GM Engineer Says Quality Remains 'Achilles' Heel'
By SHARON TERLEP
DETROIT—The head of engineering at General Motors Co. said Thursday that product quality remains an "Achilles' heel" for GM amid a push by the auto maker's board to improve customer satisfaction.
Indeed, quality concerns have led GM Chairman Ed Whitacre to ask the company's engineers to quiz the nearly 200 U.S. customers who returned GM cars under a recent money-back guarantee promotion about the reasons for their dissatisfaction.
Quality has been a longstanding issue for GM and poses a potential hurdle for Mr. Whitacre's efforts to reinvent the auto maker and recapture lost market share. A recent Consumer Reports survey found that the company's vehicles were less reliable overall than rival models from Ford Motor Co., Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp.
"That was very disappointing to me," Mark Reuss, vice president, global vehicle engineering, told reporters. "The reliability piece has been an Achilles' heel during my whole career at GM."
The admission and Mr. Whitacre's push mark a change in tone for GM, which has maintained its quality problem was mainly one of perception, and recently touted its vehicles with an advertising campaign with the slogan "May The Best Car Win."
Mr. Reuss said quality issues at GM are deep-seated and require cultural change. GM has had more success improving safety and performance of its vehicles, but he said reliability remains a sticking point. He said some company engineers have at times been afraid to report problem for fear their jobs would be threatened, resulting in glitches showing up when cars hit the market.
Mr. Reuss said he plans to meet with GM engineers Friday to help change that thinking. "We've told people to stop worrying about their jobs and start worrying about the products," he said.
The executive said that Mr. Whitacre requested, at a recent meeting, that GM find out why some customers had returned GM vehicles. A total 193 customers returned GM cars in the U.S. under the money-back promotion "I don't know how many people we have to call and ask why they didn't like our vehicle, but it's something we haven't done [before] and should [have]," Mr. Reuss said.
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