Gear Head Brogan and GM Cars

@John blue GM failed not because it did not build great cars. It did and it does. They failed because corporations have been forced, as have all corporations, to use GAAP reporting standards. Being the vast company that they are, they had no way to measure the true worth of their company as it grew – one division against another. GAAP standards, put in place at the turn of the industrial revolution do not offer a true financial picture for executives in today’s global environment. Hence they stumbled. They fell. And the company fell with them.

GM is not alone. They are most visible right now. Look around. GE is heading to be next on the block.

There is absolutely help for GM and they won’t have to go to Congress. They will be able to do it on their own.

Instead of bashing GM – whose managers collectively did not deliberately set out to fail – let us rally around. American jobs are at stake here. As is one of the most memorable institutions created. GM is apple pie…mom…and baseball. It simply doesn’t get any better.

@John blue GM failed not because it did not build great cars. It did and it does. They failed because corporations have been forced, as have all corporations, to use GAAP reporting standards. Being the vast company that they are, they had no way to measure the true worth of their company as it grew – one division against another. GAAP standards, put in place at the turn of the industrial revolution do not offer a true financial picture for executives in today’s global environment. Hence they stumbled. They fell. And the company fell with them.

GM is not alone. They are most visible right now. Look around. GE is heading to be next on the block.

There is absolutely help for GM and they won’t have to go to Congress. They will be able to do it on their own.

Instead of bashing GM – whose managers collectively did not deliberately set out to fail – let us rally around. American jobs are at stake here. As is one of the most memorable institutions created. GM is apple pie…mom…and baseball. It simply doesn’t get any better.

Joan,

Thanks for the comment. I am not an accountant and am not qualified to comment back on GAAP and its impact on GM.

However, I am a car buyer. When I buy cars I look at what others are saying plus look at reliability over time. I read what the press says plus use services like Kelly Blue Book and Consumer Reports. My family does not want to spend repair dollars in year 4 ( or year 3!) for things that should just not fail.

GM may well make great cars some people. That is the nature of a market. I will shop for my great cars at other stores like Honda and Toyota. Others may find their great cars GM.

I must disagree with your statement “There is absolutely help for GM and they won’t have to go to Congress. They will be able to do it on their own.” GM has already turned to Congress/US government and currently seeking further assistance from multiple national governments for any and all relief they can get. It is far past the time for them to have solved their problems on their own.

It is going to get much rougher for GM and the entire auto industry. I do not wish that on anyone but it is already happening. I want the auto market to survive with cars that I want to buy.

The main reason for Chris’ post was to share his interest and like of the cars GM showed him. And he did that very well with his post/videos. This I appreciate.

Good discussion:)
John

@john blue. We all agree that GM has gone to Congress several times. My point there is that congress does not have to continue to bail them out. They can do this on their own. Not only can they do this on their own – they can pay back the American people on the way – and they should.

I fully appreciate what Chris is doing. It is horrifying to think of the unemployment lines caused by ineffective management. Certainly you have free choice to buy the car of your dreams, John, and we all agree that Toyota has done well. But we cannot deny that GM and Ford kept us all tooling down the highway for years without foreign competition and we might have had complaints but they sure turned out some great cars along the way. Let’s not kick them now. Let’s find avenues to give them to survive and keep our economy strong and our people employed. We may be mad at them – for certainly many are – but we are – in the end – Americans. Creative and resourceful. Let’s “expect” that GM will not let us down.

I

GM

@john blue. We all agree that GM has gone to Congress several times. My point there is that congress does not have to continue to bail them out. They can do this on their own. Not only can they do this on their own – they can pay back the American people on the way – and they should.

I fully appreciate what Chris is doing. It is horrifying to think of the unemployment lines caused by ineffective management. Certainly you have free choice to buy the car of your dreams, John, and we all agree that Toyota has done well. But we cannot deny that GM and Ford kept us all tooling down the highway for years without foreign competition and we might have had complaints but they sure turned out some great cars along the way. Let’s not kick them now. Let’s find avenues to give them to survive and keep our economy strong and our people employed. We may be mad at them – for certainly many are – but we are – in the end – Americans. Creative and resourceful. Let’s “expect” that GM will not let us down.

I

GM

Great series of posts. The thing I find most amazing, however, is how busy Chris must be. The CTS has been ‘sexy’ for the last few years- that car is not an entirely new design. They’ve had sexy ads for a while now, and Cadillac hasn’t really been an ‘old man’s car only’ for some time. Of course, he’s off mastering other parts of the world, so he can’t be up to speed on everything :)

i am so upset GM should be do what they can to keep people intrested in byeing there cars, but instead I take my 2006 chevy Malibu in for a heater coar leak and i get my car back gresses and not fixed with more raddles and thins wrong with it than when i gave it to them, when i took it back to them besides it nothing being fixed after they had it for 8 days. I had a bolt fall out from under the dash on the pasanger side we droped the glove box so we could see the dask behide it and see it was one of the bolt that mounted the air bag and 2 more could of been taken out by our fingers. when we talked to the dealership the service manage told us our car was fixed right this time now when we point out that it is still not fixed they look so SHOCKED. do they want to fail. I'm not even sure I want to bye Chevy again and I'm a CHEVY GIRL that works for Fords

GM should try their best to do something to keep people feel interested in their products