[CrossRamZ11]

An editorial from a local paper, that quotes the facts that the mainstream media seems perfectly happy to ignore....

Some things never change

There's a Toyota ad running currently that brags about the fact that they have eight manufacturing plants in the U.S. building more than a million vehicles a year. The ad then finishes with some patriotic music and the statement "Toyota - a company that has created over 200,000 U.S. jobs - a company proud to do its small part to add to the landscape of America."

Pass the barf bag please.

Take just four or five minutes to read this article. Read some actual facts about the U.S. auto industry, not the spin put out by those wiley Japanese.

In terms of quality, of Toyota's eight plants, their best quality ranking is 16th. Of the top 10 plants for quality, GM has eight of the top 10 and four of the top five.

And then there's the myth of the happy, teamwork-oriented worker who labors in a unionless paradise surrounded by caring Japanese employers who only have his or her best interest at heart.

Fact: Toyota workers work for less money and are five times more likely than a GM worker to sustain an on-the-job injury and 10 times more likely to be injured seriously enough to lose work days.

Toyota likes to propagate the myth of their commitment to the environment as evidenced by the standard set by the Prius. What you don't hear about are the scores of Prius owners who are extremely unhappy with the performance and mileage of their Prius. Ads claim 60 mpg - the reality is that many Prius owners get about half that mileage - about 36 mpg. GM has five models that get similar mileage to the Prius and carry no price premium like the Prius - but you never read about that.

If GM had a vehicle that advertised 60 mpg but actually delivered 36 mpg, you can bet that it would be front page news, plus a nice segment on 60 Minutes.

But I digress. My point is that there is an incredibly unfair double standard in the media these days. Inexplicably, U.S. bashing has become the fashionable thing to do. There's no better example than the constant warm fuzzy stories churned out regularly about Toyota's legendary teamwork, safety and quality. And yet, the facts simply don't bear this out. The fact is that Toyota gets a free ride from our lazy and complicit media.

But it's time to separate fact from fiction. Toyota is, and has been, waging a very successful PR war with way too much assistance from our media. This results in a skewed viewpoint that dramatically affects how buyers perceive a new car purchase.

For instance, how many of you know that Chevrolet was the best selling passenger car brand in the U.S. last year?

How many of you know that for three years in a row, Cadillac has sold more luxury cars than anyone else - including Lexus and BMW?

How many of you are aware that, according to J.D. Power, GM was the number one multi-line manufacturer in Sales Satisfaction last year? Where was Toyota (including Lexus)? Seventh place.

GM was ranked second in the critical Customer Service Satisfaction index in multi-line manufacturers last year. Where was Toyota? Fifth place.

GM's lowest quality-rated vehicle is the Pontiac Vibe, assembled in California by - you guessed it - Toyota.

While Toyota is wrapping itself in the American flag with paid advertisements and help from our incompetent media, GM, Ford and Chrysler manufactured over 75 percent of all vehicles built in the U.S. last year. And their average domestic content is 82 percent. Toyota's is 40 percent (Lexus is 3 percent).

Every 100 GM, Ford or Chrysler vehicles produced in the U.S. supports the livelihood of 23 full-time workers. Conversely, every point share gained by Toyota represents 18,000 lost American jobs and countless profit dollars that are shipped overseas to Japan.

I am not suggesting that GM, Ford or Chrysler needs your charity, but I am suggesting that you should know the facts before you buy...


Statistics excerpted from GM President John Smith's remarks to GM dealers, March 2005. Opinions offered in If I Were King are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Tri-County Times or its staff. E-mail the King at king@tctimes.com.

[Tim Meredith]

Here Here

[BonzoHansen]

That is GM's fault for not getting that message out there.

[3SuperSports]

Just like with the last year or so of the Camaro's life, not enough advertising, too much blame put on the buyer for "not knowing any better"!

GM needs to spend it's advertising $'s more wisely and answer it's critics in those ads with facts when they are disputable.

[CrossRamZ11]

Yes, I agree, GM does definitely need to get the word out, hopefully people will hear the message. I am no fan of the marketing department either. It does make it difficult with the media slant sometimes though...I will give a prime example:

Not too long ago, a major Detroit newspaper (Free Press I believe) ran a front page GIANT block letter headline that said "GM FACES RECALLS"...The jist of the article inside was that GM announced that they were accelerating, or "pulling ahead" the launch of our GMT900 truck and SUVs six weeks, so GM MAY face recalls because of bumping up the timing six weeks...MAY FACE RECALLS, that was it, that was all...complete speculation and conjecture, and not an ounce of fact behind it...the trucks aren't even out yet, and we have potential recalls...it was ridiculous. But what does everyone who walks by the newsstand see "GM FACES RECALLS" in big block print, and even though they are imaginary, if they don't read the article, what impression is left?....The editor took a beating over that one.

[SnakeEyes]

I'm been a GM guy all my life, but I'm not going to ignore it's faults.

haven;t you heard? ONE year' of toyota's profits could outright BUY GM. but I doubt their dumb enough to buy the titantic while it's sinking. yes do to cheap labor, but hey, GM could have done something about healthcare years ago, looks like they waited too late. not they are stuf with "wal-mart" car making, scraping every cent together buy cheaping out on quaility. I need that barf bag last trip I made to a Chevy dealership, I wouldn't buy anything they have on a lot right now but a full-size truck, or Cobalt SS. The rest look so freakishly cheezy it's disturbing. They very fact that I would rather ride in the cabin of my late 70's/early 80's designed 8 series because of higher quality is stupid, GM has had 2 decades and they are still trying to catch up.

GM workers are better working, and more efficent, I don't doubt that, they are American's.....but the fact is, they are being FORCED to make sub par quality products. Maybe we can blame it on the Canadian and Mexican built vehicles!

[Infamous]

Jeff....you missed the one about 2 weeks ago when the Free Press had a small 1 paragraph blurb in the back of the auto section on how Toyota is recalling 790,000 trucks. One tiny little blurb all the way in the back.

Now....had this been GMC recalling 790,000 trucks.

Front Page in big bold letters, right up at the top. I guarantee it.

[Toby Keen]

Just my opinion, but, GM has had a Gray Flannel and Blue Serge mentality for far too long. However, I don't really think they have any more quality issues than their competitors. The attitude of "They will buy what we build" has caught up with them. That's why they hired Lutz. They say it takes five years to change their line-up to products that match the consumers needs and wants. BULLS**T! There is a graveyard full of manufacturers that shared that opinion. When the SUV market was starting to flourish, it took them two years to come out with an Olds and Buick SUV and three years for a Cadillac SUV.

Baby boomers, who grew up in the performance world of the 60's and 70's are faced with a GM line-up that doesn't appeal to them. Their children see front drove imports as their only avenue to excitement. Personally, I think that's the result of poor product planning and advertising.

GM gave us the new GTO. Ford gave us the new Mustang. Looking at those two car's sales numbers tells me a lot. What we got in advertising from GM was that the car came from Australia and was a makeover. Ford lit up the ad pages with the Mustang. Little difference in quality, BIG difference in perception.

[SnakeEyes]

if you take care of their stuff it will last just as long I agree with that, but the build quality(materials used, fit and finish, etc) isn't on par......but ford isn't doing too much better have you seen the panel gaps on their Ford GT? YIKES!!!!

[CrossRamZ11]

More interesting info....

From Autoextremist.com....

GM. In the last two weeks, GM has been bringing in journalists and analysts to the GM Design Dome at their Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, for one-on-one sessions to view most of their upcoming products for the next 30 months. Though we can't provide anything more than sketchy details, suffice to say, anyone counting GM out at this point will be surprised, make that shocked, at the array of new cars and trucks they have in the pipeline. Most impressive was the attention paid to the design of their interiors across the board, something that has been long overdue. And the new products are, in most cases, jaw-droppingly beautiful in their execution and details. Cadillac will continue to gain momentum, with a handsome new Escalade and a stunning new CTS that will flat-out reassert GM's design leadership in the industry. It's that good. And new entries for Chevrolet, Saturn and Buick are remarkably on-target and will be ultra competitive. Saturn dealers in particular should be high-fiving in their showrooms. And the new full-size SUVs and trucks are exceptionally detailed and should set new standards for dynamic performance, ride and efficiency in the category. These new vehicles reflect "Maximum Bob's" influence everywhere you look. Those looking for signs that the Lutzian era has waned in this business will be sorely disappointed, because this new stuff bristles with the kind of detailing and design integrity that have marked his best efforts in the past - and then exceeds them. This is the first time that we have seen hard evidence that all of the work behind the scenes at GM has been worth the effort. The talented men and women working in the trenches at GM have finally been turned loose - and the results are truly extraordinary. Is GM out of the woods yet? Not by a long shot, no. But whereas before they were getting lost on the way to the playing field, they're now well and truly engaged in The Game. And it's about time.

[BonzoHansen]

Originally Posted by SnakeEyes

if you take care of their stuff it will last just as long I agree with that, but the build quality(materials used, fit and finish, etc) isn't on par......but ford isn't doing too much better have you seen the panel gaps on their Ford GT? YIKES!!!!

Not to mention the control arm recall (do not drive your car kind of stuff). The article I read, maybe in C&D, made the quality of the GT sound very poor.

[Silver69Camaro]

Originally Posted by SnakeEyes

haven;t you heard? ONE year' of toyota's profits could outright BUY GM.

Whaa?? Show me proof on this one! Or are you being sarcastic? GM is worth billions...I don't know anybody who makes that much profit in a year...

[CrossRamZ11]

What he is trying to refer to is GM market capitalization, which I believe is around 19 Billion, and yes, Toyota pulls more profits than that....GM has about 50 billion in cash between it and GMAC, so in theory, yes, Toyota makes more in a year than GM is "worth", but it is not feasible that they could just "buy it" if they felt like it, but it sure sounds scary doesn't it ....sensationalism at its best.

[Infamous]

If it's so easy to buy GM then why is Kerkorian struggling to obtain a 9% stake? At last count he had 7% after his initial purchase offer.

Here's another story for ya...

~Daniel Howes of the Detroit News~

"The good news is there's not a pathetic Pontiac Aztek anywhere among the shiny models parked under the dome. The new full-size SUVs, set to arrive early next year, are sleeker and more fuel-efficient than their predecessors and, in late 2007, should be available with gas-electric hybrid powertrains. The trio of mid-sized crossover vehicles from Buick, GMC and Saturn, code-named Lambda, will be late to the hot crossover game -- which means they must be better than their rivals. If the Buick version is any indication, skeptics (like me) are in for a big surprise because this is no flabby Rendezvous. Same for the next-generation Saturns. There's the Teutonic Aura, a mid-size sedan that drew raves at the Detroit auto show, a Euro-style roadster named Sky, a crossover dubbed "Outlook" and a successor to the compact Ion sedan. Any resemblance to today's plasticky Saturns is, thankfully, coincidental. The all-new Cadillac CTS is likely to give BMW and Mercedes-Benz engineers heart palpitations, mostly because the planned interior is (like most of the other interiors planned for the coming slug of GM models) a vast improvement over the current model. Add that to the performance-and-quality cred amassed by the new Cadillacs, and you can't help but feel cautiously encouraged about GM's ability to pull out of its depressing nosedive."

Enjoy it while it lasts, Japan.

[BonzoHansen]

Interior quality is one of those things that GM always gets slagged for, seemingly for years. I have not figured out why they haven’t addressed this sooner.

I had to have the dash pad in my 2002 Olds Intrigue replaced under warranty as it was pulling away from the center vents. Totally unacceptable. I had visions of it looking like the rolled up dash pad in my 76.