GM Death Watch 88: Almost Doesn't Count

Motor Trend just reviewed the new Saturn Aura. Reading between the lines, it’s clear that GM’s mission critical mainstream motor is another in a long, not-so-illustrious line of “almost” cars. It’s “no sports sedan” with lots of “corner cutting” powered by a “crude” engine with “some looseness in the drivetrain.” The Aura is a “step in the right direction”– that leaves the badge-engineered Opel at least two steps behind the competition. Anyway, does it even matter? I reckon GM’s car business is beyond repair.

For the first time, the California Motor Car Dealers Association published new car registration data listed by brand. In the second financial quarter, Toyota captured 24.4% of the Golden State’s automotive market. Honda scored second place, at 12.4%. Then it’s Ford at 9.6%; followed by Chevrolet, at 8.2%. If national sales follow California’s lead, GM is toast. There is no way The General can support its vast infrastructure, overhead and labor costs, there’s no way the company can downsize quickly enough, to survive on that kind of market slice.

The automaker’s California conundrum: the resale market. There isn’t one. Hundreds of thousands of California immigrants, first-timer buyers, commuters and elderly consumers swear by used Hondas and Toyotas. Their preference creates a vicious circle: buyers shun new GM products because they can’t unload them. In the mass market, big depreciation is a kind of living death.

Never mind the BS about GM’s products being torpedoed by left-leaning, import-loving— I mean, “foreign-owned automaker”-loving journalists. GM shot itself in both feet and both arms for decades, building rental fleet fodder instead of competitive product. Even if you accept the dubious notion that GM now makes automobiles that match Toyota's and Honda’s (on some levels), even if you swallow the argument that GM is suffering from an indefensible “perception gap,” there’s only way to reverse this death spiral: "must have" products.

Not decent cars. Not reasonably competitive cars. Not cars that only make sense because they’re so damn cheap and no other new car dealer (except Ford) will give me a loan. Not the new Saturn Aura. I’m talking about cars like the Saturn Sky— only with room for four adults and a trunk.

Saturn’s new motto– “Like Always. Like Never Before”– says it all. Here’s a company, indeed an entire corporation that needs to sever its ties to its mediocre, vainglorious past and build spectacular products. It just… can’t… do it. I know; Saturn’s motto supposedly reasserts their user-friendliness. But what does “Like Always” say to people who dismissed Saturn as a boring, out-of-date brand?

By the same token, what does “Like Never Before” say? It’s a po-faced claim that Saturn is better than it was, not better than the rest. It’s that inwards-facing commitment to relative improvement that defines the vast majority of GM’s products and condemns them to also-ran status. Not that GM knows it. The General’s complete obliviousness to the average non-customer’s opinion of their products is one of the most disturbing aspects of GM’s fall from grace. Well that and their failure to acknowledge their competitors’ achievements and beat their best-in-class benchmarks.

Detroit’s unjustifiable arrogance towards the imports in the 70’s is well known. But few people appreciate the fact that this holier-than-thou attitude is still in effect, informing everything the company does– and doesn’t do. I recently received an email from a GM insider containing a memo from Ed Wellburn, GM’s Vice President of Design. After proclaiming “GM’s turnaround plan is truly working as witnessed by our 2nd quarter results”, Wellburn issued a new edict:

“Design Center is host to journalists, ‘celebrities’ and senior management up to and including the Board of Directors. The confidence we have in our products and people should be evident to anyone who drives on the Technical Center site, especially in the vicinity of the Design buildings and adjacent roads.

“As such, I am directing that ONLY GM products be parked on the roads around Design and in the parking area in front of our building. Any employees or suppliers/vendors who are not driving GM products may use the west and north parking lots.

“Effective August 15, 2006, this policy will be in effect. After this date, any non-GM vehicles parked on the roadways or in designated parking areas in front of the Design building will be ticketed. In the case of multiple offenses, the vehicle will be towed at the owner’s expense.”

And there you have it: GM management’s desire to shelter in their own little universe, quarantined from the realities of the outside world. Think about it: Wellburn's directive sends both employees and visitors driving non-GM vehicles to the back lots. It also means that GM-driving designers who enter the building upon which their company’s fate depends only encounter GM products. In short, what you can’t see… can kill you.