GM CEO Rick Wagoner weighs in on FastLane blog on earnings, the turnaround, etc.

Just saw this today. GM's CEO Rick Wagoner, who has never before contributed to GM's FastLane blog, weighed in a couple of days ago with a long post on the behemoth's turnaround plan, second quarter earnings, and "why there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic." Wagoner writes:

"Although it hasn’t been fully recognized yet in the business media, there are strong signs that GM’s already well on the way toward a product-led resurgence." - GM CEO Rick Wagoner

The post is signed by "editor" and was probably written by the comms department. But it signifies a couple of things:

- GM is serious about using the blog as a way to "talk back" to (or even circumvent) mainstream media

- Wagoner takes the blog seriously enough that he's using it as a platform to put across a serious message about GM's turnaround prospects.

- Wagoner and GM realize they can efficiently reach a whole lot of folks through the blog

[via Robert Scoble]

Interesting, huh?!

Comments

[Dianna & Todd Freeman]

We have a 2006 H3 Hummer purchased in the summer of 06. One month later, while on vacation in MS. the rear end bearings and gears went out. The entire rear end had to be replaced. We lost most of our vac. time worrying with this problem, and had to drive a rental car home. Since that time we have brought the car back in to Flow Hummer in Greensboro, N.C.complaining with rear end noise. Twice, we were told that they could find no problem(undocumented on thier records). Twice, the car would not pull away from a traffic light without flooring the accelerator. Once it would not pull out of the driveway and had to be towed(on flatbed) to the dealer.Speaking with the srvice writer on the phone, he said the tecnician had problems getting it into the bay, but after it broke loose he could find no problem. Finally, on Thursday Aug.3rd we go once more with the same complaint, and they acknowledge that we are right and replace the entire rear end once again. Asking to trade in for an 07, the only trade allowance they would give was $1000.00 off of an 07. After the first incident in MS.,Flow Hummer gave us 4 free services, and a free car wash for as long as we own the car. We used to LOVE this vehicle, it was the most awesome drive I have ever experiencd. But now, my wife doesn't feel safe in it anymore. She is afraid she will be stranded on the highway again, out of state. She is no longer happy with this vehicle, and the managers at Flow Hummer, don't seem to care. I spoke with one of them, who told me it wasn't his problem and would absolutely not give more than the $1000.00 discount on another vehicle. When we bought the H3, we were welcomed into the "Hummer Family". Well, if this is the way you treat family, I'm sorry, I don't want to be a part of it.

[JR Berry]

For what it's worth,

Here in Carolina, Chevy ran a truck commercial during the World Series that was all in Spanish. I suppose illegal aliens appreciate that but I didn't. Perhaps this blog should be in spanish too.

Ran across this blog looking for email contact for Rick Wagoner. Probably as close as I'll get. Probably won't get approved and posted anyway.

[Don Roberts]

I have had an order in since Aug 08, 2006 for a base Solstice. The salesman said I would get the car in a month. Then it was the next month and the next month etc.. Finally they said they did not when to expect delivery.

The dealer gets unordered GXP'S but no base Solstice. Is GM only building GXP'S? This does not seem right that customer orders for the base Solstice would be subject to a six month wait or more.

I see why GM is losing sales. Customer support is zero. I will never buy a GM car again.

[DEWAYNE WOODRICH]

G Rick Wagoner, JR, CEO
Unhappy customer
This email is to express our unhappiness with the service we received from Ferguson Dealership in Colorado.We are a first timer buyer of a 2007 Yukon.This is not what we received from Ferguson Dealership.On 1/18/07, my husband and I walked in to Ferguson.We first dealt with Scott Hendrickson, New Car Mgr.The first mistake he made is to give us a quote of $47,400 including tax and everything we want in the car.When we are ready to go forward with the deal,10 minutes after he realized that he did not add in the tax so he then gave us a quote of $50,900.My husband and I then walked out.The next day my husband contacted Scott and went ahead with the deal of $50,900.We have a 2005 Ford Mustang to trade in.Scott assured us that he would accept the trade and give us $20,400 for the Mustang.We decided to add more options to the car and because of this,we have to wait a week for everything to be completed. When we are about to pick up the car the wrong wheels were put on that we did not ordered.Scott admitted he made a mistake ordering the wrong wheels.This in turn caused more delay in taking possession of the vehicle for another 6 days. The paperwork has already been signed about 12 days with an agreement of trading the Mustang at $20,400.Today, when we are about to pick up the car,we have been advised that there is a problem with the sensor and it will take another 2 wks before we can take possession of the vehicle.Scott had tried to get authorization from his GM if they can do anything as far as trade in.My husband overheard GM tell Scott "just let them go”. We walked out for the 2nd time..Keep in mind,5 days ago when we dropped off the Mustang to their lot we are fully told that they are giving us $20,400 for our trade in by Scott and Victoria, the Finance Mgr.We have tried contacting (3x & left vm) Victoria, Finance person to see the amount we need to write the check for the difference owed for the Mustang. No one has gotten back to us until today from Scott who then told us that they could not take the trade in for the amount they initially promised us $20,400. In trying to fix their mistakes and incompetence they “low balled”Today, all we have seen at the dealership is pointing fingers that made the mistakes rather than taking accountability to take care of the customers (us) and do what they can to fix the problem. This shows that this company has NO integrity.

[Chenoa Flores]

I am posting this comment in the hope that Mr.Wagoner will take heed. I saw the web page on how GM is wanting to increase public confidence in their vehicles, and about the new 36,000 bumper to bumper warranty. If thats the case, I wish he would explain to me why, last year when I was hit head on by a drunk driver not only did my airbag fail to deploy, but my seatbelt did not prevent me from hitting the steering wheel of my 2005 Chevy Malibu with only 30,000 miles on it, breaking my jaw in two places and knocking out most of my lower teeth! Only grudgingly, after several months of weekly calling, did they agree to help cover my medical bills, they didn't even give me enough to get my teeth repaired! If GM has a bumper to bumper warranty on their products, where is my reimbursement for the defective product I paid for? And if someone knows Mr. Wagoners email, please, let me know, I've got plenty to say!

[Thomas Napier]

I am posting this in hope that Mr.Wagoner will read this and contact me about this problem i have.
I have a 2001 Z28 Chevy Camaro w/ 70750 miles on it and it has recently developed the piston slap(loud ticking noise that sounds almost like a exhaust leak that which the way GM occurs when the clearance between the piston and the cylinder bore is too great, this is GM's fault b/c the way their engines are made therefore this is a defect). and even though GM says it normal this is not normal this is the 1st car i have been around that has made that noise and so GM is saying cars without this noise is abnormal???
I wish i was one of those people with a abnormal car
I would really like for this to be fixed w/o going trough attorneys but if i have to i will, It has also been found true that GM is only fixing the cars with this problem when people complain about it and there has been thousands of GM cars & trucks ranging from 1998-2002 with this same problem.
Mr. Wagoner please reply so we can resolve this problem if not someone that has his email please send it to me so i can get in contact with him.

[Mike D]

Mr. Wagoner,

Please READ this. I have been a GM fan sing my first Sonoma pickup in 1997 and then my 2001 Sierra. I'm the young buyer and I'm only 29 now and married. I recently had a major accident with my Sierra and so now we are searching for a new SUV. We liked the Yukon Denali but even though the Gas mileage is better than others, it's still not acceptable. We then looked at the Acadia's & Now the new Buick Enclave...it's upsetting to see that GM is offer $0 incentives. How does GM expect to remain number 1 when other companies such as TOYOTA & CHRYSLER and pretty much everyone else is giving a minimum of $2000.00 cash back? There is no way GM can stay ahead when other manufactures are actually giving "BETTER" deals.
Now my question to you is why does GM give such deep discounts to Family members, when in fact they should give a little less and pass the savings onto the actual customer who doesn't work for GM. You guys need to realize that your majority market is outside the GM walls.
I'd like to stay with GM, and I'd like to see GM move back up to #1 after todays results of Toyota surpassing GM, but to be honest I need to save money and get a good deal for my money and with no incentives, it makes me not want to even look at GM.

Sorry for the bad new but I feel that GM needs to hear what will probably work for us "REAL WORLD" people.

Take care,

Mike

[MF]

I also had a situation where I was in a serious accident on the freeway and my airbags did not deploy. My car is a total loss, and I had bruises from my seatbelt. When I called GM about this I was told that they weren't going to do anything about it, and denied that my airbags were defective. Excuse me? I hit a wall head on on the freeway and top speed and my airbags never deployed, yet my car was a total loss, and you are going to tell me that the air bags are NOT defective? I only expected to be reimbursed for the cost of the airbags, since when I bought the car I paid for airbags with confidence that if ever necessary they would work. GM wouldn't even do that. If there is a guarantee on airbags, they should honor this. Nordstrom's would! I am so disappointed and have absolute ZERO confidence in the safety and reliability of GM that I will never buy another GM vehicle. I have a $3K rebate and even that isn't enough to make me want to purchase a GM car, because my safety is most important, and the lack of proper response from GM tells me that it's not important to them. I will never recommend GM to anyone, and this is why GM is doing so poorly. Until you start making customers happy and confident in the cars you make, nothing you do will turn your company around, because American made or not, I refuse to support a company who doesn't feel my safety is important.

[RB]

Dear Mr Wagoner

I either read or saw something on TV about GM having a drive on trying to get their customers back. My husband and I have been GM customers for years. Both our vehicles were GM. Recently my husband had some warranty work that had to be done and that's when the trouble started with the dealer. This dealer has two places so we assumed that any warranty work could be done at either one. Not so! In order to do the warranty work it had to be at the one where the SUV had been purchased which is 40 minutes away and we only live 10 minutes from the other place. My husband told them he would call the owner of the dealership. His answer was, you can call anybody you want, we won't do it here! Is that a nice way to be treated? I called the GM customer service and that was no better. We found out why they didn't want to do it which had something to do with billing, two different places. Poor excuse, we were told that all they had to do was fax that from one place to the other. But, here is what really got us angry. When I was shopping for my car and we went to this dealer the saleman saw the SUV. He proceeded to tell my husband that he could have purchased it right there. He told him that they would have brought any SUV he wanted over to this dealership. Isn't that funny? They aren't willing to do the warranty work but, they are willing to sell it!!! How wonderful. My husband took the SUV to his own service station and paid out of pocket for the work. His mechanic hated doing it when he knew GM should have been paying for it. He said that was totally wrong of them. I then sent and email to a Mr. LaNeve and forgot about it. It was three months later when I heard from someone, another run around. They wanted the name of the dealership that's all. I told the girl who wrote the email that if GM wanted to keep us as customers here was the perfect opportunity because my husband is shopping around. He is so agry that he is looking into the foreign makes. His coworkers, friends, family and etc. who always had GM told him to switch like they did. Do you think that I heard back from anyone that they would like to make good on the warranty work or offer something on a new vehicle? No, all we got was an offer for free oil change. Not acceptable!! And you're trying to get your customers back??

[Kenneth and Ines Caldwell]

Editor's Note: this is a completely off-topic comment but it's coherently written and I'm leaving it up. - DW

September 13, 2007

G. Richard Wagoner, Jr.
Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer
Troy A. Clarke
Group Vice President and
President, GM North America
Thomas G. Stephens
Group Vice President,
Global Powertrain and
Global Quality
Douglas J. Herberger
GM North America Vice President and General Manager, Service and Parts Operations
W. W. Brent Dewar
GM North America Vice President,
Field Sales, Service and Parts
Gary A. White
GM North America Vice President, Vehicle Line Executive
Full Size Truck Team

Dear Gentlemen,

We just received a long awaited phone call from our assigned General Motors Customer Relationship Specialist and much to our disappointment the news we received is not what we expected to hear and we were actually offended by the possible offer from General Motors. On Sunday July 22, 2007 we were at the end of a holiday in Florida when the transmission of our 2005 Chevrolet Z/71 Suburban failed. We could not drive any further and had to have the vehicle towed and chose the nearest Chevrolet dealership for repairs. On Monday morning we were told that we could either have the transmission repaired or replaced but the cost of a repair could be as much or more as a new transmission and the warranty for a replaced transmission would be 100,000 miles (obviously much more than the original warranty that came with our $50,000.00 plus vehicle). Keep in mind this vehicle is only 2 years old, only has 58,000 miles and is out of warranty. This was a difficult decision to make with a dealership we do not have a relationship with but tried to have the confidence in their recommendations and advice since they do represent General Motors. In addition, we couldn’t shop around for a second opinion since we were already extending our time away from home and work at great financial expense – we live ten hours away. Three full days later and $3,600.00 poorer (car repairs only) we are finally going home and very disappointed with such a huge expense. Upon arriving home we contacted the local dealership that has handled all the maintenance for our vehicles for many years to inquire who we should call at General Motors regarding this. Now we have the General Motors Customer Relationship Specialist in the picture. The specialist has been trained well as what to say in the narrative to us (and what not to say), takes all the information, asks many questions including whether we are in the market for a new car within the next year and then sets up a specific time to call us back a few days later – very efficient but what does buying a new car have to do with this situation? Calls back the time scheduled and reports no decision has been made as to what General Motors can do for us. This goes on until today September 13, 2007 when the specialist tells us General Motors has decided they cannot give us any sort of reimbursement because the mileage on our vehicle is considered high mileage. We never thought 58,000 miles would be ‘high mileage’, not many of us can afford or choose to afford a new vehicle every 36,000 miles (the original manufacturer warranty limit). We never expected to be reimbursed the full amount but always hoped General Motors would offer some, if only a small cash compensation; even 5% would have been good customer relations. Instead we were informed the customer relationship specialist could submit a request to possibly offer an amount towards the purchase of a new vehicle, could not give us a specific amount at this time but it possibly could be $1,500 off the negotiated price of a new vehicle. “A COUPON”, General Motors wants to give us a coupon to spend more money, haven’t we spent enough? The specialist’s response to this is text book…….since we are a loyal customer of General Motors this is what can be offered but it still needs to be approved and the amount will be determined, the specialist couldn’t even guarantee the $1,500.00 that she mentioned. We were left hanging for close to 2 months when all along the outcome was probably decided when we were originally asked whether we were interested in buying a new vehicle within the next year. General Motors could save themselves some money by not having a staff of full time Customer Relationship Specialist’s because the specialist did nothing to ensure the relationship with us and General Motors, just 5% or 10% cash reimbursement would have held so much more loyalty towards the continuation of a good relationship between client and car manufacturer. This may be trivial to you but we are sure our unfortunate situation along with many of the other unfortunate situations that are made public is not good for public relations. Be assured we would have commended General Motors on this blog and by word of mouth had their customer relations had a positive outcome for us but instead our story speaks for itself.

Sincerely,
Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell

Exert from the General Motor 2006 Annual Report:
Our fundamental goal is to transform General Motors for the long haul, to structure it for sustained profitability and growth, to set us up to be successful for years to come in the ever-more-global auto business.
To achieve this goal, we have a very straightforward strategy: great cars and trucks that build strong brands, supported by industry-leading technology. Students of GM and the industry know this is not a new strategy. It’s the one that made GM number one more than 75 years ago; now, it’s re-making GM all over again, all over the world.

[PANKAJ NANDA]

I,VE WRITTEN YOU MANY LETTERS BUT YOU DIDNOT TRUN UP KINDLY GAVE YOUR EMAIL ID .MY EMAIL ID [email protected]. your most unsatisfied customer

[S Barringer]

I was looking for the e-mail address for the GM CEO, but only found this page. This guy doesn't want to hear anything we have to say.
Too, bad. You don't listen, we leave. It's that simple and why you're losing business.
Thousands of us signed a petition requesting that GM build small cars that are good quality and have high gas mileage. This usually means a SMALL car, not the SUV's and trucks that you ram down our throats daily on TV and radio ads. We sent the petition about three years ago. Still, you haven't produced the requested small cars that people REALLY want. If your company fails, it's your own d___med fault.
Customer service? You don't have any. Get a clue. That drives people away, and the word of mouth that goes along with that dissatifaction will bring on your quicker demise.
CLUE (again): Think SMALL, quality, high mileage cars.
Another clue about what's really happening in America: I have sold my car (GM) and will never buy another. Many people can no longer afford the expense of your pieces of crap that fail them when they need them most. They're going for alternative forms of transportation. They're changing their life-styles to ones which don't require cars. They're looking to build self-sustaining communities that don't have 6-lane highways that destroy neighborhoods and community cohesion.
Get a clue, GM leaders!

[M. Jay]

I care less about Rick Wagoner getting back to me or not like some people who posted their comments here! but I really got something to say to some GM executive about how they can improve the look and the quality of their products.

[OnlyMe]

I have always been resentful of automakers creating the unforgivable SUV which pushed North Americans over the edge in selfish, decadent, conspicuous consumption, and shameless waste, while devouring responsible motorists' share of resources. It is sad that it had to come to this before the automakers took note!

I hear Wall Street wants GM to cut down from the 8 brands it has. I would ask Rick to tell Wall Street to get lost! It is not the brands that are causing the problem - the problem is the pathetic SUV (across all 8 brands) and the good-for-nothing monstrosity called the Hummer.

I wish all automakers would tap into the retro, nostalgic market and bring out more vehicles reminiscent of the good old says. I say, dust up those old models and bring them back. The Mustang and PT Cruiser are two instant successes that come to mind. It can also be psychological - people love being reminded of a kindler, gentler, more care-free time.