If you know anything about me and the jobs I've had over the past few years you can say I know a few things about cars. I guess you can call me a fanatic. Working at the auction I got to see first hand that ups but mostly the down side of the car industry. I do remember ranting about this very thing 6-7 years ago to anyone that would listen. This is the quote "GM, Chrysler, Ford one of those companies will go out of business or bankrupt in the next ten year". People would say "but Nathan those companies are to large and own to much to go under". I hate to say it but when I am right (and I very often am) I am right.
GM and now Chrysler have announced that they are going to file for bankruptcy and are planning major cutbacks to there work force and there product lines. With the size of these companies they just are not going flip the proverbial sign from open to closed, its going to take sometime but its bound to happen eventually.
The problem that I saw, oh so many years ago, was not with GM's quality but with all there brands. Chrysler, GM and to a lesser extent Ford have created there own competition in a very tough market. GM builds so many different vehicles that are so similar that it was bound to cost them down the line. For example GM which is (Pontiac, GMC, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, Olds) - I know that they don't make new Oldsmobile anymore but bare with me - All these models under these different make are so similar that if you put them side by side you would have to look at the decals to tell them apart. Did any of those over price CEO's know that they are competing with themselves? For example if you compare how many vehicles GM builds to how many lets say Honda builds you might see the difference. GM builds 15 SUVS, 22 Cars and 5 Trucks. Honda (whick aslo makes Acura) has 5 cars, 3 SUVS, 1 Truck. I have no idea why GM wants to build a GMC Sierra (truck) and the Chevrolet Silverado (truck). The trucks themselves are identical expect for a little different interior, options can change, grill, headlights but all the components are the same. They are basically taking there customers who love GM trucks and making them decide between GMC and Chevrolet. Does anyone get it? They now have to market there vehicles against themselves. They have to have many different dealerships to sell all there separate lines. They have to make and pay people to make separate parts that are just slightly different from each other. This all cost a lot of money that now has cost them, for the most part, there company.
Now GM is eliminating the Pontiac brand as they have already done with Oldsmobile. This is a great move on there part but they need to go a few steps further. As I have said before they need to get rid of all there lines and create one GM vehicle brand. Take the example of Honda and have one luxury line, Honda has Acura, GM should keep Cadillac and scrape all the other lines. Just make one GM truck, some SUVs, cars and minivans, screw all the rest.
I know that there are people at the big 3 auto markers with way more education and more experience in the automotive Field analysing markets etc but this was my opinion that I had years ago and it appears to have been right. So I hate to say I told you so!
