Rick Wagoners admition that 0% & rebates have hit a dead end.
Why Kurt Ritter fled GM rather than take over GMC-Buick-Pontiac.
Cadillac is the US's 2nd highest rated brand (J.D.Powers), with Monte Carlo and Impala right behind in North American quality.
Bill Ford's good for Ford....(duh).
And other rantings and information bits.

http://autoextremist.com/page6.shtml#table

 

GM's discount heavy quest for market share was just borrowing against the future. They've pulverized resale values just to encourage future GM buyers to move their purchases forward. Outside of a few high-end products like the H2 and Corvette, GM's image is far worse than its cars. Judging by this very public admission of failure, Wagoner seems to be setting up excuses for the sales performance of Malibu, Malibu Maxx and Equinox already.

On the other hand, Bill Ford's homespun charm has already accomplished the task of turning around Ford's image. It's time that they got back to the message of product, and judging by the impressive slate of model introduction they have in store, they're back on the right track. Jacques Nasser did alot of damage at Ford, with his concentration on the "Premium Auto Group" while the bread-and-butter Ford division was starved of development cash. I'm still amazed that a man like that could have gotten a top job in any company. I really hope that Bill Ford can turn things around, and judging by his fast start, he's got as good a chance as anybody.

 

The AutoExtreamest now works for Chrysler....

http://www.autoextremist.com/page2.shtml

Just shows that everyone has thier price....

 

At least Peter showed some serious edge during his journalistic stint - every other person in the automotive PR biz, on either side of the fence, simply sticks to the party line and spreads the same ol' half-truths and outright lines. I also think that AE was extremely fair and gave out praise as quickly as it issued criticism. I can only hope that Peter is as effective working inside the business; I'm sure it's going to be more difficult to fix the problems than it is to write about them.

Too bad the archives are still pay-per-view only - I spent quite a few slow afternoons at work going over them ever since I found the website back in the spring of '00 (or whenever it was that the rumors of Penske buying out GM's North American operations were floating around). Some were timely pieces; others will still be relevant many years from now (the rant on the whole Firestone debacle hung in my cubicle for quite a while).