BusinessWeek reported in its February 23 issue that Bob Lutz, the “legendary” product chief at General Motors will resign at the end of 2009. The report states that, “The thought of designing cars to meet Washington’s fuel economy rules – as opposed to consumer tastes,” drove him to retire.
This article once again reminded me one of the key reasons GM continues to suffer. The exercise about going to Congress to ask for billions in taxpayer aid and the scrutiny they have had to undergo throughout the process has seemingly not increased their humility one bit. They have lost the auto industry’s number one spot – a position they have held since 1931 – to Toyota (and appear primed to lose the number two spot to Honda in the not-to-distant future), and have apparently not learned anything through the process.
Maybe it’s me, but I fail to see how GM has been designing cars to “meet consumer tastes,” over the last several years anyway. If they had, they would not have lost the top spot to Toyota. And to think that it is only Washington – and not the consumer – who cares about higher fuel economy, shows the culture of hiding your head in the sand continues.
Besides higher quality, better fuel economy, lower costs, innovative production techniques, and a happier workforce, Toyota’s cars are more exciting than GM. And when I visited the Detroit-area last October, the high number of Toyotas and Hondas told me that Detroiters now feel the same way. When I think of “cool” cars for different age groups, I think of the Accord, Civic, Lexus, Prius, BMW 3-Series, Mini Cooper, Scion, and a few others, but can’t seem to recall any GM cars that fall into that group.
So, as GM moves into a new era of product design, they have got to increase the cool factor of their cars. Oh, and while doing that, it wouldn’t hurt to also work on the quality, reliability, cost, and fuel economy.
On another subject . . .
Does the Government Really Want Electric or Hybrid Cars?
Like many Americans over the last several years, I could not understand the seemingly complete lack of interest that the government has in assuring the success of hybrids or fully electric cars in the U.S. The Bush administration gave token tax breaks to purchasers of hybrids a few years back, but it didn’t make sense why the incentive was limited to only a small number of people who first purchase the cars.
The reason has recently become clear to me – and it will be tested as we watch how committed the Obama administration is to the development of high mileage or combustion-free automobiles.
The U.S. and state governments collect a great deal of tax revenue on sales of gasoline ($0.47/gallon for gasoline and $0.536/gallon for diesel). If we move away from gasoline engines to non-combustible engines, this huge source of revenue will dry up. Determining what will replace the fuel tax is destined to be a hotly debated and highly charged political issue – and probably one that politicians are not ready to tackle given the current state of mind of Americans.
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