The demise of GM Frigidaire.

[peteski50]

I was doing some internet research and came up with a article knocking General Motors. The article speaks about electric cars and describes how GM denies Frigidaire was made by them. I will try to attach the article and hopefully everyone can spend a few moments reading it.
Peter

Bob Connor from Pittsburgh, PA sez...
Destroying electric cars seems like an act only a stupid company would do but this is not the first time GM made a good product that they didn't want to public to keep. I know some people who have a hobby of collecting and restoring home appliances. I don't buy the argument from GM that nobody would make parts for the EV1s that people wanted to buy. Until 1980 GM had their home appliance division, Frigidaire. GM Frigidaire kitchen and laundry appliances were among the most innovative made at the time and usually of high quality, some are still going today. No, you cannot get parts for GM Frigidaire appliances now and today GM pretends that they never existed (Today's Frigidaire appliances are made by another company and are considered a "budget" brand). Oh, BTW, GM shut down Frigidaire on December 26, 1980 so the employees in Dayton got unemployment for Christmas. What I am saying is that this is a much bigger blunder than getting rid of Frigidaire and GM deserves to go bankrupt because of it. I cannot figure out who in their right mind would buy Anything from this company. The only reason I think they do well in the Pittsburgh area: We have a lot of seniors who have good memories of the Chevys and Buicks they drove in the 50s, and a lot of funeral homes that like Cadillac. GM also screwed up when they wanted people to get an expensive charger for the car. Why could an electric car not be recharged by a 220 volt electric dryer outlet found in most homes? That way you would recharge after doing the laundry! Even if you didn't have this outlet an electrician could add one for about 200 dollars. But please don't charge near that much for the DVD, charge less than most movies as the message is more important than the one about the "Lake House".
[7/14/2006 12:30:28 AM]

 

[peteski50]

GM shut down Frigidaire on December 26, 1980

I always knew General Motors shut down Frigidaire at the end of 1980 but didn't know the exact date. I feel this date should be a day of morning at the club. It will always be the most tragic day in appliance history. We should have our own private services and may it rest in peace.
Peter

 

[kevinpreston8]

Typical GM bashing fool

While I will be the first to admit GM has made many blunders and offers some bland cars, this is like about a million other anti-GM rants I have heard. Big on cheap shots, short on facts.

Truth about GM electric cars? NOBODY BOUGHT THEM. Does this guy think that GM would invest BILLIONS of dollars on the cars and not want to sell them? They literally rotted in a storage yard outside LA with the sun beating down on them. Limited range, forget using the air conditioning. It was a product that was not far enough along technology wise and for a market that does not exist. No one wants a car with limited miles and long charge times, not then, not with $4.00 a gallon gas, not ever. But, they don't get any points for at least trying.

Here's a newsflash for Mr. Conner. Not a lot of big companies are interested in talking about divisions that they no longer have/own/operate. GM DESERVES to go bankrupt? How does that help things? More people losing jobs? Investors losing money? Even MORE automobile dollars going to non-domestic car companies? That's a good thing? Why, because little baby Conner didn't get his question answered and his feelings are hurt by the disappearance of a GM owned Frigidaire? Yeah, I guess with all the problems GM has, they are worried about what Mr. Conner thinks of an old appliance division.

Perhaps Mr. Conner should also do a little fact finding and realize the Cadillac no longer makes the DeVille line of "old folks Cadillacs" and has targeted a different market. He also would find out that the Cadillac division is doing rather well, that Buick is typically in the top five of car quality, that Chevy makes the unbeatable Corvette, is bringing back an awesome Camaro, will likely redo the Impala, and Pontiac has a great little sports car called a Solstice.

But no, let's not let facts get in the way of someone who hates GM. This guy is probably very happy in his 1985 Peugeot Diesel.

 

[peteski50]

General Moters

I do not dispise GM because they got rid of Frigidaire. I look at the situation this way it is a result of poor management. GM like most other businesses do not know how to run businesses. The craftmenship is poor on most American cars. GM along with other American car companies produce mostly garbage in my openion that is way people buy foreign. That is why most of American business is falling apart. So many people are getting laid off and jobs going over seas etc etc. So to sum it up GM is just as bad as most other American business. As for Frigidaire WCI made a mistake buying it they thought it would be a good investment and didnt realize what the costs would be to produce the products. GM continued to produce Frigidaire products for almost 2 years after the purchase. WCI paid GM to keep it going and the relationship was very poor. GM would have continued to produce Frigidaire if they would have gotton paid for it. WCI paid a fortune for Frigaire and only bought a name. The factories stayed with GM. That was their biggest mistake, they should never have bought it without getting the factories. I remember talk at that time that the factories were to be moved and production was to be continued by WCI, but as we know that never happened.I had always felt if WCI kept some of the stuff like the refrigation, air conditioning and washing machines they could have pulled off switching the other stuff. They would have been better off letting it come to a end completly when GM closed it. From the start of 1981 foward when WCI put out their stuff Frigidaire had such a poor name in the appliance industry. The products were the very worst a far cry from the GM quality. In 1986 Electrolux got involved with it but didn't make many changes until about 10 years ago. Now the products are somewhat better and the Frigidaire name is back up but it will still never be the same. But again GM is no better or worse than any other American business.
Peter

 

[agiflow]

I drive a GM product..Saturn, and in the five years now i have owned it, i have not had a single problem with this car.

I do my routine oil changes, rotate tires and generally try to keep it looking like the day i bought it and i would do it again in a heart beat. I know GM has it's faults, but they seem to be doing some things right also.

I for one would love to have one of the new cadillacs. I love that styling on their models...turns my head every time i go past a dealer.

Pete i know how much you are a Frigidaire fan and it is a shame that GM let it go; as they were some of the best appliances money could buy at one time.

I have to say though i would still buy a GM product if it has the same good reliability my SL2 has. I hope if anything GM can bounce back from their internal problems.

As bad as BIG corporations can be,...they are still what shaped the lives of generations who have come before us and made life a lot easier day to day.

 

[peteski50]

American Products

Hi Pat,
Glad you responded. I am happy you have luck with your car. I was just making a big generalization about Americam business. Working in the corporate is the best example. The quality sux. It is easier for business to send work overseas at a much cheaper rate. The employee has no value anymore also the quality of most newer products is poor. GM just falls into that catagory.
Peter

 

[launderess]

One must remember there were several other automobile company's in the United States that either sold off shut down their appliance divisions.

Post WWII factories turned from producing war material to domestic production. One huge new market was those thousands of military men (and their nice fat GI checks), who were marrying and setting up housekeeping. Not in the history of the US was there such a housing boom, especially as familes moved into nice sized homes in the surburbs. All those homes needed to be fitted out, and thus the boom in appliance sales.

This was all fine and well, but by the late 1960's or so things began to settle down. By the time we reached the 1970's with "stagflation" and everything else going on, the appliance market was not what it used to be. GM like other auto makers decided their business was building cars, and decided to concentrate on that, selling off everything else. When WCI came a knocking with a nice offer, the shareholders took the cash. And why shouldn't they? There was no promise GM's appliance division was ever going to fetch that much money in the future, and why be saddled with a divison you really do not want.

L.

 

[nurdlinger]

Truth about GM electric cars? NOBODY BOUGHT THEM.

This was because the EV1 was only leased, never sold. I don't have a dog in this fight, but I do know that fact. I have read a lot of messages on Usenet and elsewhere from people who claim they tried to buy their EV1s when the leases were up but could not. You can find plenty of opinion on either side regarding the technical design of the vehicle, and to what usage it was best suited.

 

[jamiel]

GM wanted the Dayton plant for their new pickup line, as I recall (the S10). Did GM ever have a second appliance production plant? I'm inclined to say no.

I'm on the other side...the Frigidaire designs were getting old, GM was ramping up their downsizing effort (1977 the big cars, '78 the mid-size, '80 the X bodies, '82 the Cavalier, '83 the stretched X (Celebrity/Ciera etc) '85 the second whack at the big cars) so needed to focus.

One tidbit, the Dayton plant was not a UAW plant (it was IBEW) and it continues as such today (IBEW even as it produces SUVs).

 

[jasonl]

FWIW, I like GM products. Recently, I"ve fallen in love with the Pontiac G6 convertible. It has every automatic feature you could possibly want in a car, even the roof automatically retracts when a button is pushed.

Keeping this thread ON subject, I don't know why GM killed Frigidaire because those were really nice machines. Complicated washers but nice.

 

[peterh770]

I don't have a dog in this fight either, but I must say...

What a great thread for the Super forum!!!

 

[dalangdon]

I agree that this is more appropriate for "super" but in the meantime, I'll toss my opinion in...

I think there's a lot to be said for companies having diverse product lines: One can enhancee the other on the design level, and the diversity of production raises the overall quality of the product, because they all "compete" internally. In the long run, that leads to shareholder value, but no one looks at the long run in the markets anymore. (Don't get me started on what I think of the MBA programs and their affect on American business....)

It's similar to when Target sold off their Marshall Fields unit. I think that a big part of the reason Target is a "nicer" shopping experience than Wal-Mart, and is perceived as somehow being "classier", is because of the department store influence. The company that started out running Dayton's, and acquired Hudson's and Marshall Fields, knew how to merchandise, and how to treat a customer. Now that they have severed that tie, it will be interesting to see how Target evolves.

 

[bajaespuma]

Sorry kevinpreston8 but,

GM killed off Frigidaire because, in the late 70's the Union representing the Appliance Workers noticed a big discrepancy between the salary and benefits of the Auto Workers vs. those of the Appliance Workers. GM's CEO at the time decided that it would be cheaper, in the long run, to divest rather than be fair. IMHO it was the first of a series of bad, short term greed motivated decisions that began the demise of GM.

Caloric suffered a similar fate when Raytheon bought them in the late 60's.

 

[kevinpreston8]

You may be right....

But let's remember, whether we like it or not, business decisions in large corporations are made in the interest of shareholder value. Sometimes you have to cut to save.

Should a company be forced to hold onto a division that is not performing up to expectations? Or if what the previous poster said is true, so WHAT if they didn't want to pay a much greater salary to the appliance workers? Isn't that the company's decision? How is that greedy?

Let's say you, personally, own a string of stores. Store A in LA is really rolling, but Store B in Pasadena is not doing well. Store B in Pasadena is classier, cooler, has more people employed there, but its return on investment is less than 1/2 what the LA store is. In fact, if you open another LA store, you could more than double your money.

So, should you be forced to keep Pasadena open because of the people working there? What difference is your responsibility there versus you running a corporation and servicing the people who have invested their money into you?

In your own business, do you have the right to pay some people more because of your impression of skill sets, costs of doing business in different geographies, etc? And if one of your underperforming stores won't improve and asks for more money, do you have the right to just say, never mind, I will just close the store so I am not bothered with it. Or, should you be forced to pay whatever anyone wants, ad-hoc? Just whose business is it anyways? Help me, I am lost on that one.

Another example. You are getting ready to retire. You have stock in company X. You have bought alot of stock and you invested in the company because you believe they do the right thing. One day they send a letter to you saying, sorry, your stock is going to be worth 1/2, since we MUST KEEP AN OLD APPLIANCE DIVISION AROUND.

There is something we must remember about business. It's not fair. Who says it has to be? If you owned your stores as I described, how would you like it if someone came in and said, no, you can't close that store, that's not FAIR. To WHO???

I don't universally defend business, and I think a balance should be struck treating employees well while servicing the people who have invested in your business--either yourself, your family or your stockholders.

I also agree that there have been some decisions in the past which seem to be obsessively driven by "this quarter" mentality without appropriate consideration with long term, or even mid term, consequences. I am on board with that.

However, it just makes me bristle when someone thinks a large corporation that employs thousands and thousands of hard working Americans, provides retirement and investment value, deserves bankruptcy because of a decision to redefine its product line.

Again, that original article author has an infantile outlook on the business world.

 

[jasonl]

So it was the @$$hole in charge that decided to kill Frigidaire. Money hungry corporate assholes. Line'em up against a wall and shoot them with machine guns.

 

[neptunebob]

Oh, my gosh, you people found MY response to the film!

Yes, it's me who wrote that! Please, it's only my opinion!. Looks like I'm going to have sit in the corner! By the way, I have not seen the film yet as it was not in any theater in our area. I think maybe Senator Rick has something to do with that we could not see "An Inconvienent Truth" either. Guess I will just have to sit on Santa's lap and ask for the DVD for Christmas!

 

[dalangdon]

Another thing about diversity of production...

That just occured to me: In light of GM's recent woes in auto production, but the huge market for home improvement products, I wonder if they would have like to have had the Frigidaire brand still in their corral?

Of course, GM is so huge, and their problems so systemic (with many of the external), it might not have made much of a difference - but it might have helped just from the sales numbers standpoint.

 

[peterh770]

But it is truly funny and sad how businesses work. For example, how does Holiday Inn sell off Holiday Inn? But they did, to the British, and now both Intercontinental Hotels Group and the Hilton group are doing well. Whirlpool just bought Maytag -- who'da thunk? Electrolux is getting ready to do something to Wascomat, and Alliance just bought Jensen/Ipso. Meanwhile, the market is getting flooded with appliances from Asia. Weird.

Makes me almost want to buy a Staber.

 

[agiflow]

Just a couple of years ago,...who would have ever thought that Maytag after such a long run would wind up like they did. Such a shame for this country.