Finding a new way to buy a car that actually the experience positive is exactly the way to dominance.

I have a feeling Penske will figure out how to create this new distribution model first since he has so much dealer experience.

I like menno’s concept, but I’ll take it one step further:

Each vehicle has a fixed price and a fixed payment plan period. The price tag would have 5 different monthly payment options based on your credit score and denoted by different color codes. You can either go online to process an application and receive your color, or use a kiosk at the GM dealer.

GM could even strike deals with the reporting agencies to advertise by showing which GM color your score gets you on the self-printed credit reports.

Then, Customer A with a Blue score walks into a GM dealer, directly to a red Corvette and sees the following:

Green = $345/mo
Blue = $388/mo
Yellow = $399/mo
Black = $419/mo
Red = $445/mo

Asks a salesperson for the keys, and is driving off the lot in 20 minutes after the paperwork is complete.

No haggle. No shady deals. No asking the manager.

Plus, it will show Americans the value of a good credit score because based on the recent mortgage crisis and bailouts we seem to have no concept whatsoever.

Get rid of the games at the dealer level and the false promises at the corporate level. Stop the UAW game playing (and whatever the management does to antagonize the UAW). If anyone is unhappy with their job or management or how the company is being run then that person is welcome to look for employment with other corporations. Striking might once have had a point when it earned worker’s rights and safety rules but these days it looks infantile. We’ve got two people who have spent the summer sitting outside of my employer on the lawn with a big sign that says “Shame on ” and “labor dispute”. What a waste of time. None of the rest of us is publicly complaining – in fact we are thankful to have jobs and most of us are working hard to keep them.

Fritz? Nope.
Mark? Nope.
Bob? Nope.
etc.

New cars? Nope.

New business model? Nope.

Is dumping non-essential assets the new “New!” Perhaps only in the Kingdom of GM. Good thing the lessons learned in The Emperor’s New Clothes haven’t been completely forgotten.

Good ideas, but it looks like you’ll have to deal with the ex-UAW’s Ron Bloom.

And I’d think long about whether Cadillac should stay.

It’s nice to say that GM should use Cadillac to build the finest cars in the world. It’s wholly another to actually do it. It’s very difficult, very time consuming, and very expensive.

And if Cadillac is to be true millionaire cars, then they aren’t selling stuff like the CTS or SRX. And that means it’s incredibly low volume.

Or they can keep trying to chip away at 3-Series sales.

Even still, this is all low volume work, and it’s expensive. On top of that, Cadillac shouldn’t be sharing anything with Chevy, except perhaps the Escalade, so we’d be looking at investment(s) in at least one unique platform, possibly more.

Eliminate all, or most, of the duplication and re-badging.

– Chevrolet – mass appeal, low-cost (but high quality) small and medium size cars and small SUV/CUV models, and NO TRUCKS

– GMC – trucks, vans and large basic SUV models

– Buick – medium and large FWD cars and luxury medium and large SUV/CUV, and perhaps a Riviera type coupe (based on the CTS platform?)

– Cadillac – return Cadillac to it’s former glory and position on the top of the heap. Build only RWD performance/luxury sedans and coupes and make them desireable – they need to be more than better than the competition, they also need to be styled better than anything else on the road, and NO TRUCKS

No overlaps, no rebadging, no duplication and give each brand it’s own identity. Now is the time to do it, because the Government gravy train will run out, eventually, and all of the above requires a lot of cash for development.

Also, add another person that thinks drastically changing the car buying experience is the best way to make people consider a GM car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI2Pr-eTeM0

Then adopt a separate trade-in agency in every town for all GM dealers, where you go get a free, BINDING “appraisal”.

Then at the appraisal place, you go to a computer terminal, put in your financial information and get a BINDING financing deal outlining how much car you can afford new is printed out.

There you have it. You take the car, the appraisal (within 10 days) and the binding financial statement and go to the dealers of your choice and there is no pressure, no arm twisting, no gimicks, no hassles, no upselling, no
Bullsh!t – just a civilized exchange.

You could even do as happens now and look online for the car of your choice, or order it online and simply ask that it be delivered to the dealer closest to you in a given time.

In fact, this is something ALL car manufacturers should do.

I’ll put it another way; why do we put up with buying cars the way we do? None of us likes it.

Would we buy a suit if we practically had to armwrestle the tailor for a price? No. How about a TV? I don’t think so. Would we put up with it at the gas station? When renting an apartment? No and no.

Cars are very expensive – they take a lot of our paycheck.

If GM or Ford or Chrysler could figure this stuff out, they’d actually “have something”.

It “figures” that GM actually was almost there with Saturn and are throwing it away.

Knuckle dragging sub-moronic imbeciles don’t deserve a penny of MY taxmoney. Or yours.

There is nothing innovative, new, or frankly different than what GM has been trying.

How about 1. buy direct online and eliminate non-GM owned dealers, 2. fixed price, 3. order your car exactly how you want it, 4. eliminate repetitive brands entirely (GMC for example). That would be a start.

If I could go online, pick what I want, get a fair price and then pick it up at the local dealer without any haggling, dealer add-on, I-gotta-ask-my-manager, last-minute nonsense I might (might!) consider GM once again.

Truth is some other company with a better culture will implement this first.

When water coolers across america are surrounded by people saying “Gee, I never have any problem with my Chevy”, then the perception gap closes. When Chevy resale values are high because everybody knows that they are overbuilt and mostly problem-free, then new Chevys sell for a premium and lease rates are cheap, and GM makes lots of money.