Word: cadillacs
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...blunder to another. Worst among them were the cookie-cutter cars. The idea behind them was to save on manufacturing costs, one of Smith's abiding principles. But the look-alike models blurred the historical marketing distinction GM had carefully cultivated between Chevrolet at the bottom of the market, Cadillac at the top and Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick in between. None of the cookie-cutter cars will make it to the Automotive Hall of Fame...
...plans to shut down the division entirely, contrary to rumors that it might do so. In its new guise, Olds plans to concentrate on midsize cars to compete with the likes of the Ford Taurus and Toyota Camry, giving up most of the big- car market to Buick and Cadillac...
Perhaps GM's crowning folly during the '80s was the reorganization of its North American operations into two clumsy megagroups. The plan gave responsibility for small cars to GM's Chevrolet, Pontiac and Canadian divisions, and handed large cars to the Buick, Oldsmobile and Cadillac units. While that may have seemed sensible at the time, it created a new level of bureaucracy sandwiched between the automaking divisions and GM's corporate headquarters. The results ranged from mass confusion to a proliferation of look-alike models. "Everything Roger Smith tried failed," says Womack. "The screwball capital investment, the screwball reorganization. Smith...
Stempel had the misfortune of becoming chairman just as the U.S. was sliding into recession. That hindered sales of GM's 1991 fall line, one of its best in years. The redesigned models included the full-bodied Buick Park Avenue and the luxurious Cadillac Seville. "Our sales depend on the economy," says Jamal Karmouta, who manages a Chevrolet dealership in Southern California. "When the economy moves up a little, we'll be selling more cars." But with GM strapped for cash, its new offerings for 1993 are limited mainly to a redesigned Cadillac Brougham and sporty Camaros and Firebirds...
Smith's handpicked group of bureaucracy busters, who work 15-hour days and call themselves "the cowboys," aim to liberate each of GM's brand-name divisions to give them back their long-stifled control over styling, engineering and marketing decisions. Each division, from Cadillac to Chevrolet, will be expected to survive virtually on its own. Already, the layers of approval required for manufacturing decisions have been reduced by half. Individual engineering components that fail to add style or identity to a product have been dramatically reduced: 17 different ignition systems have been refined to three, nine engine families...