Can GM make cars people want?
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
The General Motors bankruptcy has created as many questions as it has answered about the future of the automaker. Will GM be able to emerge from bankruptcy as a viable automaker? Will they be able to attract people to the showrooms with snazzy new products?
Listen:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Dr. Charles Kenny is a consumer psychologist, who studies car buyers and their needs in new vehicles. He says government mandates to make fuel efficient cars will eliminate sport utility vehicles and that would be disastrous.
Kenny: All of the products that GM makes that they make money on would go away, and what would be left to support the company, pay the overhead and the development costs?
Rutgers University marketing professor Maureen Morrin says the car maker has to find it's niche.
Morrin: I think the fundamental problem in selling cars for GM is as it has been for a long time is whether they are making cars people want to buy, not whether they are in bankruptcy at the moment.
GM has plans to sell three of its brands including Hummer and eliminate its Pontiac brand. GM also announced it will close its Wilmington vehicle plant.