kilcoo316 wrote:Some of the reasons for GM's failings (in no particular order):
- Little to no long term R&D in years gone by. Contrary to redneck belief, deciding to further bore out an (already bored) engine for a SUV or pickup is not R&D. Now they've belatedly stumbled into the hybrid/electric market.
- Shockingly bad interior design
- Shockingly bad chassis design (encompassing suspension, transmission, brakes etc)
- Shockingly bad build quality through poor design
- Shockingly bad build quality through bad workmanship
- Hideously expensive wages (including wages paid today, and wages paid 20 years in the future)
- Concentration on a conservative market (linking to the first point)
In truth, GMs problems are reflective of the western world as a whole. Too much management that don't really know what they are doing, but can use buzz words and have law or management degrees. Not enough people are doing hard subjects in university these days, and the (western) world is filling up with blowhards that can talk shite instead.
Why are costs exploding? Because there are 10 layers of management telling engineers what they already know to do... but due to the wages of those 10 layers of management, the engineer is cost restricted compared to what s/he could accomplish.
I'm sure people will disagree with this... and their disagreement might be due to their background/profession.
I can't disagree with much of that, although the incredible power of the unions doesn't help much either. Not stepping on anyones toes is seemingly more important than getting the job done in a timely and efficient manner...
