GM exec said to regret employee discount

General Motors' wildly popular employee discount program was a regrettable mistake and will not be offered again, the company's top sales and marketing executive said in an interview published yesterday. Even though the automaker posted record sales during the promotion, Mark LaNeve, vp for GM North American vehicle sales and marketing, said he regretted the campaign, which ran from June through September of last year. "Hindsight being 20/20, I probably wouldn't have done it," he told the Wall Street Journal online edition. The promotion, which offered deep discount to car buyers, was soon mimicked by rivals Ford and DaimlerChrysler when they rolled out their own programs in July. Sales at GM plunged 26% in October after the discount program ended, according to the paper. Ahead of next week's Detroit auto show, LaNeve told the Journal that GM plans on pursuing an "aggressive" tact on lowering prices, and doing a better job of promoting the quality of its products. "In some ways we are turning back the clock," LaNeve was quoted as saying. "The Japanese made their mark by making good products at a lower price. So to some extent, we are going to underprice them." GM, which is facing speculation it may file for bankruptcy and an eroding share of the auto market, is set to launch 19 new products this year, according to the Journal, which will include a mix of full-size and smaller SUVs as well as pickup trucks. GM officials have repeatedly denied that the troubled automaker will file for bankruptcy.
(CNN 060105)

Hmm...I seem to recall stating these exact same things a few months ago. The North American car companies went the wrong route completely by introducing these sales programs on their bigger vehicles. Now the entire North American market perceives cars produced by GM and Ford to be cheap gas-guzzlers. It will take more than a few economic cycles for these perceptions in the market to change. I'm not sure if GM and Ford have learned their lessons yet. They will want to compete on price, so I don't think the attitude that their products are 'cheap' will be going away anytime soon.