- GM North America President Mark Reuss predicts that the company will once again be a contender in the critical California car market.
- With a slate of cars in all market segments, Reuss says Chevrolet will once again be an "automotive icon."
- GM has emerged from bankruptcy to be a "revenue-generating, customer-focused company."
HAWTHORNE, California — On a gloomy morning not far from the U.S. headquarters of Toyota, one of its biggest rivals, the president of GM North America talked to a roomful of automotive journalists about how his company lost its primacy in the "sovereign nation" of California. Mark Reuss showed more than a little disgust for "decades of excuses" from GM as to why that happened and outlined the company's strategy for taking back leadership in the Golden State with superior products and technology, quality and customer service.
Reuss touted a Chevrolet renaissance, trailed a few clues about Cadillac CUE, a new integrated user interface for electronic devices, and refused to tip his hand to GM's plans here for its vitally important trucks.
Focusing his talk to the Motor Press Guild on what GM must do to win back the California market, Reuss said the automaker lost the state because of "arrogance around competition" and a misunderstanding of how competitive an automaker has to be -- every day.
"Pretending we'll be OK if we sell trucks in the Midwest and South?" he said. "It's scary, looking back on it. You can't be a successful automaker selling bad products to people and thinking you can get away with it."
He cast California as a battleground state for GM, particularly in its need to compete in the state's important small-car segment. "If we don't play here, if we don't grow here, we can't compete," Reuss said.
GM can compete now, he contended, because it has good products. Leading off is the Chevrolet Cruze, which realized first full-year sales of 212,019 vehicles. And soon, Reuss said, Chevrolet will build out its line with the Sonic, the Spark minicar and the 2013 Malibu Eco. Those will be followed by the all-new Impala in the 2014 model year.
And once the Impala launches, Chevrolet will have a car in each market segment. The oldest vehicle will be the Cruze, which debuted in the 2011 model year.
"We want to re-establish Chevrolet as an automotive icon," he said.
Chevrolet has a clean slate of potential buyers for its products: the under-30 generation of 80 million Millennials, who represent 40 percent of the car-buying public. GM has partnered with MTV Scratch, a creative team inside MTV that helps companies market to the under-30 demographic.
"We want to make this generation fall in love with Chevrolet," Reuss said. This group, he said, has no anti-Chevrolet "baggage" from the brand's wilderness years. It aims to begin winning them over with the Sonic.
Meanwhile, Chevrolet's bet-the-farm project, the Volt, will continue to gain sales, Reuss said. But perhaps even more important for Chevrolet is the car's "technical halo." Drawn by their curiosity about the Volt's plug-in hybrid technology, consumers come to showrooms. And after they check out the Volt, they stay around to look at, drive and maybe buy a Cruze, he said.
"People want to see the Volt," he said. "Not everyone wants to buy a Volt." Reuss acknowledged that in a down economy, not everyone can afford a car that goes for $40,000 (before a federal tax credit of up to $7,500).
But those Volt visits are leading to Cruze sales, he said. Reuss said he believes the same thing will happen with the plug-in hybrid Cadillac ELR, "a beautiful car" that could perk up sales of conventional Cadillacs.
However fine the products, GM will not be able to rebuild its brands without better customer service, Reuss said. That component is being reconstructed from the ground up, and Reuss said he's set himself a personal goal of having the best customer service in the industry within the next two years.
"We're going to treat people right," he said. "There's no silver bullet. It's rolling up your sleeves on a daily basis."
Echoing the philosophy that has helped hotels and high-end retail stores make money by going the distance to solve client problems and anticipate their needs, Reuss said that GM field staff and dealership personnel will have the freedom to decide how best to deliver excellent customer service.
"No one will get in trouble for doing what they think is the right thing for the customer," he said.
Reuss said things are looking up for GM, both in California and the nation. He seemed confident, but far from smug about what's involved in rebuilding a battered car company.
"For now, we're making progress," he said. "But we have a lot of work to do."
Inside Line says: Reuss has passion leavened with realism and candor. Maybe that's the recipe GM needs to succeed this time around.
Add A Comment »
tbone85 says:
04:02 PM, 10/07/2011
O.K.
On to the dealer comments, the Honda dealer nearest me was dismal when I went there 5 years ago. They were rude and neither of the salesmen I spoke with had a clue about the vehicles they were selling. The Toyota and Ford Dealers were fairly good. The Mazda dealer in town was so bad that I eventually went to the suburban dealer after I'd called my salesman 3 times to arrange for signatures.
While true, these are anecdotes. Every manufacturer has bad dealers, and good dealers. At the end of the day, I can deal with other options to get past an individual bad dealer. What I can't do is to improve the actual vehicle.
fladisabledvet says:
06:17 AM, 10/07/2011
GM President Mark Reuss is a lying piece of garbage.
General Motors does NOT honor it's new vehicle warranties and will spend a million dollars on attorneys to steal a dollar from a customer.
I am a 100% Disabled Veteran. I bought a brand new Chevy Truck. It stopped running in less than a week. I used Florida's Lemon Law Process and the truck was found to have a defective engine, defective transmission, wireing shorts, and a third door that flys open unexpectly. Florida said the truck was not safe to drive IF I could get it started somehow.
General Motors said in Federal Court Kidwell v. General Motors U.S. District Court Fort Myers that they do not have to honor their new vehicle warranties because of their bankruptcy.
I went to the Bankruptcy Court last week and the Bankruptcy Court Judge in New York said that even though the Bankruptcy AGREEMENT said they would honor New Vehicle Warranties, and even though President Obama, and the CEO of the New General Motors said on National TV that they would honor Warranties, that if General Motors doesn't feel like honoring their Bankruptcy Agreement, and TV Promises they don't have too.
I am apelling the clearly PAID OFF Bankruptcy Judge. The low lifes at GM STEAL from America's Veterans and I will not stop until I get my money back and see the Board of Directors, and CEO of GM in jail.
This is why people are protesting Wall Street. Corrupt Corporations above the law like General Motors.
ttbuyer says:
04:00 PM, 10/06/2011
Chevy (i.e. GM) is actually making some impressive cars, but their image remains damaged by the memory the CRAP they produced for 35 years.
I really like the new Camaro convertible, but the "bowtie" makes me cringe because it is so closely associated with so many years of abysmal, embarrassing and inadequate automotive trash.
bfo says:
03:53 PM, 10/06/2011
This is too funny! Chevy to become an Icon is possible but with the caliber of cars they are producing now, it is impossible. Time will tell. My hope is that they build cars like the 6speed large sedan that will compete against European counter parts. We will see. We will see
blackdynamite1 says:
03:50 PM, 10/06/2011
I wonder just how much credit President Obama will get bailing GM out?
GOP will quickly say "That was all set up by Dubya before Obama took over!"
But that ain't going through unless he signs off on it, and it went into effect under his watch, so it's his baby now.
He made the right move. Nobody wanted to admit it before. But show The Man some love......
BD
mbukukanyau says:
03:42 PM, 10/06/2011
"uawh8r " Saving GM was the right thing for America. Its paid off big time, with new Jobs and keeping the company in American Hands, including the successful IPO. Haters will be haters, I do not think you are one of them
As far as product is concerned, the renaissance started long before 2008 crisis. Those products GM is selling now were developed before the crash.
"pixelpaul" You are a hater. I have owned many GM cars and the current one is a 2006 and has had ZERO defects since new, its just clocked 92,000.00 miles. Its a HHR.
Customer service carries from dealer to dealer. Weseloh in Carlsbad and Courtesy in Mission valley, (both San Diego County) are as good as any Lexus or MB dealerships. Others fall short. (Yes We have a Lexus and Benz in the family)
I also this week bought an Equinox. I test drove all major players, including CR-V, Santa Fe, Rav-4 and C7 Mazda, and its not even close. The Equinox is a luxury car both in equipment level, drive, noise, power and Mylink is just icing on the cake. No wonder the avarage time for these cars on the lot in San Diego Area is less than two weeks.
Anyone seriously seeking to buy a vehicle in the class that test drives it, cannot in good conscience take anything else home. Its that good.
tbone85 says:
03:14 PM, 10/06/2011
There are far more people hoping for a GM renaissance than tribalists wishing to dance on their graves to fulfill some philosophic "purity" campaign. There is no benefit to car buyers for any manufacturer not to improve their product. We all benefit from enhanced competition. I never wanted an Air, but thanks to it's execution and success, I'll get the Ultrabook I want because of the competition to meet and beat other products. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, "neither a fanboy nor a hater be".
mikey1978 says:
01:53 PM, 10/06/2011
Kudos to GM for putting in the extra effort into their newest cars and making some good quality cars. You need to look no further than these stats to realize they're on a roll:
Equinox - 24 hour production and can barely keep up with demand
Cruze - Bestselling compact only a year out...unheard of
Camaro - Consistently beating out Mustang
Can you imagine if their entire lineup were new?
kingon says:
01:42 PM, 10/06/2011
I am sick and tired of GM President Mark Reuss talking about cheap political about CAFE, cheap cars with FWD. worthless game meeting for emerge bankruptcy and more delay for RWD cars for next generation Chevrolet or if Cadillac ELR concept will cancel. it is real bad situation.
4circledbeauty says:
12:45 PM, 10/06/2011
Message for Mark Reuss: "You can wish in one hand and crap in the other and see which one fills up first.."