What Happened to GM? The Surprising Reasons for the Auto Giant’s Demise

I got the idea to write this because I noticed that General Motors just isn’t as big as it used to be. A few decades ago, they practically dominated the market—especially in the 1950s and ’60s—when most cars in the world came from the U.S. Sure, there were other companies around, especially from Japan, but they weren’t major players yet. Then by the 2000s, GM seemed to be on the decline. So what happened?

Some people blame greed or arrogance, and honestly, I agree. Lately, it feels like U.S. manufacturers—GM in particular—have gotten a little too greedy with how they make vehicles. Their cars just aren’t that great, especially when you compare them to what Japan is putting out. Consumers obviously want better quality, and in a lot of ways, Japanese brands have proven themselves. That’s why they’re doing better.

Also, GM doesn’t really seem to care much about the global market anymore. Since the ’90s, their focus has been almost entirely on the U.S. Maybe they feel like they’re already losing ground to Japanese brands and other American competitors, but ignoring the rest of the world just makes things worse. I’ve looked at GM’s lineup a few times, and outside of the U.S.—especially in places like Asia—it seems like they’re just not on people’s radar anymore. And that might be because people have stopped taking them seriously.

The Blazer S10 is a good example. It’s a big car—especially by Asian standards. But in Indonesia, Chevrolet stuck a smaller engine in it to avoid high taxes, which made it feel underpowered. To make things worse, Chevy’s cars in Indonesia haven’t been very innovative lately. They’ve fallen behind the competition. If they’d given the Blazer a more powerful engine that actually fit the car, they might still be relevant today.

Unfortunately, they went with the smaller engine, and that seems to be a pattern with recent Chevrolet models here. Some models, like the Aveo and Spin, are decent, but overall their newer cars are smaller and just kind of boring.

On top of that, people outside the U.S. don’t really think much about American car brands—especially in developing countries. Maybe I’m a bit biased because I live in Southeast Asia, but from what I’ve seen, Chevrolet (or any GM brand) hasn’t had much luck here. The main issue is usually quality: their cars just keep getting worse, and they don’t seem to be doing much about it. GM either doesn’t care anymore or they’re just tired of going up against Japanese brands that are getting more aggressive and dominating the market.

Another example is General Motors-Holden—usually just called Holden. It was GM’s Australian branch, and it’s been slowly losing ground to Japanese brands, even though there was a time when Australians really liked those cars and were proud of them. From what I know, Holden started declining because people didn’t feel like they were getting good value for the quality—especially in the early 2000s, when a lot of Holden models were basically just copies of popular GM cars from the US. Things got worse when GM tried to bring Holden models to the US—like the Monaro, which became the Pontiac GTO. That flopped hard. In the end, Holden shut down in 2020.

That’s just one clear example of why GM isn’t what it used to be. They got beat by Japanese brands that make better cars, and on top of that, GM's own internal issues dragged down quality and trust. Outside the US, GM isn’t even on most people’s radar. Folks go for Japanese cars or other options that simply offer more for the money.

It feels like a classic case of what happens when accountants run the show. GM used to make solid, long-lasting cars, but over time, quality slipped. Once that happened, people stopped buying, and the company stopped growing. If they’d just stuck to making good cars, GM might still be a dominant force today.

But now, GM doesn’t feel relevant anymore. They couldn’t keep up, and if it keeps going like this, they might fade out completely in a few decades. A mix of bad decisions, greed, and not listening to what people actually want led to their downfall. Meanwhile, other carmakers stepped in with better options—and they won.

It all came down to the choices GM made. They chose to build unreliable cars, and the public walked away.