Reply #28: Look, I'm Not Defending Them [View All]

[ProfessorGAC]

They made lots of stupid mistakes and had a pattern of doing the wrong thing. That doesn't mean i think they were in cahoots with the oil companies, and i don't think the oil companies needed any partners.

Want some personal examples of things i thought GM did stupidly:
1) In 1997 the Buick division decided that all models would be 4 door. This instantly eliminated the 18% of the market that prefers coupes.
2) After not introducing new models for 12 years each, Olds and Buick both did. Both SUV's. 8 Years after EVERYONE was selling those.
3) GM, with the exception of the Corvette, for 15 years made NO convertibles. They ceded that market to Chrysler, who's 5th most successful model EVER is the Sebring and the 6th most successful is the LeBaron.

So, i'm not defending them at all.

And as to giving up market share, part of that was product quality, not just product offerings. While it's not an accurate statement anymore, and hasn't been for way over 10 years, the perception has been created that the cars are not as good. So, the eroding market share isn't just because of the mileage.

Look, i've got a 14 year old Buick with a 6 cylinder engine that still gets 28 miles to the gallon. For a luxury coupe, there was NO car on the market, by any company, that did any better than that when we bought in 1995. The Camry had a rated mileage that was 1mpg lower than the rating of the car we bought. So, it's simply not true that everything Toyota or Nissan or Honda makes gets better mileage than the GM stuff.

And if they weren't making what "sold", please explain to me the sudden proliferation of the SUV! And why did Nissan, Honda, Isuzu, and Toyota release that product variant? I'm not imagining how many SUV's are out there. And check out the market fractions of those companies in that product niche. GM and Ford are not trailing in that field. So, the American people did buy those unnecessarily huge things.

Last time: I'm not defending the operation of, or the decision making of, the american car companies. All i said was that the OIL COMPANIES couldn't care less about whether the US car firms live or die. Then, we're arguing about whether the car companies are evil or stupid.

That's not even how this whole thing started. I was talking about the oil companies.
GAC