It appears that GM is looking to the internet community for suggestions.  Maybe GM is finally on the right track!

Since the beginning of time, or at least the beginning of car time, Manufacturers built cars and the public bought them.  Most of these cars were unique and served a purpose. They were defined and stood out from the competition.  Mercury would have a better interior, more features and a more upscale design than a Ford.  The same would be true for Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac. Each was a step up the car buying class system.

In the late 60s and 70s American car companies began to rely on badge engineering. It was cheaper to slap on a different grill or maybe a different set of wheels and charge a premium for it in one of the upper brands.  No longer were the body styles and engines unique to a brand. This alone wasn’t a problem until gas prices soared in the early 1970s. Anybody remember the Cadillac Cimarron of the 1980s.. Yikes!

Consumers flocked to cheap and fuel efficient cars from Japan.  While they expected to save gas, they unexpectedly got cars that were also inexpensive and fun to drive.  GM, Ford and Chrysler dismissed them (along with VW from the 60s) as cheap, unsafe and unreliable, but the public saw these cars as a great alternative to the big, heavy, gas guzzling cars that roamed main street.

During the late 70s and early 80s it was clear that Toyota, Nissan (Datsun) and Honda was here to stay. Their cars got better with each model release and were a real alternative to buying American.  Most of us around during the mid-80s remember the news reports of foreign cars being destroyed in the mid-west by angry Americans convinced that the foreign cars manufacturers were taking American jobs. The reality was Foreign cars were simply better at the time.

American car companies had to do something they had not done since the early part of the 20th century…compete! In the early days of the automobile, there was estimated to be more than 1000 car companies in the US.  I am sure the car business was just as cut throat, if not more so, than it is now.  Steam engines, electric vehicles and varying power trains were all up for challenge. After World War II, less than 10 major car companies were in business and by the late 60s that number had dropped to 4. They included GM, Ford, Chrysler and American Motors.  There were four major companies owning more than 90% of the market in the US. Talk about a captive audience of car buyers. This may have lead to many bad union deals as there was money to go around. The gas shortage of the 70s changed all that.

The 70s, 80s and 90s saw US market share erode for American can manufacturers. American Motors was the first to go and had it not been for the US Government, Chrysler would be a footnote in American automotive history. The big 3 simply didn’t know how to make a good small car at a profit. Weak attempts at small car manufacturing included the Pinto, Vega, Chevette, Fiesta, Cavalier and the list goes on. These cars sold ok, but only to those wanting to buy American. Most people simply couldn’t justify the purchase over a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla.

With market share eroding and manufacturing cost rising during the 70s and 80s, less time and effort was spent on their mid-size and large cars. Updated models were few and far between. Quality dropped and market share continued to erode. This continued until the mid 90s when the SUV craze hit. There were reports of manufacturers making more than $5000 on each vehicle. Happy days were here again! Unfortunately, none of the big 3 was forward looking enough to invest in solid small car platforms. Profits were big and small cars once again took a back seat. All was great until gas prices soared and the economy faltered.

With Ford at its knees and GM and Chrysler in bankruptcy, the big 3 have finally come to the realization that they will have to compete, head to head, with foreign car companies for American market share on a large scale. No longer can they build cars with the idea of build it and they will come. Those days are long over!

My suggestion to the big 3 is to talk with public, find out what we want and need. Not all small cars and not all muscle cars, but a combination of fuel efficient, fun to drive, powerful, versatile and cost effective vehicles. Will it be easy? No, but if Hyundai and Volkswagen can do it, so can you. The internet is a great resource with blogs and message boards asking for specific vehicles, calling out issues and providing insight into their interest. Please use it or risk going under for good.

Here is a link to a related article on Motortend. And here is a link to tell Fritz at GM what you think!

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 13th, 2009 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.