re: #148 Dark_Falcon

All those played a role. The biggest error of all, though was a shared failure by both GM and the UAW: Neither was willing to look honestly at changing circumstances and adjust. Instead both looked by to the 20 years after WWII when things were at their best. What they failed to understand (and what Michael Moore does not say) is that that “golden age” for the American auto industry was the result of America’s almost unique place after the Second World War. The auto industries of continental Europe and Japan had been destroyed and the US was the biggest player left in the market (the UK was number 2 and Britain’s auto industry made the same mistake). The dominance America enjoyed was unsustainable in the long run, but no one wanted to admit that and prepare for more difficult and competative times. Thus when Japan finally was ready to enter the US market, GM was caught flat-footed and got hammered.

I think the design factor played a big role. It was the decline of US dominance in the automobile market and their refusal to acknowledge change in the market and to provide higher mileage vehicles. Instead they continued to produce dinosaurs with poor mileage even through the 1970s. GM’s only contribution to this was the poorly design and constructed Vega. GM continued this practice even to the present day. This while Ford stayed ahead of the curve and outperformed GM who in the end had to be saved by the bailout.