Quote:
Originally Posted by wescoent
Perception.
The only thing that will change perception for ANY brand or company, will be 10-15 years of consistent and up to date product.
GM's problem is they introduce a great product, never update it, kill it, then spend billions to bring out something all-new with no brand recognition.
Toyota has not 100% redesigned the Camry since the mid 1990's, and has not changed the name since it was introduced. It has been consistently soft, bland, and long-lasting. Everyone knows what a Camry is, hence, why they buy them in large numbers.
This is the ONLY way to do it. Slow and consistent. If a car doesn't sell well at first, FIX what's wrong with it... don't kill it.
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You just described exactly why people buy Silverados and F150s. Basic design that hasn't been changed often. The lackluster quality control isn't that big of a deal if you are dealing with the same technology for decades. Gradual improvements every year as opposed to complete redesigns every 4 or 5 years have paid off here.
The Corolla and the Focus are other good examples. The first Focus sucked...with unreliable engines, bad electronics, and shoddy construction. Gradually things improved with new Mazda engines. When they got all the bugs worked out of the design, they decided to stick with it. The current Focus is a re-fresh of a very solid design. It uses parts that have been proven to Ford, and because of that it's a solid buy. The Corolla refresh is the same thing: it's bland and boring, but you know you are getting a reliable product that's been proven over the years.
It will take decades of great cars before people take notice. I like to say that GM is on their way, but they are not. As long as any crappy cars are sitting on dealers lots with the potential in getting into customer's hands, GM is still at square 1. Aveo, Equinox, G6, SRX, those minivan things, etc....not to mention the quality problems so enthusiastically pointed out in Consumer's Reports with the Lambada crossovers, CTS, and nearly every GM car. Let's just say that an "Average" rating in this category is not acceptable. Everything must be as close to perfect as possible.
Ford is making much better progress in this area than GM. You know what you are getting with Ford. Its still hit or miss with GM, and that even includes their supposedly solid products. I'm talking about everything from the dealerships to the horrid quality control. I don't understand with these nutty union rules why they can't put a little more manpower on quality control.
The Equinox may be an attractive crossover, but if it appears to have been put together by a bunch of blind monkeys, then it's not going to be a positive force at GM. There needs to be a complete and total overhaul of the quality control process at General Motors. What ever they are doing now sucks. What makes matters worse is that when there's a problem, dealer support is in most cases not acceptable.
It doesn't stop there. Assembly quality on some GM cars are actually quite good...but their parts suck. There's a lot of suppliers that need their walking papers. The lowest bidder is not the best choice anymore.