Analysis Of The General Motors Crisis Case Involving The Defective Ignition Switch

The Canadian auto industry is a model case study of a branch plant economy. The auto industry's rich history dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century where a bright young entrepreneur named Sam McLaughlin who initially was an apprentice in his father's carriage workshop went into the automobile manufacturing business with his brother and father. By l9l8, with increasing competition in the North American automobile industry, McLaughlin decided to sell his firm to the recently organized General Motors Company, owned by Durrant and associates. Thus, McLaughlin's company became a Canadian subsidiary of General Motors, with McLaughlin as president and as vice-president of the American company. During this process, the Oshawa plant gained the distinction of

Over the past sixty years, the American car scene has been dominated by two completely different vehicles and the entire communities that believe in them. Both designed, founded, and rooted in Detroit, Michigan, the Ford Mustang and the Corvette have continued to fuel the chase for the label of America’s true muscle car. The question over the years has been, why and how do consumers choose which to own, and which one is our “bald eagle”? Investigating deeper into the roots of each American superpower, it all began with introduction of something that would change the automotive industry forever. “Corvette: Dream Car Come True”, is an article that highlights the beginning of the car movement in the United States: the birth of Chevrolet’s Corvette. “Born in 1953 at the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, the Corvette grew up on the raceway and has ruled the road ever since” (Seiden 14). The article also goes on to mention that “the Corvette is not for racers only. True car lovers own Corvette cars for everyday driving… and the highest performance standards have been built into every model” (Seiden 14). Early dominance of Corvettes on and off the racetrack, led other competitors such as Ford Motor Company wonder why and how the Corvette could be out-driven and out-sold. Directly opposing the release of the Corvette and its multipurpose ingenuity “Lee Iacocca, then general manager of Ford Motor Company, challenged his design team to create a car that could be driven ‘to

Indubitably, the company wronged the consumers and passengers by violating their rights to not be killed in a car fire and their right to minimal health

A number of car incidents have been associated with the errors in the ignition switch, which could possibly disable the airbag, the power steering and breaks. Due to this issue at least 13 deaths and numerous injuries have been found (Isidore, 2014) with the General Motors Company. This investigation was given to an engineer in Florida, Mark Hood, to file for a lawsuit against General Motors and to try to figure out what was the cause of these accidents. It was revealed that the tiny metal plunger in the switch was smaller than the original size and needed less force to turn the ignition off (Isidore, 2014).

General Motors (GM) was one of the premier automakers of the world. Firmly planted as the leader of the big three automakers, GM, Ford, and Chrysler, years of success grounded GM as an economic and cultural icon of American business. As the Japanese auto market grew and became more efficient, turning out improved vehicles that the public wanted, GM was becoming a lumbering behemoth of inefficiency and corporate gluttony. Many circumstances contribute to GM’s road to bankruptcy including high legacy costs in union owned contracts, largely poor design, inferior quality, and low productivity.

According to its slogan “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country”, Charlie Wilson, the executive suite of GM, held the company with high regards. It was almost certain that whatever decision GM was making in the transportation industry, its sole purpose was to improve the lives of the American citizen. In fact, at a time when the general public was almost entirely dependent on centrally generated electricity for city transportation, decisions coming from GM was to be taken with a lot of enthusiasm. Without doubt therefore, the country turned its transportation policy over to the GM together with its automobile allies.

Gerber said that any car made before 2009, is ineligible to pursue General Motors damages due to defects despite the fact that the company likely (legally I cannot say definitely… but you know they) knew of the issue well (up to a decade) before the recall was issued. Not only that, the compensation fund set up by GM, has actually turned away 91 percent of claims, while the number of deaths a silently surpassed

In the mid to late 1960’s American automobile manufacturing was being dominated by Japanese imports. These imports, smaller in size than the domestic vehicles at the time, offered an economical and dependable alternative to what American automobiles offered. In order to remain competitive with these Japanese imports Ford chief executive officer Lee Iacoca instructed the Ford manufacturing company to come up with a vehicle for the 1971 sales year to compete with these Japanese imports. The normal time for design and production for a new vehicle line is 43 months but Iacoca ordered the process to be reduced to 25 months in order to compete. The timeline was met but a rear-end impact study was not conducted until after the car was already on sales lots. Drawn to the relatively inexpensive price for a vehicle at the time, Lily Gray purchased a 1972 Ford Pinto. This is where the production flaw of the Pinto was first revealed. Gray was traveling with 13 year old Richard Grimshaw on the highway when she had to slow to avoid a broke down vehicle. Also trying to avoid the broke down vehicle a Ford Galaxy traveling at approximately 50 miles per hour rear ended the Pinto. Almost immediately the Pinto burst into flames, both passengers had severe burns on their bodies, and later Lily Gray would pass away as a result of the burns from the crash.

Q.1 What are the causes and consequences of BMW’s quality problems with newly launched products? What should be done to improve “launch quality”? (583 words)

One of the many problems during the hearing is the emergence GM not only knowing about the defective ignition switch, but they also switched the defective product for a working one, yet still kept the same product number. In addition, during Senator Boxer’s questioning, she revealed that GM made a decision not to fix the defective product due to GM claiming that it “was not an effective business decision” due to the high cost of fixing the problem and the length of time it would take. Senator Nelson also brought up the issue of how people would be able to drive cars that are known to have the defects, citing that customers deserve compensation in a quick and effective process and are not satisfied with GM’s solution of driving “with only the car key in the ignition”.

Creation, acceleration and emotion are the key components for any automobile industry to deliver its goods to the expected standards. General Motors, popularly known as GM has been a pioneer in the global autoindustry for more than 100 years. Developing from horseless carriages to the latest sports cars, innovations have always excelled at putting the world on wheels. In fact, there are a lot of exciting things to share about the company. GM’s corporation started in 1892 by R.E. Olds, with a solid financial foundation, which enabled him to produce great vehicles for customers and build a bright future for employees, partners and shareholders. GM slowly initiated its staff of experts in the factories which are located in different parts of the globe and acquired the brands like Chevrolet, Pointiac, GMC, Buick, Cadillac(General Motors Corporation, 2015). Leading the way is their tailored leadership team who set high standards for the company so that they can produce the best cars and trucks. This means that GM is committed to deliver vehicles with compelling designs, flawless quality and reliability, leading safety, fuel economy and commercial features. All are intended to create that special bond that can only happen between a driver and a vehicle. General Motors is a customer driven company and aims at earning customers

Faced with an overwhelmingly complex situation, Alan Mulally has been brought in as Ford Motor Company's new president and CEO. As diverse global dynamics confront the company and competitive pressures continue to build, he has the challenging task of improving Ford's brand image and returning the company to profitability. Mulally has invited your consulting firm to advise his management team on restoring the company's reputation and viability. Assigned to the project, you have been asked to evaluate Ford's situation and prepare a report with the following content:

As a result of the increased demand of cars, the competition among car companies is becoming intense. Although the market of car is the biggest growing market in the world, there are still some companies who make cars failing year after year. However, there are some outstanding car companies such as The BMW Group performing distinctly.

The invention of automobiles had been dated long back in history. From that day till now, it had not only made our lives easier but also simpler. From times back then till now many big automobile companies had came into existence, some of them were successful and some were not, thus going out of market and competition. Among them, Porsche and Volkswagen Group(VW) have emerged as one of the world leaders in automobile industry. Through years of hardwork and sheer use of technology and engineering developments, both of these companies have carved a name for themselves in their respective markets. But sometimes, bad management and several areas of conflict arise between two companies that can lead to its downfall. In this case too the CEO of Porsche, just wanted to administer each and everything according to his own ways and rules, but on the other hand the CEO of Volkswagen, even after facing huge loses wanted to continue on with his strategy because he was quite confident about his strategy and clearly had a broader outlook of the scenario. Therefore, due to having different mindsets, there was a conflict between the ideas of two which led to the decline of one of them. These conflicts can be summed up in the following couple of questions:

This case study presents how BMW, a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company, is trying