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May 26, 2005

More Answers to Solstice Questions

By Lori Queen
GM Vehicle Line Executive - Small Cars

First, let me just say wow! I can feel the excitement and pent-up demand for the Solstice. Second, let me give you my heartfelt thanks for your candor. Your reservations about whether we’ll come through for all of you –- and for GM –- clearly came across as well as your strong hope that we’ll exceed everyone’s expectations. I’m confident we will –- or least I’ll go down trying!

Let me respond to some common themes:

I saw lots of questions regarding powertrains and the desire for extra horses. As many of you probably know, the Ecotec is a great powertrain, with lots of family members, and it’s perfect for this car. Solstice drivers will have 177 hp and 166 ft. lb of torque. Combine that with an Aisin five-speed manual transmission and, well, you have a fun roadster to throw around the curves. I know because I’ve been driving my Solstice around Detroit. (You can imagine the looks I’m getting! My three teenagers agree –- it’s really cool.). For those of you who are asking for an automatic transmission – look for one next spring.

As far as the product development cycle -– it will be complete in a record 27 months. A typical ground-up, all-new design and build process can take much longer. Part of our new process requires stringent testing and a lot of driving of very early non-saleable cars. The first cars that are the result of our tested, validated and perfected process will be those first 1000 orders.

We will be sure to let you know when we are in production. I'm glad nearly all of you agreed with us that quality is an over-riding goal.

Hope that helps. Keep sending us what you think. We love hearing from you. More again later.

Posted by Editor at 5:31 PM
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May 24, 2005

The Buck Stops Here

By Lori Queen
GM Vehicle Line Executive - Small Cars

Let me start by translating for you what my title means: I run the team that is responsible for the Solstice program. I work for Bob Lutz . . . and the buck does indeed stop here!

The reason for my post is to answer a few questions, namely, are we listening? Of course we are . . . I know I am.

My team and I have seen the emails and posts from Solstice fans. We’re pleased there’s so much passion behind the launch of this new Pontiac – we share your enthusiasm. Let me respond to some of the concerns I’ve read:

First, we’ve said that production begins this summer –- and it will. We’re currently building pre-production models at our assembly plant in Wilmington, Delaware. The commitment is to deliver all “First 1,000” cars by the end of October. Our goal is for delivery to begin by late summer, perhaps sooner. However, when Pontiac announced its early order program on the Apprentice we did so to better gauge interest. We were blown away that the first 1,000 vehicles sold out in 41 minutes. We now have more than 8,000 orders. The roadster segment is very small –- about 100,000 units a year. This incredible interest means that once consumers have their cars, we’ll have gone from zero to nearly 10 percent of the roadster market in no time.

We know our new owners will want their vehicles to be dynamically sound, with superb road manners to match their good looks. Every GM vehicle launch is subject to many stringent quality tests – both at the plant and in the vehicle itself. Some of the rumors we’ve seen relate to these tests. The testing and slow “ramp-up” –- how quickly we go from building a handful of cars a day to full production -– ensures that we’re selling the highest quality vehicles. It’s no accident that last week J.D. Power reported that GM led the industry in manufacturing quality for the fourth straight year. Based on this track record, we believe that future Solstice owners want us to take this kind of care with their vehicles, too.

These extensive quality checks are why some have said they’ve noticed a few Solstices on the road. They weren’t seeing things –- we do have cars being driven by GM engineers across the country. We rigorously drive and test these early vehicles to confirm that they meet our quality expectations.

Will the first 1,000 cars really be the first 1,000? Absolutely. We said we would deliver the first 1,000 retail cars to these lucky few, and that’s the plan. These engineering vehicles will never make it to dealers. Some of these vehicles, after we've driven them hard, may be brought up to production standards and sold at auction, similar to other vehicle programs, but it would be well after the first 1,000 cars are delivered. This is the way vehicle programs work. We shake down the cars so our
customers don’t have to.

I know Pontiac marketing folks have plans to continue communicating with their new buyers throughout the summer and fall. And, if you’re one of the First 1,000, you’ve probably heard from them by now.

Keep your comments coming. The team likes to know what you’re thinking. Meanwhile, we’ll keep working to bring the best-looking and highest-quality roadster to market –- a car we’ll be proud to sell and our customers will be thrilled to own.

Posted by Editor at 5:53 PM
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May 18, 2005

And Another Survey Says ...

By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

More good news to report today… and I report it at the risk of again being accused of “crowing.” But, as the saying goes, better to crow than to eat crow. (And if that’s not a saying, it is now.)

On the heels of Monday’s Strategic Vision and its 2005 Total Quality Study (see my May 16 post — “Survey Says: Top in Six Segments”), GM scored similar honors in J.D. Power’s annual Initial Quality Survey (IQS), which found significant quality improvements among several of our products and plants.

Our performance in these two surveys — one based on appeal and emotion, the other on quality and defects — validates, I think, the progress we’ve been making. I’ve always said that it’s an emotionally compelling design that sells a car or a truck. But if you have a reputation for sub-par quality, you could have the vehicular equivalent of the Mona Lisa and buyers will turn away in droves.

It takes a long time to repair a reputation, but when you get solid third-party evaluations like we have this week, it really lends you a big hand.

I’ll spare you the details, which you can find online or in the newspaper, but in short, we swept the top three honors in the quality rating of North American auto assembly plants, scored five segment winners, and took the top three premium mid-size car spots. Also, Buick and Cadillac finished among the top five brands overall.

For the record, those five segment winners are Buick Century (premium mid-size), Buick LeSabre (full-size), Chevrolet Malibu (entry mid-size), Chevrolet Suburban (full-size SUV), and GMC Sierra (heavy duty full-size pick-up). That’s the best GM’s ever done.

As another old saying goes, we’ve only just begun. We know that we won’t have really climbed the mountaintop until we see significant improvement in our long-term durability and reliability. That’s our goal, and we’ll get it done. But the initial quality results, especially on the manufacturing side, signal to me that we’re heading in that direction.

At least it gives me something to crow about.

Posted by Lutz at 4:02 PM
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May 16, 2005

Survey Says: Top in Six Segments

By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

"Several new GM products took top honors in their segments. Pontiac's G6 medium sedan won out over Toyota and Honda entries, as did the Buick Rainier medium sport utility vehicle (SUV)."

Now that is music to my ears, and it wasn't written by a journalist or some furtive GM blogger. No, that is a direct quote from news released today by Strategic Vision of San Diego and is in reference to their 2005 Total Quality Study. Strategic Vision is an up and coming force in this industry because they offer a unique perspective and a different voice; they don't look exclusively at problems. They look at total quality and the total ownership experience by issuing owners a comprehensive 8-page survey after three months of ownership.

This year, GM had the top rated vehicle in six of the 20 categories, more than any other manufacturer. The 2005 G6, Corvette, Rainier, Escalade, H2, and Sierra 2500/3500 all topped their respective categories.

Overall, I'm fairly pleased with these results, particularly in the case of the oft-maligned G6, which by the way, scored extremely well, especially on the emotional side. As Strategic Vision President, Dr. Darrel Edwards says, "As the number of new vehicles and segments continues to grow, understanding the emotional needs of buyers in each segment will be critical."

Understanding the emotional needs of buyers is something we're working really hard to do. Our increased efforts to converse directly with car buyers in forums like this blog are indicative of this. So, like I've said over and over in my posts, yes, we're listening.

As the study also points out, we do have work to do in some areas. The scores of some of our vehicles have suffered as their lifecycles draw to a close. We will be replacing those vehicles this year and next. Stay tuned for more.

Posted by Lutz at 2:48 PM
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May 12, 2005

The Game Plan...An Edited Version

By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

Things have been pretty busy, as you can imagine, but I wanted to take a few minutes to post something because it's been awhile, and I'd like to address a couple of things that we read time and again in your comments.

The first is your comments themselves...yes, we read them, every one of them. It's not feasible to address them all, of course, but we try to gather up and get to as many as possible, as quickly as possible. And yes, I know that some bloggers do so more quickly than others...we're all doing what we can.

The second and more important issue I've seen asked repeatedly is, "What is GM's strategy for fixing its issues?"

A good and fair question. Let's start by saying there's no magic bullet for our issues, at least none that we've uncovered. The truth is we've spelled out in several forums and in several media interviews what we intend to do to address the challenges we face. What we won't tell you is exactly how we intend to do those things.

I can tell you this: First and foremost, our recovery is riding squarely on the back of our new product programs. There has never been a turnaround in this industry that didn't happen because of hot-selling cars and trucks. There never will be, either. We've talked a lot on this blog about the products we've introduced, and some we've got coming, and we'll continue to do so.

This is intended to be a blog about cars and trucks, by the way, and some of the peripheral issues surrounding the buying and selling of same. We will not turn this into a debate about health care costs or public policy or anything related. Our cars and trucks are our lifeblood; we have a lot of great ones coming, and as they arrive, we'll talk about them here.

For example, when we have news about a current product, like the Pontiac GTO, we'll tell you about it here. I happened to be at a Pontiac dealership in Los Angeles on Tuesday, and they only had two left! Each of those was priced at a premium, too. L.A. is the No. 1 market for GTO -- when was the last time we could say that about a Pontiac? Overall, GTO first-quarter sales were 81% higher than last year, and 2005 models are consistently outselling 2004 models, even though the '04s have substantially more incentives on them.

For another example, we announced pricing last week for the upcoming Chevrolet HHR, which will start at $15,990. This is going to be a great vehicle for us, selling at a great price for you. That's the kind of value story you're going to see from us as we continue to revamp our marketing and pricing strategy.

And that's exactly what Rick Wagoner has been saying in the context of GM's plan to right itself. The HHR is but one example.

To touch briefly on what we have already said publicly, we're going to take the new cars and trucks we build and we're going to get a lot smarter about pricing them, about marketing them, and about selling them. We're going to reach consumers we haven't reached yet, and we're going to reach them in places we haven't been before, at least not at full throttle like we're going to be.

The other two key aspects of GM's plan are costs and quality. Simply put, we're going to continue to be vigilant about eliminating waste and cutting our costs across the board, in every discipline, in every region. And we're going to sustain the progress we've made on improving the quality of our products, and take it even further. Quality will be an even bigger focus for us going forward.

Sound pretty general? You bet it does. But if someone had asked the coach of the New England Patriots before the Super Bowl what his game plan was, he probably would have said something like, "We're going to run the ball, we're going to pass the ball, and we're going to score as many times as we can. And, by the way, we're going to stop the other team from doing the same thing." I don't think he would've turned over the script for his first 15 offensive plays from scrimmage...not even on his blog.

Believe me, GM has a crystal clear strategy in place to turn around our fortunes, particularly in the U.S. Now we are working hard and smart to execute it. You are seeing the fruit of that today in products such as the Chevy HHR, Pontiac G6 and GTO, Cadillac STS and the dozens of others we've recently introduced.

Now, go test drive one and see for yourself!

And, as always, your suggestions are welcome.

Posted by Lutz at 12:04 PM
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May 10, 2005

Women and Wheels

By Cynthia Price
GM Center of Expertise
Women's Market Initiative

I've been noticing that guys make most of the comments in this blog. But I'd like to address the women out there.

It seems there is a lot of interest out on the web regarding women and GM. Some of the questions we've heard: Does GM have women designing products? Does GM know that women make a large percentage of buying decisions? Does GM train dealers on how to best serve women?

I'm here to tell you that the answer to all of these is an emphatic "Yes." GM wants more women as customers, employees and dealers. And frankly, in today's environment, any company that doesn't strive to meet the needs of women is crazy!

Some of the initiatives we have taken to connect with women include:

• Having women play a significant role in the company's product clinics.
• Hiring more women engineers and designers to work on our vehicles than ever before.
• Supporting a women's employee group -- The Affinity Group for Women -- designed to increase GM's share of the women's market, and to attract and retain women employees.
• Creating the Women's Retail Initiative to increase the number of women-owned GM dealerships.
• Developing advertising campaigns that speak directly to women. (GM recently began running ads featuring five GM women executives who spend their days engineering, building and marketing GM cars and trucks, and their nights taking care of their children and grandchildren. The ads are part of the "Only GM" corporate ad campaign.)
• And last, but certainly not least, offering training for dealers who want to learn how to best serve women consumers.

But you tell us -- how can we help you in your car-buying decisions? I look forward to reading your comments.

Posted by Editor at 1:22 PM
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May 5, 2005

Data Shows Traction on Key Vehicles

By Mark LaNeve
Vice President
GM North America Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing

There’s no denying that we’re going through some tough times right now. It seems like every day I read or hear news stories that focus on the negative. I won’t say that it’s all undeserved. However, every once in a while there’s a good news story that I wish would get a little more attention.

A case in point is a recent press release that was put out by the Power Information Network, which is a part of J.D. Power and Associates. PIN’s research shows that five new GM vehicles, STS, G6, LaCrosse, Cobalt and Corvette, have made great strides compared to their predecessors in important measurements related to retail sales – specifically, a reduction in the use and amount of customer rebates, an increase in actual retail transaction prices and a decline in the number of days it takes for a dealer to sell the vehicle.

The results were consolidated for 10 vehicles across several manufacturers, so we don’t know what PIN’s exact numbers were for the GM products. We do know, however, that this is in synch with what we’ve been seeing - and saying – about these vehicles. When our dealers can sell vehicles at a competitive price, with fewer incentives and at a faster pace, that’s a recipe for success. And we’re pleased that of the 10 vehicles mentioned in the release, 50 percent of them were GM models.

The fact that this trend seems to be taking hold on some of our most important, high volume launch vehicles is really encouraging, and we’re starting to see tangible results. In recent months we’ve started to show significant sales gains with our launch vehicles, including G6, Cobalt, LaCrosse and STS -- the same vehicles cited in the PIN release.

People who know me, know that I’m an optimist – but also a realist. These are good steps in the right direction, however we recognize there’s still a lot that needs to be done. While there’s no silver bullet, we’re executing a plan that we’re confident will get us profitable again in our home market.

(Background on Mark LaNeve:
Mark was named vice president, GM North America Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing on March 1, 2005. Prior to that, he was vice president, GM North America Marketing and Advertising. Mark has had a variety of assignments at GM including brand manager for the Pontiac Bonneville and several marketing positions at Cadillac, ultimately being named Cadillac general manager in 2001. He left GM for a four-year period (1997-2001) during which he was first vice president of marketing and then president and chief executive officer at Volvo Cars of North America.)

Posted by Editor at 4:02 PM
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May 2, 2005

Chevrolet Corvette Z06 podcast

Podcast host Deb Ochs talks to Johnny O'Connell, a factory driver in
General Motors' Corvette Racing program. O'Connell drives the Corvette C6.R racecar and has been doing development test driving for the upcoming 505-horsepower Corvette Z06, the fastest car ever offered by Chevrolet and GM. The 2006 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 was developed alongside the C6.R race car.

O'Connell was critical in helping Team Corvette achieve its first overall victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona and first Le Mans class victory in 2001. He is recognized as one of North America's best racing drivers. Hear O'Connell's thoughts on racing and his experience behind the wheel of the 2006 Corvette Z06.

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Posted by Editor at 4:27 PM
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