GM's Million Mile Miracle Marketing Mishegos
GM's Fastlane blog keeps the chuckles coming, with an awkward little paean to the General's legendary reliability. Penned by "GM VP, Quality" Jamie Hresko, the post lets webizens know that if you Google "one million miles" you'll find stories about two GM vehicles that have crested the million mile mark: a 1989 Saab 900 SPG and a 1991 Chevrolet Silverado. But wait; didn't GM first buy into Saab in 1990? Although the old 900 had nothing to do with GM, its achievements still reflect well on the General because, dammit, they shelled-out for the PR rights. By buying the owner a brand new 9-5 Aero when the 900 SPG's odometer rolled over and didn't die. Over two years ago. But the funniest (not ha-ha) part of the story: GM just reduced the length of its Saab warranties, cutting mileage covered from 100k to 50k. But as Hresko says, this whole affair proves that "the real gap is not between GM quality and that of our competitors, the real gap lies between perception and reality." Like when he encourages the perception that "we back up our products with the industry's best transferable powertrain warranty, five years/100,000 miles," despite the, well, reality. [hat tip to kixstart]
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My perception gap stems from my car that ranked at the top of JD Power's survey. My last GM car I'm ever buying. Here are a few examples of my dealings. Wheel bolts breaking. "you must have tampered with it...I can't believe they came out of our factory that way. We're not covering them under warranty." Steering rack leaked and needed replacement. "we didn't see it last time and you're 50 miles over your warranty. We can't cover that." Engine misfiring - "there were no engine codes thrown so we didn't have anything to fix. Here's the bill for the diagnostics". Headlight bulb socket (plastic) melts. "Those are $50. We seem to be getting a lot of those on Cavaliers and Cobalts". Odometer LED readout fades and eventually stops displaying. "We'll have to replace the entire gauge cluster. ($$$)" Tough to watch all the car sites telling me that the Malibu, CTS, Corvette are great cars and GM has turned the corner, when I know that every other car, including the lesser model Malibu, or base level CTS, is probably absolute crap. Ask any former GM fanboy, that has switched to another brand, why they won't consider a GM car and they will tell you they don't get the same problems with their current cars. That is the perception gap GM has to work with and they will need 10 to 20 years to rebuild their reputation. Unfortunately, under Mr. Wagoner and Mr. Lutz's tenure, they have not done anything to change my opinion of GM. My GM car won't make a million miles.
I guess my point is that an emotional response to a brand is not necessarily irrational or close minded. After all, if the thought of spending 20,000 dollars on that brand makes you a little sick to your stomach, and there are other brands that are equivalently good, it is rational to avoid the cars that make you feel bad, the same way you would avoid a model that just didn't do anything for you or a color you found disgusting. The only case where it would be irrational to avoid GM on emotional grounds alone would be when it was clearly better on all possible grounds; styling, reliability, price, etc... and you just couldn't stand the sight of a GM badge on it. Which is simply not the case; there is no company that dominant, which means that emotional reactions to the badge are legitimate reasons not to buy, whether its because your parents had a Chevy Lemon, or you just don't like Lutz's face.
@ kixstart You are thinking clearly, sir. I wonder myself how that 13% reduction in warranty claim figure has been manipulated. This thread is good evidence of the perceptual quality issue GM faces. Assuming Hresko is correct, how do you get people to believe it? Has the bear cried "wolf" one too many times? It's certainly possible, and given that cranking up revenue is GM's only real chance to get out of this mess, I wonder how they will accomplish it (they haven't really told us anything about that plan yet...)