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Offside Undo.
A few short weeks ago, as we wound down our preoccupation with dangling chads and partisan Supreme Court rulings, General Motors killed its longest link to the past, Oldsmobile. Understand that the wording GM used is that it is ``phasing out'' Olds, allowing its products to whither away. The image that sticks here is of a shriveling earthworm writhing on hot asphalt. As we understand it: There ain't going to be no phase out. It's over.
Perhaps the obituary confirms that GM is incapable of selling competitive-ly built cars and trucks, because that's exactly what Oldsmobile's products are: the best lineup, top to bottom, that GM has-had-to offer. Equally, perhaps it shows that the company only knows how to market commodities.
The move puts 2800 dealers (68 of which are single-point Olds franchises) out of the Oldsmobile business. Perhaps they were, as someone suggested, second- and third-generation dealers who didn't know how to sell these really good vehicles. (I'm less inclined to buy that: A salesman moves units to eat.) GM also announced it was slashing by 10 percent its salaried work force, here and in Europe. Happy Holidays.
In the last four years GM dealers pushed 1.2 million new Oldsmobiles out on the road, which is nothing compared to the 1.2 million cars Olds sold in 1985 alone. Which is the point to Olds' woes, isn't it?
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