Dan Neil, the Pulitzer Prize-winning auto writer at the Los Angeles Times, says General Motors should fire CEO Rick Wagoner and Vice Chairman Robert Lutz.

In a review of the Pontiac G6 last week, Neil wrote: "This is an uncompetitive product, an assertion borne out not by my say-so but by sales numbers. When ball clubs have losing records, players and coaches and managers get their walking papers. At GM, it's time to sweep the dugout."

GM, in retaliation for that shot and others by the newspaper, has fired the Los Angeles Times - yanking all its advertising from the paper "until further notice." Media buyers estimate that GM spends about $10 million a year with the newspaper - the largest-circulation daily in the biggest car-buying state in the nation.

The automaker says it made the move because of long-standing disagreements over the way GM is portrayed in the newspaper. The concerns cover factual errors and opinions, a spokeswoman said.

The newspaper says it is looking into GM's complaints.

http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=102155

 

BlueOvalNews guys had some good comments about this.
Neil is pompous, but none of his statements are factually incorrect.
He does actually talk about the Pontiac towards the end of the article,
but it's clear he enjoys lambasting GM over what are very real mistakes.

GM, the LA Times, and pretty much everyone is the loser here.
SoCal is non-stop Toyotathon country anyway. This flap matters in Detroit,
but not in LA., except for the Times, which has its own financial and ideological überbias problems.

 

GM has and will continue to not accept reality...as they advertise and name the G6 to mean a sport luxury car while it's just a rehashed platform with a rehashed engine - over and over and over again people just stop listening to the marketing hype...they then write the truth about it and GM just can't handle it

here is my impression of each companys strategy:

marketing rules GM as they will lie about the true cabilities of decades of rehashed cars - G6 (about as sport sedan as a buick century) and Aztek (the first butt ugly minivan advertised as a rugged SUV)

accounting dept rules Ford (think pinto/explorers as lawsuits are cheaper to pay off than to properly design a safe vehicle)

world domination rules Toyota (at the current rate it will soon happen and we'll all be board with japanese buicks and scions with 20" wheels and their drivers with bad hearing)

geeky engineers rule Honda (some of the stuff they come up with really doesn't make practical sense - but every once in a while they do something incredible that all other mfgrs said could never be done)

cheap hp fanatics rule Nissan (as the same v6 powers minivans, sportscars, trucks, family sedans and luxury sedans)

 

have you ever noticed that CD reviews are rarely *bad*. even if an album sucks major balls (eg, jlo), reviewers usually won't completely rip it apart. they always try to tone it down, and always try to avoid sounding negative or insulting. the reason for this is that rolling stone once published an album review that completely crapped all over whatever album was being reviewed - and printed an advertisment for the same album on right next to it. the record company was furious, and scathing album reviews virtually became a thing of the past

this is the same thing. GM is trying to flex it's arrogant muscles. "so you don't like our products? well then, screw you!" if the LA times really was biased against GM, then they have some justification.

is the LA times really going to have trouble filling that advertising void? is this going to intimidate other journalists into writing more placating stories/editorials about GM? i certainly hope not.

 

Yay marketeering! :excited:

Hey, my aunt works at Ford accounting! :sqfawk:

I think you're right on about Nissan. It's less about bureaucracy now and more about sheer power in vehicles and taking whatever segmented chunks of the market they can.

So who runs Chrysler? Anyone? :chuckles:

 

http://yahoo.smartmoney.com/commonse...0412&afl=yahoo

another good article...gm is shooting the messenger b/c they are too scared to look at themselves