If You're Going To Steal a Car, Make It A Good One!

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote in news:1172333958.301065.32890 @v33g2000cwv.googlegroups.com:

OK, so GM is almost bankrupt, sales are falling across the board, and a 600 HP Corvette is their pride and joy. They need to reinvent the Chevette instead. And Ford needs to reinvent the Escort.

Think about it... wouldn't it be yours if it was your company?

Besides, you don't inspire/motivate/reward your top engineers by [only] building mainstream/mundane products. While I agree they need more/better mainstream products, they also need a little balance with some top-end stuff to instill/keep some company pride. After all, just think if the Corvette wasn't as good/successful about how many "generic motors" jokes we'd hear.

GM is slowly getting their act together. The Vette is top-notch, the Caddys are sweet, Hummer is successful, Saturn is getting much better and a whole fleet of mid-level RWD sedans are on the way. GM's biggest problem now is a generation of buyers who will not consider a new GM product no matter how good it is. It's going to take some time...

Patrick

I'll wager they don't care about inspiring, motivating, or rewarding engineers. Engineers in such companies are seen as replacable cogs. The system started at GE that has spread from one big US corporation to next was one designed to eliminate the engineers with experience and higher salaries and replace them with engineers fresh out of college who cost a lot less. They didn't think for one moment the downsides to this scheme, because as far as they were concerned a trained monkey could the job. Maybe GM is different, but I would be surprised. Companies that are run by finance and marketing generally do not value engineers.