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Automotive News & Views What if you were in charge of GM?
874 messages, Last post on Oct 28, 2009 at 10:20 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: steve_ (Aug 28, 2009 11:33 am) But it's a lot better than reading all the GM bashing that still continues. Those days have gone. It's a new GM. Time for change and hope for a new cadre of cars from GM.
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Aug 28, 2009 3:51 pm) Let's see: - they didn't change their name - they didn't remove the UAW - they still have Lutz - they are still talking about rebadging Vues and Aveos as Buicks Not "new" enough. 
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Aug 28, 2009 3:51 pm) I like the VW ads with the old Beetle stepping up to the mike (mic?).
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Replying to: steve_ (Aug 28, 2009 4:17 pm) VW ads in the 60s were state of the art (no pun intended). I recall an English professor using them as examples in class--probably before most of you can remember. GM needs some really good focus group work, which they seem to have done, since the ads aren't particularly hitting my sweet spot. But I'll bet they tested to be very good with people younger who used to buy foreign. What GM must do is change the aura of the dealerships and the service areas. They need a fresh do over. The service area for the Chev dealer where I bought the Cobat is lightyears ahead of the dealership where I bought several Buicks and they also sell Chev (Pontiac) GMC. The service area inside parking entrance is brownstone (fake rubber mat, but looks like a brownstone driveway). The service manager is a fresh young upstart. And he does everything exactly right. It's the old but often unlearned WOW technique. When you've talked to him and things are being done or are finished, I find myself saying, "WOW, that was easy." He's a service manager who's customer oriented. I believe lots of US line dealerships are still business oriented and operated in terms of guidelines of what's best for the parent company and what's best for the dealership's bottom line. The new GM dealerships must leave a good feeling which I would parallel to buying something through Amazon with a few clicks after an easy, accurate search, having the seller email acknowledgement of your order and paymetn through Amazon within hours, having it shipped the next business day by the seller, having a tracking number in the email telling me it shipped, and having it arrive in 1, 2 or 3 business days. I heard three dealership representatives in Louisville on a talkshow talking about the difference people experienced with buying and owning the popular foreign brands compared to buying and owning the US brands through the last many years. They understood and said a big difference was in the process of ownership and they meant the interaction with the dealership over problems. An example might be that a transmission has started giving problems at 50K miles after warranty. With the certain other foreign brands it was replaced with little hassle. While that's expensive and the buyer paid for it in the price of the car, that's what it should be. The new GM has to strive for that satisfaction. The process of ownership has to change at some dealerships.
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Aug 28, 2009 4:49 pm) And yeah, a good dealer can even make living with a lemon tolerable. |
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Aug 28, 2009 3:51 pm) Yes, it's a new GM. Just like the old GM. Wishing it was the even older GM. Let's see, recycling Chevys as another nameplate, just like the old GM. Too many brands, just like the old GM Ads talking about the good old days, just like the old GM Doing dumb things like targeting Honda in their ads, when Honda buyers buy Hondas, not cars. Just like the old GM. Yep, it's a new GM allright. Those days of GM doing stupid things like rebadging compacts and subcompacts to sell as a supposedly "upscale" brand, and advertising anything but their actual vehicles are SO long gone. You know, there's this bridge I'd like to sell you. Great view of Brooklyn... 
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Replying to: bpizzuti (Aug 28, 2009 6:11 pm) GM has many challenges--the worst of which is the concept that foreign brands deliver better gas mileage, higher quality, and lower ownership costs. I like the new Chevy ads but they need to put more value in the equation. Specifically, if your Malibu costs less to own/operate than comparable Camrys and Accords over five years, then push that hard. If it doesn't, then figure out how to make it do so (i.e. lower the price). |
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Replying to: vinnyny (Aug 29, 2009 6:40 pm) I believe one of the big challenges is the large cadre of people who are out to bash GM. They don't operate in current time; they operate from problems in 90s typically. It's like a political push about a Washington agenda. Every time they post in anything GM, even a positive titled forum, they kvetch about their 1989 Suburban. Nevermind all the problems foreign cars have had. Look at all the problems the mid-sized foreign offerings in the popular makes had with redesigned models: steering lead problems, creaking in the body going over twists, brakes wearing out quickly, transmissions failing regularly (of course they were replaced in some cases under the higher price warranty), transmissions having problems shifting in some situations leading to dangerous lag times, AC compressors failing, V6 engines having vibrations going in and out of the mode shutting down cylinders, lines carrying oil to the control for variable valves leaking outside the motor, and with some cars _rust_, and on. The manufacturers of some car lines have been able to extend their reputation earned or gained in one period by careful advertising and with pushes on their image. But reality strikes. Read the Odyssey forum here on transmission troubles there (hasn't Honda figured out how to do transmissions?); Honda isn't covering the replacements in many cases. People stayed happy earlier when Honda replaced their transmission 2 and in some cases three times before 100,000K and then said "It's your baby from now on." The higher profit in the purchase price they were able to glean from eager customers helped make that possible as a secret warranty system that US makers couldn't do or didn't want to do due to their higher costs of manufacturing. I recall about 2003 when posters bragged how the two leading cars didn't have to use rebates like the US brands (although they did have dealer incentives in some cases). Soon they were using _rebates_. So the bubbles can burst. How does GM advertise to change the image and minimize the impact of the lobby of those trying to make the new GM fail? How does GM change the public perception of the cars. One is change the dealership. One area dealer just remodeled their facility. just remodeled their facility. |
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Aug 30, 2009 5:05 am) GM should look at what Hyundai has done as a business model. They came on the scene making complete junk and now rank among the best. Yes, they still are joked upon, but the reality is they make great cars at affordable prices. |
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Aug 30, 2009 5:05 am) Sometimes companies NEVER can come back, if they screwed it up badly enough, no matter what they do. Many years ago, I said something like "All of Cadillac's former customers would need to grow old and die before Cadillac becomes a prestige brand again". And that is exactly what happened. The only way to erase Cadillac's past was to have it forgotten by anyone who had to live through it. Maybe GM will just have to be patient 
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Automotive News & Views What if you were in charge of GM?
