Comments on: Daily Podcast: “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all”

By: nikita

nikita — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:53:08 +0000

The real decline started in 1962, the year GM’s market share peaked, and VW sold its millionth car in the US. A dizzy array of overlapping models of all sizes of cars from every division except maybe Cadillac and GMC followed. An example I remember is that a fully-optioned Caprice in the late 1960’s retailed for more than a base Cadillac.

By: GS650G

GS650G — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:45:01 +0000

Motortrend also named the Renault Alliance a COTY as well as the 74 mustang.

By: John Horner

John Horner — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:44:19 +0000

If you want to read a predecessor of the Death Watch series, check out this 1992 piece from Fortune magazine. (p.s. It is way more than 800 words :) )

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1992/11/16/77137/index.htm

By: Nemphre

Nemphre — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:54:17 +0000

“Those GM10 cars are awful”

And yet Motortrend named the Grand Prix their Car of the Year for ‘88.

By: mel23

mel23 — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 13:01:36 +0000

“one can only marvel at their self-delusion.”

That’s the central problem with the current team. Only a few months ago one of the GM mouthpieces said something on the order of “we’re banking on it” where ‘it’ was the US economy turning around in the last half of the year and truck/SUV sales returning to or near their former level. Ditto for the Volt.

By: blowfish

blowfish — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:37:23 +0000

It has nothing to do with what GM had bought or owned. Is the wrong Modus Oparandi.
Is like a richly spiled kid who gets bored with a new toy in 10 mins. Instead of the battery died he would throw away the whole toy instead of see if the batt was infact dead.
Heard yrs ago, alot of Europeans will go to Saudi Arabia to look for unloved nice cars or trucks. A small accident or malfunction will send the car truck to the junk pile. These smart EU folks will pick them up for almost nothing brought them home for an insane profit.

GM ralely have any patience to improve the product. Look at the MR2 and Fiero although both fot hem were not produced now. But MR2 was continually improved sold like hot cakes, but not the Fiero, production was cut when it fell to 5,000.

By: Lichtronamo

Lichtronamo — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:46:02 +0000

Nick R:

Those GM10 cars are awful, just plain weird in terms of proportion, styling, build quality, materials – EVERYTHING. 1st Generation Lumina anyone? (Even the name was stupid.) You still see them once and awhile yet and its no wonder GM lost another generation of buyers forever.

By: Lichtronamo

Lichtronamo — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:05:53 +0000

Only the top of the line Touring model Odyssey comes with the PAX tires, and its now optional. The LX and EX models come with a spare located under the middle row of seats.

By: NickR

NickR — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:00:39 +0000

alexeck…

Once upon a time, I had the opportunity to delve into Saturns numbers. I don’t know if, at the time, they could have bought Toyota. What I do know is that for Saturn to earn a suitable return GM was relying on such a unlikely convergence of good luck one can only marvel at their self-delusion.

I’d love to see a retrospective death watch on the GM10 program. Up until that point, GM was ill, but deteriorating slowly. The GM10 program was like getting a drug resistant infection that ages a person 10 years in 2 months.

By: N85523

N85523 — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:54:50 +0000

When one looks at GM and compares the past to the present as you suggest, GM is already dead.

By: alexeck

alexeck — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:44:19 +0000

On vaguely the same subject, I remember hearing at one time that for the cost of building the Saturn unit, GM could have bought Toyota. Any truth to this claim?