Quote:
Originally Posted by Number 3
It was all in the plan. The only additional casualty was probably Saturn. The bankruptcy allowed quicker action with fewer repurcusions. But the biggest impact was the crushing loss of Full Size Pickup and SUV sales due to the early trumped up increase in fuel prices, followed immediately by the economic melt down. If the sales rate and GMs market share held to late 07 early 08 levels, we may (I say that because we will never really know one way or the other) not be where we are today.
|
Actually it was not. The initial plan (pre taking the jet to Washington) included no brand ellimination and the updated plan (post taking the hybrid to Washington) did not go far enough, as far as Washington was concerned. GM was asked to sharpen the pencils and only then was Pontiac et al. thrown on the chopping block.
Secondly, without bankruptcy, GM would have never gotten out of the union agreements, franchise agreements and debt which had been suffocating the company for decades.
I'm not going to debate the full size pick-up SUV thing except to say that all business must plan and budget for an industry down-turn.