Alternate Route

Oct 8, 2009 - On Balance, No Change?

From the Wall Street Journal:

 Mark LaNeve, General Motors sales chief and a longtime executive, will leave the company Oct. 15 for a job with a company in another industry.

LaNeve headed sales and marketing until GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson restructured the management team and put former product head Bob Lutz in charge of marketing.

Yep, now there's some real change in philosophy for you. Way to bring in some outside blood to turn things around GM.

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Oct 7, 2009 - They Did Come Back

DETROIT — Auto parts maker Delphi ended four years in bankruptcy court Tuesday, emerging as a private company and removing a major uncertainty for former parent General Motors.
The group acquiring the now much smaller Delphi will forgive nearly $3.5 billion of bankruptcy loans and will invest $900 million in capital.

It may remove some uncertainty from GM's situation, but that doesn't mean GM should plan on being the big dog in town any time soon.

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Oct 6, 2009 - Why They Won't Come Back

AR Index     572.45  -39.10  (-6.39%)

Stocks of individual interest
Toyota  75.07  -5.56
GM        0.64    -0.07
Ford      7.05   -0.44

Dow 9599.75  -189.61   (-1.94%)

So you wonder why the "imports" (you can hardly call them that anymore) are so attractive to people? Check out "Saturn and Me: GM Loses a Customer" by Allan Sloan in the Washington Post. Once a customer loses trust in a brand, it's very difficult to get it back, and GM has managed to do that with so many customers who used to be loyal buyers that it's hard to envision them regaining even a shred of their former status in the automotive world.

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Oct 5, 2009 - Destined To Happen?

Seems like the demise of Saturn might have been an iceberg waiting to be hit.

Part of what happened when Saturn was born was an attempt to change the relationship between GM and the UAW.

Saturn sales peaked at 286,000 cars in 1995.  But that year saw another, more menacing development. The UAW elected as its new president Stephen P. Yokich, a militant firebrand with an explosive temper who hated Saturn. Before his death in 2002, he opposed profit-sharing, the elimination of work rules, and the flexible factory shifts that improved Saturn's efficiency.

Make no mistake, GM shares much of the blame, but the UAW seems quite capable of cutting off their nose to spite their face.

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal

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Oct 1, 2009 - I Got It, I Got It, I Don't Got It

DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors Co. will shut down Saturn now that a deal with former race car driver and auto dealer magnate Roger Penske has collapsed, marking the end of a brand that was supposed to revolutionize the way small cars were built and sold in America.

The deal with Penske was supposed to be finalized Wednesday. But the unexpected end came when his company, Penske Automotive Group Inc., was unable to find a manufacturer to supply vehicles for the brand's dealerships. GM had agreed to keep building Saturn models like the Aura, Outlook and Vue through at least 2011, but after that, Saturn would have to come up with its own products.

Hopefully the Obama administration doesn't see this as an opportunity to "save" Saturn. While Ford is posting a 23% drop in car sales this year and Toyota is selling 28% less, Saturn is posting a 60% drop. Here's a lesson in economics Mr. President. Sometimes companies make things that consumers don't want to buy. Sometimes those companies do go out of buisness. And no amount of meddling or throwing away our money can change that.

Rumor has it that Penske couldn't find anyone to make buggy whips for him, so he's not going into that business either.

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Sep 4, 2009 - Nice Try

Interesting anniversay today that absolutely nobody remembers, well they remember it for a reason other than the way Ford intended it.

In 1957, Ford proclaimed September 4th to be "E-day" to mark the introduction of the Edsel.

Slick marketing and upbeat claims aren't enough to keep a sales dog on the production line.

Wouldn't it be ironic if someone is considering calling it V-day to mark the introduction of the Chevy Volt?

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Aug 26, 2009 - Learn To Draw

DETROIT — General Motors Co. will begin removing its "Mark of Excellence" logo from vehicles as the company places greater emphasis on its individual brands.

GM spokesman Terry Rhadigan said Tuesday the company would phase out the placement of the GM logo on its cars and trucks, leaving just the GMC, Chevrolet, Cadillac or Buick logos on the vehicles...

Taking the logos off the vehicle will save GM a "nominal" amount of money, Rhadigan said.

I guess that "mark of excellence" thing didn't work out.

Flex your design skills and help craft a new logo for GM in the New GM Logo Ideas discussion

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Jul 23, 2009 - Yep, That Adds Up

Don't you just love it when you can look at two things and just see that 2+2 does indeed equal 4?

Consider these two headlines:

Toyota Motor To Begin Talks With GM On Pull-Out From US Joint Venture

Toyota Targets Profitability in North America by Next Fiscal Year

Isn't that a remarkable coincidence?

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Jul 20, 2009 - His Lips Moved

"So we are acting as reluctant shareholders, because that is the only way to help GM succeed. What we are not doing, what I have no interest in doing, is running GM."

You know what they say about a politician's moving lips.

This past Thursday, a spending bill was passed in the House.

From the NY TImes:

The appropriations bill, which will finance the Treasury Department and other parts of the government, passed 219 to 208. It includes a provision that would force Chrysler and G.M., both of which are partly owned by the government, to restore franchise agreements for dealers facing closure.

I guess he was hoping the government would wind up not trying to run GM, but maybe that's changed.

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Jul 10, 2009 - Hold The Cigars

Today is the day GM is going to emerge from bankruptcy and I expect there will be a lot of crowing from certain quarters about what a wonderful thing has been done to save an American company.

I wouldn't be handing out cigars just yet.

Given the government's reputation for efficiently running things and considering that the bailout money we threw at GM that was supposed to keep them out of bankruptcy seems to have been thrown down a hole and buried, any instant claim of success has to taken in with more than a grain of salt.

Edmunds Editor-in-Chief Karl Brauer sizes up the situation pretty well...

“It’s impressive that they got through bankruptcy that quickly. “But … when it takes you three or four decades to tear down a car company’s image, it takes more than 39 days to bring it back.”

The egg has been laid. It's hatching. Whether it turns out to be a turkey remains to be seen.

Read more at toledoblade.com

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