spe. Much has been written on this subject, though. I agree -- scrubbing the current product line (or at least completely revamping it over a 2 year period, perhaps) would be useful. I think the entire company needs to take a lesson from its Caddy brand -- re-invention. Find a specific market and go for it. I don't love Caddys, but I admire what they've done with the division in the last 5 years.

nHobbes

Those are some very good points. I think that myself everytime I see one, basically many times a day.

My friend just bought an Escalade and I was more than a bit disappointed. I figured, this Caddy SUV will be really nice. So many folks have them and they all act like the car is major "bling bling" material. I'm familiar with the exterior design of course, but never stepped into one. When he brought it over and I sat inside, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The interior was a mix of cheap gaudy stuff (for one, a Movado watch in the dash, which looked like it cost them $1 to manufacture) and just plain cheap (buttons, dvd player, entire front dash, etc).

There are so many SUV's out there and GM makes a good percentage of them. They are so similar, with just simple modifications to bodywork and interiors that it seems silly. I also believe they should take just a few, pinpoint a specific consumer base to market and make them quality vechicles, instead of offering so many choices with so little variation.

steven975

yea, gm has too many divisions. their model diversity actually hurts profitability. consider even the new kappas. Even though they are both GM, the Solstice and Sky ARE competitors.

Yes, I know the money ultimately goes to GM, but when customers cross-shop, incentives are usually going to be higher. Even if the 2 cars existed in a vacuum, Pontiac and Saturn would still be competing to offer the best incentives. Call me silly, but the Sky is totally out of place in saturn's lineup. Pontiac i understand, but not saturn.

It's not just kappa. every brand has a full lineup now. They're offering incentives on most of them that would probably be less if each brand were more focused. Who the heck would have a garage full of buicks, anyway?!?!

One thing about the escalade and navigator. Their platforms are essentially not-too-heavily modified versions of the Silverado and F150. Your BMW and Mercedes competition are engineered from the start to sell at a high price while the escalade and navigator are essentially $15K cars underneath it all. I never understood the "bling" factor these have attained. I would think your typical rapper would like an SUV that is built better and would run laps around the famed escalade/navigator, but it's not the case.

rai

I think in the 80s and early 90s the imports were eating away at the domestic cars. But the domestics were secure with trucks and were shifting away from cars any way to more profitable SUVs. I read Navigators were sold at $15K+ profit each. Well they should be since they used a lot of truck hardware and since they didn't have many SUVs to go against.

But starting in the mid 90s esp with Toyota and then MB, BMW, Honda, Nissan we got a lot more trucks and SUVs the domestics were stuck in with old truck based SUVs.

Then we have the gas crunch, and 150 different SUVs to pick from, GM and Ford were too slow to react instead of better products they gave cash back on the same old stuff.

That's it in a nutshell

jah

i wish the employees the very best of luck in these recessionary times!


GM had a new car show in town the other week and it was very very well done. if they put that kind of effort into design...

i was sad to say i did not see one car i needed. the solstice was not there. if i put that kind of money into a show i would have at least a engineering prototype or rip one off a fat corperate officer.

Slamnasty

That's the thing that kills me. They want to drum up all kinds of good press for the Solstice, but they never show the thing in public or at car shows. Why? I have no idea, but they should be. The freakin car is ready for Pete's sake. I can't believe it's not out by now.

Lexus was showing the new GS at car shows 6 months before it came out, and people salivated over it. They'd do the same with the Solstice if GM would stop treating it like it's some secret stealth bomber or something.

In general the General has a serious problem letting anyone see its hand before they deem it necessary. They'd be wise to break this tradition and let the customers feel like customers again.

vader1

I'd have to second that thought and go a little further. GM cars alot of times have not been at the top of my list in any given segment (except the new C6 which I wish I had the cash for) I would always think that if I were in the market for family sedan it would be Accord, Maxima etc etc etc etc then the maybe the Grand Prix way down the list. I don't know that too many of their new products would now be at the top of my list for any given segment, but I have to say they all seem to me to be great improvements over the outgoing model and would certainly move up on my personal list as a consumer.

The Cobalt is supposed to be a nice economy car, with an actual performance model offered now. The Solstice and Sky will be attractive products. The Corvette blows the competition in almost any price range out of the water. I don't like big grandpa cars but the Caddies all appear to be more appealling to a greater audience than the ones they replace. I even kind of like the very butch Malibu. I don't like any Buicks but they have the geezer market sewn up. None would be my first choice, but the incentives and my GM card now make them very attractive options.

The one glaring mistake seems to be that many people thought that the new Saturn (forget the model name) was a step backward. The newer products seem to be leaps forward. Better products will mean they might steal a sale or two from the Hondas and Toyotas of the world, but will more likely see the biggest gains come from perhaps Ford or Chrysler sales, as well as smaller import makers like Mazda, Kia, or Hyundai.

On concern I would have as a stock holder or exec though is they are offering big rebates (they have for some time now) and now this employee discount to keep sales up. It is hard to break away from that in the future if you create the expectation of big discounts. Better cars will sell themselves hopefully.