toyota ua [nac]

[Kent McLean]

Fred Munro wrote:
> VW-Audi also benefited from this - they got new manufacturing plants post
> WWII; new equipment, new plant layouts, new control systems.

WWII ended over 60 years ago. That equipment is (or should have been) retired. 
Japan benefited from the lessons taught by Deming [1]. GM was hurt by a) 
management's lack of vision [2] and the UAW's adversarial position (who had no 
problem backing members who put the Coke bottle in the door, etc., 'cuz that got 
back at big mean GM management).  Once GM's (and Chrysler and Ford's) quality 
tanked, it was an uphill battle to overcome that stigma.

My S.O. has a 2008 Buick LaCrosse as a company car. It has over 40K miles on it. 
It is quiet, no rattles, nothing falling off. It is a quality car. At the same 
level as Toyota? I'd say so. Her previous company car, also a Buick, did have 
rattles, misaligned interior panels, and knobs falling off. So GM's quality is 
where it needs to be.

Their problem now is about $1500 per car going to benefits of of retired UAW 
workers. So for a similar car, you'll be spending $1500 on a GM.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deming_Prize>

[2] Build a small car to compete with VW and Toyota? How about the Nova/ 
Omega/Ventura/Apollo? When that wasn't small enough or good enough,
they let loose the Vega, which lasted 8 years. Because what they were
doing was building crap small cars to get you in the showroom, and
then let the sales people upsell the customer to a "real" car.  Yeah,
the Vega had potential (especially the Cosworth variation), but the
dealers preferred to sell the bigger cars (with which they made more
money). The Vega was a loss leader to get customers in the door. And GM
was still fighting the UAW, so quality took a big hit on all fronts.

-- 
Kent McLean
1990 V8 w/5-speed and other mods
1991 200 TQA #3, with mods
1999 A4 Avant, V6 Tiptronic
gone: '91 200 TQA x2, '94 100 S Avant, '89 200 TQ "Bad Puppy"