[Spridgets] What went wrong - GM culture

[Jim Johnson]

Bill,

True.  But that was during good (or relatively good) economic times when
consumers could afford to call the tune the industry danced to. Those times
are now gone. If those same industries want to survive today, they had
better get back to the basics. What will save the auto industry in the
gathering storm will be a new VW story. I'm not talking a single platform
here, I'm talking a single entire vehicle. A new Model T story. Few people
are going to be able to afford to be picky. They are going to want solid,
simple, cheap, reliability in the coming world. Look at what happened to the
British and Swedish Auto industry in a Social Democracy big government
environment. Its going to happen in this country next.

Cheers!!
Jim

On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 1:41 PM, Bill L <pythias at pacifier.com> wrote:

> Hello Jim,
>
>     What you advocate is EXACTLY  what went wrong in Detroit. (Not that ALL
>     auto makers aren't in trouble right now, except oddly enough SUBARU??)
>     While Toyota and Honda were looking at 3 or 4 year product cycles,
>     constantly improving between times but completely REPLACING with all
> new,
>     GM and FORD kept making the same car on the same platform. The FOX
> platform
>     underpinned cars for around TWENTY YEARS. The Frame for the '80's
> IMPALA
>     ran nearly as long. They both figured "as long as it making a profit,
> why
>     change?" Because innovative companies were about to eat their lunch,
> that's
>     why!. Heck the Corvette, at 50 years old, and World Beater that it is,
> has
>     only had SEVEN platform changes.
>
> --
> Best regards,
>  Bill L.                           mailto:pythias at pacifier.com
>
>  '66 Sprite MKIII HAN8L49403   "the red thing"
>
>   "Fire!" yelled Tom alarmingly.
>
>


-- 
Cheers!!
Jim
"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough
to take everything you have." - Gerald Ford