What Happened to General Motors?

Some might say that this is the beginning of the end for General Motors with the closing of so many of its manufacturing plants in 2018-2019. In this video I explore some theories on that and talk a bit about how General Motors went form the most powerful company in the world to government bail outs and shuttering assembly plants.

I look forward to your comments and input on this one.

Thanks for watching!

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[dirtracingfan]

Corporate greed at its finest. They relied on garbage cars for so long and pissed off their customer base.

[neilbrown]

Poor quality and high prices that's exactly why

[MrWilliam.Stewart]

Someone in the comments called it, they invested in lawyers, not engineers.

[CADILLACJames]

The problem is lower quality and higher prices.

[lincbond]

They stopped making Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles. No more Firebirds, 421 Catalinas, Cutlass, 442's, and Trans Am's. Most cars today look the same and do not stir the soul.

[joeturnip]

As a 26 year old I bought a New 1974 Chevy Vega which originally was a pretty nice car.
6 months later the engine, upholstery and dash plastics all failed.
Chevrolet did not stand behind their vehicle and blew me off.
I write to GM once a year to remind them why I haven't purchased a GM Vehicle since.
It still sucks.

[mark]

Engineered obsolescence built into their vehicles! They got very fat & greedy, didn't want their vehicles to last, instead wanted customers to junk them every 6-7 years and buy new ones.
Cars coming from Japan were much more reliable and it didn't take long for people to realize it.
When Rick Wagner showed up in DC asking that the taxpayer bail his company out it was such an insult, should have instead gone bankrupt and then reorganize.

[highrzr]

I believe it is a combination of GM's "Just Good Enough Engineering" coupled with overpaid inept management.

[RJ-vbgh]

GM knew exactly how to make great cars and good cars... Just look at the S series Saturns... I have two over 25 years old and over 200, 000 miles and both run strong as daily drivers, I retired one last November and I'm restoring it for posterity... eventually when I get to it....


But US car makers decided to declare war on second car owners in the 1970's. If cars don't outlive their first owners everyone would need to buy a new car.... so less expensive cars were designed to fail around 60, 000 miles. Maverick, Vega, Pinto's etc... Junk yards were full of them, all at 60K. Naturally larger V8's ran until their plastic timing gears broke at 100K. In either case, the first owners who were supposed to keep their cars for only 5 years were out of them and used car buyers be darned.


Then came the recession... and first owners hung on to their cars longer... past 60K and even past 100K miles. Suddenly their cars fell apart on them. Instead of selling off their seemingly good cars off on time, now they were caught with the hot potatoes. People who loved GM vehicles and who got a new one every 5 years, now kept their car for 7 years and would never buy one again....


Enter the Japanese... So one day as I was sitting in a parking lot reinstalling the rear axle into my Oldsmobile with 120, 000 miles on it, I struck up a conversation with a fellow who was driving a really beat up and rusty Datsun B 210. He casually remarked that his car car was running pretty good but he was looking to sell it... So I asked him how many miles were on it. He replied... "only 210, 000 miles". And yes, he was going to buy a new Datsun. So while American auto makers were designing their cars to fail at 60 or 100 thousand miles. The Japanese were building cars that would run over 200, 000 miles. Every rice burner that ran for 150, 000 trouble free miles spawned the sale of countless other rice burners. Every car buyer of American budget cars who kept them for one year too long, never bought another one...


True story... When a Ford engineer designed a window crank that lasted too long in testing he was sent back to the drafting board to redesign it so it broke at the specified time. And... Eric.. as a mechanic I know you've seen it. The car runs fine and then everything breaks... and if you go to the junk yard, you find all of the same parts broken. This isn't because GM couldn't build a good or great car. They just didn't want to. In their insane quest to screw used car buyers and force people to buy new cars they drove consumers right into the hands of the Japanese.


Lastly... when their reputation was already tarnished GM set the cost/efficiency experts loose to save some money on each car... I have a 1992 and a 1994 Saturn sitting side by side. And if you go through them you can literally see the cost reductions made between the two cars. Some things like removing the oil pressure gauge saved them a few dollars. Using some cheaper clips saved them about 1 cent each... but within just a few minutes you're likely to find at least 5 things that were cost reduced. Some cost reductions didn't matter but some screwed up otherwise good designs.... GM is going under because they screwed themselves.... And what of the engineer who got the bright idea of cost reducing the Cadillac Northstar cylinder head bolts? I"m sure he got a raise and an award. It got old Caddys off the road and it saved GM $2.50 on each and every car.... It also made Northstar Cadillacs one of the least popular used cars ever... killing the car's resale value and making it harder for new Cadillac buyers to buy another one....


GM, winner of the Great American Shoot Yourself in the Foot Award.


As to how GM plans to move forward... by building all of their cars in China...

[MrWilliam.Stewart]

I'm so sorry, but they passed away 10 years ago.

[paulrosebrock]

Ever notice “Autonomous” vehicles are never shown driving through snow? They’ll never lick that.

[jamesglenn]

2007 GM spent more on insurance and benefits than on steel.
The vehicles just cost too much, 7 years of payments, could buy a house instead.

[onefastcyclist]

BTW, they ARE building modern factories - in CHINA

[chrisj]

Problems are too many to list however the top three are:

1- GM is very top heavy (too many chiefs not enough Indians) and those in their positions are grossly overpaid.

2- GM has a crushing legacy obligation to retired workers.

3- GM products (especially front wheel drive platforms) are difficult to work on. Any engineer who thought it was acceptable to drop an entire subframe to change spark plugs should be fired and stripped of his credentials. A person that stupid should be at home collecting disability.

These are just a few and apply to all American car manufacturers not only GM. They need to go back to building cars that last more than 15 years with one owner. They need to make them so an owner can perform their own maintenance and repairs. If they continue down the road they have been traveling they will go under within 20 years.

[alanmaier]

There was a time when my idea of shopping across car brands meant going to the Chevy dealer, then the Pontiac dealer, then the Olds dealer... at one time those brands each had their differences and one was not just the other with the brand badge stuck on. They did drive different with different engines and suspension tuning - an Oldsmobile or Buick was a better assembled car than a Chevy or Pontiac and it showed many miles down the road. That is all gone. Nothing to see there folks. As for the Vega, indeed the beginning of the end and the deep rooted issues were showing. The Vega was not a bad car by design - it was a much nicer car to drive than a Pinto (a car with it's own cost savings issues) or the old school design Gremlin. However the urge to save a few cents here and a few cents there backfired when the engine wore out at and rust issues made dropping in a rebuilt short block a waste of time when there wasn't enough body left. The 1960's was the peak era for GM in my opinion.

[josephkeeney]

Cheap parts over priced garbage no one wants. America answer to the Yugo.

[CarManiac]

When you have a company that wants to build their cars in a country they can get away from having to pay the labor force a fair wage and then expect the same market to freely buy their cars....

[Chris.Mc]

In not so many words: Short-sightedness, greed, and taking the consumer for granted.

[jamesmooney]

GM's basic source of income is through financing. GM's main cost are health, wages, & pensions. GM's largest market place is China.
GM got away from the stripped down model like the Nova. Every car coming off the assemble line is better equipped then a late 60's Caddy.
It is not that the youth have abandoned cars, but instead that the car companies have abandoned the youth market.
Please tell me why a new car needs 10 computers. It should just need one computer for the engine. Ford F150 can only be repaired at the Dealer.

[mWaffen]

Note: GM quality control went down the sh-t can, as well as, Chrysler!!!