GM hangs on to its share of market

[mbukukanyau]

smaller ecotecs, lots of spoolers, and all the new products coming should help. specially new cobalt and new Aveo, new beat, etc

[marinerbc]

Originally Posted by VCDJ

I am not saying that gm should of stop selling trucks and suvs. They should sell them. Because of them. GM pushed back EPII, Zeta, DeltaII. This is why GM is not doing good with retail customers. If they did not igonre these products They would have market share of at least 25%. Maybe they should of just updated silverado and tahoe. This trucks are losing 20% in sales each month. How much worst woudl they do if they just updated those trucks. Let say that gm just updated trucks and sales went down 40%. But if they Made EpII, DeltaII and zeta platform on time sales would go up and offset decline in trucks. Gm would not lose any market share. Again this is part of bad leadership at gm. They are to blame. NOt American Consumer. Consumers are going to buy best product out there. (LIke GMT 900) and they will not buy (Cobalt, IMpala(impala is a fleet king)and aveo). Everybody on this site is blaming consumers for mess that gm is in. Well its not their falult it is GM leaders fault.

Given the posts about grammar earlier in this thread, it is my sad duty to inform you, VCDJ, that this last post was actually verging on painful to read.

Having said that, to the topic at hand.

If Trucks are not where it's at, then why are Toyota and Nissan launching such an assault on GM, Ford and Dodge trucks? They do it because there's profit to be made in that market.

You may dislike the Impala and Cobalt, call them fleet queens, etc., but it's fairly clear that you've never driven either of them, and they do deliver very competitive fuel mileage to the imports you obviously prefer.

Truck sales are down market wide because there has been a distinct slowdown in the North American economy. People simply think twice about big ticket purchases such as houses, GMT-900s, and Toyota Tundras.

If they need a new vehicle right now, they're apt to look at a small car rather than a vehicle that's harder on fuel. This is cyclical, and will pass. North Americans say they worry about gas prices, but in actuality they don't, or else they would drive less to start with.

[psece]

Originally Posted by steve333

I:
1. Make my product world class from the start. If its not I
2. Constantly improve the product to keep it competitive.
3. Recognize market trends and plan accordingly-in this case the trend towards small fuel efficient cars.

Let me know when GM does this. I know Mazda does, the 3 was rated best small car when it came out, yet they managed to improve it every year since it came out to keep it number one.
The Cobalt was near the head of the class when it came out-yet not quite there yet. Some tweaks would have helped, yet they ignore the cars glaring faults. As such a replacement should have been ready next year not in 2 years.

GM has been started doing year to year upgrades. For the Cobalt, XFE and Bluetooth, in 2009. In previous years, they have added handling packages, 2.4 liter engines. Same with the Impala and Malibu. I will agree with you that pre 2000, GM sucked at constant improvement but they have been doing an incredible job the last few years. And I think they are still picking up steam.

As far as trends, they moved up the release of the trucks because they spotted the trend. Would you rather they be in Ford's or Toyota's shoes? Toyota released there trucks with incentives. GM didn't have to do that in the first year. God only knows what Ford is going to have to do. They bought Daewoo specifically for building small cars. They also moved to 6 speeds faster than any other large automaker. Their Hydrogen program is ahead of everyone else's and they are investing huge amount of resources into battery technology and software for the next generation cars.

The Pontiac G6 came out at the end of 2004 as a 2005, the Saturn Aura came out summer of 2006, and now the Chevy Malibu in 2007. Look at the improvement. Incredible.

GM has made great strides. And that with legacy costs, a Union that limits their ability to change, a company structure that was based on the 70's and a shrinking market. Do they need improvement? Yes, but I dislike that people are not seeing GM starting to execute in a efficient and timely manner.

[Jesda]

Originally Posted by VCDJ

I think you should just block me out from this tread like you always do. Every time i present facts and point out why gm is losing market share and money. I get blocked. So i will not respond to your coments because you will just block me out.

You suck at facts.

[SierraGS]

Originally Posted by mtndrew1

The following GM cars I've never seen without a rental-agency plate frame:

Aveo
LaCrosse
Lucerne
DTS
Malibu (still)
G6
G5
Torrent
Equinox
Grand Prix
Aura
Impala

Literally, I've never seen one of any of those that weren't rentals. Ever. And I have a keen eye for this sort of thing (it's a terrible affliction). I'm sure they're out there, but it's just an absolute given than an "American" car in Los Angeles is a rental or a government vehicle.

I've suggested GM vehicles, when appropriate, to people asking me for car advice. "I don't want a to drive a rental car" is the default response, even when I suggest the stunning CTS.

In Southern California, if it's GM and not an SUV, it's just a fleet car, plain and simple. I've seen a (small) handful of private HHRs and CTSs, but nothing to really make note of. I've still seen more Enterprise CTSs than private, which is sad.

I was flipping through channels recently and came across some celeb-trash show and some celebrity was getting into a new Impala. The camera guy said "is that a rental?" and the celeb said something to the effect of "yeah I wouldn't be caught dead in this thing otherwise" and then proceeded to make fun of the car. He'd probably say that about a Camry too, but it's still somewhat indicative of the general consensus.

GM should just stop selling to rental agencies in SoCal, they'd probably get a 300% bump in retail sales within a year once people didn't feel like they'd be driving out of their local Avis after taking delivery.

Can't agree with that list, there are as many "retail" Impala and G6 cars in our lot as there are Accords and Altimas (not even close to Camry's), now that may vary by company but when I go out I always scan the parking lots and there are quite a few LaCrosse, Lucerne, Impala and G6's out there without rental stickers on them and I have not seen an Aura with one.

The others on your list are mostly rentals, although there are many more Chrysler and Hyundia models with them - at least in my area.

[ghughes]

Mr vcdj - You should check out truthaboutcars.com - they will show you some more love, there. But you wont be banned here - I was banned from ttac.com 2 years ago, it is still sticking. I made innocuous comments that stuck up for GM and was dismissed.

[eaton53]

I made innocuous comments that stuck up for GM and was dismissed.

They've already reached their small quota of domestic defenders... they're only allowed on there in a feeble attempt to look unbiased, which is utterly laughable.

Maybe he's already found TTAC. I think VCDJ and jurisb are the same person.

[marinerbc]

Thanks for the headsup on that site, guys!

Very illuminatiing. Stunning in their narrow mindedness, and today, having that much tunnel vision is exemplary on their parts.