[macphisto]

Love the change in tone from the Buickman! Very good ideas and clear understanding of how the experience of the customer and their perceptions matter. There's a reason why you're a great salesman - you understand how to satisfy the needs of customers.

You answered my major questions when you responded to Ming. I assumed that you didn't delve deeply into product because the design aspect is not your forte and it is pretty apparent that even the best salesmen need a good product. It's clear from your plan that you have no intention of providing inferior product to a customer because doing so could cause the customer to not want to come back. Same thing for the experience.

GM's marketing has been atrocious for a long time. As you've pointed out, they don't know how to use the press to their advantage. They did get a boost this year just by improving the perception of quality in the Malibu, though you're right on the fuel economy numbers. Funny thing is that some of those older pushrod engines can be far more efficient that the OHC ones. Cylinder deactivation is easier with them, they can implement VVT and direct injection on them if they want - and even add a third valve per cylinder. I think they can also reduce displacement and increase compression to get a similar amount of power out of a lower displacement engine, but all the tech geeks force them out of the pushrods even though, frankly, most customers don't care if an engine is OHV or OHC. They care about fuel economy or how it feels as it motivates the car - all things that can be tweaked. They might care abotu noise or vibration - also tweakable.

GM does need top grade product, but they need to change people's perception of them through more than just new product.

Your new stuff is something that every GM stockholder needs to get in their hands.