Stark wrote:This will solve the majority of the problems that GM has right now.
Explain how.
1-2. As explained in the above post. Bean counters are responsible for atrocities such as the cavalier and lest we forget Rick Wagoner's baby was the AZTEK.
3-4. Most of the problems that many people have are at dealership level. For instance: If you were to go to an Audi dealership, that dealership reports to AUDI. If you go to a GM dealership, they are nowhere near as accountable to their parent company as most other manufacturers. In the olden days, GM used to have dealers more like those of their competitors, that were VERY accountable, but as time has gone on and the dealers have become more bloated they started to become more powerful and less accountable to GM.
I will relate to you the story of my friend who tried to buy a 2004 GTO.
He wanted a 2004 GTO Black on Black, with a 6MT. He had 30 Grand in cash ready to go to buy said car. Every dealer he went to tried to sell him something he didn't want- either the wrong colour, or an AT car, and NONE of them would take his cash up front. Worse yet none of them would even bother to order the car from GM for him unless he financed for something rediculous like 96 months at 3+%. For a car with a sticker of ~30 000, you can see he said no fucking way. When trying to complain to GM directly about it, he was informed several times that 'they would take it up with the dealer' or 'need substantiation to prove their claims' and basically told him 'no, we won't sell you a car, go to your dealer.'
So he bought a used Jaguar XK8 instead.
I repeatedly hear tales of this sort of dealer mistreatment among my age group as one of the defining reasons as to why they would never set foot in a GM dealership again- be it an example of a dealer trying to take them to the cleaners as above or generally being dicks because they happened to be younger car buyers that were looking for something in a higher price bracket than an entry level car.
(I myself was once turned down to be allowed to test drive a G8 GT for the fact that I am under 25- despite the fact that I was factfinding for my family. I walked out when they let some asshole go out alone just cause he was 40+ ).
4. This ensures that there is no longer a large overhead of cars at dealers 24/7 waiting to be sold, as well as ensuring that there is a test driver car for that model as well as a potential sale one for on the spot sales (doesn't happen as often as you might think.)
5. Should be fairly self explanatory, just by doing this GM can win in terms of money saved as well as the 'green' and 'modernizing' PR they can get off it.
6. Buick is quite a niche brand, and only profitable in the chinese or pensioner markets. (You can't kill off or consolidate them because for some reason Mainland China has a huge hardon for Buick, but not caddy. Go figure.) Cadillac is likewise a niche brand due to the relative expense of the cars- keep it as a halo brand, don't make cheap cars to fill up the lineup like they're doing now. Buick should be the midrange luxury segment and Cadillac the high-end luxury. This establishes a proper brand hierarchy that people can more easily ascertain than a bunch of buicks and caddies all competing for the same market segment as they are now.
7. Doing this cheapens the brands and GM's image as a whole- Imagine you are a first time buyer. You buy a rebadged Daewoo as a Chevy. You don't know cars and hence do not know that it is infact a Daewoo and not a Chevrolet. The Daewoo is crap. Do you ever buy Chevy or GM again? Didn't think so.
8. This hearkens back to a past time when the brands were more well defined than they are now- and GM was much more successful. It also limits cross-platform competition, which as we know from British Leyland is a horrible thing. (Austin Allegro et al.)
9. Again, saves on trimmings, limits brand competition etc. I should focus this point more though- standard pickups and whatnot should remain chevy, whereas the more industrial vehicles will be GMC.
10. Basically tell the UAW to agree to wages inline with other firms in North America or get stuffed, something along those lines. I'm sure with the help of Obama and other politicos this could be much easier than most people make it out to be.
I hope this clarifies my reasoning for you Stark.
Addendum: "On February 9, 2009, GM announced that Lutz would be stepping down on April 1, 2009 from his position as Vice-Chairman of Global Product Development, to take an advisory role. He will retire from GM at the end of 2009. Lutz said that one reason for his decision was the increasing regulatory climate in Washington that would force him to design what Federal regulators wanted, rather than what customers wanted."
And Ossus, if you're referring to the Chevy Vega, it's a bad example, everyone involved in the production of that car hated it, it was a product of the bean-counters trying to compete with the Japanese imports, and was doomed to failure as like the Aztek it was a car that tried to hard to appeal to everyone and therefore turned everyone off it.
EDIT: Also, I was using Wagoner as an example of someone who does the bloody Finance -> CFO -> CEO route.
