" In my mind, we have the engineers and the technology to do the job, but somewhere the new thinking either isn't being encouraged by management or its there and isn't being executed on the plant floor. Either way, something needs to be done soon or we won't be seeing some very big players around much longer. marketeers and widget managers, and top-down authority. widget managers know business but not necessarily the car business, and worse, believe they don't need to know the car business. to them the company's real product is dividends [and their bonuses] and however dividends are produced is incidental. eg. manage the money and the rest will follow... ----------------------------- When GM introduced the Chevy Sprint to replace the Chevette as their low price leader, it was the beginning of the end for GM. I think it was the president of GM at the time that said ".. we're in business to make money, not cars, we just happen to make money by making cars. If we can buy them to sell cheaper than we can make them, we will.." Well, that's more or less the quote. Car guys don't necessarily make the best managers, but they make one heck of a product! There needs to be a balance, but GM is big enough that they can make at least one cutting edge/risky model every couple years. Maybe bounce it around the divisions so one doesn't take a big hit like Caddy did with the V-4-6-8 way back when. It's a risk that you have to take, but things do need adequate development time! _______________________________________________ Amc-list mailing list Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.amc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/amc-list