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Old 06-14-2011, 10:54 AM   #26
8cd03gro


 
Drives: 2005 STi corn fed
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Colorado
Posts: 2,997
Quote:
Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65 View Post
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.
I'm sure Lutz did push off as much of the blame as possible in his book. Funny enough, look at the 2011 YTD sales data. A much higher percentage of sales in 2010 and 2011(thus far), almost double in fact, were SUVs and light trucks than in the mid 90s, out of a far lower total sales figure. So GM must be less healthy, especially considering the market has shifted further toward small, efficient cars, right?

As of June 1, 2011

General Motors Corp. 1,046,275
Total Cars 438,409
Total Light Trucks 607,866
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