Sorry, I couldn't help it...

(Cue Captain Chaos music, for you Smokey and the Bandit fans..."Dun dun DUUUNNNN" )...

Anyway, let me first say I have no clue how to run a multi-billion dollar corporation. I am not even entirely sure I could run a used car lot, but I'd like to think I could. With that being said, I have ten ideas I came up with while washing my Z28 earlier this evening, preparing it for its long winter nap (no AWD means it will cause me a firey death if I try to use it before April Kidding, gentlemen...)

BTW, Scott...if you're reading this, I prefer my cash in small, unmarked bills. Please...no black Suburbans making the drop off, either.

Ok, in order of importance...

10) A marketing campaign that truly means something. Get out there. Get bold. If a Malibu really has better initial quality than a Camry, SAY IT. No one will believe me if I say it...so get the message out there. An assembly line worker saying "we have the best plant in North America" in the Employee Discount ads doesn't actually tell me which friggen cars are made there!!!! Trumpet quality as high as you can...because around here, no one has a damn clue. I am tired of people running to Honda because they either a) assume they're better or b) are too lazy to do their own research, and listen to the person telling them a Honda is better. I have now seen FOUR Honda purchases in my own department of 9 people in the last 8 months. I am not kidding. All of these people didn't even bother looking at anything other than a Honda or Toyota (I was dumb enough to ask them )

9) Consolidating dealers is good, but what would be even better is if GM was able to gain a little more control over what dealers do when making out new dealer agreements. An aside for people who don't know: GM has the power to veto the sale of a GM franchise from one person to another. GM has the power to allow the sale to happen with certain stipulations. This is how we are seeing so many B/GMC/P franchises being created. "Oh, Mr. Dealer...you want this Chevy franchise? Well, sell your Pontiac franchise to the Buick/GMC guy down the street, and then we'll let you have Chevy." On this same note, exert more power (if possible...I don't know if it is) over the new franchise owner with respect to the quality of the building. CSI. Are you dualed with an import franchise? Get a new building for it. I am sick of seeing my local Chevy/VW dealer with literally 150 VWs, and 25 Chevys. I can't make this crap up.

8) Sell Saab. Please. GM, you have enough problems. Saab fits nowhere. It does nothing but suck cash. Saab has even been bastardized by your takeover. Sell it to Renault, Fiat (oh wait they have no $$$...wait a minute, you gave them $4B. Make them use some of it to buy Saab!!) or whomever. Get rid of it. There is no value added by having Saab. Saturn and Caddy will cover any range you wanted with Saab. Please...sell it.

7) Give Buick a car that is so much in the spirit of the 300, rather than the LeSabre, that people actually want to visit a Buick store. Hint: I walked by a Lucerne last night at the local Buick dealer. $36k, fully loaded. Question: Why is a remote start optional on a V8 Lucerne, yet standard on a GP GT? Standard on a Malibu LT? The mind wanders...

6) If you sell GMAC, I am buying a Toyota. I mean it. Don't make me do that. Why you would sell your most profitable asset when you have nearly $20B in the bank is beyond me. Sell Saab. Don't sell GMAC. I realize you can sell a 60% stake in GMAC for over $10B...but YOU DON'T NEED TO.

5) Put a muzzle on Maximum Bob. Don't get me wrong...I love him. Dearly. He has given Pontiac dealers something to truly crow about with the Solstice. As a group, we will screw that momentum by adding $11k addendums to the stickers. This goes without saying. But, you have no idea the morale booster we get as a dealer network to be able to sell a car that people WANT, and not have to GIVE IT AWAY. Honda can sell cars for MSRP. So can Toyota. BMW can. Audi can. GM dealers? We have to give up our right arm to make a sale sometimes. By no means am I asking people here to feel sorry for dealers...as a profession, we rank barely above ambulance chasers. But believe me when I say there is not a lot of fun to be had being a GM dealer. I know a couple that are actually starting to really lose $$$. Ask a Honda dealer owner if he's losing $$. Oh yeah, back to Bob. When I have 78 year old women asking "why I sell a damaged brand," you know his mouth-offs aren't doing anyone any good.

4) Stop the rebates. Period. People cannot comparison shop a GM to a Toyota anymore because unless you have a pHd, how the hell can you know what you're going to PAY FOR THE GM CAR? I can go to toyota.com, build my Corolla, price it, find the rebate, and boom...that's it. With GM, some sites make it easy like Chevy to build and get the red tag, others are like Pontiac's which just gives you the base MSRP red tag (this may have changed, admittedly). Plus, when talking to a woman at work earlier who I'm trying to sell a Torrent for LESS than a CRV (sad, isn't it?), she said "why does the Pontiac have a big incentive, and the Honda doesn't? Doesn't that mean the Pontiac is kinda crappy?" ARGH...but how can you argue with the logic?

3) Settle with the UAW. This, to me, is probably the only thing on my Top 10 list that has a snowball's chance in hell of happening. #4 will still be happening when hell freezes over.

2) Tell Maximum Bob and Rick that we need those "gotta have cars" as soon as possible, so could ya step on it a little?? Oh yeah...don't cheapen their image by throwing an $8,500 rebate on it at intro, either. Learn from Ford...the 500 had only a $500 rebate until Employee Pricing. And yes, they lost some sales, but they probably actually made $$ on it. Plus, they didn't hurt the resale value of it either.

And #1 on the list of "the Plan..." (does that phrase make your hair stand on end? It does mine...)

1) Do you really want the quality message to be heard? Do you want people to really take a chance on your product? Do you want to get rid of the rebate cycle? Do you want to have a competitive advantage that won't cost you that much, assuming your car is screwed together as well as you say it is?

5/60 bumper to bumper + 10/100 powertrain. Across the board. Starting tomorrow. If I can get this on a $10k Accent, why the hell does a $32k Grand Prix GXP get 3/36? How can a dealer defend this?

In a word? We can't. How far would Hyundai have gotten without that damn warranty? They'd probably be back in Korea by now...instead, they're opening up manufacturing here, and even have Toyota bumping forward the launch date of their '07 Camry, for fear of losing too many sales to the new Sonata.


If you read this far, I applaud you. I am not saying I have all the answers, or any answers for that matter. This is one GM die-hard expressing an ever-growing concern over a company that literally made him a car nut. I have loved GM products, only owned GM products, and have sold a few hundred new GM products over a 5 year timespan (for some reason, I seem to have an uncanny luck at selling more far more used than new when compared to other salespeople at our dealership, but I digress). GM also happens to make products that I can stand behind, and would be proud to own. I could easily see myself purchasing, and enjoying for many years, a GXP. A MC SS. An Impala SS. A Silverado (I'm a closet Z71 stepside reg cab fan ). A Corvette. Anything with a Caddy logo on it. A G6 GTP 6 speed. I'm not just a GM fanboy...these are cars I'd be proud to own based on their merits as quality products.

I know GM people read boards like this. Rather than argue over the doom and gloom we always seem to mull over on this board, I thought it would be interesting to compile a list of things that really could make a difference for the company many of us want to see succeed. My apologies if I made anyone puke with the title of this thread, but I couldn't help it

Oh and Scott, remember...no black Suburbans

 

I'm at school working on a project right now, so I'll add my own thoughts later, but for now I have to say good job Jason, each point you made makes sense to me and should be looked at.

 

great job Jason. i'm with you on this one. the ideas sound really good.

and seeing how stars posted acclaim too, i think this might strike a nerve with the "youth" on this board.

 

GM takes away rebates, they will likely loose 25% in sales on people who normally trade in with negative equity. Not saying that is not a good thing...but I know many GM dealers make sales by burying negtive equity with rebates. Take the rebate away, and you take a buyer out the market.

 

they need to set MSRP at accual sale price... and they need to keep adjusting the MSRP until the accual sale price is almost equal to the MSRP...

 

I like this one, a Big Buick, 300-style...hmmmmm....And yeah, why is remote start optional on a GM Flagship car?????????
Great points!...

 

Lots of great & well thought out points Jason!

But there are a few items that negate this:

1. GM will probally make up the cash (or the majority of it) accepting that reduction, which would be temporary for the most part.

2.That negative equity doesn't disappear. I'm sure there are some people out there that will run perpetually larger debt till the day they die, but most everyone else will reach a point where they realize they are in too deep & stop.

3. Chrysler (stealing an idea from BMW of all places) provides much cheaper free maintenence and gas, which is more of an attention getter than yet another cash back rebate.

 

Theory: With less rebates, resale value would improve. Years ago, Grand Ams and Grand Prixs had a decent resale value. Now, compared to a comparable Honda or Toyota, they're awful (although, Grand Prix GTs and GTPs do seem to do better than their cheaper siblings). If resale was better, people wouldn't be as likely to be upside down in their trades.

I don't advocate getting rid of ALL rebates...Scott himself said you couldn't do it, and I agree with him entirely. But, does a G6 need a $2,000 rebate PLUS red tag discounts to sell? Hell no.

But could it use a better warranty? Could Pontiac spread the word better about it winning Strategic Vision's total quality award (I know, I know...not as reputable as a JD Power IQ or 3 year survey, but its something!!)? Absolutely.

I guess I want more people to want GM products for the attributes they have...not because they are the K Mart blue light specials of the automotive world.

 

Good stuff there, Jason. More typing than I'd care to do though.

Let me add afew thoughts if I may.

-Value pricing should seem like a great value. IOW, lower the price on certain products to reflect actual selling price...at least until those "gotta have" products come online. Would anyone really spend over $31K on a Monte Carlo SS?

-Saturn. I know they have a certain appeal to a certain segment, that other GM divisions don't have. OK, that's an advantage. But it really burns me up to see it transconfiguring into the 21st century Oldsmobile right in front of my very eyes. Me personally, I wish it were Olds instead of Saturn. Too late for that though, and it's a shame.

-Saab. Maybe I'm not that huge of a SAAB fan, but it's obvious to me that Saabs have lost alittle something under GM. Yes, they're probably better cars and correct me if I'm wrong...but I think they're selling in higher volumes...but they appear to have lost much of their Saab-ness to me. Not quite as quirky or offbeat,( in a sporty kind of way, of course), as they used to be. I used to know people who considered themselves Saab enthusiasts, can't say that I've run into any in a long time. I'm not really sure what the point of buying a car brand is, if you plan to ultimately expunge most of it's character.

 

Good stuff Jason!

I had my own little "moment" earlier today when I opened a letter from the GM Card encouraging me to "free" some of my accumulated earnings. This is the letter I sent them in response.

 

Regarding the typing, what can I say...I get going on something, and the fingers just go As for Olds, watching them go from being my favorite GM division (Alero > Grand Am, Intrigue = Grand Prix, Aurora way > any Bonneville ever made) to dead almost brought a tear to my eye. In 2001, even after the announcement in December 2000, Olds' were flying off our lot. It was amazing. Aleros were going into the hands of import owners, domestic loyalists, and everyone in between. Auroras were THE car if you wanted domestic luxury/performance, or at least that's how it seemed. My dealership's Olds franchise dated back to 1941 or so...Pontiac came in 20 years later. The same guy still owns it, and still wears his Oldsmobile embroidered polo shirts and sweaters. He owns 2 Intrigues and an Aurora 4.0, while his wife drives a Final 500 Bravada. This family ate (literally), lived and died by Olds. Our Olds sign is STILL up...none of us can figure out why he won't make the call to have our new Pontiac sign put up. Its like the passing of an era for this 78 year old, I guess. I know one thing...Olds had a lot of potential, and scuttled a whole ton of buyers between the mid '80s and 2000.

I was thinking about what you said about the MC the other day, as you brought that up in another thread. Indeed, $31k is nuts, especially when a GTO is $34k. But, what IS a good price? $27k? $26k? In a land of $24K Honda CR-Vs, what is a V8, loaded sporty coupe worth? I just don't know...

 

I only have one comment...

Captain Chaos was "Cannonball Run" not "Smokey and the Bandit".


Otherwise, great read!

 

him didn't want to be the one to say it. him thinks you did a good job noticing that mistake. him is pleased. dun dun dunnnnnnnnnn

 

Damnit!!! You're both right...crud

Don't ask me why, but everytime I saw a Buickman thread, "Dun Dun DUNNNNN" went through my head, like he was swooping in to save the day. Anyway, now that I've helped in the derailment of my thread, nice work gentlemen

poSSum,
That's an excellent letter...hope it actually has some effect on someone in the food chain, somewhere. Glad to hear you're heading to NAIAS as well! I wondered if you were one of the ones selected...see ya there

I look forward to some comments regarding "the Plan" (cringing again). Unlike my superhero colleague, I present none of this as fact...just observation and opinion. Like I said, I could be entirely off base...but it all makes sense to me.

 

You will probably get a cease and desist letter for using "return to greatness" as the post title!!