The Extreme Major Mistakes That We're Made By The Automakers

[deerwrecker2017]

This thread is going to be about the real major serious mistakes that the Automakers had made over the years (The major screw ups that in an Alternate Timeline would have never happened).

General Motors is a real example of how any automaker could truly royally screw up. These serious mistakes are not in the order of the severity.

1. - Cadillac Cimarron - This is a real example of a real royal automotive screw up (The best term to actually describe it involves a term used by the Marine Corps to describe a disastrously mishandled situation or undertaking) how this became a mistake is that Cadillac had decided to use the GM J Platform to build their new small vehicle on and the end result of this royal disaster was nothing more than a Fancied up Cavalier (Chevrolet's J Platform offering) and not surprisingly the Cimarron really underperformed in performance and the sales. Although Cadillac had attempted to make improvements to the Cimarron (Adding a V6 in 1985, Giving the vehicle a Facelift in 1986 and dropping the 4 Cylinder in 1987) but it became a case of way to little too late and Cadillac had finally killed the Cimarron after the 1988 Model Year.

2. - The GM10 Program - The development of the GM W Platform in the 1980's the way it had actually happened. This royal $7 Billion dollar Disaster started out as GM's plan to replace all of their A Platform cars with all of the models to offer Coupe, Sedan and Station Wagon variants with 7 Assembly Plants each building 250,000 cars (First major problem was aiming extremely too high although they eventually had reduced the number of assembly plants to be used to 4) then it started to really fall apart with GM botching the execution of the plan, The changing market conditions, The decision to scrap the Station Wagon variants in a economy drive in 1983, The 1984 reorganization at GM, GM being forced to rejigger the designs after the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable was introduced, GM not being able to afford to roll out all of the new models simultaneously resulting in the models being rolled out over 2 years starting with most of the Coupe variants (The Coupe variants should have never been developed as the demand was falling) in 1988 with the rest of them (Including the Sedan variants) rolling out in 1990, The inefficiencies of the GM's Assembly Plant system, GM ending up losing money ($2,000 per vehicle) on the models produced, and to really add insult to injury GM decided to continue producing Buick Century and Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera (The Pontiac 6000 had also remained in production until after 1991 when it was discontinued) instead of dropping them as planned and both of them continued to sell real well (Both of the models did manage to turn a profit with the tooling having long been monetized and the Cutlass Ciera had still managed to be Oldsmobile's top selling model) although they we're finally replaced after 1996. The W platform had lasted until 2016.

3. - The FWD C and H Platforms - Even though the vehicles had their share of good the real major problems was both of the platforms sharing the same 110.8 inch wheelbase, The Buick and Oldsmobile offerings built on both platforms looking almost too identical to each other in both the Exterior (Exception was the Rear End Tail Light designs and the Front Grilles) and Interior (The Dashboard and Instrument panel layout had noticeable differences). Fortunately both Pontiac and Cadillac managed to avoid the overlap issue that both Buick and Oldsmobile had ran into with their FWD offerings in the Full Size segment (Cadillac only used the C platform while Pontiac used the H platform for their respective FWD Full Size offerings). GM did make attempts to remedy the problems mentioned starting in 1989 with the updates to the Sedan versions of the Cadillac de Ville and Fleetwood resulting in their wheelbases getting extended to 113.8 Inches, The 1990's redesigns of the models resulted in them standing out although the the Cadillac de Ville and Fleetwood had moved to different platforms with the Fleetwood going to GM's Body-on Frame RWD D Platform in 1993 (Discontinued after 1996 along with the Chevrolet Caprice and the Buick Roadmaster) while the de Ville moved to the same platform the Seville was built on in 1994. The C platform was dumped after 1996 while the H Platform followed suit after 1999 with Oldsmobile's offerings on both platforms being killed off while the Buick and Pontiac models were moved over to the G Platform.

4. - The Chevrolet Vega - This is a real example of failing to conduct real extensive and through tests of any vehicle the end result was a vehicle that was plagued with Reliability, Quality, Rust and Safety Issues even it's engine had ran into major problems (Durability issues). Even though GM had aggressively made efforts to remedy the problems through both a series of Recalls and Design Upgrades the damage was already done and it's reputation (Along with GM's) was tarnished. If this could be considered Irony the Ford Pinto (Despite the Exploding Gas Tank issue it's now infamous for) had managed to both outsell the Vega but also outlast it (The Pinto ended production after 1980). The Vega was finally killed off after 1977.

5. - The X Platform - A real major problem here was (GM failing to learn from it's mistakes regarding the Chevrolet Vega fisaco) not conducting and extensively through tests of the vehicles (The recall issues that plagued the vehicles early on we're a result of that) another mistake was not allowing Sedan versions of the Chevrolet Citation and Pontiac Phoenix instead of the Hatchback versions or allowing any Station Wagon Variants of the models which ended up putting them at a real disadvantage when Chrysler had rolled out it's K Cars in 1981. The internal competition caused by the respective compact J and mid-size A platform offerings also cut into their sales. The X Platform finally gave out after 1985

6. - Too Dependent On Cookie Cutter Designs - This issue did not only affect only Oldsmobile and Buick's FWD C and H platforms but way more models in the GM lineup in the 1980's with too many of their vehicles looking identical to bearing a resemblance to each other one major example was buyers being unable to tell the difference from the Ninth Generation (1986-1991) Cadillac Eldorado and the Third Generation (1985-1991) Pontiac Grand Am and to make matters worse there was not much substantial size differences between both vehicles with the Eldorado winding up little bigger than the Grand Am which ended up good for Pontiac but it really hurt the Eldorado's sales (The fiasco here cost GM $1 Billion in lost profits alone) it was not until the early 1990's when GM has started to make each vehicle try to stand out as the buyers wanted more individuality.

7. - Too Many Overlapping Products - Another real serious mistake that GM had made was offering too many products than we're needed in various market segments around the same time. There is so many examples of this mistake out there like Oldsmobile and Buick's FWD C and H platform offerings from 1986 to 1996, The W Body Buick Regal and Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme being sold alongside the Buick Century and Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera respectively from 1988 to 1996, Chevrolet offering in the Compact Car Segment both the Cavalier and the Citation from 1982 to 1985 and later from 1988 to 1996 selling the Corsica alongside the Cavalier, Pontiac selling the Sunbird (Sunfire from 1995 on) alongside the Grand Am in the Compact Segment from 1985 to 1998, Both the Buick Regal and Century being effectively identical from 1997 to 2004 (Although the Century covered the low end while the Regal was the upmarket model), Even Oldsmobile and Buick had both J platform and N platform offerings from 1985 until 1988 and 1989 respectively, Even stupidly deciding to not kill off the Geo Prizm when the Geo nameplate was axed after 1997. GM started to do tackle the market overlap issue in the late 1990's with the P-90 project upsizing the N Platform, The Prizm was killed off after 2002, The Regal disappeared after 2004 reappearing in 2011 (Although it stayed in production in China the whole time) while the Century bowed out in 2005.

8. - Developing And/Or Producing Products Not Needed Or Wanted Anymore - GM was at a time for too long developing and/or producing vehicles that the buyers had no longer wanted. The many examples we're the coupe offerings in both the Compact and Mid Size segments for too many years, Still offering the Chevette in it's RWD setup for too long, Even when they redesign vehicles they continue the previous generation versions of that same car for the fleet market for some time, The Chevrolet Avalanche was a total waste of resources even if the buyers wanted it since a Crew Cab Pickup was a better and more suitable choice instead, The Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana should be completely replaced with a European style van which are more extremely fuel efficient (It would be better to tell each buyer that wants either the Express or Savana the words "Go *Bleep* Yourself"), The Chevrolet HHR was another vehicle that GM did not need to develop, There was either no need for Badge Engineered Toyotas.

These here are some of the examples. What do you think are serious mistakes made by any automaker other than what I listed here what are your opinions.