General Motors has been a great investment!
I continue to be excited about the future of this business. My
enthusiasm comes from what I learn each day here at the store and from the
research I do for our marketing. I also get to sit in on manufacturer/dealer
conference calls and read their communications to us. Our sales force enjoys
sharing the knowledge they gain from their training courses and the
Ride-n-Drives they attend where they get to drive and compare the competition.
I’ve also had the opportunity to attend the Dealer Meetings in Las Vegas where
they revealed future products and future plans to the dealers. Now that was
exciting! So I guess you could say I have a unique perspective when it comes to
the automotive industry and our local business here in North Georgia. While I
doubt my knowledge will prove to be of any significance to your everyday
burdens I figured I’d share with you some facts, some observations, and even
some downright bias opinions that may or may not get you excited about the
future here at Hayes Automotive.
Let’s start with General Motors since they plan to replace
80% of their model lineup in the next 2 years including the next generation
pick-ups, Tahoe, and Suburban. The
revolution in quality, fit and finish, and class leading gas mileage that we
see in today’s Sonic, Cruze, Malibu and my favorite in the line up the Equinox
will be expanded to include the completely redesigned bigger brothers. The new
designs are a complete new look that will vault those products to the front of
the magazines but what I like most, and it’s proven by our current vehicles, is
that we’ll have the class leading fuel economy and other technology to keep us
in the customers mind even after they go farther in their research. Like I
said… very exciting. And as far as what the new full sized vehicles look like
I’ll just say this; we’re moving away from rounded, curvy, jelly bean type
edges to strong, sturdy and straight body lines. You’ll like it!
If you want to know how the All New 2014 Corvette C7 looks
you’ll have to wait until January when Chevy reveals it. But until then you can
get a good idea by looking at this Stingray Concept.
I’ve seen the new Corvette when I was in Las Vegas at the
dealer show. I couldn’t take a picture because the good people at GM walked all
1,500 of us through metal detectors to make sure nobody brought a phone or
camera into the presentations. But I can tell you it begins with this concept
and takes some throwback ques from the 60’s and even 70’s Corvettes. It is
sweet! And of course they promised it would be stupid fast.
General Motors as a company is in the best shape it’s ever
been in and still getting better. Bankruptcy cleaned up GM’s balance sheet and
new management is relentless about making GM a simpler company, which in turn,
is lowering its costs. GM cut an entire layer of management out of its product
development unit, for instance, giving chief engineers more responsibility for
product cost, quality and competitiveness. GM is also rebuilding its
information technology infrastructure, bringing more tech expertise in-house.
They continue to hack away a waste because they can. Labor costs are lower
because of the forced re-negotiations with the union. Retiree health care is now
the union’s problem. Labor cost is now on par with what the imports are paying.
The products they sell are well positioned in the market and indications are
that the housing market is picking up which helps car sales. Great timing for
GM’s new pickups.
