patrick.net

Not related to the article, because I really don't care what CNN's opinion on my brand loyalty may be, but I have some things on this topic.

1. I have owned quite a few foreign cars and a couple of domestics. My Bolt is the first domestic car that I bought/leased new. It is my all-time favorite, so I know GM has the ability to produce a very high quality product.
2. They need to immediately stop those God-awful Chevy ads with that smug millennial poster child for every stereotype that there is of millennial. No disrespect, I like millennials a great deal, I just don't like the pandering. They aren't all apathetic, soft spoken wimps who are impressed with a secret extra cup holder.
3. It seems that GM and the public/government have not learned any lessons from the bailout. Government doesn't understand that GM can't create a job if it doesn't have a customer waiting to buy its product, so bashing a company for reducing variable costs to match demand is really fucking stupid. I am unaware of any serious restructuring of the unions and the pensions/bond payments. Those are really tough on the fixed costs. A company can't be competitive if it doesn't have those fixed costs, like overly generous benefits, union labor abuses, excessive executive pay and manageable debt that is for constructive purposes under control.
4. Protectionism will only go so far and the consumer will start seeing it as oppressive to them if we try to tariff our way out of this problem. GM needs to overhaul its marketing plan to design and build the cars that people will actually buy. They need to match form, fit, function to what the end user views as a quality product.

Anything else is just a prolonged circle jerk.