My doctor hasn’t prescribed bloodletting as a cure for a long time. I don’t see why the corporate version that armchair executives trot out ever so often is any better.
The “bloodletting” I’m referring to in the first sentence, of course, is the recurring cry of automotive pundits that this or that (almost always) American manufacturer should eliminate this or that division or nameplate. The argument is not whether it should be done but whether which should be eliminated. At GM, they say, Pontiac and GMC should go. They’re already laying flowers on Mercury’s grave.
Not that the manufacturers themselves haven’t been a party to all this. After all, Chrysler pulled the plug on Plymouth and GM dumped Oldsmobile. Perhaps those were good decisions. Maybe GM had plans at the time to make Saturn the new Oldsmobile because the original Saturn model wasn’t working anymore and Saturn had more value as a brand than did Oldsmobile. It’s hard to get the young to go to Olds, but who wouldn’t want to go to Saturn. The young and adventuresome certainly would. more
Posted in General Motors, corporate management, quality by admin on June 20th, 2008
So Chrysler sends this heads up about the pick up in it its retail minivan sales, both Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country. The long wheelbase T& C is up—in an overall down market—a remarkable 75 percent while Dodge and Chrysler overall are up eight percent. Total minivan production is down but that’s a from a rollback on low-margin fleet sales that Chrysler had planned.