As a child, one of the cars he most admired was the Chevrolet Impala. Unlike Mexico, the distance from Brazil to the United States meant that these huge sedans were rare, which at the end of the 50s exhibited large lateral “wings” at the rear, reminiscent of rockets. It was the time of the race to conquer space, with Yuri Gagarin on the Russian side and the Apollons on the American side. Four headlights, huge chrome fenders made of metal so thick they could probably be used to armor a compact car today. And of course, long as it should be. I could never even get on one. It was an unattainable dream, a car for the rich at a time when having a car, any car, was already for few. But how I liked to see it pass, imposing, with the Recife sun reflecting on its brilliant bodywork. General Motors was the world’s largest company. In his country his domain was so powerful that it came to be debated whether it was a monopoly. And she was the global number one for 77 years. But when I started working at this fascinating source of the automotive industry, I sadly lived through its decline, which today has it down to fifth place globally and even reached the humiliation of losing first place in the United States, a crown that he was briefly at the head of Toyota, before returning to GM. What happened and what will happen to the once all-powerful General Motors?
Excess is always dangerous, even when it is excessive success. GM sold everything it was capable of producing between the 1950s and the 1980s. The arrogance that followed caused them to neglect the quality of their products, driven by executives only concerned with cutting costs and increasing their bonuses. The US government itself was largely to blame, since it transferred medical and retirement expenses to the private initiative, which later proved to be very difficult to administer. Almost silently, the Japanese were conquering the market. First in small cars, whose profit margin did not seem interesting to the locals. But then they proved to be more reliable car producers and conquered almost all segments.
Hitting bottom
My childhood desire for an Impala faded as I saw and drove GM cars from the late ’90s until a few years ago. Several of the less fortunate cars I’ve ever driven sported the Chevrolet bowtie on their grille, or the logos of any of its eight brands (until 2009 there were eight). The Pontiac Sunfire was an example. Slow, noisy, gluttonous, it was handled clumsily. The Hummer H3, mainly the one that used the five-cylinder engine, was an example of how not to make a vehicle. To date I cannot find a virtue besides the design that was pleasant to many. Not to mention the Aveo from two generations ago, in my opinion, the worst car for sale in Mexico at the time.
But little by little things were changing for the better. In the past Aveo was already a good car and the 2024 is even better. The Suburban is again a solid and comfortable product. The pickup again they have that shape that makes us love them and, mainly with the magnificent 6.2-liter V8, their handling confirms their aesthetic virtues. And it’s not just Chevrolet. when i drove the crossover electric Lyriq last year, I felt Cadillac finally return to the magnificence it once was.
Last March, in Las Vegas, sitting next to my friend Alberto Bortoni, we watched the executives of GM Mexico will present new products: Aveo, Encore, Colorado, Canyon, Trax, Lyriq, Montana and others. They paraded faster than our minds were capable of processing, but what we saw made us look at each other with an incredulous smile at one point and say: “Are these the new GM? Because we like them.”
We both lived through the decline of GM. We drove, disappointed, car after car until not too many years ago, and that night in Las Vegas, we sat down to record our Hablando de Autos podcast and found ourselves happy. General Motors is back. The great General Motors, the one that one day was able to make us dream. There is still a long way to go, of course, but they made it clear to us that they already know the way. !! Congratulations!!
