The Cars GM Needs To Make

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

I had a LUV in my younger days. Totally inadequate legroom. It was murder on my knees. It was also an unmitigated rust-bucket.;

Can't say as to the LUV, but I drove a '70-something Toyota (company vehicle) for a couple of years, and owned a '78 Datsun, Both had adequate legroom for me, at 6'. Indeed, the Toyota was more than adequate, more like a sports car than a pickup. Rust isn't much of a problem around here, but what do you expect when your state highway departments strew corrosive salt on the roads all winter? Seems like you ought to be blaming them, not the automakers, because (as I well remember from growing up in the northeast), everyone's cars rusted out.

People don't really want small vehicles - they want fuel-efficient vehicles.

Are you saying I'm not people? Because I assure you, I do want small vehicles - other that a couple of "just transport" clunkers, that's all I've ever owned. Beyond that, we get into the Detroit claim that "Americans don't want small vehicles", which certainly goes a long way towards explaining why they've steadily been losing market share ever since the first VW bug hit these shores :-)

[tjts1]

GM needs to be taken over, the management fired, broken up and the divisions and factories sold to the highest bidder. More corporate welfare from this gov for a failed company with failed management is not the answer. Then and only then can you count on GM producing the correct cars.

[Big Dave]

Business schools will tell you that 80% of all businesses fail the first year. 80% of the survivors fail the next year. 80% of those survivors fail within five years. GM has been beating those odds for a hundred years and you tell me the problem is their management? How do you beat long odds for a hundred years with failed management?

You don't continue by making pickups for midgets.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi Dave,

My "little" brother Nathan is 6'-6 1/2" and ~265 pounds, and almost every vehicle he has ever owned is a Toyota Tacoma (and one 4 Runner) -- I think he has had five? He works them all very hard, and only one failed to reach 300,000 miles or more.

He is anything but a midget, I can assure you.

GM has failed to keep up with the needs of us drivers, and they got lulled into complacency (along with almost everybody else) with the easy profits of SUV's & so-called minivans. In fact, they have almost always relied on "churn" of styling instead of actual improvements in technology.

[Frank Lee]

On the upside, remember when the Big 3 aired truck commercials every 7 minutes, 24/7? Now they aren't. Finally.

[Duffman]

I dont think GMs management has been particularly good. Up until recently the economy has been good and the car market strong. They played the buy American angle. They concentrated on gagets and novelties over quality and engineering. They offered products they were more interested in building than the public was necessarly interested in buying but they were in a cant loose market. For 20 years they pounded the market and now they want the public to buy GM still, 20 years of perception and momentum cant be overturned overnight on a product that people at best buy every 4 years. GM will survive but not because they deserve to.

[Big Dave]

As someone here pointed out, a Taco is a midsized truck.

I wonder why so many people for so long coughed up big bucks for vehicles they didn't want?

[Duffman]

There are many reasons to buy a GM even if you dont think their product is the best. The have always been extremely competitive in price, they have the strongest dealer network, aftermarket parts are not through the roof and they are a N. American company. That said Ford and Chrysler were not wowing anyone for the past 20 years either.

The new car market is not driven by cars being worn out, its driven by people wanting something new every 4-6 years even if new happens to be the same thing.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

As someone here pointed out, a Taco is a midsized truck.

Now, yes. Go back to the mid-80s, even early '90s, and the Toyota pickup qualified as small. Why do you suppose you still see so many of them on the roads? Could it possibly be because the people who want small(er) trucks don't really have anything new to buy?

I wonder why so many people for so long coughed up big bucks for vehicles they didn't want?

Look at the different possible markets. People like me, who only want a small truck, aren't going to be buying new trucks at all. That leaves three subsets:

1) Those who really need/want a big truck;

2) Those who want a NEW truck, which can only be a big truck because that's all they're making;

3) Those who have been persuaded by relentless marketing that buying a big new truck will enhance their virility or something. They weren't buying trucks so much as they were trying to project an image. Or as the saying goes, "all hat, no cattle".

So if the manufacturers started making small trucks again, and stopped spending so much on advertising the big ones as a lifestyle accessory, you might see a market shift.

[Big Dave]

I've never had any trouble getting over a decade's service from American trucks.

"No Monthly Payments" is my favorite option.

That old LUV had long ago been scrapped.

People buy cars for a variety of reasons, but I discount people's buying decision is much affected by advertising.