It has been a long journey to this day, a journey of taking your customers for granted, assuming corporate welfare was a God given right, letting dealers fleece customers, building product that didn't suit the market and not listening to customers and dealers. I worked for GM for three years up to 2005 and I knew about the first week this company was going to go down to toilet. The reason was so simple: Nobody in the entire organisation gave two hoots about their customers. "If we build it, they will buy it, and if it doesn't sell, it isn't our fault" was the mantra at GM. Let's have a brief look at what caused GM to fail:
1968. GM decided to make cars on corporate platforms. The distinguisning character of each division is diluted with each new model.
1970. This theme is carried on with the Vega, probably the wost POS ever built. A Vega could never compete with a Corolla, but GM didn't take Toyota seriously.
1973. Energy Crisis One. GM caught with pants down. Needed a small, efficient car to compete with Toyota, which is now selling cars at levels thought impossible. Did we get it? Nope!
1980. Protected by import quotas, GM introduces the X Car, a total disaster, which was supposed to be their "import fighter."
1981. Next is the J Car, which was one of the worst car ever made and they even tried to sell a Cadillac version. To top that off, they sold the same car for TWENTY FOUR years!
1982-1986. The Great FWD shift. This was going to "Save GM (like the X and J cars)" and "Beat back the Imports." Except one size does not fit all. Consumers don't want a Sedan De Ville that looks like a Celebrity. Besides, the reliability of these cars was awful because GM cheapened them to make more profit per unit.
1990-2000. The Great SUV craze. Hey, gas was cheap and they could make good profits per unit. Why not neglect R&D on our bread and butter sedans and flog SUVs with cheap financing. GM turned into a defacto finance company, lending money to people who could not get loans at Honda and Toyota.
2000-2005. The Denial Phase. OK, GM made money but anyone working in the industry knew that sooner or later gas prices were going to spike and the Monstrosities GM was selling would tank. This was the time to really focus on new, small, efficient, high quality products. What did GM do? Paid execs huge bonuses and big dividends. Spent their R&D on new trucks and SUVs.
2005-Present. The final descent. Gas prices were spiking so GM was forced to discount their SUVs to absurd prices, give low interest financing and loan to sub-prime buyers. Also destroyed the resale of everybody who paid full price, so they would never buy GM again. It blew up in their faces. Then when it was obvious that radical surgery was needed but 2006, Red Ink Rick did nothing but collect his bonus cheques. Their salvation was going to be, get this, the new Camaro, a two ton wonder.
2009. So, after Hoovering HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF TAXPAYER dollars, GM is bust and still $170 BILLION in the hole.
So, GM apologists, there is no excuse for this. This company was mismanaged for forty years. They were arrogant and self absorbed. They saw their market share decline from 65% to 20%. They could not compete.
Am I angry? Yes, I am, because my tax dollars have gone to a totally incompetent organisation that should have died years ago. This company will die anyway because they do not have the money to design a product that can compete with Honda and Toyota in any way whatsoever.
