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mrsquirrel

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Bet they are regretting not developing economical cars now.

AntRobertson

I doubt they'll go bust. They are in the poo though and have been for some time.

I think they've finally clicked that building what people want rather than what you think they want is a better business focus.

sabang

A few years back they divested a large parts manufacturing operation to a gullible public- Delphi I think that was called. That went bust. Now they are talking about closing down hummer, and no doubt a few more auto plants will need to go.

They won't go bust, but they are going to need to slim down condiderably, maybe sell off some more brands. The management of GM got it horribly wrong with their continued focus on SUV's & big cars.

More pain for the rust belt.

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good2bhappy

In today's global marketplace there is only room for 3 major players.
One in the US, one in the Pacific rim and one in Europe.
GM may not be the one US based company

peterpan

GM has survived or years on the back of its finance division, now as sales have tailed off even that hasn't generated enough cash to beak even.
Fukcem,the writing was on the wall years ago for the barges they build but they kept on building them anyway.

Texpat

Hello. It's what people wanted.

I'm amused by the notion that people were only buying what was available -- because that's all that was available.

When gas is $2 a gallon, gimme a barge over a fcuking beer can anyday. The dynamic has shifted, so too will US automakers.

AntRobertson

But it's this exact thing that originally opened the door for the Japanese car makers; people wanting cheap, economical, and reliable cars.

britmaveric

Small car focus, tis a no brainer.

peterpan

Easy enough for amanufacturer to cater for the existing market requirment, it takes a bit more business skill to predict the market needs for 3 years down the track, and thats where they have failed.The gestation perion or a new model is about three years, in the meantime GM is stuck with a pileof barges in its product portfolio, fickle public and all that

Texpat

Who predicted the price of gas would double in those three years?

Not many.

And if gas were back to $2, Americans would want bigger cars.

The preference is not for smaller, economical cars.
The economic reality dictates it.

AntRobertson

All fair and valid points Tex. But the fact remains that most other car manufacturers correctly identified the market decades ago. And it's not as though high oil/gas prices are without precedent either - the oil crisis of the 70's srings to mind, and pretty much the exact same thing happened then as now.

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Texpat

Wrong.
It's not like Toyota forecast the spike in oil.
That's what they make, little beer cans with wheels.

GM makes what Americans want.
Toyota is what America is forced to settle for.

AntRobertson

Well that's patently incorrect because Toyota has steadily been taking US market share from GM for a long time now (and even surpassing GM last year, worldwide, to become the world's largest car maker).

So there was clearly a demand well in advance of any external economic conditions. Pining all GM's woes to the door of a sudden and sharp rise in fuel prices is like correctly identifying a symptom but misdiagnosing the disease.

peterpan

Wrong Tex, its what Americans wanted yesterday.
Paint it anyway you want,its just incompetent business planning.

You didn't need a crystal ball to see that rising consumption and static out put are going to result in a price blowout down the track at sometime in the near future.

mrsquirrel

Honda Civic Now America's Best-Selling Vehicle - U.S. News Rankings and Reviews

'Big 3' not what they used to be: American auto manufacturers sales | Colorado Springs Business Journal | Find Articles at BNET

Texpat

All things being equal, Americans prefer large cars.
A steep increase in gas price is forcing them to buy small cars.
Following the 70s oil crisis, Americans went right back to the boats. They will again if oil ever goes down.

Toyota makes small cars, (and better cars IMO) and therefore sells more than GM. I'm not arguing that point. My issue is with the notion that the manufacturer drives demand. I don't believe it.

sabang

Such as the Lexus, America's biggest selling luxury car?

There is absolutely no excuse that GM, until recently the worlds largest auto maker, failed to develop it's competency in the small and medium sized car market, even whilst riding the hog on the SUV boom. No excuse whatsoever- they could see how the likes of Toyota and Honda were increasing their market share, and the inferiority of their own competing products. Jeez, even the biggest redneck seller is still the Ford F100.

You predictably fall into line to defend all things Amerkin tex, whatever the facts on the ground. This ain't about Amerka- it's about business, specifically how a giant conglomerate like GM can stuff it up, and badly. Ironically, where GM is performing best is in it's international operations anyway, like Isuzu- where it is really bleeding is in the giant US domestic market.

The responsibility lies with it's senior management- not the consumer, not oil prices, not the UAW. I think the modern US system of rewarding corporate Executives generously based on quarterly earnings performance, and the short term focus this encourages, needs a major overhaul.

We could all learn from the Japs when it comes to intelligent business governance, with a longer term strategic focus, and executive remuneration and employment policies geared towards this.

mrsquirrel

And some more

They echo you Tex. I know that my old man likes his Yank-Tanks he hires when he is over their on holiday - loves them in fact. Never own one in the UK though. 20mpg is too little, even when he doesn't do more than 7000 miles a year now.

American Cars vs. Foreign Auto Sales - Man on the Street Owner Poll - Popular Mechanics

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peterpan

Manufacturers drive demand by having the correctly placed products at the right time, in most cases consumers don't know what they want, manufactures anticipate a market need, have the products ready and then the demand follows.
Ipod, good example, consumers were quite happy wth their CD players, then IPOD came along resulting in a demand for compact music devices. But I'm not a marketing guy, so maye I'm spouting BS.