News From the Auto Industry

Wagoner knows the giant is innovative and clever. He knows it possesses extraordinary design talent. He knows it is capable of building high-quality vehicles people want to buy. It’s doing it now, and is now doing it more efficiently each year.

Observes Ron Harbour, “GM made the biggest jump of the U.S. Big 3 and now there is only one hour-per-vehicle difference between Ford and GM. GM is closing the gap dramatically and making it a real dogfight with Ford.”

The giant has also awakened in the highly-profitable truck arena, due to excellent products in the T800 full-size family and the new T360 compact SUVs. I rate the latter, with their dynamite Vortec I-6 drive-lines, superior overall to the ‘02 Explorer. Great product drives sales, and GM’s light truck sales volume hit record levels in May. They’re now matching truck-sales-juggernaut Ford, a feat that few would have predicted in the recent past.

I was skeptical. The GM I’d watched for years was a big, plodding oaf that was getting pummeled in nearly every measurable area by lean, agile, product-focused competitors. Now, however, Jim’s bet is looking wiser by the month. In a growing number of critical business metrics, GM is on a seriously competitive roll. Manufacturing productivity and truck sales are up. The recently published 2001 Harbour Report for North America shows the formerly sleeping giant leading the industry in its rate of overall productivity improvement (a gain of nearly 8.5 percent over 1999). GM’S assembly productivity was up 9.4 percent. Engine making saw a 5.2 percent improvement. Stamping is up 10 percent.

The sleeping giant has awakened. Now let’s watch how quickly it moves.