Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet. In the 1970’s this very catchy jingle rightfully pointed out that GM had unmistakably woven its Chevrolet brand into the fabric of our nation. Now, GM’s 75-year run as the largest automaker in the world has come to an end — or has it? GM as we know it is definitely ceasing to exist, but what about the “New GM” and what it will mean for the U.S. and the rest of the world now that GM has shifted a major portion of its focus to green technology? For purposes of full disclosure, I worked for GMAC Insurance and previously held GM stock (now I hold worthless paper). Those of you who know me know that I have been a frequent critic of GM in the past, but I’d like to share my thoughts on how I envision its future.
How did this happen and did they do this to themselves or not?
Many critics believe the U.S. government, which essentially amounts to U.S. taxpayers, should not have bailed out GM because its own mismanagement and poor quality products led to its downfall, which it unequivocally could have prevented. While that general notion has some merit on a macro level, it only scratches the complex surface of GM’s history. Because GM held such a mammoth amount of market share for so long, much of the buying public has personally experienced GM quality or reliability issues with cars their parents owned or those that they drove decades ago.
If you owned a Chevy Corvair, you probably can’t count the number pushrod tube o-rings you replaced, and if you were privileged enough to own an early model Chevy Vega, you probably remember filling up with gas and engine oil with the same frequency. Looking back, can you believe that the Chevy Citation garnered Motor Trend Magazine's Car of the Year award in 1980 and had a nine-month waiting list even though many jokingly referred to it as GM’s first biodegradable car and said it began rusting in the dealer show room.
It was these types of issues that caused a generation of buyers to look at other brands, namely Asian. These buyers haven’t looked back. What some buyers fail to remember is that every maker has had quality issues.
In the 1980s Honda Civics, which many consumers today view as cars that you can literally drive into the ground, rusted so quickly in the fenders that you could see the fenders flapping as they drove down the highways in the Northeast. Significant engine issues like premature valve wear seal also plagued Honda in the 1970’s. My sister in law’s 1978 Civic (with only 78,000 miles) suffered from this exact fate, smoking so terribly on start up that she once had a policeman approach her with lights and siren blaring because he thought the car was on fire.
In 2000, Toyota also had an issue with engine oil “gelling” on many of its Sienna minivans. The bottom line is that all manufacturers, whether foreign or domestic, learn from these issues— including GM. Quality at General Motors has advanced rapidly across the board with some GM models like the Chevrolet Malibu and Pontiac Grand Prix capturing the coveted JD Power quality award over top Asian and European models.
Polarizing styling means a lot of folks think it’s ugly
Beyond the quality issue, GM has released some models off its production lines in the past few decades with problematic styling issues. GM didn’t see its styling as such, affectionately referring to it as “polarizing” in styling. This term became the one used to describe the Generation-X targeted Pontiac Aztek, named one of “50 Worst Cars of All Time” by Time Magazine and worthy of joining the ranks of The Daily Telegraph’s list of “The 100 Ugliest Cars.”
The problem with embracing polarizing styling like engineers did with the Aztek is that potential buyers’ seem to base their entire opinion of a vehicle on their first impression of how it looks. Simply put, polarizing styling taints a lot of potential buyers and because they think the car is ugly, they won’t buy it. You can’t stop shy of only judging a book by its cover, especially with some GM interiors of the past. Low or mid range models of Chevrolets and Pontiacs were Spartan, filled with cheap looking materials — so much so that when Bob Lutz first came to General Motors, he was quoted as saying, “We spend a lot of money on interiors, it just doesn’t look like it.”
After all this, there is one thing you can say about GM as of late — it has learned its lesson. One of my favorite automotive writers, Csaba Csere, said it best when he remarked that GM needed to discover that stamping out good looking sheet metal didn’t cost any more that stamping ugly sheet metal. Recently, it seems like GM has learned this lesson and is picking itself up and dusting itself off by resolving many of the stylistic issues that plagued it for so long. Under the recently retired (and now potentially “un retired” and recently rumored to have been lured back to GM) Bob Lutz, interior quality, fit and finish have all made enormous strides. GM’s exterior styling is also on the up and up, evidenced by the fact that it has ended its love affair with the rippled Batman-like cladding and spoilers that adorned so many Pontiacs in the 1990’s. Wisely, GM has replaced that type of styling with impressive attention grabbing designs like the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky
So how can the new, lean GM survive?
If GM is to survive, it must realize that Chevrolet is the key. Through the first half of this year, Chevrolet garnered a 12.3 percent slice of the U.S. auto market, while GM as a whole held a 19.7 percent share according to Autodata. This industry heavy hitter’s brands that will remain under the new GM beside Chevy include Buick, GMC, and Cadillac, which together account for just 4.4 percent market share — pointing to the enormous importance of Chevrolet.
They’ve certainly got a decent running start with their halo car the Malibu, which is truly a world class car. The Corvette is no slouch either, with many saying that the ZR1 is Chevy’s best vehicle ever. Loaded with a standard 638-hp 6.2 Liter LS9 supercharged V8 engine and Brembo carbon ceramic brakes, and 205-mph test-track top speed, this car was built to blow the doors off the competition. Some even say that it can go head to head with Porsche, Ferrari, and Lamborghini.
High end cars offering unique construction and new repair issues
Speaking of Chevy’s and comebacks, what about the Pontiac G8. I was extremely concerned that this world class GM offering would die with the Pontiac brand next year. There may be no need to worry according to recent rumors suggesting that the vehicle will survive as a Chevy and will be bestowed with a Chevrolet “Heritage” name — Caprice. Take into account, the Traverse, Chevy’s solid full size truck, and you can clearly see that GM has a lot to offer.
Now comes the even more difficult and potentially less profitable part — an equally as impressive GM compact car. GM really has not had an extraordinary compact car since the Cavalier lost steam and languished for years after giving the reins to the Cobalt, which is capable but not world class. Looking at what GM has the potential to accomplish with new ventures like its green vehicles, in the meantime it has overlooked one if it’s best kept secrets — the Saturn Astra, which is a re-badged Opel. It’s a fantastic car to drive and compares favorably with Asian and European brands in terms of its clean and aggressive styling, which definitely isn’t polarizing. Put a Chevy “bow tie” on it and you have a great competitor.
Aspects like eye grabbing styling and fun to drive vehicles will help bring many potential buyers in the door who have a slightly negative impression or no impression at all of GM’s reliability. GM’s recent improvements in quality and 100,000 mile warranty will kick in and bolster sales and may also help on the fence consumers rationalize their purchase. After all, car buying is a really emotional experience — not entirely logical or practical — just ask anyone with children who bought a sports car. They bought it because it was both stunning and fun to drive, not because it would fit a car seat and get them to safely to the soccer game.
It may take a while to wipe the slate clean and rid consumers of GM’s former reputation, but the fact that the “Next Gen” age of buyers likely don’t have the negative impression of GM that my generation does may also play out in GM’s favor. So if GM can keep making gains in quality and deliver “gotta have it” styling in all its vehicles, this legendary Detroit power player will not only survive, it’ll once again be, as the old Cadillac slogan says, “The Standard of the World.”
