1. The Cavalier was designed to play catch up with high-quality, technologically advanced cars from Japan. It failed to do so, thanks to GM's inability to compete and/or insistence on doing everything as cheaply as possible.
2. GM sold a lot of them, thanks to goodwill towards its brands (though that goodwill was fading quickly).
3. The Cavalier was a mediocre product that wasn't very durable, and a lot of people who bought them switched to an import for their next car.
3. The Cavalier was a mediocre product that wasn't very durable, and a lot of people who bought them switched to an import for their next car.
4. Despite cutting all kinds of corners on the Cavalier, thanks to GM's bloated and inefficient management the company didn't actually turn a profit selling them.
From curbsideclassic.com:
"This all set the Cavalier on a trajectory that it would maintain in its very long life: as a low-end car sold on its price and not on its qualities. Which turned the Cavalier into a $5 billion dollar blunder, since it never really became a profitable car line for GM, and its development was very costly. Which only sunk its reputation that much further. Undoubtedly it was the failure of the Cavalier and J-cars that gave Roger Smith the cockimany idea to create Saturn. Which of course ended up making that $5 billion dollar blunder look like success in comparison (Saturn lost some $12 billion over its life). How about getting it right the first time? Or making it right, instead of starting a whole new company?
"When the first Accord arrived in 1976, it roiled the US market, due to its exceptional refinement, lively performance, excellent space utilization due to FWD, and other qualities that endeared it to reviewers and buyer. The only folks that really hated it were the executives at all the other car companies. The Accord was one of the very few true game-changers."
"Keep in mind that the Cavalier (and the other J-Cars) were the first serious effort by GM to reclaim the huge compact car segment since its ill-fated Vega blunder ten years earlier. GM basically ceded that market to the Japanese, but they knew they could not be a viable long-term player without a competitive car in the heart of the post-energy crisis market."
The Cavalier was overweight and underpowered, and was just not in the same league as the Accord.
"Keep in mind that the Cavalier (and the other J-Cars) were the first serious effort by GM to reclaim the huge compact car segment since its ill-fated Vega blunder ten years earlier. GM basically ceded that market to the Japanese, but they knew they could not be a viable long-term player without a competitive car in the heart of the post-energy crisis market."
The Cavalier was overweight and underpowered, and was just not in the same league as the Accord.
"This all set the Cavalier on a trajectory that it would maintain in its very long life: as a low-end car sold on its price and not on its qualities. Which turned the Cavalier into a $5 billion dollar blunder, since it never really became a profitable car line for GM, and its development was very costly. Which only sunk its reputation that much further. Undoubtedly it was the failure of the Cavalier and J-cars that gave Roger Smith the cockimany idea to create Saturn. Which of course ended up making that $5 billion dollar blunder look like success in comparison (Saturn lost some $12 billion over its life). How about getting it right the first time? Or making it right, instead of starting a whole new company?
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