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Originally Posted by 8cd03gro
I disagree, big time. GM for example, posted it's highest profits ever, at that time, in '96-'97. The late 90s were great for GM. A decade later they go bankrupt. It was a plummet in sales and profitability into massive debt and liabilities. That very well may be the future of Toyota, but it's too early to tell.
Ford hit trouble a bit earlier on, but still had massive growth and all-time highs through the 90s followed by drops in sales and terrible troubles in the mid-00s. |
The late 90s were good for GM simply because of high-profit truck/SUV sales. At the time, those were pretty much the only things GM was good at building. The car offerings were mediocre at best. The decline was already happening, in fact, it turns out that a good chunk of GM's profit was from GMAC, and near the time of bankruptcy, its ONLY profit was from GMAC.
Again, read Lutz's new book (for the guy who was asking, it's called "Car Guys vs Bean Counters"). GM might have had good sales and profit but the wheels of failure were already turning.