(first posted 8/19/2011) We often take General Motors to task in this space for its failure to learn from its mistakes. But today’s tale involves the opposite problem for GM – Failure to learn from success. After a quarter century of building troublesome (Vega), sometimes dangerous (Corvair), and flaccid (Cavalier) small cars, by the autumn of 1983, GM was finally ready for a new approach to building cars that could compete with the finely crafted entry level products that were coming from Japan.
The car that emerged from the company’s joint venture with Toyota could have been the fork in the road that led GM back to the forefront of innovation and design excellence. Instead, internal company politics and poorly understood market dynamics made the Nova an historical curiosity that failed in its primary mission and left no lasting legacy with the parent company that desperately needed it.
The very admission that the worlds largest automaker needed help to design and build a class-competitive compact spoke volumes about the internal rot at GM. By the early 80’s the company had become dangerously dependent on mid size rear wheel drive sedans and pickup trucks to generate the capital needed to stay competitive across its model lines, pay dividends to stockholders and make the investment needed to head off the resurgence of Ford and Chrysler. The latter had struck gold with the K-Car and its derivatives and the former was gaining traction with its “Quality Is Job One” campaign coupled with the introduction of the ground breaking new “aero” T-Bird .
We need to remember that the X-Car debacle was still fresh in the minds of the top brass at GM. Indeed,the quartet of troublesome compacts had arguably done more damage to the company’s reputation than the Corvair/ Vega disasters of the previous two decades. It just seemed like the worlds largest automaker couldn’t build a small car that was any good. Out in flyover country, keeping up with the Joneses didn’t seem so smart when the Joneses’ Citation had to be towed in for warranty work a couple of times a month.
The subcompact J-Car program was a similar disappointment for the management at GM. The cars themselves were light years ahead of the Vega /Astre / Monza / Chevette “bad old days” efforts of the 70’s, but were clearly not up to the high standards of fit, finish, and reliability of the concurrent Civic, Corolla or 210/ Sentra. GM was making progress but losing ground. What to do?
One person who thought he knew just what the company needed was fairly new in the corner suite, but his tenure at GM would mark the era when the company lost its old confidence that it had the talent, the capital and the know how to build class leading cars in every market that it chose to compete in. That man was Roger Smith. His initiatives would define the corporate drift at GM in the 80’s and the Nova would be the first project that bore his unique stamp.
It’s less remembered today that the Toyota/GM joint venture proposal that would build the Nova was viewed with fear and suspicion in Detroit in 1984. GM still had 43% or so of the U.S. market and Toyota owned Japan, so the announcement of a joint venture between the worldwide rivals was not met with universal acclaim. Ford and Chrysler made threatening noises about the antitrust implications of such a marriage and the smaller Japanese makes complained in vain to Tokyo about the un-level playing field being even more tilted against them. In the U.S., the justice department looked the other way in these years of benign neglect and laissez faire and Tokyo took the whole thing “under advisement”. Clearly, both companies had friends in high places.
The corporate form that would screw together the Nova would be a completely new car company with grouchy old workers and an fairly old factory. New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated would be the empty vessel that GM hoped would turn out a world class product utilizing a veteran, though restive workforce. The company would forthwith be known as NUMMI and the factory that GM contributed as its share of the project would be its facility in Fremont, California.
Asked to choose the “least likely to succeed” plant to build the Nova , smart GM watchers would have chosen Fremont. The plant was old (it had built cars and pickup trucks since 1960) , inefficient, and had one of the most militant labor forces in the industry. And, it was mothballed. GM had shuttered the plant in 1982 after the workforce had turned in some of the worst quality scores ever seen on GM vehicles in the previous two years. Absenteeism was endemic. Drinking , drugs and on the job sex was rife. But the Toyota side of the venture thought that the problem was not the workers, but their management.
Neither company came into this marriage of convenience with totally pure motives. Toyota faced import restrictions on U.S. sales and needed to learn how to build cars here and deal with American workers. GM wanted a peek behind the curtain at Toyota’s secret of building small cars that ran well and made money. That only one partner would succeed was a story that took time to understand.
Roger Smith decreed that GM managers would use NUMMI as a classroom to learn the Toyota way of building small cars. They would then take this knowledge back to their home plants and divisions and GM would turn Toyota’s biggest guns against it and beat back the import threat once and for all. That was the theory, anyway. They would come to be called the “NUMMI Commandos”. In the event , the GM managers assigned to the venture would learn their lessons well, but time would prove that they were unable to teach them to a company that didn’t want to learn.
Smith (and to be fair,the rest of GM’s senior management ) truly believed that there was a valuable secret that the Japanese were hiding behind their inscrutable facade of company unity and shared purpose. Smith himself was the ultimate GM company bevel gear; he had spent virtually his entire working life in the financial bowels of the mother ship. He could have been by no stretch described as a “car guy”. He was a “numbers guy” and as such, he believed that if you stayed up late enough and studied hard enough, every problem could be solved by application of cold hard statistical control.
It never occurred to Smith that maybe the Japanese just hired better workers and listened to them when they had ideas or concerns. He would be aghast at the idea that a common line assembler could become more knowledgeable about a product than the engineer that designed it. He would be apoplectic if an assembler could stop a production line because of a defect. But that is just what Toyota taught its workers to do.
Thus Smith pushed the NUMMI Nova through the sclerotic bureaucracy at GM. The timetable for the car was ambitious: Both companies wanted a salable product by the fall of 1984. This meant that the car that emerged could not possibly be a clean sheet design. Almost by definition, the car would be a badge job, a car that could ramp up production quickly with existing technology. Because the whole point was to build a better small car than GM could build on its own, the resulting product would be more Toyota than GM , but plugged into the vast Chevrolet dealer network. Chevy had clout; it had long been one of the largest buyers of network television ad time. Suppliers had relationships with Chevy that had endured for decades. The make had dealers in virtually every town in America, thus parts and service would not be an issue. The Nova would be the “no excuses” small car that customers demanded.
Somehow, it all worked. The first cars that came down the Fremont assembly line in December 1984 (as ’85 models) were among the highest quality cars that GM had ever built. They were statistically indistinguishable to the Corolla built in Japan that the car was based on. The cars’ fit and finish were impeccable. The interior didn’t squeak or break. The engine bay was a model of logical, tidy, well machined poetry. Wires were well routed inside neat, dedicated looms , the battery was accessible and oil, belt and hose changes were a snap for weekend tinkerers. It looked, for a moment anyway, like GM had found the way to reinvent itself and ensure its prosperity for decades to come.
But the reality was different than what customers and stockholders saw. First, the Nova was nobody’s baby at GM. It was a “top down” program that created resentment in just about every corner of the company. Design studios resented the obvious badge engineering of a Toyota with a bowtie on the grille. Engineering thought that the company already produced the worlds best engines and transmissions (although the X-car program should have put paid to that idea) and finally, there were the dealers.
When a new Nova was sold, it was so reliable that it was rarely seen again in the shop for repairs. Warranty billing was almost non existent. Also, there was very little trade -in potential because customers ran them till the wheels fell off or had willing buyers through word of mouth, thus depriving dealers of a second bite of the owners’…apple. And since GM and Toyota split the profits from each car sold, even accounting questioned the wisdom of building a car with razor thin profit margins.
The only constituency that loved the car were the wildly satisfied owners. The solid construction, bulletproof 1.6 litre Toyota engine and indestructible 5 speed transmission (or 3 and 4 speed automatics) made believers out of buyers that had not visited a GM showroom in years (like the author) . The car was the best part of the NUMMI experiment and the one longest remembered.
The legacy of the Nova is rather mixed. The car itself stayed in production until 1988 , when GM decided that forthwith the NUMMI products would sell better under a different brand and thus the GEO nameplate was born. The Nova would give way to the Prizm later that year.
Roger Smith would retire at GM in 1990 and would be noted as one of the greatest destroyers of corporate value that ever lived. Before he gave up control , Smith placed a few nickel bets on GM’s foreign partners Suzuki and Isuzu which yielded the Spectrum and Sprint captive imports in the mid/late 80’s (below) and a huge , bet -the- farm wager on Saturn, which would never return the capital invested in its creation. Today, Smith is seen as a fossil from another age, an age when GM didn’t have to be concerned with market dynamics because it pretty much was the market.
As for the NUMMI Commandos, they would become prophets without honor within GM. The mistake that the company made was to try to take a shortcut to quality by stealing “secrets” that didn’t really exist. The core group of quality evangelists were dispatched throughout GM where jealous division managers made sure that the lessons they learned would stay locked away without serious attempts at implementation. The Toyota system could not be grafted onto the GM way of doing things unless everybody bought in. And in a company the size of General Motors, buy in wasn’t happening.
NUMMI soldiered on until 2010,when the last Corollas and Pontiac Vibes rolled off the line. Till its last days, Fremont built a world class car that stood comparison with any model in production anywhere. The plant is now a facility owned by Tesla Motors.
Toyota, meanwhile, learned that it could build cars in America that were as good as any built at Toyota City. It later opened a plant in Georgetown, Kentucky to build Camry’s. It builds them there to this day. Toyota is now bigger than erstwhile partner GM. As for GM itself, the lesson learned from the NUMMI experience is that you can’t teach people that have no desire to learn. GM eventually went bankrupt. Shareholders were wiped out and the U.S. Government eventually took control of the company.
My young family’s experience with the NUMMI Nova was a happy one. We bought a 5 speed 4 door saloon in March 1986 and drove the car for 4 years and put over 125,000 miles on the clock. We paid just under $7300 and the car never went in the shop once. The only repair it ever needed was a muffler at 70,000 miles. I gave the car to my brother for a ham sandwich and he put almost another 100,000 miles on it and sold it for $625 in 1994.
WOW never knew these Chevollas existed in Aussie the govt ordered a model sharing program in the 90s yhat saw Corollas badged Holden Nova Camrys became Apollos and Holden Commodores became Toyota Lexcens but not on this scale of actual factory sharing Those 80s Corollas only ever need rear wheel bearings at 250000kms and nothing else great cars Toyota got em right. Good article.
Yes Holden got the 88-92 model Corolla as the Nova, during the era described here they were still rebadging Nissan Pulsars as the Astra. Following the Nova they swapped to the Opel sourced Astra with very mixed results in the early years.
Nissan and Ford also shared a body – the Ford Corsair was based on the Nissan Pintara.
I also was unaware of the Corolla being badged as a Chevrolet in the US.
This American Life ran an entire program to the NUMMI plant that was very good. One thing that I noticed in this story was the branding. For most of the NUMMI production run, Toyota produced Corrollas. The Matrix was built there in 2002, IIRC.
OTOH, GM kept switching the branding of its vehicle. If a buyer wanted a GM car built at NUMMI, then how was the buyer to remember what car to look for?
As to Metro, the Chevy sales reps I knew loved the damn things. They spent no time selling them. Customers showed up on the lot, asked for them, drove them, and then decided whether they wanted it. Because of the margins, the sales rep could not be bothered. Because of GM’s dealer program, the sales rep had some money to knock off the price while protecting the commission.
Now home to Tesla production?.
Great article. This could fit right about anywhere on the blogoshpere. It’s nice to see Cubrside Classics raising the standard.
Thank you for your gracious words. I’m humbled.
Informative summary of the curiousity that was the joint ventured Nova. I remember thinking at the time, why buy this car when you can get the real thing?
Coincidentally, just watched “Roger and Me” on the TV machine last night. Hilarious and tragic; Darmwin applied to modern civilization, and what happens when short term thinking runs the show.
In 1984 I already had 2 Toyota’s under my belt, the firsts in a succession of Japan and German built cars. And very recently have just purchased my first American branded automobile, that I am only 85% happy with it…and I cannot articulate why. It just kind of “feels” different and there a small, nagging details the kinds of things that probably cannot be repaired or altered, that I notice each and every time I get behind the wheel that make me wince. The automatic shifts out of 1st too quickly and a strange lag at “tip in” , the steering wheel takes too many turns,why can’t I rest my arm on the sill with the window open? (belt line too high). Live and learn.
But I also recall these Nova’s restoring a bit of confidence in GM, but evidently a momentary blip of confidence. As it is and was, they lost my generation and then some in the bad old days and have been fighting to regain credibility since.
This article is extremely thoughtful and well written. Excellent work Jeff.
Thank you for your kind words. This one was personal. I still believe to this day that our Nova was the best new car we ever owned.
I agree. Well written and a great read. And that’s really remarkable that your Nova went as long as it did with so few problems.
you can bring a camel to water but you can’t make it drink. the nummi story is a microcosm for everything that went wrong with the u.s. auto industry.
i rented one of these back in the day and was very impressed. i wrongly assumed that it was a badge engineered toyota that had been screwed together in japan. as such, it did nothing to raise my opinion of gm.
it’s sad, truly sad.
I remember the change from Chevrolet to Geo. I recall it being sold at the time as being because of a perception that the Chevrolet name was hampering sales of the car. The Geo name, it was thought, would make clearer that the car was an import, which was a desirable trait at the time.
It sounds like there was also some jealousy at Chevrolet. I remember thinking at the time that the Geo idea was a dumb one. I had a co-worker who bought a Nova when they were new. The car seemed quite boring, but she was very happy with it. It was quite a contrast to the terrible Pontiac LeMans that came out a couple of years later.
The perception of Chevrolet buyers was so bad among import buyers in the 80’s and 90’s that I remember Consumer’s Reports screaming at the top of it’s lungs that the Nova (dealers were ready to deal) was the same car as the Corolla (usually with a $1200 ‘market adjustment’ tag next to the sticker). And would their readers please wise up and look at the Chevy!
The fun part about the Geo (as my girlfriend and I discovered when I bought her a Metro) was that, in Pennsylvania at least, it may have said Geo on the hood, but it said Chevrolet on the title. And the dealership really, really hid the fact that the car was legally a Chevrolet.
I seem to remember that the difference in perception extended to the reports that owners sent to Consumer Reports – Prizms had more reported problems, despite the fact that they were essentially identical cars built on the same assembly line. I did some quick Google searches and could not confirm this – I may just have a confused memory of what Syke’s post mentions.
I drove a homely but tough 96 Prizm from 2004 until last December. Only surprise expense I ever had was a seized seat belt. Local Chevy dealer had to order and install a new one, and bingo, it was the worst dealer experience I’ve ever had. Clueless, rude and slow – it might as well have been 1970 in there. Proving your point about institutional inertia.
Nice job Jeff. I recall being confused by these when they came out, since when I think Nova the Gen3 68-74 model springs to mind.
A co-worker had one when I ran deliveries, he did zero wrenching on weekends to keep his delivery vehicle going whereas I was thrashing away evenings and weekends. Too bad the lesson of NUMMI turned out to be a non-secret.
Chevy addressed that very issue with this ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufaU2g_PINk&feature=related
Thank you for your kind words. That’ll keep me going all day!
“Watching” Toyota make cars was never going to solve GM’s problems; You have to completely own it, make it your own reality, from the top all the way down. Roger Smith came up with lots of Band-Aids, but failed to cut out the rot.
Thanks for this excellent piece, Jeff.
I recall an anonymous Toyota spokesman as saying the problem with the Big Three was that they looked at the Toyota production system solely as a way to cut costs, when it really defined the entire company’s mission.
Toyota made sure that everyone – from the production workers to the executives – understood that mission and what it meant.
A very nice article on an important but largely forgotten car.
Interestingly, if I recall correctly, Consumer Reports suggested that readers seriously consider the Nova (and later Prizm) instead of the Corolla, on the grounds that Chevrolet dealers were not holding out for full sticker, or adding mark-ups for $500 detailing jobs, as Toyota dealers were at the time.
I almost bought a Prizm on that basis, because the equivalent Corolla would have run us several hundred dollars extra, and I knew it was a Toyota underneath anyway. As it turned out, we wound up getting a Saturn SL1, which all in all was a good car…but of course we know how that turned out. (Saturn could be a hefty CC piece all its own; next time I go back to Tennessee I should go shoot some Saturns on the streets of Spring Hill. The whole Saturn/Spring Hill saga is an interesting one.)
Although good cars these really just advertised the fact GM had no small car game. Toyota was the clear winner in this one; almost anybody and their dog knew this was a Toyota. Most consumers would not care about a “back story” and since GM was badge engineering everything most would think what would make the Nova so different. Objectively their were some lessons that could of been learned but subjectively Toyota wasn’t only making GM’s lunch but eating it also.
I have to agree with that. I remember being impressed driving one when it was new, until I realized it was just a Corolla with a bowtie. Then I thought, “oh, GM has finally admitted defeat”.
Nice writeup though. 🙂
The interesting thing is that if Toyota had their way that car would have been the Maverick, or at least have been wearing a Ford badge. Ford wasn’t interested since they owned a significant amount of Mazda at the time and it wasn’t too long after Ford backed out of the deal for Honda to supply engines and transmissions for the Escort. The Escort was relatively new and a success taking home the best selling car in the US in a number of years so it didn’t make sense. So re-buffed by Ford they hit on GM.
The NUMMI program was certainly a bust and did more harm to GM than good. The learning of those “secrets” was what encouraged them to produce the Saturn car and brand from scratch. As it turned out the Saturn brand sucked cash out of the company like crazy and was ultimately a expensive failed experiment.
Thanks for sharing the info scoutdude, Honda also did a couple of alloy heads for the 250ci 6cyl for Ford Australia in the late 70s/early 80s
Interestingly, Toyota has screwed up over the last decade: my son bought a new Corolla, and the automatic transmission blew up… it was replaced under warranty, but the experience destroyed my confidence in “Toyota Quality”.
A friend of mine had an early 90’s Toyota 4×4 pickup built at that NUMMI plant. Total POS by Toyota standards (Harrison radiator? In a Toyota? Ewww) And is the reason I will NEVER buy a Japanese vehicle thats not assembled in Japan to this day,
I think you might come closer to chalking this up to the GM/Fremont influence than to the Japanese-car-assembled-in-the-US factor generally. My Indiana-built Subaru has been my most trouble-free vehicle yet. (However, it’s a 2003 Legacy platform Outback, and my last test drive of a current Legacy was a little disappointing. They’ve decontented the cars in terms of materials. I dread having to find another car when this one gives up the ghost.)
CF; I agree with your Subaru experience, when my wife wanted a newer Forester to replace an older model for one with the latest safety features, the latest offering had two year old technology and the “no power” CVT transmission, lazy no feel steering etc. End result a Mazda CX 5 sits in the driveway!
@jeffzekas: Every car company can build a lemon every now and then. Nissan proved that to me twice. Honda and Toyota never have, not to me, anyway.
My two experiences with NUMMI cars were both Toyotas; a 1987 FX16 GT-S and a 1997 Corolla CE. The FX16 GT-S was phenomenal on the quality side, but since it was a 4-speed AISIN-Warner automatic it was a bit lethargic on takeoff, but once it got moving it would get its breath, usually around 5000 rpm. The air conditioning compressor went out (howled loudly, but still worked) at 50000 miles and was replaced (not under warranty, however…those long warranties hadn’t been invented yet). The other problem was the front brake rotors, which would not stay flat and true. I had to have them resurfaced every 6 months no matter how I drove, until they became so thin I had to have them replaced. The new ones did the same thing. I believe that since that happened, the rotors must have been partially “engineered” (quotations because engineering is a joke at GM) by the GM people. (The compressor seemed to be a Toyota problem…the compressor on the Corolla GT-S I traded in on the FX16 was noisy too, but never failed.)
The 1997 Corolla from NUMMI did not feel as solidly screwed together as the Japanese-built 1994 Corolla (leased) we traded in on it. If not for the fact that we were leasing the 1994, my wife would probably still be driving it. There was just a difference in the handling and the sound of the engine, even though they were both the vaunted 4A-FE. Even Toyota couldn’t smooth out the GM influence.
Did you ever specifically check those “warped” rotor for runout, or did you just assume they were warped when the brakes started pulsing?
The vast majority of “warped” brake rotor are still perfectly true. It’s not that they’re warped, but that they have picked up uneven deposits of pad material or have been surface-hardened by heat transfer between the pads and the rotors after the car is parked. Simply redoing the brake pad break-in procedure will often cure the problem.
Nope. They would warp. Machining them fixed the problem temporarily. I’m sure they used GM POS metallurgy.
The last GM product I bought was a new Chevy Spectrum (not Geo at that point). We had it one year, put 33,000 on it, and it was coming apart at the seams – leaking oil, rattles, etc.
Sold it and got an ’89 Civic hatchback, which, because we liked it so much, we bought another one (’90 base model stripper) which went well over 200,000 between us and my brother to whom we sold it at 165K.
Unfortunately, Hondas got expensive while we had the car, which ruled them out when we were ready to replace the car. Ended up with a ’98 Caravan, which actually was an excellent vehicle (3.3 engine). Our ’98 Grand Caravan (the first Caravan was wrecked at 97K) has 237,000 on it and is still mostly reliable. The 2005 T&C we bought as its successor, on the other hand, is a rolling monument to corporate cost reduction.
Ain’t that the truth. I can hardly wait till the Windstar shows up in the “how hard can it be to make a minivan” series. Our 2007 Caravan is like sitting in the interior of a plastic model car and my kids still complain about how much better the Windstar was…
When even the kids notice the difference, there’s a real problem!
Your observation backs up my opinion as well. I have a 99 T&C which I have really enjoyed. I bought it as a cheap utility vehicle, but it has turned out to be a really nice car with thoughtful little touches everywhere. I almost bought a 2001 which had about 80K fewer miles and was much better equipped. However, it had spent a few years in Michigan and had rust starting to pop out EVERYWHERE. Other than the shock towers, the 96-00 models weren’t too bad for rust. Watch the bodies on these 4th gen units in coming years.
My wife and I bought a new 5-door blue Chevy (NUMMI) Nova in 1987 and that car really was excellent. i cant remember why we bought it instead of its Toyota twin but i believe it was priced less or at least one could bargain more easily. As noted, this car was super easy to work on and I changed oil and brake pads regularly with ease. It was also very solid, no problems at all right up to 100K miles which was a lot back then. It was so good we bought a second used gold ’88 Nova, loved them both until they were traded in for a Grand Voyager which ended my time with american cars. My kids still remember riding around in “Golden Boy”. I’m glad I didnt know about the bad reputation of the Freemont plant,however.
My fiance has a 2005 Pontiac Vibe (NUMMI built.) She loves it and teases me about it’s collectability now that Pontaic has gone out of business. She might be more right than she knows.
The NUMMI Nova goes a long way to reinforcing what Roger Smith’s predecessor, Thomas Murphy, once said: “GM is not in the business of making cars. GM is in the business of making money”. Remember, it was Murphy who was at the helm when two of the worst ever GM products were conceived, the Vega and Citation. And, brother, did they make money for GM.
Quite simply, the NUMMI Nova wasn’t nearly as profitable as the regular pieces of shit GM foisted on the American public. It didn’t matter (well, it did, but not in the way you’d think) that the NUMMI Nova was cheap, reliable transportation that rarely (if ever) needed more than routine maintenance, all of which the owner could perform him/herself, not to mention that it would eventually bring them back to a GM showroom, albeit not nearly as soon as GM wanted.
It’s just another tragic footnote to Roger Smith’s legacy. Instead of being seen as a powerful lesson to be learned from, the NUMMI experiment was regarded with scorn, disdain, and jealousy to the point it was eventually cut loose.when the Pontiac brand was discontinued.
These cars got around…I noticed the Guatemala plate in the one photo.
Regarding the Metro: A friend had one in the Navy; once out, I wanted to buy one.
THREE separate dealers in the Denver-Colorado Springs area, flatly refused to order one. None were in inventory. The salesmen kept saying, how “for the same money” I could get a Malibu – which had incentives.
I despaired of trying to convince them that I didn’t WANT a mid-size GM POS. I wanted a Metro; and in time, I had three of them in succession. Great cars, as economy cars go.
Lesson is…GM fell into the habit of TELLING THE CUSTOMER what it was he could and couldn’t have. Can’t have quality; and can’t expect quality or longevity at an affordable price.
The customer then fell in the habit of shopping at the Toyota and Hundai stores.
GM didn’t learn, and they still haven’t learned.
Amen, well put.
GM has become like McDonalds- You can’t get what you want at McDonalds unless its what they want to sell.
GM will go bankrupt again. It’s just a matter of time.
Jeff, I agree with your assessment about a possible future GM bankruptcy. The Mary Barra model of continually cutting, i.e. the abandoning of Europe (Opel) and Australia (Holden) without really learning how to remain and compete in those markets or other world markets combined with increasing reliance on North American truck sales for profitability is setting GM up for great financial stress when the inevitable North American truck market downturn finally comes. Mary will likely follow the earlier model of the former GM executive, Bob Eaton who orchestrated the ultimately disastrous Daimler acquisition of Chrysler, with a subsequent, planned financially advantageous personal departure/retirement. I suspect that M.Barra will depart before things really deteriorate for GM ( so to speak, “get out of Dodge” before things get really bad.)
You can’t really continually cut your way to long term prosperity. If you want a short term quarterly boost in stock value, to boost your corporate stock holdings asset value prior to retirement/departure, then Mary Barra’s strategy makes sense, but it doesn’t help the long term picture for a viable, healthy GM. Sic transit gloria mundi.
Jeff’s comment was from 2011, BTW.
And I will disagree with you about Opel (and Holden). The European market has increasingly developed certain aspects and requirements that make it a bad fit for GM, as there’s increasingly less overlap from that market to NA and Asia (China).
The European market is growing very poorly, and is overly competitive from the European-based manufacturers that have no choice but to compete by designing cars that are competitive.
It’s a very different market there than say 15-25 years ago. The Japanese are essentially all giving up, except for Toyota, which is the only one still committed and has the resources to hang in there. And they have the hybrids which are now in demand to replace the diesels. Toyota sales in the EU are up strongly this year because of it.
The NA and China markets are much more similar to each other, and not very compatible with Europe. GM sees no opportunity to make any meaningful profits in Europe. They’re better cutting their losses.
Being ultra-big and in every market is not necessarily the best strategy. GM is focusing on where it can do best, and that really does make sense. To me, anyway.
Ironic to think in 1941 Toyota unveiled their new car and lo an behold it was a carbon copy Chevrolet. GM taught Toyota how to make cars but the pupil learnt too well.Excellent write up of the pupil trying to teach the master how to.
Per some stories, Roger SMith thought that Toyota was simply using robotics to build cars, and had no idea about the ‘teamwork’. He figured buy robots to replace workers was the ‘secret’, but to find out it was actaully people, eek!
Hmm… no mention of the 1986 movie “Gung Ho”, starring Michael Keaton and Gedde Watanabe? It is almost verbatim the story of NUMMI. Good stuff. The vehicles that rolled out of the Fremont plant from 1984 thru 2010 were among the most fastidiously assembled cars from anywhere, ever. My friend had a 2002 Toyota Tacoma pickup built there. 120,000 miles and never a squeak, a leak, a rattle, or even a burnt out bulb. Only one set of brake pads! He traded it for a 2007 Tacoma, and again, no squeaks, etc. He did have one brake light bulb burn out. I joked with him that he needed a new truck! That was 3 years ago. Since then? Only the battery and ONE set of tires. In 125,000 miles. That’s it. My other friend has a 2005 Chevy Colorado with 70,000 miles with rampant brake problems, electrical, and water leaks with their resultant mildew issues. Damn. I miss NUMMI.
The battery in my wife’s Vibe lasted 10 years. She had the car before she met me and when I went to change the very dead battery I was quite surprised to see that it had stamped on it “Manufactured for Toyota – NUMMI – Fremont, CA”
In July 2011 I bought a 1985 Nova CL sedan with 13,000 original miles on it. This car is a survivor and from what I was told by the previous owner, purchaced new by an older gentleman that didn’t drive much. He died in 1990. His wife kept the car in a garage until 2011. Either she or her family sold it to the person I bought it from. The seller stated he had bought it for his 16 year old daughter, but after seeing the car, she wanted nothing to do with it and thought it too old fashioned for her taste. The car needed a new carb, battery and brakes and a general cleaning, but otherwise is as close to new as you will likely get.
Having previously owned a 1983 Corolla, I knew these were great cars and the Chevy bowtie on it didn’t phase me. I love the car and wish GM would have kept producing them.
“The seller stated he had bought it for his 16 year old daughter, but after seeing the car, she wanted nothing to do with it and thought it too old fashioned for her taste. ”
I always find statements like this one utterly baffling. Seriously? He’s giving her a car, and she refuses it because it’s not “cool” enough? When in hell did the inmates start running the asylum? Don’t like it? Walk.
Great that it got you a good deal.
I have one to top that. About 20 years ago a guy bought a rundown 1 bdrm house and remodeled and built a nice addition on the house making it 3 bdrm & 2 bath house. It was as nice a house as any in the neighborhood which was a desirable neighborhood. The sad part is he had done this so his divorced daughter and grandchildren would have a nice place to live. Right after getting it finished after working on it for over a year, the daughter up and remarried and moved out of state. He sold it and made a lot of money on it as he had done the work himself, I am sure it was bittersweet. There must a moral in this someplace.
Perhaps you need to hang out with 16 year old girls (not in the creepy way). It’s amazing how much of life sucks in their mind. Thank God it’s just a phase or so I’m told….
Steve65,
That was exactly my thoughts when the seller told me the story. He said she wanted something more “sporty”. I would have told to walk and see if that changed her attitude. Kids today are spoiled rotten and I don’t blame the kids, I blame the parents.
I love this little car. Apparently the tires were rotten and in an attempt to make it more sporty, the previous owner put a set of nice 10 spoke 15 inch aluminum wheels and new tires on the car. The wheels look like they were made for the car and give it the appearance of a 1980’s VW Jetta. The car is a dark siver gray and the bright aluminum wheels really set it off. This really a lot nicer car than my daughter drives, but she isn’t spoiled as the seller’s daughter.
My ’91 F150 puked, and, in a jam, we bought a ’95 Prism in 2000. Best. Car. Ever. Had 55,000 miles on it, and an ugly rust spot on the hood, but it was in better shape than my new Contour. Never did a thing to it except a new battery, brakes, and tires. Drove it 135,000 miles and gave it to my father, who drove it around town for work till her bought himself a new car for his retirement, then gave it to her parents, who drove it all over the northwoods of Wisconsin until they needed something bigger and traded it at 196,000 miles. Wish I knew where it went, so I could buy it back, but unfortunately I think it ended up at an Illinois auction (sigh). It still gets me the huge different in value between these and the Toyota Corolla. I’d buy another heartbeat, but I wouldn’t pay a premium just to have a Toyota badge instead of a Geo (or Chevrolet badge).
Had one, an ’86. Hated it. There was nothing intrinsically wrong with the car, it just wasn’t the car for me. Rode like a buckboard, had seats that were better suited for a prison bus, and for what it was got rather crappy fuel economy. Best I could ever muster from its little engine was 26 mpg, downhill with a tailwind while drafting a semi. Hell, the ’80 Cocord wagon I had years earlier would break 30 on the highway with ease. Dependable, yes… with about as much soul as a dishwasher. I don’t miss that car.
This is a great article from a personal perspective. I worked at NUMMI for 18 years, starting my first year in college. My mother, a former employee of the GM plant that closed in 82, was part of the first wave hired back when the joint venture re-opened the plant. Although like every other large company, NUMMI had its faults, but it was a great experience. I’m thankful for my many years there.
I’ve read many articles and stories about the history of the plant, its products and people, and there are always so many inaccuracies about NUMMI. Good job however. Brings back good memories.
Unfortunately, during the 80s, General Motors were closing down American factories, putting hard working people out of work. If that isn’t unforgivable, I don’t know what is.
It wasn’t only GM. a lot of other companies were doing the same. I had the misfortune of working for one of these for 14 years. Life afterwards was never the same.
And the effects are still seen today. Of the four Ford products that I’ve owned, only one (the Mark VIII) was made at a US plant (Wixom, MI). The other three have all been foreign made–Windsor, Ontario, Canada for both Panthers, and Hermosillo, Mexico for the Fusion. I know the profits do come back to the mothership, but nonetheless, I wish that my Fusion was one of the Flat Rock, MI manufactured cars as I’d prefer to support a more “local” local economy.
Simply, a great article. Nice work, Jeff.
Our family owned a secondhand ’88 Nova CL four-door. It was one of the few used ones for sale we could find in our city, and we looked for one on the recommendation of a mechanic friend.
It was the most trouble-free car we owned in, say, a fifteen year span, and we put a gajillion miles on it – well into the six-figures. As a teenage driver, I loved it because it was great on gas and had a stereo. More than a few times, I borrowed my parents’ Nova when I couldn’t afford to gas up my ’76 Malibu Classic.
My only issue with it was acceleration with the a/c on – nonexistent. I’d turn the air off on expressway entrance ramps, but aside from that, it was a great car.
I have to say, and being from Flint, just seeing that picture of Roger Smith made my heart sink…
This might be (almost) ironic, I bought my 1980 Fiesta at a huge “Parking Lot” sale held by San Jose car dealers in September 1980 on the grounds of the Fremont factory….and I traded a Chevy Nova (a 76) for the Fiesta.
About the same time period (early 80s), Porsche came VERY close to collapse. The company’s profit margins had gotten so thin they were about to go bust when management called in the Japanese. However, unlike GM, Porsche really wanted to learn and succeed, so they listened and learned. But as this write-up points out, when your company is huge it’s harder to get every employee “on board” when (radically) new methods are involved.
There’s also a Japanese version of the GM/Toyota partnership, called the “Toyota Cavalier.” Paul wrote up this unicorn early last year:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/history/toyota-week-postscript-1995-2000-toyota-cavalier-gm-tries-to-invade-the-japanese-market-with-a-little-help/
Our NUMMI car (a new ’99 Prizm 5-speed) served us very well; we sold it to a friend 6 years ago and it’s still going strong, although some interior trim pieces have become brittle. I believe it’ll be many years before the last NUMMI car is scrapped.
found online:
The last GM badged, NUMMI car, is the 2009 Pontiac Vibe. [last built 8/09]
The last NUMMI Toyota was a Corolla, rolling of the line on 4/1/10.
I remember very clearly comforting a friend in the 1990’s when his girlfriend got a Nova. I told him to just look under the hood at all the Toyota parts. He (much) later claimed that the only thing that went wrong with it was a hinky Delco radio.
My mother-in law drove a 1977ish Ford Granada which she totaled around 1985 while grabbing some grapes for a snack while cresting a hill and subsequently rear ending a stopped car she didn’t see. At the time we drove Honda’s and knew the virtue of Japanese reliability. She lived in Eastern CT and there were no Foreign dealers nearby. However, there were Chevy dealers. I knew of the Chevy Nova’s Toyota roots and easily got her to select one for her replacement. She drove it for the next 7 or so years until she replaced it with the airbag equipped 1992ish Geo Prizm version. For this one she insisted on a sunroof which was added aftermarket by the dealer because she did not want air conditioning! Both ran perfectly for years. I almost bought a 1993 Geo Prizm, but got a ’93 Civic coupe instead. I looked again in 2001, but the Prizm was way more money than the equivalent Corolla which also boasted of a better engine that got 41 MPG highway with the 5 speed. I never got close to 41 but it served as a reliable (boriing) commuter for then next 5 years and 175,000 miles.
Everybody who I knew that had the Toyota Nova(and that was a lot of folks) loved them and had next to no trouble with them. Everybody that I knew with Prizms and Vibes also loved them and have/had no trouble with them. It is very telling that the most reliable car in GM’s line up from 1985 to 2010 was a rebadged Toyota.
Our Toy-o-let lasted through two owners – my wife and then my daughter – and well over 150K with nothing except routine consumables. Even the clutch held up after my daughter moved to Pittsburg. She ended up with carpal tunnel from shifting gears but the Prizm kept moving along. Our Chevy dealer also sold Toyotas, I looked at both and except for some very minor interior trim differences – I think the Geo upholstery wasn’t quite as nice – they were identical. Oh, except for the price – the Geo was almost $1700 less than the equivalent Toyota!
On the job sex? I’m in the wrong line of work, or at least working for the wrong company!
You’d be amazed what went on in American manufacturing plants back in the ’70’s and ’80’s. I have some memories from Erie Malleable Iron that would make your hair curl.
For starters: In the 2-1/2 years I worked there, I never went to work sober. Beer, wine, weed or acid. Take your pick.
It’s never been a particular distraction at any of my jobs, either. Perhaps there’s just something especially romantic about auto plants.
I had one of these as my first good car. I bought the ’87 Model, blue sedan, in 1991. I shopped for weeks and weeks, trying to find a used “captive import” with the right number of miles. The Nova has 28k and was like new. I remember the 3 speed automatic making the engine loud as hell at highway speeds, but it sure was reliable. I kept it until 1999 and put like 120k on it…I wanted to keep it but the wife had mini-van fever and the the ’95 Lumina we had was still running well (but not for much longer…hind-site 20/20).
Never drove a Nova, but I have very fond memories of its brother the FX/16. Loved that little car.
Prizm’s are generally a lot lower priced then their Corolla counterpart on Craigslist, especially the “Geo” ’93-’97 version.
Picked up a ’95 Prizm with 200K miles,1.6 3 speed auto with AC for $750 about a year ago, family member only had $1000 to spend. Well kept, paint body and interior still in great shape. Owner said it sometimes wouldn’t start, forum search suggested distributor especially if it had an aftermarket replacement. It was aftermarket and I could see cracks in it’s side mounted coil. A trip to u pull for a Toyota replacement and it’s started every time since. I replaced 2 tires and front pads and rotors soon after and it’s been a good running, decent looking durable little car for very little money.
James May did a series called Cars of the People and in the one episode he drove a comparison of a Mustang II and a 1st generation Celica. The Mustang had 3 guys associated with Detroit and the auto industry and in Japan he drove around Toyota City with three former Toyota workers. You could tell that 40 years later they still had great pride in that Celica and their work at Toyota while the Mustang II was sad shadow of its former glory. It’s amazing to me that they were handed a car that sells in massive numbers today and all they had to do is put it together and slap a Chevy badge on it……and they were too arrogant to even get that right.
Yes, these Novas were good cars! I had a 1988 hatchback, blue, 3 speed auto, that I put over 200,000 miles on. It later developed catalytic converter problems, after 8 years of driving it. It did hold its trade in value pretty well,as I got 2000.00 for it in a trade in for a new Subaru in 1996.
I remember back then they were nicknamed TOYLETS.
There was also a performance one that I think was called a NOVA II and it had the twin cam motor and EFI. never could find a decent used one though…
The Nova Twin Cam, with the 4A-GEL engine. Very rare, unfortunately, as was the Prizm GSi that replaced it.
Which is a shame since Toyota itself never sold a 4A-GE powered four-door in the US.
I had a 1988 four door which I bought for about $8,000 which was exactly the price advertised in the newspaper. never had a problem until the AC went out at 166K in 1997. I needed a larger car so I traded it. I never regretting having that spirited, fun to drive, trouble free car.
A friend loves his 94 Prism. Although the paint looks like crap, and rust is affecting the car now, it’s actually been more reliable than his ’98 V6 Camry.
Happy Motoring, Mark
Chevolla, Toyolet, Toilet, Chevota, Cornova – this was an era when GM began tarnishing legacy nameplates – as of 2017 2 resurrected Chevrolet nameplates (Impala, Malibu) have been tacked on their midsize sedans and both did wear the SS nameplate which is deemed a sacrilege
The Corolla based Nova was the best Nova in terms of reliability, build quality, safety, comfort, drivability, utility and dare I say style! GM could’ve learned a lot from Toyota, but they let the joint venture fade into oblivion. And we all no what happened to GM two decades later; bankruptcy! Toyota thrives while GM dives.
As the “car guy” in our neighborhood full of students and hippies in the mid-to-late 90’s , I always recommended these…the Chevy name hurt the resale prices, so a poor kid could get a good car several hundred bucks cheaper than a “real” Toyota, but parts were easily available. At one time there were 4 on our block! They lasted forever and withstood the lack of maintenance.
I’ve known probably dozens of people who’ve owned GM-branded NUMMI cars. They all bought them knowing it was a Toyota with GM cash on the hood (if bought new) or resale value (if they bought used) I’ve never met anyone who had one and didn’t like it.
Umm. No mention of Saturn? GM did recognize the “internal rot” and, beyond NUMMI, tried to create an entirely separate culture and brand, regardless of the mixed results. Frankly, lots of lessons learned….
I second the endorsement of the This American Life story – lots of great interviews with folks who worked the old plant and the new NUMMI one….
And they lost some $10-12 billion in the process. Another GM Deadly Sin. They should have just focused on making their own small cars (Chevy) better and more competitive. Which is what they ultimately did, and the Cruze and Sonic are well regarded.
My stepdaughter had one of these. The only problem with these Nova’s was GM’s cost cutting which replaced the electronic fuel injection system used on the Toyota Corolla version with a crappy carburetor. The carb’s were junk. Once the original carb wore out, you could not find a good rebuilt one, even one from a “reputable” rebuilder like Holley.
Early E80 Corollas had the same carbureted 4A-CL engine with the same output and presumably the same carburetor. The later 16V injected 4A-FE was vastly superior, though, that’s for sure. The 4A-GE gets more enthusiast love, but the milder 4A-FE was a gem: reliable, economical, smooth, enthusiastic.
I see it listed here several times, but not explained, what the heck is NUMMI?
New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. — it’s on the sign pictured.
It seems a bit odd to me that they were selling both Novas and Cavaliers, which were more or less the same size, alongside one another. The Nova offered a 5-door hatch, which the Cav didn’t, but the Nova basically seems like an admission of “hey, since the Cavalier sucks, you can buy one of these vastly superior cars also for a little more money.” Was the Nova positioned as “upmarket” of the Cavalier to justify the higher price, or did it simply trade on the perception of Japanese-influenced reliability?
At least in towards the culmination of the mid-1980s, Pontiac was also given a similar design and size subcompact and YES they recycled the Pontiac LeMans name for this one which was more closely related to Daewoo LeMans and Opel Kadett. The otherwise different Chevrolet Nova were based more from the same era and reliable and dependably sturdy Toyota Corolla components. I put both cars together side by side because both cars do looked uncannily similar and hence could pass for “twins” with different set of parents of course. Both were also fundamentally different as well since Daewoo is not in any way, shape nor form affiliated with Toyota in any manner.
A Toyota with a Chevrolet nameplate meant you were driving the most reliable, best engineered, best built Chevrolet ever manufactured. Too bad the joint venture dissolved. GM= Failure; Toyota= Monumental Success.
I still own and regularly drive my 1988 Chevy Nova, As of October 2020 it is nearly at 82,000 miles. Purchased in 2016 with 59k original miles. I think it spent alot of time in the driveway and garage of some nice older folks who didn’t drive often at all before I bought it. When I was 18, my neighbor had a white 1987 Nova – it went through 2 of her kids, then they sold it to my brother who sold it to my other brother and then to some other person. At last report, it was over 300,000 miles on it. Mine has a great deal of age related paint and body issues as well as the interior trim just crumbling. But in terms of engine and transmission – it has been consistently reliable. Other than oil changes, replacing brake lines, battery, tires, alternator and master cylinder – its all stock original and fires up every time I need it. Shown in one photo is my 5 year old nephew who LOVES the car and wants me to save it for him to drive. It will likely still be around for him! Next month is 33 years since the car rolled off the NUMMI assembly line. Thank you to that workforce for creating such a survivor. It gets me to and from work several times a week with some longer trips thrown in for good measure. The Nova was a great formula: bulletproof engine with adequate HP, no frills, no luxury add ons, basic economy on wheels. Less junk to go wrong and fail over time. Mine does not even have AC, it has roll down windows and the stock GM Delco AM FM Radio! I’ve loaned it out 3 or 4 times to friends who needed a car for several days for various reasons. The resounding feedback is always “love that little car” so easy to drive, park and just endearing!
THE 1985 TO 1988 WAS THE BEST CHEVROLET NOVA WAS THE BEST CHEVROLET THAT CHEVROLET NEVER BUILT.THANKS TOYOTA.I HAD A 1986 LIFT BACK MANUAL TRANSMISSION NEVER REPLACED THE CLUTCH OR HAD THE HEAD OFF IN 21 YEARS.I LOVE THAT CAR ONLY HAD 484000 RUST DESTROYED IT,THANKS BLUE BOY,RAY.