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He just didn't understand the American car business. He didn't seem to pay himself grotesquely or live an obscene style. Second, Rick Wagoner seemed to be a decent man. How did he manage to stay on despite all the failures? First, the GM board of directors are pet rocks. Oldsmobile closed Saturn, Hummer, Saab and Pontiac to go. To be fair, the latest collapse was caused by that $4 a gallon gasoline and then the recession, neither of which were of Wagoner's doing. By the time he realized that GM needed someone at the top who understood cars and hired Lutz it was too late. GM's trucks and big SUVs were a success, but it was madness for a car company to ignore cars-and that was Wagoner's responsibility. He not only lost the low and middle market to the Japanese, but he lost the luxury end to the Germans. To overtake GM and become the world's largest automaker, and next year it's likely that Toyota will become the No. His administration showed disrespect for the product, the engineers who created it and the customers who bought it. If anything represents GM vehicles under Wagoner, it might be the failed Pontiac Aztek, which was considered the ugliest American vehicle in modern days.īut Wagner's worst sin was to allow his company to build boring cars with outmoded engines and transmissions, just awful interiors and poor fits and finish. It's bringing out a Camaro now, years after Ford redid its Mustang and after Chrysler redid its Dodge Challenger.
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GM was not only late in hybrids-it doesn't seem to understand that the lure is high miles per gallon, 40 to 50 miles per gallon. GM was late into small SUVs, like Ford Motor'sĬR-V. The last month counted, February, the share was 18% and sinking.Īnd GM under Wagoner missed trend after trend: GM was late into crossovers, meaning sport utility vehicles built on car platforms, which are big thing now. At that time GM's U.S market share was 33%. He was given the job by Jack Smith, although Wagoner knew nothing about the American auto business. Wagoner took over as chief of North American auto operations back in 1994. And hiring Robert Lutz, the retired president of Chrysler, to lead a GM product renaissance was an excellent move, although it showed how weak GM had become in products, so weak it needed an outsider to fix its cars.īut these strokes are overshadowed by the constant failures. 11 might have kept the country out of a recession. Finance men can be heroes too: Sergio Marchionne, who is leading the recovery of We're talking about the likes of Lee Iacocca, who brought Chrysler back, and George Romney, who saved American Motors. And he's got to be willing to wave the flag too in these desperate times. He's got to have a feel for the business, for the product, for the car buyer, and not just for the balance sheet. What GM needs in this crisis, of course, is a spirited leader, a fighter, who can speak to the American people and convince us that GM is coming back. But it's unfair to knock him before he's had a chance to do something. Like Wagoner, he is a fairly colorless financial officer. Frankly, it is difficult to see what he did to become president of the once largest automaker in the world. The second in command, the president and chief operating officer, is Fritz Henderson, and he is expected to succeed Wagoner, at least for now.
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we hear mostly of program cancellations, and the Vice Chairman Robert Lutz, the only real "car guy" in top management, is giving up and retiring at the end of the year.īut it might be a mistake to cheer Wagoner's leaving, because we don't know if his replacement will be any better. Its European operations-and they are key to saving GM-seem to be without serious direction.