I have always wanted to custom order a vehicle the way I wanted. I have thought that after the Maverick got a few years to shack the bugs out I might replace my 04 Silverado with that. I do not need a full size. I do need a vehicle that can haul small loads or pull a small trailer to haul a small load.
Has the General become Boring?
- Thread starter tkruger
- Start date
As a disclaimer, I came from a GM family. My dad worked for GM from before I was born to 1986 when he retired. While this brought some "insider" information to the table, it also was our bread and butter, so I was always paying close attention to what GM was doing. And early on, my Dad was an Oldsmobile man. I got the Olds bug when he brought home that 69 Cutlass S. His last Olds was an 84 Cutlass Calais.
GM has lost its way as a true innovator, IMO. They're always playing catch-up to someone. They're late to the game in almost everything. They think they're Lexus, thinking if they put the same grille into everything it just looks like a bigger or smaller version of something else in the same lineup. Too often you see the tech specs saying crap like "in order to compete with BMW whatever car...etc., etc.," Why not make the other car companies be the one chasing you?
From the newest cars we bought, I will say from personal experience, the 2020 CT5 4-door sedan the wife got is a pretty slick looking design, but still identifies with the Cadillac brand without looking like an SUV. My 2020 Denali is very nice. In comparison, I really loved my 2010 GMC Sierra. It was moving up there in mileage, but I took good care of it and it took good care of me. But as for the Denali, even a year later, I really like the conveniences and I do like the truck a lot, but I don't LOVE it.
A few years back, when I took the MIL's Focus to the dealer for some recall work, I took time to piddle around the showroom a bit and looked at a high-end Ford truck sitting in there. It was uninspiring to me. The touted aluminum body waved at me when I looked down the side of the truck. Body lines looked off for whatever reason. Not aesthetically pleasing to the eye. And THIS was the truck they wanted to show off in the showroom? No thank you. Not that I hate Fords, I'm just never been impressed with their styling in 99% of their lineup.
The only Chrysler product I'd ever own is a Challenger. But no time soon. I still like my current 5th gen Camaros too much.
GM has lost its way as a true innovator, IMO. They're always playing catch-up to someone. They're late to the game in almost everything. They think they're Lexus, thinking if they put the same grille into everything it just looks like a bigger or smaller version of something else in the same lineup. Too often you see the tech specs saying crap like "in order to compete with BMW whatever car...etc., etc.," Why not make the other car companies be the one chasing you?
From the newest cars we bought, I will say from personal experience, the 2020 CT5 4-door sedan the wife got is a pretty slick looking design, but still identifies with the Cadillac brand without looking like an SUV. My 2020 Denali is very nice. In comparison, I really loved my 2010 GMC Sierra. It was moving up there in mileage, but I took good care of it and it took good care of me. But as for the Denali, even a year later, I really like the conveniences and I do like the truck a lot, but I don't LOVE it.
A few years back, when I took the MIL's Focus to the dealer for some recall work, I took time to piddle around the showroom a bit and looked at a high-end Ford truck sitting in there. It was uninspiring to me. The touted aluminum body waved at me when I looked down the side of the truck. Body lines looked off for whatever reason. Not aesthetically pleasing to the eye. And THIS was the truck they wanted to show off in the showroom? No thank you. Not that I hate Fords, I'm just never been impressed with their styling in 99% of their lineup.
The only Chrysler product I'd ever own is a Challenger. But no time soon. I still like my current 5th gen Camaros too much.
The maverick is a great idea from Ford. Yeah it's FWD and unibody, but it is a new truck for $20k and has virtually no competitors. Its not my cup of coffee, but I suspect it will do well with the traditional crossover buyers.
It also looks like an actual pick vs. some weird van thing like the Hoonduh Ridgeline.
People expect a pickup to be semi boxy. The Maverick is a Ridgeline that had a better marketing department tell the designers what to do.
Also helps when you have an in-house team that's been building trucks for a hundred years, instead of a company founded on cycle engines and tiny cars
Scales of economy and global branding has killed GM - out of necessity. It got bigger than it ever should have with way too much, unsustainable, product diversity (the overhead and operating costs were insane). And then it got blaaaaand. Even attempts to create cool cars through the 90s, 2000s, and 2010s were all just parts bin projects in one way or another. Were they good? Absolutely. Inspiring? Occasionally.
I wanted a CTS-V wagon with a stick. Never got it because GM didn't want to play. Their loss, and that was the last time I was really keen on one of their products.
A few years later... well... the Hellcat came out and I never wanted a specific new car more in my whole life. Obsession is a good word for the affliction. Children's and other people's reactions to a car are an excellent gauge for how boring your car is. My kids practically demand rides in it on the daily.
Show me anything GM has advertised in the last 20 years that compares?
Best I can come up with:
And then they killed the car and the brand.
I wanted a CTS-V wagon with a stick. Never got it because GM didn't want to play. Their loss, and that was the last time I was really keen on one of their products.
A few years later... well... the Hellcat came out and I never wanted a specific new car more in my whole life. Obsession is a good word for the affliction. Children's and other people's reactions to a car are an excellent gauge for how boring your car is. My kids practically demand rides in it on the daily.
Show me anything GM has advertised in the last 20 years that compares?
Best I can come up with:
And then they killed the car and the brand.
Motorheadmike makes a great point… advertising plays a big part in making someone “need” a car. Nothing GM advertises is “cool”. None of their commercials make me want a GM. Ford is slightly better, and Mopar is tops by a mile.
All of the muscle cars back in the day had their own advertising campaigns, and usually an edgy one at that. GM now seems content at being safe and boring, no different than Hyundai or others.
All of the muscle cars back in the day had their own advertising campaigns, and usually an edgy one at that. GM now seems content at being safe and boring, no different than Hyundai or others.
Advertisement is important in making a brand. I still remember Ford Tough, Mazda's Zoom Zoom, Pontiac Excitement, Like a Rock and Heartbeat of America this many years later. I have no clue what any of the GM slogans are now. I do know they changed a decade old logo to look like something in a preschool room.
GM is in a sad state. They used to do EVERYTHING and down to the component level it was done well.
The state of GM designed alternators, starters, PS pumps, distributors, ect from the 50's to the 80's was SO beyond the competition. GM put their starter solenoids on the starter, their AC compressors were compact, alternators were 1 wire and internally regulated, coils on distributors were included inside the cap. A similar era 60's/70's era anything else has all these tacky add on modules to do what GM had scienced out.
GM owned Frigidaire from 1920 to 1980. Almost every piece of off highway equipment used a frigidaire AC compressor. Frigidaire sold off to electrolux which is now owned by the Swedes.
Saginaw steering boxes and columns were a GM subsidiary from the 20's to the late 90's. A TON of off highway and on highway industrial equipment used saginaw designed components. They rolled that business into Delphi and sold off to now a Chineese owned company.
GM bought Packard and killed off everything but the electronics division. Deplhi/Packard connectors and electronics were miles beyond anything else developed at the time. Of course GM punted the division and its an Irish owned company called Aptiv.
GM made busses and trucks got sold off to White which mismanaged everything and then got bought by Volvo and sucessfully managed by the Swedes
GM developed construction equipment Euclid got anti-trust sued out of the GM umbrella in the 60's by the US government which turned in Terex (also owned by white motor corp) that mismanaged the business and got sold into Hitachi which is owned by the Japanese
No wonder GM sucks these days. They spent 30 years developing everything down to the component level to be flat out better than the competition and and then they booted every division to turn a quick buck and make their stock price look good. They weren't as vertically integrated and have to buy the same crap everyone else does. They lived high on the hog through the 90's and 00's because their engineering had all the backlogged lessons from the 50's-70's and they had cash flow and loyal customers.
Then 2008 hit, all the knowledge had already left and they weren't diversified enough to weather the storm. Bankrupt.
GM is moderately good at turning revenue into a profit (much better than Tesla anyways) but their stock price can always be better so management will continue to make short sighted decisions to push high revenue products out the door and hope their product that has little to no design advantage over anything else on the market can draw consumers in.
The state of GM designed alternators, starters, PS pumps, distributors, ect from the 50's to the 80's was SO beyond the competition. GM put their starter solenoids on the starter, their AC compressors were compact, alternators were 1 wire and internally regulated, coils on distributors were included inside the cap. A similar era 60's/70's era anything else has all these tacky add on modules to do what GM had scienced out.
GM owned Frigidaire from 1920 to 1980. Almost every piece of off highway equipment used a frigidaire AC compressor. Frigidaire sold off to electrolux which is now owned by the Swedes.
Saginaw steering boxes and columns were a GM subsidiary from the 20's to the late 90's. A TON of off highway and on highway industrial equipment used saginaw designed components. They rolled that business into Delphi and sold off to now a Chineese owned company.
GM bought Packard and killed off everything but the electronics division. Deplhi/Packard connectors and electronics were miles beyond anything else developed at the time. Of course GM punted the division and its an Irish owned company called Aptiv.
GM made busses and trucks got sold off to White which mismanaged everything and then got bought by Volvo and sucessfully managed by the Swedes
GM developed construction equipment Euclid got anti-trust sued out of the GM umbrella in the 60's by the US government which turned in Terex (also owned by white motor corp) that mismanaged the business and got sold into Hitachi which is owned by the Japanese
No wonder GM sucks these days. They spent 30 years developing everything down to the component level to be flat out better than the competition and and then they booted every division to turn a quick buck and make their stock price look good. They weren't as vertically integrated and have to buy the same crap everyone else does. They lived high on the hog through the 90's and 00's because their engineering had all the backlogged lessons from the 50's-70's and they had cash flow and loyal customers.
Then 2008 hit, all the knowledge had already left and they weren't diversified enough to weather the storm. Bankrupt.
GM is moderately good at turning revenue into a profit (much better than Tesla anyways) but their stock price can always be better so management will continue to make short sighted decisions to push high revenue products out the door and hope their product that has little to no design advantage over anything else on the market can draw consumers in.
GM did show how the future of producing models back in '96. Why discontinue a car just to have people showing up to a Chevy dealer looking to order a car they killed two years earlier? I couldn't keep count on how many guys came in to order a Impala SS in '97 & '98 just to be told they couldn't & they kept asking why GM killed it. Had to tell them GM did it cause they needed more resources to build more trucks. They have been practicing at sucking balls for decades now.
GM is only focusing on electric so why bother with what they already make.
