If I were the Car Czar (Part 1)...

There has been much talk about how the government bailout of GM and Chrysler would affect their business. The appointment of a "Car Czar" caused special consternation.

In the end, though, not much has changed. GM and Chrysler are still operating fairly independently, with little interference from the government.

Still, I thought it would be interesting to ponder what I would do if I were in charge. I'm tackling it in pieces, because it's just too much to think of all at once, so here's my advice to GM:

1. Dump GMC.

Kudos to GM for dumping Pontiac, Saturn, Saab, Opel and Hummer, but I don't see any reason for GMC to continue to exist as a separate brand. GMC products fall into 2 categories: Chevy clones, and heavy-duty trucks.

GM has positioned GMC trucks as "luxury" versions of the Chevys, but that's why they have the Escalade. As Colin Chapman once said, "Simplicate, then add lightness". In this case, lightness means reducing the weight of additional brands and their overhead.

As for the heavy-duty trucks, buyers of these are driven by cost (both purchase cost and maintenance cost). They couldn't care less whether the grille has a "GMC" or a Chevy bowtie on it.

2. Move some existing Pontiacs over to Chevy.

With the death of Pontiac, GM loses some beautiful cars. Most notable are the G6 (especially the coupe and the convertible) and the Solstice. Turn these (at least the G6) into Chevys, and retire the Chevy versions.

Sure, you may need to redo some details for brand consistency (the grille, for example), but you'll have cars with character, which many of the Chevrolets are sadly lacking. And the Solstice would provide Chevy with a less-expensive alternative to the Vette, giving people a path to step up to the real thing.

3. Clean up the Chevy lineup and improve differentiation.

Can anyone tell me the difference between the Impala and the Malibu? Anyone? Bueller??

Chevrolet doesn't have a clear "product walk" in their lineup. At Ford, it goes Focus->Fusion->Taurus. At Toyota, it's Yaris->Corolla->Camry->Avalon. But at Chevy, once you pass the small stuff, it gets messy. It's hard to tell whom they're aiming each product at.

4. Focus on quality finish, inside and out.

GM quality is light years beyond where it was even a few years ago, but most people don't realize it. Why? Because the parts that you see still sometimes have a low-quality "feel". They have gotten much better in this regard, and some cars (notably the Malibu) are quite good, but in many cases, there's still too much hard plastic, floppy switches and wide panel gaps.

Volkswagen has understood this for years. While their quality has never been terribly high, people have always perceived VWs as high-quality because their interiors are beautifully finished.

Quality is reflected in design, too. The Mini is an extreme example of this. Again, BMW's build quality is only average, but the design is so appealing, people see it as higher-quality than it actually is. Get this right, and people will beat down your door. Get it wrong, and they won't even get to the showroom.

5. Don't obsess over market share.

I was very concerned when I heard Ed Whitacre, GM's new chairman, say that they would focus on not losing more market share. Focus on profitability, not market share! The easiest way to increase market share is to give away the cars, but I'm pretty sure that's not really a good business model.

Bankruptcy gave you the opportunity to reduce your infrastructure by closing plants and dealerships, which you did. Now it's time to recognize that with fewer plants, fewer dealers and fewer nameplates, it's reasonable (and can be profitable) to have lower market share. Once you've stopped the bleeding, THEN you can think about gaining back lost market share.
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Of course, there's much more that GM can do, both on the product side and on the business side, to get their house in order. But I'd say that these few things would get them well on the way to regaining their lost mojo.