Markham Lee_

GM: What's the Point in Being Number One if You Can't Turn a Profit?

Quick Clarification:

1) I don't hate GM or Detroit for that matter, I grew up in a household that only bought GM cars and can probably rebuild one of the 70s era Buick Elektras from scratch if I had to.

My articles are written from the perspective of what they should do to in order to thrive again and/or possibly gain my business.

There is a difference between constructive criticism and pure bashing, my articles are the former.

2) The point of this article is that for the last 10+ years GM has been #1 in market share, and has over the course of that time done nothing but bleed red ink. It's a mathematical fact.

Over that same time period Toyota wasn't #1 yet made more profits as did many smaller car makers, also a mathematical fact.

Therefore profit per car sold can easily trump market share.

3) Toyota (like many automakers) will lose money for a bit as it has to readjust operations to a marketplace that buys fewer cars, and buys lower margin cars. BUT, Toyota will find it's way to profitability relatively quickly, nor does it have the hard road ahead of it that Detroit does.

4) It's not possible to have a productive conversation about the auto industry if we're not going to be objective.

Thanks for reading.


-Markham