I thought it was generally accepted that one of the problems with GM in the 1980s is that they spent too much on automation, whereas Toyota and other competitor

I thought it was generally accepted that one of the problems with GM in the 1980s is that they spent too much on automation, whereas Toyota and other competitors spent more on just building better cars. For instance: http://www.autonews.com/article/20080914/OEM02/309149956/a-shopping-spree-in-the-80s http://www.autonews.com/article/20080914/OEM02/309149956/a-s... "GM number crunchers had pegged the investments in EDS, Hughes and Fanuc at $40 million in the long run. Instead, they cost $66 billion. In the end, GM's plants were no more efficient, and sales plummeted as money was spent on conglomeration rather than developing products Americans wanted to buy."