http://www.detnews.com/2004/insiders...c01-322472.htm

taking this with a grain of salt.... is this really true in real life?
Toyota officials said investments in production technology have accelerated vehicle development time - a crucial gauge of an automaker's competitiveness. It takes Toyota 12.6 months to go from vehicle design to production - half the time it takes some of its rivals.

 

Time for GM to start making appealing and super desirable cars.

 

Short answer...yes. Toyota has waged war on GM and wants to become #1. GM has recently realized that not only is it losing market share in the US, but in the world. Toyota is flying up fast in Europe, has taken major foothold here in the US, and is now turning up the heat.
IMO, GM might lose #1 ranking, but only due to its size and its ability to change to the market. If Toyota can get a car out in a year, that means if people want X in there car, Toyota can give it to them by next model year. GM might be able to make great product, but I dont think its enough for GM to do it....alone.
Which leads me to my other thought. GM might not be able to fight Toyota alone...but where the hell is Ford, Dodge, Honda, Mitsu, etc? All of there cars are climbing is popularity and that has to be eating away at Toyota sales as well. Remember that Toyota still has to beat out all of them, AND then GM. Honda needs to step it up, Ford needs to step it up, and DCX needs to step it up. One good car in your line aint gunna cut it. 300 is nice, but how about the rest of the cheap crew? Lets use the new found cash and bring out these cars that everyone here keeps flapping there gums about. Where is Fords "Year of the Car"?
So in all reality, can Toyota overtake GM in sales? If things keep going this way.
But with GM and other companies finaly making some good quality cars, I think that Toyota could be seeing people leave show rooms looking for other cars. Thats my personal take. Toyota cant keep going on forever making boring and dull cars.

 

Toyota has said it aims for global domination before 2008 I believe. That was said last year. Now, they are farther along than they (or anybody) else could have imagined.

GM is also changing their vehicle development procedures, in fact a new system was put in place just a few short weeks ago. It won't take GM 3 or 4 years as it has in the past, instead, it will take GM roughly 18 to 24 months to bring a vehicle to market.

 

Well what GM has going for it on the money side is that the Cavalier will be dead after this year, and if Im correct, they're losing money on everyone they sell, or barely breaking even. The Cobalt will take care of that. They're also sitting on an old truck line, although that doesnt seem to be hurting them as much as they still sell millions of the things per year.

It would sure be nice to see GM become more of a LEAN company though. Cut though the red-tape a little bit and really get back to what the consumer wants.

Off the original question though, are there any books about GM's new car process aside from All Corvettes are Red?

Oh yea, one other thing, what did GM ever do about their pension problem? I'll steer this thing off course as much as I can Sorry!

 

Toyota will be #1 soon, and there's little the big 2 could do about it.

 

Great analysis.

To add to this, GM also has to do with massive health care costs related to it's pensions to retirees, which is their number 1 problem today. That's something Toyota doesn't have to deal with. Ford and Chrysler have the same problems, but it's not nearly as bad as GM's.

Add to this the fact that the way GM is structured not only can they not get new vehicles to market quickly (layers of management and fifedoms), but each car they make has to be marketed through multiple divisions adding to GM's cost.

If GM didn't have the purchasing muscle it did and was able to crank out the volume it does, I suspect they would become a truck & Cadillac only company, or we would be looking at it's obituary soon because they wouldn't have the money or flexibility to keep up.

BTW: Chrysler is the only US company steadily gaining market share. Ford's losing share (though they are making more money in the process).

 

Won't this just give Toyota the same problems GM has?

 

No, Toyota has like a quarter of the divisions GM has without the pension problems.

 

Last thing I heard, they raised that $10 billion dollar bond to help float the pension fund..

and that in the next years, statisticaly a whole bunch of people will naturally die.

but like that article said, the pressure is on now..

EDIT: oh yea, and they are lobbying for a national health care system.. to make everyone pay for crappy healthcare instead..

I hate to say it, but I can see Toyota grab #1 and GM slip to #2.. I just wonder if it'll then stay like that in the long run....

 

Here's the scary thing... Toyota has made all of their gains thus far despite that most of their lineup has either bland or horrendous styling! Toyota has publicly stated that their design is their weakest aspect and they have recently begun taking major steps to improve it.... if they do.... look out...

Add that to the fact that GM's reputation is so bad because they made so many miserable pieces of crap for so long and as we know, perception lags reality in the auto industry. Their newer stuff is supposed to be high quality, but until massive numbers of people start getting 100, 200, or 300,000 trouble free miles out of them and telling their non-believer friends, GM is going to have a tough time increasing market share.

GM's structure isn't helping, either. They once had over 50% market share. Now they have ~25% One would think that the number of makes, models and divisions that could be supported with half the market share would be smaller, but they have MORE! Plus, think of what impact this must have on their development time. Toyota begins work on a Toyota and sails straight through development... meanwhile at GM Pontiac, Chevrolet, Buick, Saturn and GMC bicker and fight to bend the platform and options into the car that they want the most...

 

This is an excellent point! It seems that everyone at GM who shares a product, fights to get it done "their way". The watered down product, which is left, pleases no one.

The Chevy Zeta coupe is a prime example.

 

As Charlie said, you hit that one dead on the mark.

 

I think the Zeta & Kappa cars are going to be make or break for GM as far a being #1. Trucks are selling good, but profit cutting rebates are huge.

We all know a new Camaro would grab GM another 100,000 sales.

 

what will make or break GM will be their new line of trucks and SUV's out in a few years. You guys need to consider how much money they make off of the trucks and SUV's, even with the huge rebates. Consider that they all use the same basic interiors, frames, sheetmetal(different front and rear clips for different divisions) and same basic engine designs, GM does pretty good. Also consider that all of the delevopment cost has been paid off, since the trucks and SUV's have been out since 1999.