Back in May, President of General Motors North America Mark Reuss spoke about the sometimes negative perception that General Motors carries as an automaker — and whether the executive feels any frustration on the subject.
“Absolutely. There’s no question. I honestly think about that all the time. The flip side of that is that it is changing. I got two e-mails yesterday from people who loosely I know who want to work here. People can see it turning. Whatever car we do, we need to overachieve. I always want to overachieve on this stuff anyway. But we have to do more than what everybody else is doing to change that perception.”
The GM Authority Take
GM’s overall desire to overachieve in anything and everything it does will only make it and its products more competitive in the long run, resulting in more satisfied customers, increased sales, and ultimately higher profitability.
And with the wave of all-new core products making their way starting in 2013 and running through 2016, we can’t wait to see what The General’s overachieving spirit delivers!
Comments
The products that GM has are generally as good or better than most others.
The problem is not so much with the product [though it will continue to improve] but how GM is perceived. This is no different than how Toyota is perceived. Many people think Toyota is perfect but the truth be known they are no better or worse than GM. But the unwashed masses think other wise and that is what GM needs to change.
GM is working on new products that while improved will more importantly change how people feel about GM. Styling and technology are two points that need to be driven home with the public. Also quality needs to be driven home. These are hot buttons with the public and GM is not seen in the true light that they should be seen in. I saw a survey on who was a technology leader and GM was like 5-6 on the list? GM is doing things today that few other companies can do on their own. Others like Honda are getting Night Vision and other technology from GM.
Also GM has to live down the bail out. While it had to be done the stigma lives on. Once all debts are paid and GM is showing greater profits and strength this too will change.
The key right now is to continue what they are doing and not so much over achieving but a more realistic approach of not screwing up with a large public recall or a scandal of some kind. GM has to earn the publics trust in their vehicles and them as a corporation.
Keeping it clean and time will do this and there are no short cuts to it. Reputations have to be earned with time and good products. Over achieving is good but not realistic. You can hit some home runs but good solid doubles are what win the game. If you go for the fence every time at the plate you will strike out often and GM is not in a place they can afford many public strike outs.
I love all the new products GM has out and coming out. The only negative in my opinion is the Malibu. In my opinion the Malibu cannot be fixed and needs an all new one ASAP. I have NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO clue why they shortened the wheelbase so much. It doesn’t even have to do with rear set room, it has to do with how bad it looks on the side profile. I mean the overhangs are crazy!!! The midsize car segment is a Dog Fight and Chevy will not compete for a couple of years. I love GM but if we can be honest for a minute, what one thing does the Malibu lead in?
Only thing i can think of is maybe 0-60 time in the upcoming 2014 Malibu Turbo?
I hate saying it but GM needs a brand new long wheelbase Malibu to compete. This current Malibu should be out for only 3 years period. If it is out longer than that, the Malibu name will suffer!!!
GM should leave the Rebates on the BU until the new one comes out.
The Malibu was engineered in Europe where it started life as the Opel Insignia. My thoughts are that GM was initially going to make the Malibu, as what eventually became the Lacrosse and then get rid of the Impala. If you remember, Lutz and company couldn’t decide what to do, but eventually went with keeping both around. They ended up with the a large compact in the Cruze, a little bit bigger mid-sizer in the Malibu, and now a large car in the Impala.
Malibu alone cannot conquer the competition, but with the Impala, they’ve created two vehicles that will sell about as many Accords or Camrys the imports make.
Personally, I’d like to see GM spec-out the next-gen Malibu and then build that car to specs, not modify a competent European car that was built for Europeans.
Okay, I guess you could call it a little small. I love the looks of it. It could use better technology (GM should use radar instead of optical) The new 2014 should have better legroom (which either mean a smaller trunk and/or less front passenger and driver room) The 2014 has a revised exterior, and probably will have more technology.
Continue to overachieve? Overachieve? Let me get this straight. The looks-just-like-last-year-and-the-year-before-that Silverado/Sierra clowns are overachievers? The less-than-a-year-in-the-market-but-got-a-facelift-that-people-will-barely-notice Malibu is an overachiever? The cancelling of the Uber-Cadillac is overachieving? Reuss needs to just cut the crap and be done with the amateur attempts at rhetorical mumbo-jumbo. It does not befit a man of his obvious calibre. His boss Lackerson and his cronies are dragging GM down the wrong path once again.
Uber Cadillac is unneeded. Cadillac does not need to compete with Bentley, Bugatti, Maybach or Rolls Royce.
Cadillac needs to compete with BMW and Mercedes.
Mercedes killed their Uber Mercedes Maybach vehicles. They could not get a uber mercedes to work even with the Maybach name equity.
If anything they would have to start a new division for the ultra high end. I could see a skunkworks type of hand built vehicles based on Cadillac platforms but they surely do not need that distraction now.
You miss the point of the Uber Cadillac. Halo cars do not compete with other vehicles. Nor are they intended to make money. They are a display of what the company can do and is willing to do. VAG did it with the Bugatti Veyron and, to a lesser extent, the Volkswagen Phaeton. Toyota did it with the Lexus LFA. Porsche did it with the 959 back in the day as did Ferrari with the F40 (and several others since). In the long run, the losses the Uber Cadillac would endure would be far cheaper than the cost of the silly little ads they create to try to convince people that the paltry efforts they put into the Silverado/Sierra is worth their time and money. And if you think that a display of ALL that GM has to offer is a distraction then you clearly do not understand real marketing. By the same token the Volt is unneeded, isn’t it? Try as you might you simply cannot justify any of the real GM stars right now. But they deserved to have been built because they are the ones that convinced all of us that GM had what it takes. Rhetorical nonsense is what is unneeded. I believe Reuss means well, but the truth is without Bob Lutz GM is nothing. Lackerson is going to destroy what has been built in the last 5 years. Mark my words.
I understand the thrill of building a Uber vehicle. And the part it can play in a brand image.
But in the case of GM I just do not see the expense and time needed to do it right worth it. GM has too many other fires to put out and needs to get all their ducks in a row before spending the money and manpower on such a project. The Phaeton did very little and probably hurt VW more than it helped. They had no business building such a car (Audi has that market) and they admitted it very quickly.
The VW Phaeton is still in production in the “glass factory” in Dresden. Has it been a success? Most would say no, but when you are Ferdinand Piech, and you want a halo car, you can have a halo car,that’s built in glass factory to boot! They do sell a few of them? Wealthy Chinese like to ride (in the back) in luxury, but do so in an understated way. There even has been mention of bringing the Phaeton back to the US market when the next generation arrives? 2015-16?
Every article I have read gives the new trucks the highest marks. Pretty much an overachiever. The only bad comment is that it looks like the old one. We will have to see if that really stops truck buyers from buying it.
Time will tell.
Edmunds
There are enough full-size pickups on the market to meet almost every buyer’s wants and needs. They all get better with every new model that comes out. Right now the Silverado is the newest model on the market. With such a great ride, quiet cabin and so damned many USB ports, it could very well lead Chevy (if you combine it with the GMC Sierra equivalent) to lead the sales race in the U.S.
Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20130509/carreviews/130509803#ixzz2Z7dMfsQo
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GM now just needs to hurry up with those 8, 9 or 10 speed transmissions!!
4.3L V6 should have an 8 Speed
5.3L V8 should have a 9 Speed
6.2L V8 should have a 10 Speed
Gotta agree with the Malibu. I am not really sure why it is not selling, but the customer is not buying it. I doubt if the changes will make much of a difference but will wait and see.
Midsize market is very important to GM and they need to get back into it with Chevy.
You have to look at the roots of what is going on to understand.
Number one the Malibu was an older car and design. It was shown before they filed for Chapter 11 and then the project was shelved. The car we got last year should have been out in 2010-11. The money once it came in had to go to other major in need projects like the Alpha program, Cruze , Impala and other newer products we have today that are paying dividens.
Sure Chevy could have held up the Malibu for another 12-24 months but with a the last model aging they had to make a move. The refresh is so fast because I believe it was in the works before the car was released.
Sorry even with the new money GM can not fix every thing at one time as they do not even have the man power either. There are no companies out there that even do all GM is doing. Keep in mind there are projects going not you have no clues on because they have not been seen or spoken of publically.
The other thing to remember is the Bu as it is will not be here long as this platform is set to be replaced in the not to distant future. Now we have the new Impala and the new Cruze the future Malibu will be resized in the middle. We are far from the final placement of Chevys cars.
Right now GM is only buying time for this segment to get new underpinnings. Not the best scenario but the one that has to be followed.
As for the trucks they will be fine. The only real beef anyone can have is they were a little conservative on the styling but in this class that is far from a bad thing. If anything if Ford keeps adding more grill things can get a little too weird for some.
As for canceling the Uber Cadilac it was not overachieving that was over reaching. Right now GM and Cadillac have been on equal ground with the ATS and CTS vs. BMW and Benz. They next need to make the LTS a real S series challenger. Even Benz failed in the uber class with Maybach .
Cadillac today is now in the same breath and class to be considered a German car challenger. While they may not beat them on ever level they have been beating them on many and most levels. Time now to fix the areas they lack and take the lead in all areas. Once they do that then we can revisit the Uber Cadillac.
When looking at GM you have to remember and consider it is a work in progress as the turn around was not some 5 year deal and not all the hits are going to be homers. GM like everyone as a limit to their resources and has to priorities projects and do what will bring the money in to help finish the rest of the work.
While the Malibu is not perfect it at least is a car to fill a need and bring in income where Chrysler has no real car even in this class and will not have one for a while longer. Yes this is a better than nothing case and it will soon change as this is not a long term deal. This is not the best deal but neither was letting the best seller Cruze get old or the old Impala rot even another 5 years not making money on fleet sales. Sometimes you have to pick and choose the best options you have not the best options you want.
I have to agree that the only way to change public perception is to over-achieve. People need to get in the showrooms and try these products out. Then they will realize that the General is as good or better than the competition in most all aspects. I wish that with the Malibu they would have done to the ’08-’12 gen. what they just did to the new one. Given it a new nose then put all the resources needed into a completely new design, not the warmed over short back seat Regal platform version we have now. But that’s just my opinion, whether it would have worked or not is another thing.
Until the new Cruze and the replacement Malibu comes will it make sense. To keep the new Malibu the same size as my 08 Bu would have stepped on the toes of the new Impala. I suspect the Cruze will lose a little size and give the Malibu room to be in.
The size of the Bu is not so much the trouble as the packaging of the interior. GM has already improved that with a quick fix and I feel a new platform will fix the rest.
Even though the General was just getting out of a sick bed, and beating a fatal diagnosis… I’d say the Volt was beyond overachieving. It leap frogged every other “green car, out there and laid to rest the general perception that the General was not concerned about the environment.
The latest announcement of the GM/Honda cooperation on hydrogen fuel cell technology, should raise some eye brows, because both manufacturers were ahead in hydrogen development long before other manufacturers gave hydrogen a 2nd thought. I truly believe that hydrogen is the next great power supply for not only the automotive industry, but for electrical generation as well. GM… along with Honda, will be announcing great strides, applications, and innovation, in the next few years.
I researched buying a Cruze for two years. What I saw was a good car with way too many registered complaints (NHTSA & others) compared to it’s competition. The issue that drove me away was the way many Cruze customers were treated by the dealer’s service departments. Way too many “That’s the way it is supposed to be” and “we can’t find anything wrong or we can’t reproduce the problem” or “there’s no TSB, so there’s nothing we can do”. It’s good Mr. Reuss is on the right track. Hopefully it will trickle down to the franchises.