Wagoner speaks against blaming GM for SUVs

[Mr. Wyndham]

GM chief defends reliance on SUVs
By Bernard Simon and Francesco Guerrera
Published: June 5 2008 22:39

Rick Wagoner, General Motors’ chief executive, mounted a robust defence on Thursday of Detroit carmakers’ dependence on sport-utility vehicles and pick-up trucks, dismissing criticism that the companies were to blame as demand for those vehicles has collapsed.

“Is it the US manufacturers who are stupid? I don’t think so,” Mr Wagoner said in an interview with the Financial Times, referring to GM, Ford Motor and Chrysler.

He added that Japanese carmakers had made similar mistakes in catering to US car buyers’ appetite for big vehicles over many years.

Mr Wagoner noted Detroit’s Japanese rivals had spent more than a decade trying to match its leadership in SUVs and pick-up trucks.

In a clear reference to Toyota, he said the foreign companies had spent billions of dollars on pick-up plants that came on stream “five minutes before” the oil price began to soar.

Toyota opened such a plant in San Antonio, Texas, in late 2006.
Light trucks made up 52 per cent of GM’s US vehicle sales last month, compared with 34 per cent for Toyota.

The criticism was “not fair”, said Mr Wagoner, who faced shareholder criticism of GM’s strategy at its annual meeting this week. “It’s not just the ‘Big Three’,” he added.

Referring to the wrenching adjustments being forced on carmakers by the high oil price, Mr Wagoner compared the current uncertainty over the future of the petrol-powered car with the earliest days of the automotive industry.
GM’s view was that electricity in various forms would increasingly provide the power for cars, he said. Vehicles of the future might look very different from existing models because “you will not have to put a block of iron or aluminium at the front of the car”.

The sharp shift in consumers’ buying preferences had not been driven by tighter US rules on emissions and fuel economy, Mr Wagoner said, but by the big rise in the oil price. “You have to recognise that the consumer makes the call here . . . and we are reacting.”

Some analysts have expressed concern about GM’s dwindling liquidity in light of the latest slide in demand for its most profitable vehicles and the jump in raw material costs.

Mr Wagoner responded that “under any scenario we see, we’re good until the end of the year”.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b2ed8290-3...nclick_check=1

Good for him. I'm tired of the media taking pot-shots at GM for this. Not to mention, that of all the SUV's on the market, they've got the most fuel-efficient......

[GTAHVIT]

Again, GM is willing to go toe to toe, while Ford and Chryser execs duck and cover.

GM Rocks!!!

[Twins]

GM will go toe to toe to anyone!!! rock on GM rock on

[chadrcr]

Funny how some say GM is dumb for relying on big trucks etc which dominated the US market for 20 + years......
Anyone notice how the BRILLIANT TOYmaker recently jumped into the deep end with BIG trucks, including making their 'compact' truck as big as full size trucks from a few years back....