In reading Mr. Girolami’s comments (Letters, June 1) about GM “building more than 1,300 vehicles a day, with regular Saturday shifts for most of that time, which customers had an insatiable appetite for,” indicates that many GM employees still haven’t figured out that the measure of success is not what happened for the last 15 years, but to be able to adapt to the trends of today and stay ahead of the curve.
The fact the Oshawa Truck Assembly Plant thrived for 15 years misses the point of why GM has failed. The simple fact is the vast majority of us don’t want to buy gas-guzzling trucks and cars anymore.
Unfortunately, GM (along with Ford and Chrysler) took too long to correlate the upward trend in the cost of oil/gasoline into their strategy for car design, where companies like Toyota and Honda were creating hybrid and fuel-efficient vehicles more than a decade ago.
It’s a shame taxpayers’ money now has to be used so the Big 3 automakers can try to learn from their mistakes. If only all Canadian companies were so fortunate to get a second chance when their business plans failed.
