At new ‘design-driven’ GM, smiles on wheels

By WARREN BROWN

WASHINGTON POST

BEAR MOUNTAIN, N.Y. — It’s too early for General Motors to declare “mission accomplished.” The company still has a long way to go in its expensive, product-intensive turnaround. There are obstacles aplenty, including a credit-crunched national economy that could slip into recession and crush new-vehicle sales. And competitors, of course, aren’t sitting still while GM forges ahead.

But there is a discernible note of confidence in the voices of GM’s top executives today. And there are smiles on the faces of the company’s designers, engineers, vehicle line executives, marketing and communications people.

Such expressions should not be mistaken for bravado or wishful thinking. They are, instead, tangible personnel indicators of what is happening in a company that has changed its culture from one of authoritarian control with little regard for consumers or rank-and-file employees to one in which car people — designers, engineers and marketers — have been empowered to go full blast in anticipating and meeting consumer needs and demands.

It is a corporate revolution.

Back in 1982, when I began covering the automotive beat for The Washington Post, visiting GM’s headquarters in Detroit was akin to a prosecutor checking up on a suspect. There was always a sob story or a blame-shifting saga meant to throw the prosecutor off track.

I seldom was allowed to question designers or engineers unaccompanied by a phalanx of corporate public relations people, whose presence had an effect on interview subjects that the presence of police in China might have on dissident citizens speaking to foreign journalists.

There was lots of official bravado in that old, dying GM. But the truth of the place was reflected in the sullen faces of rank-and-file employees who knew better.

2008 models

Today’s GM is much different, as evidenced by the company’s northeast regional preview here last week of its 2008-model cars and trucks. The new GM brought vehicles sans excuses. Every model displayed spoke for itself, and did so favorably.

The 2008 Chevrolet Malibu, for example, has emerged from bread-and-butter mediocrity to become a beautifully designed and smartly engineered mid-size family sedan that invites pride of ownership at a starting price of $19,995, with a Malibu Hybrid version beginning at $22,790.

The 2008 Cadillac CTS entry-level luxury sports sedan, GM’s styling leader with a completely redesigned and much-improved interior, already is a best-seller. Ditto the Saturn Sky roadster that is doing what few would have thought a GM roadster could do, which is to steal sales from the iconic Mazda MX-5 Miata.

New trucks and sport-utility vehicles from GMC, the company’s trucks-and-nothing-but-trucks division, are coming with dual-mode hybrid gas-electric technology that saves more fuel on highway runs than current gas-electric models. And every single one of them has impeccable fit and finish.

Early results

And the early results of GM’s product push are two consecutive months of new-vehicle sales increases — August and September — at a time when vehicle sales at rival companies, including Toyota, are declining.

Indeed, a year ago, few people would have thought they’d be reading the following passage in Automotive News, the Detroit-based trade journal:

“Market leader General Motors saw its U.S. sales rise 0.3 percent in September. GM cited a strong start for the redesigned Cadillac CTS, and strong sales of the Saturn Outlook, GMC Acadia and Buick Enclave crossovers.”

Note the reference to “market leader.” Especially, note the reference to Buick, once thought to be a moribund GM vehicle division. It appears that Buick is being saved by the Enclave, generally touted as being one of the best-designed crossover utility vehicles in the U.S. market, and now a genuine sales hit.

Today’s GM is “a design-driven company,” said Gary White, vice president of GM North America, speaking to journalists here. “Ultimately, the best way to develop brands is for them to have the best cars and trucks possible wear their badges.”

To reach that goal, GM has ended its storied intra-corporate bickering, transformed its once disparate product-development operations into one global team “and put the creative power back in the hands of our designers to make beautiful vehicles that will ultimately strengthen all our brands, all around the world,” White said.

Go figure — giving vehicle designers and developers the right to do what they were trained and hired to do in the first place. It’s no wonder those people are smiling ... and eager to talk to the media about what they are doing — without overseers.

That’s different. That’s progress. That’s the new GM. May it long live.