GM debuts 2010 Buick LaCrosse
Plymouth -- A leaner General Motors Co. must work faster, build better vehicles and keep a tighter focus on every operation.

That's the urgent message CEO Fritz Henderson delivered Tuesday during the media launch of the all-new Buick LaCrosse.

"The new GM cannot survive with building competitive vehicles. We must build superb ones," Henderson told The Detroit News while driving through Dexter in the 2010 LaCrosse sedan, a modern flagship for one of the company's four remaining brands.

Henderson, whose comments came just five days after the automaker exited bankruptcy, also said GM's top management must change the company's culture. "We have to make decisions faster, and focus on the how we spend our money on vehicles," he said. "This change has to spread virally, and it has to start at the top."

GM faces an uphill battle, along with other automakers, as consumers curtail spending and pay down debt. On Tuesday, a new survey revealed that nearly 60 percent of all U.S. consumers polled say they don't plan to buy a new car or truck in the next four years.
"We'll not be seeing the frequent replacement pattern brought about by strong incentives and financing programs that made it easy and financially reasonable over the last decade for consumers to get into a new car frequently," AutoPacific President George Petersen said. "Consumers will be putting a higher priority on vehicles with a reputation for quality and durability that meets not only their short-term needs, but also their long-term expected needs."
In addition to slashing debt, workers and factories during bankruptcy, GM also shed half of its brands. Dumping Hummer, Saab, Pontiac and Saturn, Henderson said, will allow GM to focus more engineering and marketing support on its core brands: Buick, GMC, Cadillac and Chevrolet.

GM entered a government-backed bankruptcy on June 1 and eliminated about $40 billion in debt, closed nearly half of its dealerships and will shut down or idle 16 manufacturing facilities. It plans to cut its workforce to 64,000 by the end of the year.

The 40 days in bankruptcy were fewer than even Henderson estimated the company would endure, he said Tuesday. "We thought we were going to come out of bankruptcy on July 31, but so many things fell into place."

GM has newfound flexibility
GM executives already see the advantages of the dramatic changes. "It's much easier to handle four brands and 34 nameplates instead of eight brands and 78," said Susan Docherty, vice president of GMC, Buick and Pontiac.

She said the past year at GM was "very difficult" but added some positive changes are taking place.

"I have never had this much flexibility before," said the 23-year GM veteran. "And over the past 10 months, I've never spent this much time with customers."

In the coming years, Buick, GM's near-premium brand, will add three cars to its lineup, Docherty said, declining to provide specifics, though analysts expect a small car to be offered within a few years. The brand, which has become extremely popular in China, sells nearly three times as many vehicles there as it does in the U.S. market.

Buick also will have a much more substantial advertising budget.

More money will be spent advertising the LaCrosse during its first six months than all of Buick's advertising last year, Docherty told Bloomberg News.

GM can spend that much now on the LaCrosse because the automaker has half the brands to cover, said Aaron Bragman, an analyst at IHS Global Insight Inc. in Troy. The car, too, is a significant improvement from past Buick sedans, said Bragman, who was test-driving the car at the GM event in the Detroit suburbs.

GM plans on 10 new vehicles
GM plans to develop additional fuel-saving technologies, such as new direct-injection four- and six-cylinder engines, Henderson said. "Why build new V-8s when a six can offer the same power?" he said.

GM, which plans to introduce 10 new vehicles by the end of 2010, also will focus on building a gas-electric hybrid car as well as a plug-in hybrid in the future, Henderson said.

There are no plans to build or import any diesel cars.

Henderson said sales and the overall industry appear to be weaker than the same month last year. U.S. sales for the industry this year have been running below a 10 million annual rate each month -- the industry level at which GM says it needs to be profitable.