GM does give a very compelling case for the car portfolio. I love what they did with Saturn. GM is smart enough to see that their European designed cars are doing very well and they can actually take advantage of it. However, what’s still holding them back when they go against the Japanese in this changing market is the flexibility of their manufacturing and the union they have to deal with. The big three Japanese are producing both cars and trucks in the same plant and can vary the % of each type of vehicle they produce per plant much easier than GM can. That’s how they can cope with this change in mixture of sales much easier. Nissan is producing more Altima in the Titan plant, same with Toyota producing more Camry in their Tundra plant and Honda producing more Fit in place of their SUV. That’s the kind of flexibility GM need to be able to thrive in this drastically changing environment.
