Saving the US Auto Industry

[tw]

Originally Posted by classicman

There need not be so many makes - not models all those you mentioned are VW vehicles.

I never much understood why one would buy a Sable when the same car is sold in a Ford dealer as a Taurus. Maybe because Ford could franchise a second dealer in the same region - create competition.

TT selling under the Audi name is a VW product. You would not know it because VW does it correctly. Those listed models (and others) are the same one platform. VW could do it right - car guys making decisions. Roger Smith of GM could not even drive a car. He had no idea that the Chevy Vega and Cadillac Cimmeron looked like the same car. It did not say that on spread sheets.

How difficult was it to make any innovation decision in GM? I got in the elevator. The sign spelled "Empolyee" - the word spelled correctly. My union escort told me why all signs had been changes in only two day. Roger Smith had resigned two days ago. He spelled it "employe". So all signs were changed everywhere in GM with incorrect spelling. Then two days after he resigned, all signs were changed back to the correct spelling.

Smith made same cars in different divisions look alike. As long as they sold under different name plates, they would have different reputations. Same people designed GM products and even stifled the 70 hp per liter engine.