Toyota got in front of it. Honda got in front of it. The Big Three waited until the last second when massive profits on huge SUV/pickup markups failed before even showing concern.
“We need to get in front of it,” Mike DiGiovanni, GM’s executive director of global market and industry analysis, recalls saying. “If you wait too long on it, the pain would get a lot worse.”
Why didn’t automakers move sooner?
While both companies say they took quick action, critics wonder why they didn’t make more fuel-efficient vehicles sooner. After all, there were many signs that gas prices would do nothing but rise.