Susan: On tour at a garage near you

August 24, 2009 at 12:52 pm

Susan Docherty, general manager Buick-GMC

Susan Docherty

Favorite musician: It depends on my mood, and ranges widely. Right now my iPod playlist has Yaz, Jason Mraz, Van Morrison, Springsteen, Norah Jones, R.E.M., Sinatra, Enya, Carrie Underwood and much more.

Favorite restaurant: I love to travel and taste the flavors and foods of the place I’m in at the time. A few faves: Mastros in Beverly Hills, Calif., Gundel in Budapest Hungary, Wynn Steakhouse in Las Vegas and Shutters, Coast Cafe – Santa Monica.

Interesting Fact: There’s nothing better than starting the work day at 4:30 a.m. with a 6-mile treadmill run…. there’s strength, power and commitment right from the get-go. Sky’s the limit after that.

How does she help customers? When I was a girl someone told me, ‘You have two ears and one mouth…try to use them in that proportion.’ I try to listen more than talk when I’m in the field with customers, dealers and kids (cause this world is not about what older people think, it’s about what younger people do). I hear their perspectives and bring them back so we can execute on their needs, wants and desires. I also look at blogs and the Twitterverse for authentic customer sentiment to help inform our decisions.

For more about Susan’s recent garage tour, check out this piece in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

Mel Fox

Aug 24th, 2009

Thank you for sharing the sentiment about the ears and mouth – I’m adding that to my personal “to do” list!! Loved the article in the Post Gazette
not old yet

Sep 8th, 2009

2 ears one mouth. LOL she works at GM she tells me the customer what I want. I am young and I don’t want a buick. I want a Pontiac. My grandpa has a buick. Thank god for imports all I have to do is tell them what I want once. If I want RWD performance Nissan is there for me. If want AWD 4 cyl turbo, subaru, mitsu, VW are there for me. If I want a generic boring Domestic car Buick/GM is there for me. Or if I want a 4000lb muscle car that needs a huge engine to get that lead sled moving the new camaro is there for me. Yippe for oversized V8′s in city driving.
Jordana

Sep 8th, 2009

Hi Not Old Yet,

On Aug. 28 Susan participated in a web chat on http://fastlane.gmblogs.com. Of course, someone asked her about Pontiac. Here is her response:

“Thanks for all of your passion around Pontiac. It was one of the toughest decisions we had to make as we moved to the new GM. Yes, Pontiac is a great brand with a storied past but unfortunately in the new GM, we needed to focus on a smaller number of brands and unfortunately Pontiac wont be back. Sorry!”

Hope this provides some perspective!

A lot is changing at GM. The Chevy Camaro is available in both a V6 or a V8 which is great. Also, recently I had a chance to see some of the new and future Buicks at GM Design. To be honest, Buick has never interested me before but I’m pumped about a new compact CUV that I saw on display. It may just replace my Pontiac Vibe in a few years.

-Jordana
not old yet

Sep 8th, 2009

Jordan,

Don’t worry about it’ I got my foreign sports cars with one of the 4 platforms listed below. Its a sports car thats not over weight with modern style. Its now all about power and being heavy any more, sorry to break that to you. Unlike another muscle car that went out of style with the 70′s. I highly doubt the manager of Buick really fought to dump buick and keep pontiac. GM management usually fights to protect their product even at the expense of the company’s future. Look through managments lies. You really think dumping pontiac was a hard decision for her. You ever took a tour of a GM plant your lucky to see anyone under 35 in there. I gave up trying to get sports cars from gm and they gave up on the youth outside of detroit. As sad as that is, its the truth. If I were an old guy at GM and had power, I would want the car of my youth. I am glad they are getting it, but its not the car most youth want, mostly detroit youth want it. Just ask the west or east coast. GM is like the union, forget the youth. me me me Then these people think the youth cares about buying american to keep GM people employed. HA let protectionism sort them out. What a joke. GM would rather make 40 of the same cars with different interiors that don’t sell; than cover the 2 main sport car platforms. 4cyl awd coupe/sedan, v8 rwd coupe/sedan. 4 vehicles 2 chassis. Youth market covered. But they also think because something has a V8 you can put a cheap interior in it then overprice it and expect the youth to buy it. lol Oh the good old detroit bubble.
Peter

Sep 9th, 2009

Hi Susan,

Also watch what the retirees get up to.

I’m a 66 yr old Grandfather with a 2000 Intrigue. But its in storage and I’m driving my Miata and riding my 650 VStrom

Set the fastest time recently at a slalom, with one of the oldest entries and the one with the least horse power. Check out the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iugxUZvIH7A
annepilia

Apr 3rd, 2011

many thanks for the article, I love it