Bob Lutz showed up in LA recently for an impromptu breakfast with the Motor Press Guild, aka MPG. Bob is always good for a few juicy quotes so I hustled up the 405 in typical OC-LA rush day traffic to grab an earful.
Bob didn’t disappoint. He started with a comment about GM needing to make headway in the Smile States and then proceeded to elaborate on some recent successes in California:
GM’s retail share of market in California for Q4 2009 was 9.3%, up 0.8 percentage points (PP) from Q4 ’08.
Compact Crossover and large car sales were up 4.7 PP and 2.8 PP, respectively for the same period.
In a recent design clinic of an upcoming new Cadillac versus its European and Asian competition, the clinic attendees liked the Cadillac more after they found out it was a Cadillac than when they didn’t know it was a Cadillac. Lutz says this is the first time this has happened. (more…)
What is a Terrain? It’s a compact crossover, the GMC version of the Chevrolet Equinox (Carmudgeon, July 8, 2009) and the new Cadillac SRX.
The following is a quote from General Motors regarding the new GMC Terrain.
“At the core of the reinvention of General Motors is a promise to deliver customers greater value with strong new products. For the new 2010 GMC Terrain, that means taking the brand’s 100 year-plus tradition of engineering and capability and presenting it in a smaller, more fuel-efficient package for today’s buyers. (more…)
More than a year ago, as I viewed GM’s “situation,” I only somewhat facetiously told colleagues that the best thing GM could do would be to simply shut down all its operations in the US and become the very thing that it considered its worst enemy: an importer. In many respects, the best products GM builds these days are based on engineering coming out of Korea (Daewoo for its small vehicles) and Germany (Opel for its midsize platforms). All of GM’s problems would “magically” go away if they went out of business in the US and simply became the new Toyota. (more…)
Nobody asked me, but . . .