Not having a competitive small car is a problem but when the only small cars you sell are to the rental companies, what’s the point?

Please note that nowhere in my “Rick FAIL” list is
“Bet the farm on BOF Trucks”

Selling trucks was not a mistake… In fact it was one of the VERY FEW smart things that Rick etal did. But take a look out of your window next time you drive anywhere… Our cities, back roads, highways are awash in SMALL imported cars. To say that the ONLY sales outlet for small cars was rental companies is just NOT true.

GM (and the others) completely forgot what a “nice” small car was… To GM a small car was a “penalty box” that you had to drive because you lost your job or your ex-wife got the “real” car in the settlement.

To this day GM still doesn’t get the small car… and they REALLY don’t get the high-end small car…

ALL of GM’s small cars lack CRITICAL options that make them competitive… wrong engines, 4 speed auto transmissions, no manual, no NAV, no climate control, etc etc etc.

GM’s market share problems are a DIRECT result of ignoring this market. That, and ignoring the familly sedan market too. And the sport coupes, and the minivan, and the highend luxury sedan. and hybrids. etc etc etc..

…maybe (just maybe) he has implemented changes that we, the ignorant masses, have not been pprivvey to or have overlooked and those changes just need time to come to fruition?

Also, I have been meaning to say this for awhile but the Big3 sold SUV’s and Trucks because Americans DEMANDED them. When a customer walks into a dealer to buy a Chrysler Minivan, the salesman doesn’t shuffle them into a Smart Fourfour! He may shuffle them to a Durango or CUV, but never would he say “You know, this is going to suck if gas prices go to $4.00…”.

Not having a competitive small car is a problem but when the only small cars you sell are to the rental companies, what’s the point? The only failure here is that GM and Ford don’t utilize their European cars (Opal/Ford Europe) for their econoboxes rather than producing them in the US and duplicating effort.

Hybrid/Green/Blue is just marketing BS. When gas is under $2 a gallon, no one will care. Besides, if it mattered, we would have micro cars such as the Ligier or Axiom and we would have clean 2-stoke technology. Obvioulsy it doesn’t.

Arrrg! This is so frustrating!

Not if you are selling quality cars at a fair price..

Dude… Its called LEADERSHIP!

If you say… wow.. Look at the Nice Cars that Toyota are making… “Nothing much can be done” then you are doomed to end up flying your personal jet to DC to beg for money…

and re #11 take a look at the car, take a look at year over year sales and tell me it is a great hit… I have driven the new STS and the review on this website got it bang on…
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2008-cadillac-sts-v6-review/

and #14 if the new GTO wasn’t going to sell.. why bring it here in the first place… Do you see the problems with all of your arguments? OK there is no point in marketing the new GTO… then why waste the money to bring the car here? From your POV GM doesn’t have a CEO.. the company is just run by some guy who is flipping a coin.

BTW with Rick’s luck it seems to be a double headed coin and Rick keeps calling TAILS!

3 – see psarhjinian’s explanation. Lutz’ hubris makes this count for double.

4 – marketing expensive vehicles to people that don’t need them was alwasy a crapshoot, susceptible to market rationalization during gas price shocks. And this segment is supported by stupid tax breaks… something bad deserves to happen here.

6 or 7 – At least ONE of these reflects very badly on Wagoner and Lutz. Take your pick and let them take their lumps.

8 and 9 – the end result of a bad job.

12 – Rebadging costs extra and then hurts dealers, who must cut each other’s throats. Do one and do it well. The extra marketing and development could be put into brake rotos that don’t warp when you look at them cross-eyed.

15 – If he was destined to lead GM, we must reckon that Wagoner’s influence goes back before ascension to CEO. Say, 15 years. And no improvement in the UAW situation until GM was actually on the ropes (some would say over them and unconscious besides the ring). Bad priorities in allowing this to fester so long.

18 – Someone should have lost their job over all the restatements. Wagoner should have provided a suitable sacrificial lamb, if nothing else. The BOD didn’t do its job, here, for sure.

22 – THe Cruze is a big symptom of some of GM’s biggest problems. A “world car” that isn’t world-ready for the worlds’ largest auto market? Who allowed this? Answer: Wagoner and Lutz. And GM lags so badly in flex manufacturing that they can’t react quickly to ANY market shakeups. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Like I said, Wagoner’s had a long time to fix what really ails GM but he didn’t recognize and/or address it for a loooong time. Show him the door.

No, they don’t. They’d like people to think they do, but the Aura/Malibu, BAS Vue, 2Mode Vue and GMT900s count—effectively—as three models, none of which actually sell.

Toyota has five (Prius, Camry, RX/Highlander, GS and LS). Toyota sold almost a quarter-million hybrids last year in the US alone, next to GM’s anemic ten thousand. Did you know that the LS600h sold three times as many units as the Aura, or that the RX400h outsold the Vue by an order or magnitude?

I’d refute some of your other points, but that one was the most egregious. Wagoner has done a bad job, and shows no sign of doing different, or acknowledging his failings. I don’t think that letting him go now would make a whit of difference, if not make things worse, but I do think he should have been canned after the Fiat Fiasco.

Seriously? You can’t possible mean that. Even GM officials and others within the industry think that it was a turd:

“That’s the big gorilla sitting in the corner of the room,” said Gerald C. Meyers, former chief executive of the defunct American Motors Corp. “Just look at the Aztek; it was hokey, nonsensical, ugly — there are not enough adjectives to describe that vehicle. It . . . was indicative of the failed product development system that has been nurtured over there for so long.”

GM executives, privately, are quick to concede the point. “The Aztek was a turning point because it did articulate everything that was wrong with the system,” said one GM official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job. “But it’s been like turning the Titanic.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/10/AR2005061002188.html

Re STS.. you like the rest of the world confuse the CTS and the STS as the same car…
If the CTS was a beautiful woman…
The STS is her fat, ugly, high maintenance sister.

PS I’m glad that GM clarified the whole Pontiac is car thing…
You know Pontiac is a potato too ;)

What’s the problem with the STS? Maybe I read it here at TTAC. In my mind, it’s probably one of the best cars GM currently makes.

GM would be worse off without Wagoner

You know if you took every major decision that Rick had his hand in and did the EXACT opposite. GM would be MUCH better off today.

Here is the starter list:
1) Fiat
2) GMAC
3) Slow with Hybrids
4) Ignoring Small Cars
5) Killing Olds
6) Killing the Camaro
7) Slow to bring the Camaro Back
8) Market Share
9) Profit
10) “Pontiac is Car” slogan
11) The sorry excuse that the new STS is
12) Re-badging at Saturn and Pontiac
13) Starving Buick of product
14) Lame (and I mean really lame) marketing of the new GTO
15) early UAW deals he signed
16) Buying Hummer, run it into the ground, only to try and sell it for pennies on the dollar
17) The Aztek
18) Accounting “irregularities”
19) Share price/Market Cap
20) Delphi
21) One PR nightmare after another
22) No Cruze for you

How many more mistakes MUST we tolerate with this guy

How much ad revenue has the NYT lost in the last 6 months?

And will this verbal tripe get them a slice of that sweet, sweet bailout money?

No wonder the NYT thinks GM is a success.

Down looks like up from where they are standing. The internet will kill off the NYT before GM succumbs to foreign competition IMO.

I’m so glad some people do actually pay attention…

Al Gore actually claimed that he created the internet.
Kinda like the internet God or something.

Whilst the current financial crisis is a truly terrible crisis for many people, it is without a doubt the best thing that ever could have happened to Mr. Wagoner personally.

Had the economy kept cliping along at 17 mil. car sales, easy credit, etc…what would have happened?

GM still augers into the ground at WOT…just might take 6, 12, 18 months longer. With other OEs surviving and some thriving in a robust market Wagoner’s many shortcomings would have been revealed for all to see as he eventually skulked away from the Ren Cen in disgrace.

But now? When he eventually does get the boot he and his fanboys should be able to spin it as courageous but sad tale of a true change agent felled by forces far beyond his control, yada yada.

The average man in the street won’t have a clue as to his true role in bringing total ruin to GM.

If he really plays his cards right maybe he’ll get to be the new Federal Car Czar.