Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 15:05:48 GMT From: "Matt O'Toole" <mattnospamanet.com> Subject: Re: Sonett Reborn
J. Harris wrote: > Actually, the General claims to have a new "plan" for product design, > introduction and production. Seems the days of designing an > all-pleasing, long-run production vehicle are gone (think of the Ford > Taurus or the Ford F150 Pickup truck with their multi-decade > production runs). Instead of building a car for the ages and mass > production, the new thought is to go from design to production within > +/- 18 months. Then produce a few 10,000 units before moving on to > the next "fad". By using global platforms and the global parts-bin, > we (the car buying public) should see a whole slew of "new" cars > being designed for very limited production runs. Neat enough idea and > it should keep designers/engineers busy... though I'm not too sure > we'll see any real innovation; more likely a homogenization of ideas. Honda figured out how to do this *20* years ago -- which is partly why they've been kicking GM's ass all along. Nice to see GM's finally getting with the program! Matt O.