You can be CEO of any manufacturer for a day. What company do you choose and what do you do?

Oh, I'd run whatever company I took over directly into the ground.  But we'd make some cool cars before going out of business.

First couple changes would apply to wherever I took over:

1) All vehicles will have a 2" hitch receiver in/behind the bumper fascia.

2) All vehicles will have a 1/4-20 or M6 female hole in the top of the dashboard for rigid mounting of phone/accessories

3) All critical controls will have physical buttons (critical TBD, but the general idea is no touch screen required to use your wipers, pause your music, turn on heat, etc.)

4) All fixed roof cars will have provisions in the drip rails to bolt on a roof rack.

Mabye 5) Figure out how to mass produce Torsen diffs and drive the cost way down.  Put them in basically everything.


What I would do at specific companies:

Subaru:  ramp down boxer engine production.  License an inline 4 that doesnt suck like a K series or Mazda skyactiv, or really there are a bunch of options here.  Then get to work on an agreement to design a Subaru 4cyl, or better - a long term agreement with Ford/Mazda, Honda, Toyota, or other mfg group.

Ford:  Restart sedan production, but make them all use the Maverick Hybrid drivetrain.  Same with Transit Connect.  Lean into hybrid across the board.

Mazda:  Put IRS back in the 3.  Allow the base model to be orderd with a 2.5/manual.  Make a speed 3 again.  Let the Miata team keep doing their thing.  Maybe explore 2.5L Miata or Mazdaspeed Miata.

BMW:  I'd make a new line called "BMW Classic" and just make the E46 again, with modern materials and fixes.

General Motors.

I'd abolish the multi-brand, same-vehicle  system because I don't think our customers are stupid.

Condense the company and make it efficient.

The following brands would survive:

GMC: Strictly light, medium and heavy duty trucks. No more Chevrolet trucks.

Chevrolet: Entry and mid-level cars, sporty cars, crossovers and SUV's

Cadillac: Luxury brand with it's own distinct vehicles. Not a Tahoe with leather and Cadillac badges.

Corvette: As it's own, stand-alone supercar brand.

ShawnG said:

General Motors.

I'd abolish the multi-brand, same-vehicle  system because I don't think our customers are stupid.

Condense the company and make it efficient.

The following brands would survive:

GMC: Strictly light, medium and heavy duty trucks. No more Chevrolet trucks.

Chevrolet: Entry and mid-level cars, sporty cars, crossovers and SUV's

Cadillac: Luxury brand with it's own distinct vehicles. Not a Tahoe with leather and Cadillac badges.

Corvette: As it's own, stand-alone supercar brand.

 

You're right about Corvette.  Why does it have to be Chevrolet.  Do what Stellantis (or maybe it was Fiat) did to Ram.  No reason it had to be "Dodge"

A 401 CJ said:

Tesla: I'd go to Mar-a-lago and tell the President Elect what he needs to do....oh wait....

Elon: build a bad ass electric police vehicle and call it a "Doge" Charger.  

In reply to A 401 CJ :

Because Chevrolet.

Too many die-hard owners to dump a known brand like that. Who cares about Buick anyway?

A 401 CJ said:

ShawnG said:

General Motors.

I'd abolish the multi-brand, same-vehicle  system because I don't think our customers are stupid.

Condense the company and make it efficient.

The following brands would survive:

GMC: Strictly light, medium and heavy duty trucks. No more Chevrolet trucks.

Chevrolet: Entry and mid-level cars, sporty cars, crossovers and SUV's

Cadillac: Luxury brand with it's own distinct vehicles. Not a Tahoe with leather and Cadillac badges.

Corvette: As it's own, stand-alone supercar brand.

 

You're right about Corvette.  Why does it have to be Chevrolet.  Do what Stellantis (or maybe it was Fiat) did to Ram.  No reason it had to be "Dodge"

Well they are talking about making Corvette a brand. Maybe it'll happen after the Corvette SUV comes out... TBH I wouldn't hate it if it were along the lines of Porsche or Lamborghini suvs and they are respectful of the branding.

No Corvettes with too many doors.

Name it something else.

I still feel that GM missed their opportunity for people to take Cadillac seriously by making the C8 a Chevy. Corvettes should remain front-engined and Cadillac should have a killer middie to bring younger people through the door. 

Volkswagen Group. Would I fix the company's financial issues? Probably not, I'm awful with money. Would I help them make a compelling electric product? Also no, I'm not that smart. I'd just make it so that Audi Tradition supported the US market.

Honda. Kickoff meeting for a new, light, aerodynamic electric CRX. 

45 kWh battery, 200 kW front mounted motor, .2 Cd, 1.1 m high, 1.6 m wide, 2 seats, 1100 kg, manual steering. 

I'm not a toyota fan, so I'll take them on.
Here's my revised lineup:

GT86 with G16E-GTS
Corolla Hatch ICE or EV. No more sedan option.
Crown ICE or EV
Prius remove the design team and instate only the aero team. How low of a CD can we get?
Sienna add a stripper version advertise it as a work van.
Stout
Tundra retain size but strengthen to 3/4ton equivalent
70 Series (2 door truck, 4 door truck, SWB 2 door wagon, LWB 4 door wagon)

MadScientistMatt said:

I would take over Standard Motor Products. Set up a line of USA-made, no corners cut repair parts with the first ones aimed at enthusiast cars. Priced at about twice what a made in China part would cost but delivering premium quality - no substituting sand for potting compound, no cutting out the temperature adjustment circuit of an alternator voltage regulator to save 50 cents per part, use 1% tolerance resistors if 5% tolerance resistors could easily put your output out of spec, etc. Some repair parts have hit a reputation as bottom of the barrel and I believe there is a market for people who will pay extra for good quality.

In fact, I've been working on trying to do that as a side project already starting with Mopar voltage regulators. The list of what I wouldn't do is based on actual cutting open a stock-replacement part from the local parts store. I'm still trying to scrape the money together for an initial production run of a single component, but if I had the resources of a big parts company behind me...

This is my favorite answer. Reman and aftermarket parts have gone way downhill and it's crapshoot to know what's actually good anymore.

Youth sports equipment manufacturer (hockey, baseball, etc.) - Take last year's must-have, make it lighter, different stickers, make it break 10 days after the warranty and profit! 

Automotive related - Nissan. 

1. Fire all current designers and the transmission team 
2. Lead the minitruck revolution. Bring back the Hardbody in the '80's/90's sizes. 
3. Reintroduce the XTerra.  
4. Bring back the three-box, 4DSC Maxima. Hybrid okay. 
5. Build a coupe similar to the 510 concept from years ago. 

Kreb (Forum Supporter) said:

I still feel that GM missed their opportunity for people to take Cadillac seriously by making the C8 a Chevy. Corvettes should remain front-engined and Cadillac should have a killer middie to bring younger people through the door. 

 

I want one of those.

In reply to Old_Town :

I usually post this picture once a month. 
 

I know Elon owns a lot of different things, but basically I'd trade places with him for a day since I've read that he makes about 50-55 million dollars each and every day.  

So yeah, I'd wake up as CEO/owner of Tesla and whatnot, do absolutely nothing for 8 hours, and come home with several tens of millions of dollars.  
 

SWMBO approves this message. 

Coniglio Rampante said:

I know Elon owns a lot of different things, but basically I'd trade places with him for a day since I've read that he makes about 50-55 million dollars each and every day.  

So yeah, I'd wake up as CEO/owner of Tesla and whatnot, do absolutely nothing for 8 hours, and come home with several tens of millions of dollars.  
 

SWMBO approves this message. 

Plot twist, the question was you can be CEO for a day, not your can be another person.

Tesla CEO is not a salaried position, so you actually earn $0 

In reply to TravisTheHuman :

Launch silly new joke cryptocurrency as self, own all the coins at launch, then start day as Elon, Xeet cringey joke about that new cryptocurrency and then play Diablo for the rest of the day if you like, return to normal life the next day, liquidate hodlings, profit

Legendary difficulty option: Be Mate Rimac, try to do better than he's doing! 

Most CEO's can't actually make meaningful changes (let alone improvements) in their typical 5 years 'leading' a company. So aside from fire and replace all of the execs, nobody's going to be making any real E36 M3 happen in anything close to a day. Which brings me to Gordon Murray Automotive. It wouldn't pay a years salary in that day like some others, but what I'd do is spend all day test driving the T.50 and T.33.

Packard management in 1953 should have done something other than join Studebaker, so be the CEO that engineers a merger with Nash should be a fun project to daydream about.

Late 2024, maybe Stellantis?  Although that kind of seems impossible to fix.  Like it's too big and also not functional enough to go on as it is. I have to wonder if they would be better off with the Mopar brands separated out and made their own company but that probably dooms those brands.  

Porsche and I'd put all of the 911 GT goodies into the Cayman platform and make Porsches with the engine in the correct place.

ShawnG said:

Who cares about Buick anyway?

 

uhhh.... the single largest buyers market on the planet. China. 

I would chose to be the head of any car manufacturer and the first thing would be to add 4" to the width and depth of every engine compartment.

In reply to TravisTheHuman :

Some days he gains 50-55 million dollars, the other days he loses 50-55 million dollars.