(September 2009) The GM arrogance bug seems to be catching. The smirk behind the smile on GM Chairman Ed Whitacre in his debut as a Lee Iacocca clone just doesn’t work, at least for us. It seems he performs better in the boardroom where he has earned the reputation as a “bulldog.” And CMO Bob Lutz acts like he is as pure as the driven snow or at least as pure as Whitacre’s white hair, reflecting his know it all GM attitude.

We take exception with the GM “try it” program although Lutz is probably right that few consumers will actually return vehicles. But the program smacks of being disingenuous. Why else would dealers say most consumers will take the program’s alternate rebate offer of $500 instead of the 60-day bring it back program. Add to that the potential loses for the consumer including fees, any trade-in and a myriad of other rules that could cause acrimony and backfire on GM.

While price sells and large incentives are a fall-back but lame position, we believe a moderate incentive and a simple, straight forward five-year/50,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty including wear parts (like BMW and Volvo are doing) together with a new 10-year/100,000 powertrain warranty (there's a 5-year, 100,000-mile warranty available now) would go much farther in giving GM long term credibility.

We also take exception to the truck commercials Howie Long is doing for Chevrolet that come across as nasty and arrogant put downs instead of forthright and comparative. It’s hard to trust a company that doesn’t know the difference. And over at Buick, what the heck does “a new class of world class” really mean. If this is the best that GM can come up with we think they still have a problem in expressing themselves in a way that will make consumers respond.

It seems a shame that representatives of the company come across so poorly while the products they are trying to sell, for the most part, are a much better example of what is right with GM. But if you’re a consumer – how are you going to know?

  — The Editors