Word: chevrolet
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...single decade, GM's car sales dropped off by nearly 2 million vehicles, or 40% of its 1985 volume, a loss that was only partly cushioned by a 21% rise in truck sales. Management made poor, even inexplicable, choices. For instance, in 1983 the company suspended production of the Chevrolet Malibu, the country's favorite family car and one of its all-time best sellers, totaling more than 6.5 million cars in a 20-year run. A year later, Ford claimed that turf with the Taurus. In the next 10 years, Chevrolet and Pontiac sales slid 37%, Cadillac...
This year Mr. Sloan would have been pleased. From Chevrolet there is the powerful silhouette of the first new Corvette in 13 years and the return of the once popular Malibu family sedan with both headroom and horsepower to spare. From Oldsmobile there is the Intrigue, a new nameplate for an elegantly tailored four-door sedan that, its chief designer says, "looks like a car dressed in a Chanel suit." From Pontiac, there is a two-tone macho minivan for suburbanites who still lust for the fast lane. From Saturn, the EV1, a noiseless, all-aluminum electric vehicle. From Cadillac...
...survived until this year by giving away the store--lightly restyling and updating its 12- and 15-year-old workhorses such as Buick Centurys and Chevrolet Corsicas and underpricing the competition. The company also went on a brutal cost-cutting crusade throughout its production system, beating up suppliers for price rebates and consolidating 27 separate purchasing organizations into one worldwide group that "commonized" such once disparate auto components as braking, air-conditioning and radio systems. Under the new purchasing program, for example, instead of buying 123 different steering columns, GM will stock 50. The company can still produce totally different...
...updating Sloan's book of marketing. Sloan demanded distinctly different styles for almost every demographic position and taste, a strategy that eventually gave way to identical cars bearing different nameplates. But segmentation is back in vogue, and for GM that means re-emphasizing traditional middle-American, mainstream strengths at Chevrolet while almost totally overhauling the customer base and appeal at Oldsmobile. Image makers at Olds are seeking to shed the stodgy, budget-priced profile that appealed to older buyers (the average age of its Ciera sedan buyers crested at a silvery 68--it was your father's Oldsmobile) into...
Here's how North American boss Wagoner explains it: "The sun's coming up on Oldsmobile, but we still have a couple of hours to go before first daylight. Chevrolet needs to get its [sales] volume base back. Pontiac is our sports segment, but the challenge is to take that image and convert it into more volume units. Oldsmobile needs to reposition itself to sophisticated, refined midsize-car buyers who will be new purchasers to GM. Buick's great focus will remain on premium American road cars, but it needs to recapture that traditional element from a younger customer base...