GM market share and stock price and bond ratings are all on a downward trend. It is a well deserved trend. GM deserves it and may it continue.
So what is the difference between GM and Toyota based on my own personal experience?? Toyota vehicles are not immune to problems but it how they handle it that makes the difference. My personal experience is this.....
I purchase a 1990 4runner. This was the first year for a 4 door hardtop model. A radical design change from previous years. After the warranty ran out (about 2 years after) I had a front crank bearing go out. The dealer shop called me that afternoon to inform me of the bad news, but the shop manager called Toyota and was instructed not to charge me!!!!!!! but to go ahead and replace the bearing and immediately ship it to their research center for analysis. They wanted to see what happened. This was a $1500 repair that they absorbed. There were two additional occurances similar to this where I did not pay though the Toyota vehicles were beyond warranty.
I currently own a 1996 Lumina with peeling paint which is a well known and widespread problem with vehicles from certain factories due to a defect in the priming process. The dealer told us that something can be done. Oh boy what a line. Found out later that to correct anything on the car we would have to deal directly with the dealer we purchased it from. In other words we were blown off and they assumed we would go away. This has been a subject on the NBC news program Dateline and I found on the web that there is also a class action lawsuit in the works. There has also been a $500 dollar engine repair due to what the mechanic told me was an engineering design problem associated with that particular engine (3.1 v6). Good God! Will this ever end??!!
I have absolutely no sympathy for the eventual demise of GM and its employees. It is a well deserved fate! GM new vehicles leave me unexcited.