Changing General Motors

I am having a difficult time understanding the proposals General Motors is considering to ensure its future viability as America's leading auto manufacturer.  Right now, GM has the following brands available in the US:  Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, HUMMER, Pontiac, Saturn, and Saab.  The corporation is teetering on the brink of collapse and needs government assistance to survive.  The proposal put forth by the corporate "big wigs" includes streamlining operations through a reduction of brands.

That's a good idea.  What I question are the brands they want to cut.  Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner presented a plan that focuses on Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC.  Saturn and Saab would be sold.  GM has been looking to sell HUMMER for months, but who wants to buy a division of overpriced gas guzzlers in this economy? All things considered, I think the focus is misdirected.  I think GM should focus on Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, Pontiac, and HUMMER.

Chevrolet is GM's bread and butter brand.  There is a model to meet every price point and every need within Chevy.  But, dump the Aveo and replace with the Saturn Astra.

Cadillac offers executive style luxury fit for the President of the United States, with nice flair appealing to an active, middle aged demographic.  Caddy can take in the Saturn Sky and offer it as a more affordable roadster.  Think Mercedes-Benz SL and SLK.  The GMC Acadia/Saturn Outlook could become the SRX, putting Caddy's crossover offering on the same platform as the Chevy Traverse and Buick Enclave.

Buick offers luxury with less flair, great for the older demographic.  But, they need to bring back the classic Century, Regal, and Park Avenue nameplates.  The Saturn Aura could become the Century.

Pontiac should be the niche sports car division that GM Vice Chairman for Global Product Development Bob Lutz envisions.  The G8 is "Gr8!"  So is the Solstice.  The G5 is an unnecessary Chevy Cobalt clone.  Dump it.  The G6 is a decent car, but doesn't fit the Pontiac mold.  The upcoming G3 really doesn't fit the mold.  Buick-Pontiac-GMC vice president Susan Docherty calls the G3 a short-term bridge product.  I call it a tremendous waste of resources.  It's not attractive and it's not sporty.  The Torrent can go to HUMMER as its entry-level offering.  

GM won't be able to sell HUMMER so the iconic brand should replace GMC as the niche truck division, minus the luxury vehicle marketing.  Let's face it-- who spends that kind of money to possibly destroy their vehicle in the back woods?  Lower the price points, develop the Hx concept as a Jeep Wrangler competitor and take in the Pontiac Torrent as the entry-level HUMMER.

With Saturn models spread to other divisions, GM's "new kind of car company" which became just another kind of car company, would become a former car company.  

Saab should just go away.  The models are unattractive and don't sell well anyway.  Maybe someone in Sweden can buy it back.

Consider these model recommendations:

Chevrolet

Astra (from Saturn)

Cobalt

Malibu

Impala

Camaro

Corvette

Traverse

Equinox

Tahoe

Suburban

Colorado

Silverado

Avalanche

Cadillac

CTS

STS

DTS

Escalade

Escalade ESV

Escalade EXT

XLR

ZLR (from Saturn Sky)

Buick

Century (from Saturn Aura)

Regal (current Lacrosse)

Park Avenue (current Lucerne)

Enclave

Pontiac

G8

G8 ST

GTO

Solstice

HUMMER

H2 (special order only)

H3

H3T

H4 (based on Hx concept)

H5 (from Pontiac Torrent)

This would reduce the number of GM nameplates to 32 from 48, spread across five brands with much less duplication.  A big wrinkle will develop over what to do about current Saturn dealers.  I don't have a suggestion for that one.

Oh, Good Evening!

Simpson Sentenced

I’m not criticizing anyone’s opinion, but comments from various people on television, radio and elsewhere have me wondering why some folks want to feel “sorry” for people who clearly
do stupid, criminal things and expect that those individuals should not face
justice for those mistakes?  I’ve heard several people call the O. J. Simpson sentence, “excessive.” But, the judge-- while
known for tough sentences-- was only following Nevada law which requires a
mandatory minimum 15-year sentence for two of the charges for which Simpson was
convicted. Is the sentence excessive for the crime or is it just excessive because it applies to OJ Simpson?

I've also heard people say O. J. couldn't get a fair trial anywhere in America based on what happened in his 1994 double murder trial in which he was accused of butchering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.  Certainly, everyone in America knows who O. J. is and has an opinion about the trial 14 years ago, but what was unfair about this most recent armed robbery and kidnapping trial?  It’s hard to think he was treated unfairly this time around when so much of the evidence against him included recordings of his voice planning the “raid”-- for lack
of a better word-- and images of him and his co-defendants carrying out those plans.  Members of the jury have said they felt prosecutors had a weak case until the incriminating audio and video tapes were presented.  The recordings compelled the jurors to convict, according to those who spoke with reporters.  So, what was so unfair?

I would appear that O. J. Simpson got what he had coming to him based on the crime committed.

Oh, Good Evening!

Clueless Coach

This will be short and to the point.  The Detroit Lions should fire head coach Rod Marinelli IMMEDIATELY and the rest of the coaching staff at season's end.  The Lions are 0-11 after blowing a 17-point early lead and losing to the visiting Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 38-20.  After taking a 17-0 lead, Detroit proceeded to give up 21 unanswered points giving the Bucs the halftime lead.  

When FOX Sports sideline reporter Carissa Thompson asked Marinelli why the Lions weren't throwing more balls to top wide receiver Calvin Johnson, she told the viewing audience the coach "didn't really have an answer for me."  Thompson then reported that Marinelli kept saying, "we just have to play better football."  Uh, DUH!!!!  Tell me something I don't already know.  If that's the best Marinelli can come up with as a response to THE question everybody was asking, it's time for him to go. He clearly has no clue.  Cut him loose, NOW!!!!

Oh, Good Evening!

Losing Patience... Finally!

My first posting about the Detroit Lions comes after Week 8 when the Lions are a dismal 0-7.  Watching the games each week, I can only say they look like bantha poodoo.  This, after going 4-0 in the preseason.  Do you think they cut the wrong players?

Matt Millen is gone-- 5 years too late.  Roy Williams is the latest of Millen's high profile first round draft picks to be dismissed or shipped off to another team, joining Joey Harrington, Charles Rogers, Mike Williams, Kevin Jones, and Teddy Lehman.  Jon Kitna is on injured reserve, out for the season with a back ailment.  I think he's played his last game in a Lions uniform. 

This season was over when it started 0-4.  In that initial run, Detroit lost to Atlanta and Green Bay, both fielding actual or virtual rookie quarterbacks against what was supposed to be a much improved Lions defense.  

Yesterday, when the Redskins came to town, I was in my car when the game started so I was listening on satellite radio.  Dan Miller, the Lions play-by-play guy, mentioned something that I had not heard in quite some time-- the game did not sellout and was therefore not being televised in the Detroit, Lansing, Saginaw and Toledo home markets.  When I got home and turned on the game, I saw what appeared to be a half empty Ford Field.  I checked the Lions website and found the news release announcing the non-sellout.  It stated that 5,000 tickets remained available as of 1:00 PM on Friday.  A sellout for football at Ford Field is 65,000.   According to the official post-game stat sheet, less than 55,000 showed up.  

Finally, the sponsors are frustrated enough with team management not buy up the remaining block to ensure the sellout and the fans are fed up enough not to show up.   Maybe this will finally get William Clay Ford, Sr. to come out of his coma and let his son, William Clay Ford, Jr. take the necessary steps to start moving the Lions in a positive direction.  Step One-- dump Rod Marinelli and staff and get some real coaches in there.  Step Two-- get some real players in there who know and understand football and who really want to play on this level and WIN.  What I saw yesterday was a bunch of guys just there to collect a paycheck.  The Lions need to do what 49ers interim coach Mike Singletary did and single slackers out and tell them to hit the showers early.  Consider what columnist Ann Killion wrote in the San Jose Mercury News:

On Sunday Singletary, in order: 1. benched J.T. O’Sullivan, who was having another disastrous performance. 2. sent Vernon Davis off the field for acting like an idiot. 3. apologized for the team’s performance.

In an embarrassing, potentially season-finishing 34-13 loss to awful Seattle, Singletary showed that he is not going to just sit back and spout platitudes and clichés. That he’s not going to pretend everything is fine while his team is collapsing around him. That he’s not going to blame the players and absolve himself.

Rod Marinelli should take the same approach with his players.  If he doesn't, newly appointed general manager Martin Mayhew should take the Singletary approach with Marinelli.

Oh, Good Evening!

Will the Big 3 Survive?

I know little to nothing about big business or big finance.  What little I do know, I have picked up over the last month of watching CNBC, almost constantly, since this major financial breakdown started last month.  It is truly scary to watch what has been happening on Wall Street and elsewhere and the various negative effects on the credit markets.  The fallout has touched everyone in some way.  I made the mistake of checking my 401(k) last week-- after saying I would not-- and my heart sank.

That said, the $700-billion bailout-- now referred to as a rescue-- by all accounts, was necessary to prevent an all-out financial meltdown.  Will it work?  That remains to be seen.  But, if lawmakers were willing to approve that kind of bailout for Wall Street, surely they should consider a similar plan to help the ailing U.S. automotive industry which, if it goes under, will destroy the U.S. economy.

General Motors, The Ford Motor Company and Chrysler, LLC are all struggling to survive.  They have each shut down plants putting hundreds of thousands of blue collar people out of work.  They have each downsized their head counts offering attractive, but certainly not lucrative, buyout packages to employees willing to accept them.  Nothing is working.  Now, this morning, comes news that Chrysler will trim its white collar workforce by 25-percent.  25-percent.  That is roughly 15,000 people.  How will those folks feed their families and pay their mortgages and car notes?  

Yesterday, I taped an interview with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.  While chatting after the session, he asked where my hometown was and I told him, Detroit.  I expressed my concerns about the domestic auto industry and asked if lawmakers had been approached about coming up with a rescue package.  He looked me in the eyes and said, "we already gave them $25-billion," referring to a previously approved loan package, not tied to the big economic bailout, to help GM, Ford and Chrysler develop new technologies.  Graham also said it would be difficult to keep offering money to Detroit automakers while not doing the same for, say, BMW, which has a plant in Greer, South Carolina.

Unfortunately, it was neither the time nor the place to engage him in a debate over the issue, but my initial thought was this-- the last time I checked, GM, Ford and Chrysler are all American companies which provide the industrial backbone of the nation.  BMW is German.  

Granted, throwing money at a problem may not be the best solution but if we can throw $700-billion to bailout the mistakes of greedy speculators and others who didn't have the wisdom to see that offering loans to people who clearly could not afford them, then certainly we can do something to help the industry that accounts for millions of hard working Americans' jobs.

Now, I realize, the domestic car companies are not without blame in this.  All three were very short-sighted in succumbing to the consumer demand for gas guzzling trucks and SUVs, fueled by cheap oil and subsequently, cheap gasoline.  I must admit, I love HUMMERS.  I drove an H2 for three years and when the lease expired, I got an H3.  But, the demand for those types of vehicles is way down with gas prices spiking to more than $4 per gallon this year.  The new focus must be on more fuel efficient vehicles that can run on alternative energy.

Also sharing in the blame-- the United Auto Workers.  I'm all for people being paid a fair wage for their work, but the UAW continues to demand compensation for its members that is way out of line with how the industry is doing.  Labor costs are killing the Big 3 and will continue to do so until union leaders wake up and realize they had better agree to some major concessions.  Making less money is better than making no money in this climate.

Oh, Good Evening!