'Corvette Corporation'

[HarleyEarl]

I'm a huge GM fan. They have showed brillance beyond compare and yet have made some of the dumbest decisions in automobile history.

And they have been hugely successful in so many ways...like being number one a lot of years.

Many stunning, many dreadful cars and a slew of marketing schemes later, there has been but one shining star in their orbit.

Corvette.

Clear visionary, purposeful, consistant, ever improving Corvette. Some close calls for sure and a couple of iffy years, but they stuck with the plan.

Now, I say, take the Corvette team and put them in charge of GM and change the name of General Motors Corporation to Corvette Corporation. Because no matter what GM does, they could make the best cars in the world, but the old baggage may take too long to unload. It may be too late.

Use the current Corvette emblem slightly reworked.

Then see a renewed car company.

[PurdueGuy]

Implementation would make or break an idea like this. Replace the top mgmt with 'vette folks, and engrained middle management folks might still crap things up, resulting in the whole endeavor being lipstick on a pig. I'm not against the basic idea, but implementation would certainly make or break it.

[HarleyEarl]

I hear you and you may be right.

But if this great company is to survive in the new realities, maybe something radical needs to be done.

I'd rather it existed in a new form then not at all.

Look, I know this will never happen, but it wouldn't hurt GM to look at Corvette and apply some of this philosphy and management to GM as a whole.

Edited July 21, 2008 by HarleyEarl

[Sixty8panther]

I like the idea to a degree but the execution is not 100%

realistic & might be more damaging than helpful.

I mean to put it in perspective this would be like Toyota

turning themselves into the Celica-Supra corporation or

if the Germans decided it was now Porsche A.G. instead

of VW/Audi/Porsche group.

You going to be more likely to buy a Camry if it's made

by Supra Motors? Are you going to be more apt to go test

drive a FWD, triptronic Jetta if it's made by Porsche Inc.?

Edited July 21, 2008 by Sixty8panther

[HarleyEarl]

I see where you are going with this, but the Corvette name and the Porsche are iconic brands.

Now 68, I'm just ever so slightly surprised that you equate Celica/Supra brands with Corvette or Porsche.

Not even close and I'm sure you didn't intend to present them that way

Anyways, I was using the Corvette thing as an example of clear branding and continual improvement of a model year after year.

GM could learn much from within their own corporation.

[PurdueGuy]

Anyways, I was using the Corvette thing as an example of clear branding and continual improvement of a model year after year.

I agree 100% that this is what GM needs.

[Sixty8panther]

Oh agreed... it was a bad example, but it DOES to a degree illustrate my point.

I'm all for your enthusiasm and unique approach. Just not in love with the idea just yet.

[balthazar]

The Corvette -more than any other model in GM history- has had some agonizingly long product cycles. '68 to 82, anyone? That's almost half the time BMW has been reshuffling the same nose on it's cars. Everyone here sems to be leaning toward bi-annual model re-do's.

But I know what you're angling at, HE - steady refinement, class leading, all that the Corvette has always... ususally always displayed.

Edited July 21, 2008 by balthazar

[regfootball]

so, we'll add another BRAND but you suggest we need to cut pontiac and buick etc.

[Sixty8panther]

cross-fire *cough cough*

[XP715]

cross-fire *cough cough*

Don't you mean cease-fire?

[Sixty8panther]

A guy at the Worcester Summer Nats. who had a MINT

cross-fireball-less '82 Vette told me that with a little

tunning the crossfire will develop 400+ horsepower. It

was, according to him, sabotaged mid-development

so that it would not steal the comming ZR-1's thunder.

(I doubt the ZR-1 existed even in someone's imagination in the late 1970s)

He was DEAD serious and got agitated when I giggled

at his claim that cross-fire was one of the best GM

designed high-performance developments in history.

[PurdueGuy]

so, we'll add another BRAND but you suggest we need to cut pontiac and buick etc.

You misunderstand - he's not adding a Corvette brand, he's replacing management of GM with Corvette management, and renaming GM.