A Good Start
By Fritz Henderson
GM President and CEO
Ninety days ago, we launched the new GM with a clean balance sheet, an improved cost structure and fewer U.S. dealers, brands and nameplates. Since then, we’ve introduced a number of new, fuel-efficient, highly successful cars and crossovers, started work on a new facility to build advanced lithium-ion battery packs like the ones we’ll use in the Chevy Volt, launched a new marketing campaign that highlights our best-in-class fuel economy, quality, warranty and safety performance, sworn in a reconstituted Board of Directors, overhauled the management team and moved aggressively to transform our culture into one that is focused exactly where it ought to be: on the customer.
In short, we’ve made a lot of progress in three months. It’s a good start, but we don’t think for a second that we can ease off the accelerator now. In fact, we need to do a lot more.
At GM, we’ve been granted an extraordinary opportunity to reinvent our company, and we remind ourselves of that fact every day. We know that the actions we’ve taken so far are just the beginning of what we need to do to regain the trust and customer loyalty that we enjoyed for so long. The actions we’ve taken provide the framework we need to fully reinvent GM. They put us in a position to win, but they do not guarantee success. To win, we need to take advantage of the new structure we’ve created, and use it to change the way we interact with customers, change the kinds of cars and trucks we bring to market, and change how we operate and think about the business.
At GM, we know we need to prove ourselves every day. And we will.
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I’ve bought five Saturns and two Pontiacs in the last 15 years.
I don’t like the lineup of Chevolet cars and can’t afford a cadillac.
Oldsmoblie is an old peoples car so I won’t buy another GM product.
So sorry.
Steve
Olds has been gone since 2004. I’m pretty sure most people who own a Saturn now will be able to find something from Chevy that they like. Replacing the G8 is another story however.
Olds has been gone since 2004. But this weekend I went on a road trip and was surprised at the number of Oldsmobiles I still saw on the highway. And you now what, even a 7-8 year Olds is still a pretty good looking car. Much better than the Buicks GM is trying to sell now.
I’m sure they had their reasons, but I don’t understand why GM killed Olds while keeping Buick.
I like Olds’ last designs but that has nothing to do with Buick now. The Enclave and Lacrosse are very attractive. Not sure why you think the last Olds models were “much better looking”. At the time Olds was axed Buick had higher sales. The real reason Olds was killed was that a major infusion of new product was unable to generate increased sales. Olds got the Intrigue in ‘98, the Alero in ‘99 and the Aurora in 2001 and sales didn’t respond.
Keep up the competitive ads. It worked for Ford and Hyundai and it can work for GM as well. YOu have to take the excuses away from customers who disparage your products and yet haven’t tried them in years.
GM’s problem isn’t “excuses” to avoid GM products, GM’s problem is “reasons” to avoid GM products.
The reason is lack of confidence.
GM must act decisively to restore consumer confidence in their products or regaining market share is a long, slow process. Advertising the current products while talking about a “perception gap” or making noises about “removing the excuses” does not address the underlying problem.
IS GM going to LEAD ???? Follow……… or get out of the way…..
From the article below it sounds like GM is a day late and a dollar short………
Here is an article about Nissan.
Electric Transportation Engineering Corp. this week finalized a deal with the U.S. Department of Energy to begin developing and installing a charging network for electric vehicles across five states, including Oregon.
The Phoenix company, a subsidiary of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based ECOtality Inc., is rolling out more than 11,000 charging stations in five states — Oregon, Arizona, Tennessee, Washington and California — using $99.8 million in federal funds.
The project is in partnership with Nissan North America, which will deploy 4,700 of its all-electric Leaf vehicles which are scheduled for release in fall 2010.
As part of the project, Oregon expects to receive just under 1,000 of the Nissan vehicles and around 2,000 charging stations, centered around Portland, Eugene, Salem and Corvallis.
Pacific Business News
At GM, we’ve been granted an extraordinary opportunity to reinvent our company, and we remind ourselves of that fact every day.
Nice spin attempt, but wouldn’t it have been better not to have gotten off course in the first place, rather than have to go through a drastic reinvention?
Ethan,
Of course it would have been better to never have gotten off the correct path, but the past is the past. It seems way too many people here dwell on the past. GM realizes that it needs to improve in order to win back customers and stay in business.
Is it not good thing they are trying to turn to company around?
Secondly, why are you here? You never seem to have anything contructive to say. Only complaints about GM’s past. If you would say “hey, you should improve your small trucks” or “you should offer more sporty cars” then I wouldn’t have a problem. but to constantly remind GM that they made mistakes doesn’t help anyone.
It seems way too many people here dwell on the past.
You’re right. We dwell on the past. Perhaps it’s because for three decades GM was both complacent and arrogant, and completely forgot about the basic tenets of their core business and working towards customer satisfaction. For three decades they passed their crap on to us and expected us to buy it just because they were General Motors and an American institution.
Three decades of American car consumers having a bad taste in our mouths is a lot to overcome with their recent corporate “reinvention.”
Ethan:
Everyone know the history of GM. What is the point in rehashing it every day? Do you really think you are providing secret information? You are not “exposing” anything or anyone. The entire point of all of this is to move the company forward. I’m pretty sure Fritz knows exactly how GM ended up bankrupt and doesn’t need you or anyone else to remind him. Americans only hold GM responsible for mistakes of the past. Hyundai or any other car company is praised for learning from past mistakes and improving product. Why can’t GM get the same credit? If someone is buying a car TODAY the mistakes of the last 30 years aren’t all that relevant. GM bashers have nothing to go on except reliving the past at this point. Why not talk about what’s on sale today?
Why can’t GM get the same credit?
Because GM was such an embedded part of this country’s fabric, and they let us down. I suspect that many see GM’s downfall as an existential threat to this country.
How many of us had uncles, brothers, or grandparents that drove GM cars? How many of us had uncles, brothers, or grandparents that worked at a GM dealer? How many of us knew members of our churches that drove GM cars, worked at GM dealers, or in GM assembly plants? The answer is that almost all of us knew someone who drove a GM car or worked for a GM dealer.
We’re not GM bashers. We’re just concerned that if GM could get it so wrong over the last 30 years, and not realize what was happening, that there may not be any hope at all for this country.
Ethan:
the product is better and the balance sheet is better. I don’t see how beating them down for past mistakes gets us anywhere now. You wanted better cars and you go them. What more can the CURRENT team do? Unless you have a time machine we can’t go back and chastise those responsible for the worst mistakes of the past.
What I’m seeing from GM in the form of their products and advertising is much improved from just a few years ago. The new ads are a nice balance of understated elegance. I’m also impressed with the saturation of the various media outlets with GM advertising and in particular- the amount I am seeing out here in the Bay Area, San Francisco where you undoubtedly know is an area that needs work in getting more customers away from other brands.
If I had any feedback to give in regards to the ads, I’d say that perhaps more could be done to focus on the technology GM is using for their lineup of vehicles using direct injection engines. Most Americans probably aren’t even aware of how different these engines are. Perhaps showing a few ads focussing on the engine in the car would help reinforce the idea of technology = better fuel economy.
The new ads are a nice balance of understated elegance…
edvard,
Perhaps then you did not see the Lacrosse ad that played during Monday Night Football this week. It showed this kind of geeky, dweebish-looking guy driving a Lacrosse in an urban environment on streets full of potholes.
I am still trying to figure out why that ad would motivate me to buy — or even consider — a Lacrosse.
Did you listen to the ad? Apparently you didn’t. As people are staring at the car they voiceover says the car is not the new Lexus, Audi or BMW but it is a Buick and its hard to ignore. I think its a simple but effective ad. Of course if you hate GM and would never consider any of their products regardless of merit I could see why you wouldn’t be convinced by the ad.
No, I didn’t listen to the ad. I mute all commercials — as do many people. Whomever GM hires to do their commercials should realize that a large percentage of people don’t listen to commercials, and that if they can’t their message across visually, they’re wasting their money.
And I stand by my statement: Watching a Lacrosse drive down a city street full of potholes does nothing to motivate me to consider buying a Lacrosse.
Why not do something to show me how sophisticated and powerful the engine is? Or, how well-tuned the suspension is? Or, the quality engineering that went into designing the car? Or, how skilled are the UAW workers who build the car? Or, how many quality assurance steps the car must go through on the assembly line before being ready for a customer? Or, how much cargo space is in the trunk? Or, what fuel mileage I could expect? Or, tell me what kind of warranty comes with the car?
Commercials never seem to say the things I want to know before considering a car.
The new Buick ads are not in my opinion geared towards your typical GM customer, who’s used to seeing ads that as you mention- show the engine, the power, and so forth. The person driving the car was exactly the kind of person you see driving a Lexus or Acura. Had they put Mr. Lumberjack behind the wheel the ad would’ve missed its target. These are a different kind of ad for Buick because the brand has been drastically altered. Sure- I can on some levels agree that some of the Luxury car ads are borderline obnoxious. But the style and voice they use is what the consumers of such brands like. Its that level of sophistication that sells the product and in my opinion, the Buick ads are just the right touch.
“Commercials never seem to say the things I want to know before considering a car.”
And thus you argue Lacrosse commercials are stupid? I dont get it. If you listen to the commerical the narrator is telling you about the active dampers that smooth out potholes and he tells you the ES350 lacks this feature. I may help to listen to what is said before claiming the commercial was devoid of helpful information. TV is an audio/visual medium- it doesn’t work as well with the sound muted.
I can on some levels agree that some of the Luxury car ads are borderline obnoxious. But the style and voice they use is what the consumers of such brands like.
Heaven help us all.
And thus you argue Lacrosse commercials are stupid?
Sheth jones,
I didn’t say they were stupid. I said I couldn’t understand why that commercial would ever motivate me (or anyone) to consider buying a Lacrosse.
The new products are great, keep improving with every generation. Buick needs to be middle class not the middle child, understated luxury, including green and muscle cars to appeal to differant tates, but classy,understated. I understand why keep Buick and throw away Pontiac-Oldsmobile-Saturn, because they were the same thing sporty sorta-lux same price point as Chevy but somehow supposed to be different. Buick is different, Buick is a premium brand like Cadillac, minus the audacity. Buick could do a 535hp GrandSport and it would’nt be a CTS-V, it would appeal to Dentists instead of plastic sergeons, two premium brands equal two profitable brands if marketed properly.
Well, Buick always had more performance-oriented cars than Cadillac. And from a styling wiewpoint, they also had more audacity (compare a Boattail Riv with an Eldorado of the same vintage) a ’60’s Wildcat Gran Sport, or a Wildcat 4 speed with a Dual Quad with any Cadillac… What Buick lacked was some of those bling-bling features like Cadillac’s trunk pull down, massive grilles, huge tailfins, baroque styling and a FWD top of the model….
If you kill all of the dealers you have in wind down mode your sales and market share are going to continue to fall in the U.S. Our town is losing a Cadillac dealer that did not meet your stated reasons for closing. I personally know customers that have said if they close they will switch to another brand as they are 1. loyal to this dealer or 2. want a luxury car and do not want to drive an hour to have it serviced after purchasing it. Our particular town has Lincoln, Acura, Mercedes and BMW so they do have plenty of choice in high line cars.
My uncle lives in a rural area that you are closing his Chevrolet dealer. He will be switching to Ford.
You guys still don’t get it. You have a competitive advantage with your dealer network (that costs you very little if anything at all) and you are dismanteling it.
Makes no sense to me!
Jim:
You failed to mention that GM will still have more dealers than anyone and FAR more than Toyota which is currently the #2 US automaker. Toyota has proven that you can sell lots of vehicles with far less dealers than GM has.
Sheth
You are correct but that still does not mean that they will lose sales volume and market share by cutting dealers.
This particular Cadillac dealer is allready talking with a highline import to move into this location.
They have been in town for 46 years. The loyalty is with them more than it is with GM.
GM is foolish not to use the breadth of their dealer network as an advantage. Especially since it costs them practically nothing.
I will give you the fact that there are in certain areas too many dealers, but this is the United States let the strong survive. The market place will sort this mess out better than people in the glass tower only looking at numbers.
The 2010 Buick LaCrosse mops the floor with the Lexus ES350 in the reviews. Well Done!
It’s tough to rebuild your reputation. That applies to everyone and every company. Building dependable cars that also look good, that goes a long way.
In the “we need to do a lot more” category, don’t forget to include a few RWD Buicks with some more exciting charactersitics than “Quiet Tuning” and “blind zone alert”…
I’ve been driving RWD Buicks since I got my driver’s license (in fact before!) and that was 17 years ago. My first car was a ‘68 Wildcat 4dr hardtop equipped with a 3.42 posi and it was the most talked about and also the fastest car in the high school parking lot! That was in the early nineties, other students were driving underpowered late seventies/early eighties cars. Like Cordobas, Malibus, Grand LeMans, G body Regals, 2.8-powered Camaros, AMC Spirit, AMC Eagle and small pickup trucks. The less lucky ones were driving Cavailers, K cars, Shadows, Tercels, Civics, Corollas and Accords!
I’m now 32 and I’d be ready to buy a new RWD Buick. But there are none available… Until then, I’ll have to keep my current ‘65 Wildcat, my ‘67 Riviera Gran Sport and my ‘75 Electra Limited.
I want a new Buick that makes some noise, that can spin it’s rear tires and make my heart beat faster as I drive it! Not another boring FWD that needs a snooze alert!
If Hyundai can go from a joke as a brand because of poor quality and turn it around to a quality driven market share taking company then there is hope for GM.
Is GM learning any lessons from the meteoric rise of the Hyundai brand?
Even the Japanese auto manufacturers are looking at Hyundai as their main competition.
The Japanese see Detroit in the rear view mirror and your getting smaller as they pull away.
Maybe building a quality vehicle at a value driven price has some merit. GM needs to quit looking for gimmicks and strategies. Just go out and build the best vehicles in their class and customers will flock to buy them. Bring in the top 3 selling vehicles in each market segment and make your next model better in every aspect. If you can’t take market share from them go back and fix it.
The article below say’s it better than I can.
Japanese Automakers View Hyundai as No.1 Threat
Executives at Japan’s leading automakers consider Hyundai Motor their most threatening competitor, the Canadian Press reported on Wednesday, citing interviews with Honda CEO Takanobu Ito and Nissan Motor’s senior vice president Shiro Nakamura by the Associated Press.
“Hyundai is awesome,” Ito was quoted as saying, “They are undoubtedly a threat because their products are cheap and the quality is improving.” Nakamura agreed, comparing Hyundai’s rise, thanks to its reputation for quality and affordability, to that of Samsung Electronics, which now rivals Sony.
“Hyundai, which boasts Kia Motors as an affiliate, recently grabbed five percent global market share for the first time, despite a declining global market,” the Canadian Press reported, “In the U.S., Hyundai was the only one among the major automakers, including the Japanese, to record better sales last month, up 27 percent from September 2008.”
englishnews@chosun.com
all the foreign brands are is gimmicks and strategies !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GM uses Bose audio systems which are much better.
FYI, Wal-Mart has only about 1 percent net profit, that’s not a business model, its a fire sale.
GM is already doing much better.
The Malibu, Lacrosse, and CTS are the beginning of a style revolution. These cars clearly have superior in-class styling, quality, features, and warranty.
Its the size and style just above and below these models where GM should focus attention next in order to re-establish leadership in the car market.
GM needs to improve the customer sales experience at the dealerships.
When a customer has to worry about being cheated, upsold, or generally not treated fairly that is a problem.
If you leave the dealership and feel that you have been taken advantage of, that is a problem for GM.
The whole GM experience needs to improve.
Build a quality vehicle at a value driven price.
Provide a positive purchase experience with pricing that can be compared from dealer to dealer.
The service departments need to improve and be more competitive in pricing. They need better hours of service and provide more value driven pricing.
Walmart continues to grow each year……. What can you learn from their business model??
They deliver value driven products and their customers never feel like they over paid or were taken advantage of. (positive customer experience)
Why not send a knowledgeable factory representative into every dealership (unannounced) once a year to “buy a car” and rate how they were treated? When you find dealers not treating customers fairly do something about it. Other business have supported the “secret shopper” model of having knowledgeable customers rate the service. It might be worth a try.
When a customer has to worry about being cheated, upsold, or generally not treated fairly that is a problem. If you leave the dealership and feel that you have been taken advantage of, that is a problem for GM.
Ditto KenZ. You’ve been reading my mail. Too bad GM’s executive leadership doesn’t seem to understand that. No matter what advances GM makes with product, their lackluster dealer network tends to trump those advances.
I don’t know the solution, but GM needs to upgrade the perception customers have of GM dealers so they enhance product, not detract from it.
Its seems that people are unhappy when they don’t receive the trade-in value they expect regardless of the bottom line price.
A trade-in value promise would improve perception.
Foreign branded dealers seem to offer smaller discounts and larger trade-in offers, even though the bottom line price is the same, the consumer may feel better if they receive a higher trade-in value.
30,000
-5,500 trade-in
-1,500 incentive discount
——————————–
23,000
30,000
-3,500 trade-in
-3,500 incentive
——————–
23,000
When the dealer makes a higher offer for the customers trade-in the customer feels like their car is “worth more.” Foregign dealers use the trade-in value as a mind trick to make consumers think they have ‘residual value’ or that the cars hold their value.
The answer is for GM to make a better offer to customers for trade-ins while offering less incentives. A trade-in value campaign.
If you think GM dealers give a bad experiance you should try shopping a Toyota dealer.
In the end it is the product, or perception of, that is the real difference.
In the end it is the product, or perception of, that is the real difference.
Even if what you say is correct*, why shouldn’t GM also want to have a dealer network that stands above everyone else?
__________________
* And I’m doubtful. My opinion is that a superior dealer and service network can more than compensate for product. People may buy something that is not quite the best if they know they can count on years of first-class support, whereas even the best products can’t overcome the disadvantage of lousy service and support.
Of course, the best option is to have both — superior products and superior support which for many years is what made Mercedes autos the sine qua non plus ultra. Why shouldn’t GM strive to be the best in both?
Notice that GM enthusiasts have made suggestions to improve the dealer experience since its important, however, more often, GM dealers are the best in the business when it comes to service. GM technicians are really very smart and efficient and their service people are very sharp.
The opportunity seems to be that dealers could offer a more fair trade-in value which could be in the form of loyality cash. No trade-in customer should walk without receiving a good deal for their trade-in. It makes the customer feel really important. What has the dealer got to loose? If the customer walks, they may buy elsewhere.
The customer will remember that a dealer liked their trade-in enough to give them an offer for it on the spot. Car owners would like to hear that the car they own is wanted by the dealer. Customers don’t want to hear that their car only has book value, especially if they take good care of it.
A dealer should never give an insulting trade-in offer to a potential buyer. That is a NO, NO.
And this seems to be what many dealers don’t understand.
We have one local Cadillac dealer that gives high value for trade-ins. If you drive on the lot, they are going to offer you big bucks for your older trade-in, probably $1000 to $2500 more than a competitor. The salesman that does this has been there a long time, is very loyal to GM, and has high personal sales. He wears an American flag pin or a red white and blue neck tie. Customers aren’t shy about coming back. This dealers seems to have frequent repeat customers too. And the dealer seems to be immensely prosperous.
The customers feel good that someone gave them the extra money for their trade-in, it ratifies their choice and makes them respect the local business AND IT CLOSES THE SALE.
Customers go in for service and don’t mind paying $700 to $1000 for their doughnuts and coffee while they are getting routine service or get shuttled to local mall. No one I know complains.
Fritz
making promises to do better is a good thing. But I am sure you remember that GM has made promises to do better many times before, so getting people to believe you is going to be a hard sale. But some of your new products are a good sign that perhaps you mean it this time. You still have a long ways to go but as long as you remember that words do not mean much without the products to back them up you have a good chance of succeeding. When you can say with absolute proof that GM products are simply the best better than all the rest then you can make believers of a very untrusting buying public.
I wish you the best of luck. GM does need to reposition itself, but it also needs to sell the truth of its history. GM has done a lot of things that we claim to value as Americans: it has supported small towns, paid fairly, and respected the rights of its workers. GM has enabled thousands of children to go to college. It will never be more environmentally friendly to drive a giant battery imported from Japan than it is to drive a fuel efficent car made in Lordstown, Ohio.
Sell the truth, and abandon the macho nonsense. If people still really cared about big engines, and being “professional grade”, the company would not be losing market share to the Koreans and Japanese. That is the real truth. I live in Pittsburgh. I work in manufacturing…I am your historic “base”, we just don’t care about those things anymore.
It must begin and end with quality. Your current volume is the new normal. Subaru is making a big play by incremetally increasing the size of its wagons. They may gain market share, but they will most likely lose some loyal customers. There is no reason that those people would not buy a malibu wagon. There is effectively no Saab, absolutely no Saturn, and almost no affordable Volvo. Make a nice product. There is a void. Fill it. That may not have been a resonable proposition for the giant GM, but my friend, you are not the giant GM.
GM dealers, the ones still in business, don’t seem to be selling many cars now that Cash for Clunkers (another taxpayer bailout) is over. Neither to they seem to have much stock. Do you seriously believe that the American public will purchase enough of your products so that you can ever start to pay back the many billions? Many Americans have lost all faith in GM.
Looks like GM is leading again. The Buick dealer lot is looking really sharp with the LaCrosse, Enclave, Acadia, GMC.
It’s useless and I would say it for the final time: GM keeps making stupid decisions. Take a look at this:
http://www.worldcarfans.com/109100722289/ford-fiesta-to-make-north-american-debut-at-la-auto-show
Ford Fiesta is the 2nd best selling car in Europe, and with the new Ford Focus, Ford is gonna rule the small car roast. Without Chevrolet Viva, GM is doomed. With Opel sold to Magna, it’s now a matter of time before Chevy will compete with Opel in Europe and Asia. It’s common sense. Chevrolet is now a global brand.
And why can’t Cadillac use the Kappa platform/Saturn Sky for a roadster? Are you gonna sell the Solstice to Delorean? Where’s the extened Sigma XTS?
I think it’s really time to bring in the new Whiz Kids like Ford did.
http://detnews.com/article/20091009/AUTO01/910090402/1148/Ford+taps+new++Whiz+Kids++to+help+navigate+road+to+success
Here’s an interesting comment I read on AutoObserver.com:
Greenpony, I am not writing off GM and even owned 5 GMs in the past, including an Impala(my very first car) and a Green Cadilac(my last GM). In fact up to 20 years ago I only owned GM. But times are changing, and now, unfortunatly, GM do not have a big array of small cars, you know the cute ones. Like Nissan Cube or Kia soal or kia rondo or nissan Versa or…… to name a few, those are small Auto companies in comarison to GM and have so many of those nice small vehicles. Be fair, be honest be real and admit that any small car that comeout of GM stables are en excuse, a “fine, I have it, so leave me alone already” kind of small vehicles. As someone wrote before, GM is rearanging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Posted by: mzohar | October 08, 2009 at 11:07 AM
Mr henderson have you ever ridden in the middle bucket seats of the traverse. Surely the electric chair would be more comfortable. There are also two blind areas on the right side of the care, the two head rests. After only two weeks of being an owner I have had two near misses. Id’d love to take it back to the dealer, but my husband took the 500 dollars. We are 50 years customers of GM cars and very disappointed. Also my trade in a 2007 tahoe with under 26000 is gone.
GM, any comment or response to Jean?
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There are also two blind areas on the right side of the care, the two head rests. After only two weeks of being an owner I have had two near misses. I’d love to take it back to the dealer, but my husband took the 500 dollars. We are 50 years customers of GM cars and very disappointed.
********************************************************************************************
I’d love to take it back to the dealer, but my husband took the 500 dollars.
What does she mean by this? Does that mean the 60-day return policy has exemptions? is that some trick her dealer pulled? Can a dealer offer a $500 dollar discount to invalidate or void GM’s return policy?
First I’ve heard of this. Can someone at GM HQ explain?
Wendell,
The 60-day Money Back Guarantee is, in fact, optional. If you opt out, you get an extra $500 rebate. I believe GM said that the take rate on the rebate was very high, the actual number of cars the guarantee would cover is very low.
Also, you can get away pretty clean on the return unless you get dealer installed options or services. Those don’t get covered. If you buy a $20K GM car with $2000 in dealer options and return it, you’re still on the hook for $2000, if you return the car. Most of the Camaros down the road had a lot of dealer options on them.
Thank you Charlie. I wasn’t aware of that.
Listen to your customers…….. Do not blow off their comments….
For too many years GM did not listen to it’s customers and it continued to loose market share ending in bankruptcy.
Quality and Value… respect your customers opinions ….
This is a late comment for this post, but it seemed the most appropriate place to ask my questions. I will preface those by admitting that while my current daily driver is not a GM product, I have grown up with GM vehicles and am very excited about the future, both of your products and of the company returning to profitability.
My first question is this: Is the effort to fully repay all moneys given to GM in the form of taxpayer-financed loans and bailouts a top priority of the company, and if not, why not?
It would seem that a company given a second chance by a dubious American public would benefit from openly, publicly, and loudly keeping us abreast of how close you are to repaying us – and indeed yourselves – the taxpayers – and when that repayment will be complete.
I ask this because both GM and the media don’t seem to be saying much on the issue of repaying bailout packages. I consider this detrimental to your cause of regaining the people’s trust. I wish GM would be more bold and straightforward about their obligation to repay their debts.
It can only help your cause that you see yourselves as no different from any other entity or individual who owes somebody money. I myself have tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, and if I default, there are consequences. I would comfort a great many to know GM’s position in regards to reimbursement.
Thanks, and good work so far, and good luck with the future.
fritz
Best wishes at gm. If you can compete with Gary Wendt you could succeed in rebuilding this company. I have owned several gm cars or trucks for the past twenty five years. all of the vehicles operated with out a problem well into the 150000 mile range. The quality of the product specifically the power train is on the mark.
The largest issue with the company stems from the dealerships and zone managers. It is imperitive that you hire and train people who want to solve problems and actually help people. If consumers feel alienated and fustrated at this level the probability of them buying another vehicle is zero.
As a american manufacturer i am routing for you guys, the stakes in the game have never been higher! We need to convince america to buy american.