What is Toyota’s “unifying concept”?

Reliability.

What is Toyota’s “unifying concept”?

Is the trend positive? Of course. Is it sufficient to declare mission accomplished? Surely not. So to get there, the perceptions of the public markets, creditors, employees and partners have to be managed. You might say “manipulated,” but it’s no less necessary.

Do you think GM’s senior managers don’t know how closely they are walking the line separating them from bankruptcy? Of course they do. If they forget, you can be sure Fritz is reminding them. In Jack’s words, “You can’t handle the truth!” That is, the market can’t handle the truth, so “truth” has to be massaged, spun, explained — without misrepresentation. The mob needs to be mollified that there really is a path out of the corner GM painted itself into for 40 years. And the market that needs to be mollified includes buyers, ’cause God forbid anyone might ask people to consider their fellow American’s economic well-being and dig into their pockets to buy the company’s best products for their next vehicle purchase. This was true for IBM in crisis circa 1992, true for Sears circa 1980, true for Lincoln running a Civil War in the 1860s, true for Franklin Roosevelt managing the Depression and a World War, and it’s true for GM and Ford today. Could Wagoner & Co. be doing a more artful job? Sure, but the basic elements of shaping perceptions are mandated whatever your style.

You know the actual thinking of the company’s leadership if you have a seat inside, and by what you can observe in products and practices. None of us have the seat in the executive suite or the boardroom. So we’re reading tea leaves, divining for water, and hurling tomatoes at every utterance by Lutz and Wagoner. Face it, that’s nothing more than recreation. On practices, the company is slow to change. On product, immense progress that shows engineers and designers are gaining leverage over beancounters is plain as day. The question is, how can we help?

There’s much I’d be doing differently if I ran GM. Obviously that’s true for most who contribute here. But the criticism in this editorial doesn’t seem to have constructive value. It’s hammering the obvious. Of course there’s spin! Companies must try to shape the psychology of their markets.

Why can’t GM become the leader in new wave propulsive technology? No one else has a firm handle on it yet. Toyota planted a flag in parallel hybrid architecture — a gap filler at best. There are hydrogen projects by multiple makers that have little practical value anytime soon. GM has prototyped a new physical architecture that puts electro-mechanics in a “skateboard” to enable dramatic gains in space utilization, interchangeable bodies with standard coupling, and low center of gravity. They’ve prototyped a series-hybrid architecture and are working with a battery partner to bring it to market. They’ve led the 2Mode hybrid architecture that brings real gains to America’s heavier mass market vehicles and will move that down to lighter weight cars. They have a hydrogen initiative. The E85 push is misguided if corn ethanol is its target fuel, but cellulosic ethanol gives it more credibility.

Yeah, you might say “pick one, GM.” But there’s *no* indication that putting all resources on Volt will get that battery to market sooner. And all resources on hydrogen could just push out practical gains by decades, if ever. The truth is, there will be a mix of propulsion technologies in play while the next energy platforms get sorted out. GM is using its scale and depth of engineering to put multiple bets on the table.

Toyota has a tremendous advantage in its profitability. Leading takes more than money, so, GM, have at it.

Phil

Until then I will wait for the “GM is DEAD” editorial.

After death, rebirth, as a stronger, faster, better company. One hopes. BUT

If they leave it too long, they won’t have the human or financial resources to avoid Chapter 7. That really IS death.

Major economic disaster.

And you say you support the US Auto Industry.

Not that the critcism isn’t valid, just that this country’s investors can’t handle the truth.

Bancruptcy will come soon enough, do’t worry about it. Just let GM get smaller and smaller, so that the unemployment impact is spread over a longer period of time.

Until then I will wait for the “GM is DEAD” editorial.

I predict that there will be no more new Saturn models-this last batch is it. They doubled the number of models Saturn sold (from three to six models), and total sales increased by only 6%. Looking at that another way, sales per model dropped by 47%.

GM gave them all of this new product and none of it has sold well at all. Apparently, early reports of sales of the just released Astra are poor as well (even best case scenerio that would sell worse than the outgoing Ion, and, due to currency issues, GM loses money on every one sold, best case scenerio).

Saturn never made any sense, and it never will. It never made sense when all it sold was Corolla-clones, and since everybody associates Saturn with Corolla-clones, it’s attempt to go upscale is failing as well. That, and the no-haggle pricing bit doesn’t work on more expensive vehicles, especially those that have similar vehicles sold at other GM dealers that DO allow haggling.

Saturn’s original mission was to compete with the Japanese and to a lesser degree the Europeans when it came to economical small cars. That experiment sure failed miserably !!!!!!! Now, with the exception of two models(Outlook and Ion), Saturn’s line-up is based on European vehicles(Opel). Maybe, GM, in a back door sorta way is trying to re-introduce Opel to America and is doing it through Saturn??? Why not just market them as Opel’s??

GM still has WAY too many divisions. Pontaic or Buick (keep one)needs to go. All 3(Saturn, Buick and Pontiac) are competing for the same slice of the GM pie. All 3 are going after the customers moving up from Chevy and not quite ready to go to Cadillac.

GM needs to get a reality check before the company joins Ford and Chrysler in chapter 11 bankruptcy!!!!!!!! The day will come. And i believe Ford will be the first one to arrive in court. Better watch out for all the rats fleeing that sinking ship when it finally does start to go DOWN!!!!!!!!!

Building enough cars to meet demand after a massive marketing campaign has nothing to do with dealer franchise laws. How long has GM been in the auto business? Is ‘The Plan’ so sacrosanct that it’s considered sacrilige to make contingencies and flexibly adapt when demand comes in above projections?

When you squeeze your supply base to extremes to cut costs you end up with garbage parts which barely make it through the warranty.

The spirit of Ignacio Lopez lives on. Remember how GM lauded their purchasing chief to the heavens in the mid-90s for bullying suppliers to slash costs? He typified the rank arrogance of the GM organization in throwing its market power around and cutting corners instead of working smarter.

Then this crook exited for VW, stealing industrial secrets on his way out the door. That was about when VW’s quality started going into the can, come to think of it.

Yes yes, we know you like to use the word “farrago” but just once can’t you use, I don’t know, gallimaufrey?

As far as the vehicle is concerned E85 capability is a minor modification of existing fuel system. It is not a new or breakthrough technology. For GM it was the cheapest way to take advantage of the CAFE loopholes which was their sole motivation for doing it. GM apologists are all the time talking about this flex fuel stuff as if it were the greatest thing since sliced bread! It doesn’t matter that you cannot find ethanol to put in your tank. It doesn’t matter that your vehicle will get a lot lower mileage than than the same amount of gasoline. It doesn’t matter that ethanol uses more energy to produce than it contains. It doesn’t matter that widespread corn production for ethanol fuel production will push up the prices of all other corn byproducts, some of which are staple foods.
No, what matters is it will give something else for GM to brag about in order to usurp the efforts of it’s competitors. In short GM’s attempt at being ‘green’ via E85 is absolutely meaningless. It’s worse than meaningless in that people think that a vehicle with a flex fuel badge is something special. E85 has been a crass and deceitful attempt by GM to treat it’s customers and investors as if they were a bunch of idiots by claiming that it proves GM’s ‘leadership’ in alternate propulsion. It is in fact a farcical attempt to raise their CAFE rating. It is but another example of the BS that flows in torrents from the RenCen. Talk with no substance! Just like the Volt, driverless vehicles and a whole lot more pie-in-the-sky GM projects.

(BTW, this is the only variant of the current Civic that hasn’t been reviewed here at TTAC.)

Saturn never should have been started and remains a bit player in the marketplace. It simply drains resources from the core brands while adding nothing. The last thing GM needed in the 1980s was yet another division/brand.

Today there are many more brands competing for the buyer’s attention than there were when Saturn was introduced and it simply isn’t possible to gain the kind of mindshare Saturn would need to be a player.

“How quickly they forget the EV1; GM was the only carmaker to make an attempt to satisfy the California CARB royalty when they demanded ZEV cars.”

Totally wrong. Honda produced the “EV+” in that same time frame and like GM took ‘em back and destroyed them. Honda has continued agressive alternative propulsion work and is one of the few companies from which a US customer can buy an LNG powered vehicle today. Have a look:

http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/symposium/presentations/knight.pdf

Toyota built and SOLD the RAV4-EV and is the only company which didn’t pull them all back and scrap them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_RAV4_EV

Certainly GM is in the hunt on next generation propulsion systems, but to claim that it is way out ahead simply isn’t true.

Really? What alternative propulsion systems do they offer for sale today? Which ones sell in any significant volume? How many have they sold since 2004?

Captain Tungsten: “GM was the only carmaker to make an attempt to satisfy the California CARB royalty when they demanded ZEV cars.”

I don’t see how you make that claim when Toyta Rav-4 EVs are still in use.

You can go to an aftermarket supplier (referred by Ford, apparently) and get a LiIon PHEV upgrade for your Escape. Toyota is delivering demo PHEV units for people to use this summer; the USA Today writer got to drive one. If not today, then very soon, you can lease an H2-powered Honda. Until recently, VW offered diesels. Mercedes, VW and Honda will return with clean passenger-car diesels before GM offers one.

You can not possibly claim GM has any kind of alternative leadership position here. The Volt is an also-ran in what’s becoming an increasingly crowded field.

That’s precisely the opposite of the critique being offered.

GM has been quite specific about release dates for the Volt. The problem is that the dates keep changing, and don’t mesh with other information that is available about components required for the Volt (namely, its batteries).

Messrs. Williams and Farago have gone to great lengths to publicize the contradictions. All of these suggest that it is unlikely that the Volt will be anything more than either vaporware or a limited release meaningless experiment ala EV-1.

From this vantage point, the Volt sounds a lot more like marketing hype, meant to distract consumers and stockholders from assessing the desirability and profit potential of the largely mediocre lineup that is actually available at the local dealership, by putting the spotlight on products that don’t exist instead of on those that do. It’s an exercise of rhetoric over substance, which is exactly what the problem has been all along.

“That’s especially true as The General screwed-up the supply chain for all three cars, leaving dealers SOL. Lest we forget, GMNA is still juggling eight brands and 49 products (not including discontinued models still for sale or variants). Even if you spot GM five hit products, well, you do the math.”

Screwed up the supply chain? Well what would you do? With the state’s franchise laws it’s not like you can just walk away from a brand, the bill to close up Olds was, what, several hundred million, maybe in the billions? So, different plan, not all the brands are going to have full lines like the old days, some brands are going to channels (Buick, Pontiac, GMC; Cadillac, Hummer, Saab) These things take time, but at the end of 2007, 72% of BPGMC sales were through aligned dealerships, and there are now 6800 dealers, 600 fewer than when the turnaround plan started. That’s progress to a plan. (those numbers from Rick’s presentation to the analysts, available on investor.gm.com)

“GM’s product portfolio is still truck-heavy in an increasingly truck-aversive domestic market. Using the EPA definition of a truck, 28 of those 49 products qualify. That’s 57 percent”

Uh, under the EPA’s definition, HHR, VUE, Equinox, Torrent are “trucks”, Lambdas, too. I don’t think the market is averse to those classes of vehicles….

“Chevrolet is gas-friendly to gas free (if you consider a diesel pick-up “gas free”), but it still sells everything from a rebadged Korean econobox to a $60k sports car without any unifying concept”

The unifying concept is value through a full range of vehicles, as it always has been, and as it is continuing to be on a global basis. And one thing folks need to realize is that there is only one, just one, engineering organization in GM. The new Saturn VUE, which is hailed (or on TTAC derided) for it’s “German engineering”, was actually developed in two different GM regions, neither of them Europe…. You can certainly look back at vehicles that were developed by regional engineering, but that isn’t the case now.

“Saturn asks potential buyers to “Rethink” without giving them anything coherent to think about.”

Saturn’s design theme is pretty darn coherent, even though the vehicles are coming in from all over the world. It is waiting to be rediscovered. The marketing will come.

“Cadillac, the supposed standard of the world, lacks a credible flagship– and looks set to fall further down market. ”

Just curious, but what do you want for a flagship? And you REALLY think they are backpedaling after having a look at the CTS Coupe (and knowing that it’s a production prototype?)

But, enough about marketing…

“For Wagoner to even IMPLY that GM is the leader in advanced propulsion, or SUGGEST that they’re going to build that leadership from scratch, moves beyond hubris into an entirely new realm of fantasy.”

Wow. This is the statement that actually got me off my duff to write a comment. GM is certainly among the leaders in advanced propulsion, and is THE leader in some. How quickly they forget the EV1; GM was the only carmaker to make an attempt to satisfy the California CARB royalty when they demanded ZEV cars. And the first hybrid vehicle in North America that actually saved it’s owners money wasn’t carrying Hybrid Synergy Drive, it was a city transit bus, plying the streets in Seattle, holstering GM’s two-mode hybrid system (yes the one that’s in the big SUV’s now, and will be in the VUE this fall). Say what you will about the fact that it’s not sold to the public, but rather than using hybrid technology as a marketing tool (and, really, all hail Toyota for creating the hybrid that people want, the one that saves you gas and rubs it in your neighbors face. That capability is the one that won it over half the hybrid market in the U.S.), used it to reduce fuel consumption AND operating costs for transit authorities, AND, actually made a few sheckles along the way. There are now over 1000 of these on the road today.

And, regarding the race for the plug-in hybrid, commentators here like to beat up GM for being a bit non-specific regarding a launch date for a PHEV vehicle. Chairman Watanabe-san says, “Toyota will accelerate its global plug-in hybrid R&D program. As part of this plan, Toyota will deliver a significant fleet of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), powered by lithium-ion batteries, to a wide variety of global commercial customers, with many coming to the U.S.” Uh….did I miss the “hard target” in that announcement? Royal sartorial splendor (or lack therof) cuts both ways…..

And don’t forget that GM is leading the way in implementing ethanol technology, is in the game in diesels, and is as far along as anyone with fuel cells.

GM got elbowed out of green-dom by dismissing hybrids early on, which was as much a function of not having enough $$ in the coffers to take another flyer on a risky program, as any other factor. That same resource problem may well come back to haunt the PHEV and the Volt. But don’t confuse financial strength and marketing savvy (or luck…) with technical capability. Rick is firmly rooted in reality on that point.

This is a story that is going to have legs….it’s the path to winnowing the dealer ranks in ALL markets down the road.

One could argue that the “cut to the bone” supply-line ethos of GM has resulted in cars that are borderline dangerous to drive — whittled to where they’ll just pass inspection, but with no give or leeway.

I agree, but this is not a new thing. My first GM nearly met its demise in a ball of fire, and that was over 20 years ago. I was just lucky it was an extremely cold day and the fire went out by itself!

…What guarantee do we have, as consumers, that critical parts aren’t giving out as we drive fairly new cars?

Out of warranty, that car wasn’t new, but the flaw was most certainly a design defect or maybe an engine manufacturing defect. Luckily for me, it only took me two more GM cars to learn my lesson…

Which is worth thinking about. Why should GM be different from other businesses that have been operating at a loss for a long time – you’re simply forced to try and cut corners to keep going. What guarantee do we have, as consumers, that critical parts aren’t giving out as we drive fairly new cars?

I currently have a 2000 Cadillac with a busted PCM, 3 broken window modules, the dash, climate control and interior electronics are starting to give me problems now along with transmission slips and engine that dies whenever it wants. Sure the fit and finish look ok, not the best materials for a Caddy but well put together, but the parts you cant see are crap. It has barely 90,000 miles on it, you would think they would make a $40,000 car last longer than that.

My last GM was beautifully assembled. Unlike my prior GM there was no missing parts, sheetmetal and interior parts lined up correctly and the paint was almost flawless.

On the other hand it was filled with parts the Chinese would have been ashamed of. Failures of simple things like pinion seals, t-case seals, seat heaters, window motors and on and on.

Whatever assembly plant this vehicle was built at was built by UAW (I think-1999 Suburban 2500) members that seemed to care about their job. The issues I had with this particular vehicle can be laid totally at the hands of engineering and management.

Regardless of whether it was the UAW or management, it was the last GM I will ever buy.

I’m not buying into this “conspiracy of smartest people in the room” theory. More like a confederacy of dunces.

GM is a publicly held company, with a huge range of “stakeholders”– from workers on the line to customers on the vine. Including suppliers, dealers and tens of thousands of “ordinary” shareholders.

ALL of them deserve a company with genuine accountability. That means a company that states its goals, works to achieve them and honestly reports progress, or lack thereof.

Ricky knows best? Trust in the Wagoner? Dude, Watergate happened.

I would hope that you are right about this..but the banks allowed themselves to get really screwed up over the subprime mess, so my [lack of] faith in the banking community rivals my [lack of] faith in Detroit to get its’ act together. Both of these groups ends up smelling like dog crap.

Bingo! Our final GM product, a 1996 model, gobbled up ECUs ($750 each), shock absorbers ($700 pair) and window mechanisms ($350 each). Their OEM replacements raced through even briefer lifespans.