American car companies must refocus on the PRODUCT portion of the Marketing Mix

The American car companies have been mismanaged for decades. The focus for this time period has been money and profits. Improving quality and addressing customer demands have not been used to drive the business objectives. It is terrible business practice when the accounting and finance departments are driving decisions that affect product quality and customer demands.

American car companies have no valid plan for getting it right. If they focused on basic customer needs such as extended reliability, defect reduction and increased miles per repair costs, they would have never needed bail out money.

Detroit ask car customers (yours and the competitions') what they want in a car. Ask them to elaborate so you can fully understand. Listen closely and read between the lines and then ask more questions. Then focus on meeting their needs. The Japanese get it and the Korean car makers are getting it. If you don't play correctly you are going to continue to lose and should just go away. It is that simple!