Who's fault is it for GM's market share loss?

If you could get mad at one person/thing what would it be?
Lots of people sneer at "import enthusiasts" (which is a BS term to be thrown around since I am warey of the reliability of most 'import' companies)

Or you could blame the unions? Or past quality issues? management? building cars nobody wants to buy? Whadya think?

Forgot choices for:

* Purposely walked away from passenger cars in favor of SUVs and Trucks.
* Lost momemtum in the 90s by focusing on profits instead of models.


But if you REALLY want to get an idea why GM lost market share, ask yourself one simple question:

Would GM be better or worse off if Smith and Zarella were still running or influencing decision making at GM? If Wagoner hadn't brought in Lutz, Nesbitt, and various other people from all areas of the car business, and stood firm with critics by sticking to a product based plan instead of chopping divisions or fixing the bottom line immediately, could GM have any chance of regaining market share??

Saying unions and import buyers are reasons for GM's market share decrease IMO is a cop-out.

Chrysler's 300 doesn't need excuses (best selling car in it's class), Chevy's Corvette (world's best selling 2 passenger sports car) doesn't need excuses, Mustang (America's best selling coupe) needs no excuse, and neither does Cobalt, CTS, GM and Ford trucks.

All are made by the same unions and compete with the same imports. The difference is that effort were put into these vehicles, and they wern't viewed as "Just another applience" .

That simple outlook makes a big difference.

The Import tuner scene has been hot for a while now, where were the "Hot" domestic counterparts??? Only in the last couple of years have they jumped in the ring and started swinging.
And the trend toward the "bland" has made buying a new car into a ...ho-hum...afair. What car, up until maybe last year, could you not live without?none.
I think it's just a traffic jam of bad luck, bad decisions, bad economy, bad govt...etc...just hoping this is a 100year low.;)

GM's ignorance as a whole during the 80s/90s

GM just didnt care about cars anymore, which shows they didnt care about there customers. There are a lot of American nameplates that have lost market share and value, both financially and morally, after they just stopped caring for there customers.
That, combined with the imports gaining ground in peoples heads as gas sipping, long lasting vehicles that couldnt be killed and were semi well built, just killed the next generation and the generation to follow's love for the American car company.
Only recently do you see an infusion of style and performance from the American car companies, and that is where the sales are. Why they are not taking advantage of it is beyond me. That is there ticket to sales. Not 8 spd transmissions, not tripple overhead cam, 20 cd player 12" subwoofer sound system. Style, aka Sex, sells.

It's Toyota's fault.

Their many problems have centered around one key point. Focusing on the short term dollar and quick profits rather than willingness to sacrafise short term profit in order to build momentum into long term profitability and a dedicated consumer base, much like you see Toyota doing today.

Blame this on stock holders, poor GM management, consumers, or all of the above - but regardless of who's to blame, the concept above is what started it all.

Although overly simplistic, there is a adage in the auto industry that goes...

"There is nothing wrong at a car company that good products can't fix".

There is a lot of blame that can be thrown around at GM (and Ford) and others but if a manufacturer runs their business with just a little bit of common sense and has products that people truly WANT, they have all the ingredients they need to be successful.

Their many problems have centered around one key point. Focusing on the short term dollar and quick profits rather than willingness to sacrafise short term profit in order to build momentum into long term profitability and a dedicated consumer base, much like you see Toyota doing today.

Blame this on stock holders, poor GM management, consumers, or all of the above - but regardless of who's to blame, the concept above is what started it all.
QFT!

GM's ignorance as a whole during the 80s/90s

Yup, old Mgmt

was it that wagoner that f*cked everything up?

was it that wagoner that f*cked everything up?
Don't drink the BM koolaid!

This is sort of like an AP Euro History mulitiple choice question: what was the primary cause of WWI?

There are literally a dozen major reasons for GM's market share loss. Some was their lack of forsight. To some degree it was an inevitability of more players sharing the same pie. Buyer perception plays a role. So does GM's enormous fixed cost disadvantage. Don't forget the gas crisises that allowed the imports to get their foot in the door.

To simply say, "GM doesn't build cars people want" isn't entirely wrong, but it isn't correct, either. It's this entire spectrum of cause that really makes Rick Wagoner's job a thousand times harder than folks on the outside *cough*buickman*cough* like to think. If there were a majic bullet, I think even GM management would have found it by now.

QFT!

Man that "QFT" is killing me. What the hell does it mean? The only thing that runs across my mind is "Quit [censored] Talking".

I'm not to ashamed to ask here on a board full of car guys, but on the game geek board I post to I am shamed into silence for not being so savy on post speak :p

Quality problems, arrogant dealers, and piss-poor customer and dealer service have driven away more customers than I think GM realizes. Combine this with design/styling issues, and heap the "America's Discount Brands" tag that GM earned (up until recently), and GM has become unattractive or not even a consideration to most buyers (I know, as the designated car guy at my work, a manufacturing company in the Midwest, very few consider buying a new domestic car).

GM needs attractive/hit products with great styling, AND they need to extend warranties across the board to at least 5/60 while simultaneously improving/purging dealer and customer service. This is the ONLY WAY they will stop the bleeding...

Man that "QFT" is killing me. What the hell does it mean? The only thing that runs across my mind is "Quit [censored] Talking".

I'm not to ashamed to ask here on a board full of car guys, but on the game geek board I post to I am shamed into silence for not being so savy on post speak :p
Quoted For Truth.

Man that "QFT" is killing me. What the hell does it mean? The only thing that runs across my mind is "Quit [censored] Talking".

I'm not to ashamed to ask here on a board full of car guys, but on the game geek board I post to I am shamed into silence for not being so savy on post speak :p

Quoted For Truth.

haha. QFT!

arrogant dealers, and piss-poor customer and dealer service +1

To some degree it was an inevitability of more players sharing the same pie.

I think that has a lot more to do with it then people realize. All of the fringe car companies decided to make their econoboxes more than just econoboxes. The market hasn't gotten much bigger, but thier are a lot more options.

Thats also another reason why you can't blame "import buyers" its just as Un-American to ask people to do something other than whatever the hell they want, as it is to buy a foreign car. :p

I think that has a lot more to do with it then people realize. All of the fringe car companies decided to make their econoboxes more than just econoboxes. The market hasn't gotten much bigger, but thier are a lot more options.

That makes sense, but to a great degree these companies were only able to establish themselves in the market because GM wasn't providing enough product differentiation.

That happened two ways -- first everyone started to see through the "brand jobs", especially in the 70s and 80s, and the perception was that GM built 4 of the same car.

And second, GM themselves compressed their line so that Chevy had upmarket models, Cadillac had downmarket models, and Buick/Olds were caught in the middle. That left room for imports on either end of the spectrum to get established.