The central planners in their arrogant manner thought GM would be easy to transform. All that was required was to drive out the CEO and the board, put GM in bankruptcy, create a new good GM and a bad GM, install a no-nonsence CEO, and wallah, GM makes money.
There's just one problem: The GM cars don't inspire potential buyers. WSJ: "With the average U.S. Buick owner older than 70 [!!!!!], GM is trying to figure out how to attract new buyers, particularly young, more affluent ones. Buick's brand chief acknowledged Wednesday the strategy will be an uphill battle." [Emphasis added.]
Susan Docherty, chief of the Buick-Pontiac-GMC sales channel: "You talk to people in their 40s and 50s and they know it [the Buick brand]. But they say, 'This isn't for me.'"
All the machinations of the central planners runs headlong into the unpopularity of many GM brands and models, especially Buick. It will take years to redesign the models and to find a customer base for them. There is no central-planner machination that can change that reality.
And so there is not a whole lot of difference between the former GM and the new GM in terms of its ability to perform in the market. And it is this fact that will undermine all the central planners' ambitions for GM.
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