Like any large corporation, General Motors spends a lot of time and money conducting focus groups—talking to its customers and potential customers in focus groups to find out what they want.
This year at the New York auto show, it seemed the company was doing more than usual.

First, at Wednesday morning, GM held a press conference to introduce the Pontiac Solstice Coupe and two new versions of the Australian-built Pontiac G8. As soon as you name any car G8, you signal the world that you're running out of ideas for car names. If that weren't bad enough, the company admitted as much when it announced an Internet contest to name the latest version of the G8, a two-door, car-like pickup truck, very similar in concept to the Chevrolet El Caminos from the 1970s and '80s. Personally, I'm not sure what's wrong with the storied name El Camino, beyond the potential for brand confusion. Or if that has too much (ahem) baggage, why not Caballero, the name of the GMC version of that trucklet, which no one will remember. (GM is working to merge GMC and Pontiac dealers anyway.) Rapper Fifty Cent, who introduced the car, suggested his given first name, Curtis. If you'd like to make a different suggestion, visit GM's "Tame the Name" contest Web site at: www.pontiac.com/namethiscar.

If that weren't enough feel-good feedback, the company invited a group of perhaps 60 enthusiasts of the Chevrolet Volt to a "town hall" meeting in the afternoon and a group of company executives fielded detailed questions about the car. (Read: "Plugged in: Chevrolet Volt.")

The visitors came from those who left comments at an independently operated Web site: gm-volt.com Many were tinkerers who own electric cars—sometimes several, and some that they have built themselves. Many are members of regional electric-vehicle clubs and are well versed in the challenges of building, owning, and driving electric vehicles (if not necessarily in mass production.)

These efforts follow on last years' GM press conference, in which the company asked showgoers to vote with colored balls for which of three microcar concepts they liked best.

All this is to say that GM is either trying very hard to do a better job of listening to its customers, or it has simply completely run out of original ideas of its own. We're not sure which.

To be fair, GM's vice president of global product development, Bob Lutz, has admitted the company underestimated the demand for hybrids. Put another way, before the Toyota Prius came out, GM was completely blind to the market among young, hip urban intellectuals for a car that got good gas mileage and made a social statement that its owner cared about the planet. Now it looks as though the company is aggressively trying to make up for lost time, marked by a slew of hybrid models coming to market and intriguing concept vehicles offering a glimpse at the potential road ahead.

Tell us what you think. Is GM asking the right customers now?

—Eric Evarts

See the 2008 New York auto show coverage.