After further review, corporate GM still stinks

"We just couldn't react," Wagoner said in an interview last week with Automotive News . "It really highlighted that the underpinnings of our business are too fragile. So if we lose mix or volume, we cannot get costs down as fast as (sales) volume comes down." (more)

While I agree that GM isn't "nimble enough" to quickly react to changing market forces, it is still a week excuse for why GM is in a sales slump. Actually, GM's problem is quite simple, the company has no automotive vision.

Sure, you can say fuel cell vehicles, but GM has been talking up the fuel cell vehicle since Nixon. When is it time to stop talking and start doing? Fuel cell vehicles have been nothing but an excuse for GM to do nothing.

Back in the '90s, the U.S. government gave the Big 3 a billion tax dollars to develop fuel efficient vehicles. Yet, where are those vehicles today? What happened to those American tax dollars?

The evidence demonstrating the massive harm that auto pollution causes to America and the world has been piling up for decades. The intensity of the dangers in the Middle East and America's oil dependence has been increasing for years, and the evidence for massively growing worldwide demand for oil has been clear.

How could GM not think that maybe, just maybe, some of this evidence would eventually have an effect on the American automotive market?

Toyota and Honda were certainly paying attention to this evidence. That's why when GM ridiculed Toyota and Honda for pursuing hybrid cars, these companies just pushed ahead. With such a massive amount of evidence piling up, change was inevitable.

O.K., so GM made a mistake, but since 9/11 what have they really done to change? Shouldn't 9/11 have been the last straw?

So, what is GM's big announcement today? The new Chevrolet Tahoe is going to achieve 2 more miles per gallon on the highway. Of course, if you stop at a street light or stop sign, or do any other kind of city driving, your fuel efficiency will barely be above 10 mpg.

What a joke!

Sure hybrid vehicles might not be the absolute answer to GM's problems, or to America's problems with pollution and foreign oil dependency, but at least hybrids demonstrate that you are addressing the most important issues facing America today.

After further review GM leadership still stinks.