The Liberal Gun Club Forum

I know less than nothing about GM’s history so I found this interesting

https://qz.com/1510405/gms-layoffs-can- ... yptr=yahoo

Some of the problems they report about GM’s management problems seem to apply to a lot of places- make every one the same, don’t trust “workers” be they line workers, teachers or attorneys - and don’t allow creativity. Ugh.

Interesting article. But it leaves out many ways that GM's "innovation" was, in fact, backwards. In 1968, GM changed its whole body line of A,B, and C cars and the quality of all them immediately fell. The gorgeous 1967 A cars (Pontiac's Tempest, LeMans and GTO, Chevy's Chevelle and Malibu) were replaced by ugly cars with obviously mis-fit parts--look at the grill of the '68 GTO! I remember my 1981 Citation. It wasn't a lemon but something was ALWAYS broken on it. In fact, until 2014, I wouldn't have considered an American, much less a GM vehicle. CU ALWAYS put all the US cars at the bottom.

And let's not forget that in 1981, coming into office, Ronald Reagan was quick to start attacking and seeking to destroy unions across America, the unions that FOUGHT the draconian conditions of this article.

It was only AFTER the Obama bail-out that GM started, for the first time in over FORTY YEARS began producing decent cars again. I now have a 2014 Chevy pickup and it's the first vehicle with more than 2 wheels I've truly loved in years.

The writer only talks about the Vega, a true POS from Day 1, but the GM lineup was dreadful from 1968 to 2009. Remember the Cadillac Cimaron? Or Chevy's "answer" to the Dodge PT Cruiser? All really awful cars, equal to what the Soviet Bloc produced.

Not just GM but ford did the same ting. Remember the Mustang II, a Mustang with a Pinto engine and lets not forget the Pinto. Ford’s answer to the GM Vega and a rolling fire bomb. Although just about any car that had the fuel filler cap in the rear of the car was subject to the same condition. These were the years of gas shortages and high prices along with the real rise in the Japanese imports. They were cheap but they would run and run. The American car companies did look at the Japanese for their model to follow. But to the Europeans such as British Leyland and Fiat, Car companies noted for the experience in building cars that needed repairs frequently.

Dad had a Ford Pickup where the carburetor body would become loose. He finally looked at the problem and there was no lock washers under the bolt holding it together. Four star lock washers later it was fixed.

My '81 Citation had carb problems that drove my mechanic crazy but was finally fixed.
The first US car we after that was a '97 Mountaineer, the first year of Mercury's version of the Ford Explorer. We leased it for 3 years and it didn't have one, not one warranty issue or repair! It's the only car we ever had that was so perfectly built. When the lease was up we got a 2000 Explorer assuming it would be the same. It was a piece of shit, always back at the dealership for warranty repairs. Supposedly the same engine as the Mountaineer, but never had 2/3rds of the same power. It got traded on a 2003 Mercedes ML500, which we JUST traded in on a 2019 Chevy Traverse. Chevy now has just a far better product than it was before the Obama bailout. Though the Dodge Rams are STILL pieces of shit because everyone I've known who've had them have nothing but trouble. That's been Chrysler's story for decades now, going back before Lee Iococa.

It wasn't just VW in the 1950s, there were alot of European cars sold here. My parents owned American made cars, but we also had English made cars Ford, Hillman...my grandmother drove a Morris Minor and my uncle had an MGB. They were into small cars before they became fashionable. Renault sold cars in the US then, there was a Renault dealership where I grew up and I recall their Renault Dauphine which was a rear engine car.

Nothing stays the same, it's how people and organizations adjust to change. Detroit had it's head in the sand, management and labor. "What the 16 American employees GM execs dispatched to NUMMI to work learned instead was that Toyota’s superior quality and efficiency was largely thanks to how it trained and valued its workers." "...it’s possible that Lordstown Assembly will remain standing, but empty, a vast roadside reminder of a corporate elite’s doomed quest to cheapen labor by stripping the human need for skill, learning, independence, and purpose out of production, by reimagining people as machines."

Anyone interested in an inside look at the sorts of dysfunction that could be found inside GM in the 1990s will enjoy Shnayerson's book "The Car that Could". The author had inside access to GM during the time they developed the EV1 electric car. One thing the book confirmed is that GM was still the same place in the '90s as it was in the '60s and '70s when my dad worked for them.

https://www.amazon.com/Car-That-Could-R ... 067942105X

Unprecedented secrecy surrounded the early development of General Motors's Impact. Shnayerson watched the story unfold from a position of access never granted a reporter before--literally from the inside of the pace-setting GM Impact program. This is the first book to penetrate the silence surrounding GM's risky and successful decision to become the world's first mass producer of the electric car.

From the late 60's to the Obama bailout, GM seemed to invest all of its creative energy in styling and not much else. Bad design features persisted while the sheet metal and interior colors varied. On our honeymoon, we rented an '87 Camaro to drive from Jasper down to Calgary. It LOOKED like a muscle car but my crappy '81 Citation had more acceleration...and things I hated on my car were still there 6 years later.

Is it any wonder that GM had even less consideration for their workers when they had virtually none for their customers?
One of the loaners a dealer gave me was a Chevy HHR. It was simply the absolute worst car I have ever driven, including rolling wrecks. Nothing was where it should be--It was like that 3 Stooges short film where they are plumbers and when Curly flushes the toilet, the shower sprays Moe in the face. Plus, it was the most uncomfortable car. The panel to the right of the gas pedal was about 4 inches LEFT of where they normally are, was sharp-edged, and dug into my leg. Underpowered, uncomfortable, bad handling, controls in the worst possible places, and indifferent braking...I cannot see why any would buy such a POS for any reason. Why GM fell from being the biggest corporation on earth.