Professor Elam

The Editor of Motor Trend describes the GM takeover as pragmatism not socialism.

Look back to see my comments on how no one seems to flinch when the US dicates who should run entire countries. Yet the critics that support intervention in countries around the world are upset that the US is actually trying to improve a company here in  our own country. Angus is an Australian by birth and brings a good perspective on the problem.

Maria Bartiromo talks with Bob Nardelli about Chrysler and FIAT.

Jerry Flint on why Rick Waggoner had to go.

Flint asks a good question, how did the colorless successor  to Waggoner, Fritz Henderson,  ever become CEO?  David E. Davis wrote a column for Winding Road a couple of years back though I cannot find it at the moment. He observed that GM had let thousands of employees go but there was no evidence that they had retained the right people, so true. He went on to observe that large corporations are cursed with the sort of hangers on that seem to stay put no matter what. They never commit, they never contribute but like the lint in your pocket they are always there doing little or nothing other than making sure they stay. As Flint says Waggoner is last to the post with a Camaro behind the Mustang and Challenger. There are but two interesting cars (my observation) in the entire GM stable, the Caddy CTS V and the Corvette, both using a 1955 engine. As Flint observes it is a passion for what one does that drives folks to the showroom.

In the curent Business Week MSFT Ballmer says that the $500 premium for an Apple is too much in this economy, Steve you still don't get it, this is the thinking that got GM to an 18% market share. No one is passionate about their Dell ( I hate the soft switches on mine) or their Chevy Cavalier. they are however passionate about their Mazda Miatas or their iPods. Even in this recession, there is not dealer incentive on Miatas or iPods.

Can GM build the auto equivalent of the iPod, do that or continue to be the maker of rent car fleets, the choice is theirs. This is the company that created the duece and a half all wheel drive truck that helped win WW II, the automatic transmission, the pillarless hardtop (the wife of a Buck exec wanted the convertible look in her hardtop), the first workable auto air conditioner. These firsts were followed by horrible engineering decisions including the Corvair, the 4 6 8 engine, the failed Pontiac OHC 6, and the proctor and gamble boring line up of sedans in the 1970s and 80s.

In the mid 1960s the Beach Boys observed that

She's so fine

My 409

Today the makers of the 409 beg at the Capitol, tin cup in hand,

how the mighty have fallen.