GM CEO Fritz Henderson Confirms Former Boss Asked To Step Down By Obama

During bankruptcy testimony earlier today, GM CEO Fritz Henderson confirmed initial reports that former CEO Rick Wagoner being asked to step down by Steve Rattner, head of the President's auto task force, in a one-on-one meeting.

Rick Wagoner Rewarded With $20 Million Retirement Package

Those of you feeling bad for former GM CEO Rick Wagoner, who was deposed of at the White House's behest, may cheer up at the news he qualifies for $20 million in retirement benefits. More »

Fritz Henderson To Take Job Of Interim GM CEO

An Obama senior administration official explained to us on background Fritz Henderson will take the reins as interim GM CEO tomorrow once Rick Wagoner's departure is formally announced directly after President Obama's auto strategy announcement. More »

General Motors Apologizes For Casual Friday Attire

GM CEO Rick Wagoner gets his priorities straight, using today's press conference to explain why COO Fritz Henderson was wearing a sweater and no tie, before hinting at CFO Ray Young's swinging lifestyle.

CNBC: Lutz Calls Wagoner "Best. CEO. Ever."

On CNBC this morning, GM product czar "Maximum" Bob Lutz said GM CEO Rick Wagoner is "without doubt the best CEO I've ever worked for." Well, duh. Have you seen the other CEOs he's worked for?

Not-So-Big Three "Bailout" Loan Agreement Could Come Today

A bailout bridge loan plan for the not-so-Big Three drawing emergency aid from an existing pool of $25 billion for green vehicle R&D and including a Cabinet-level oversight board could come as early as today.

GM CEO Rick Wagoner's Chevy Volt Beats A Toyota Prius In Washington

Not-So-Big Three Bake Sale Raises Enough To Fund CEO Salaries

With all this talk of corporate jets, slumming it on road trips and idling hybrids, it’s easy to lose track of the human cost of Carpocalypse Now. Has anyone thought of the standard of living adjustment the Big 3 CEOs will have to take when their salaries are cut from tens of millions to a paltry $1-per-year? One man has. That man’s name is Donny Miller. He’s taken it on himself to single-handedly help Alan Mulally, Bob Nardelli and Rick Wagoner put food on the table. How? An old-fashioned bake sale at last week's LA Auto Show.

To The Woman Sitting Behind Rick Wagoner at the House Financial Services Committee Hearing...

Caption This: Rick And Ron Edition

Report: GM, Chrysler Consider Bankruptcy For Federal Bailout Loan

The CEOs of the not-so-Big Three made it to DC for committee hearings beginning today at 10:00 AM. According to Bloomberg's sources, GM and Chrysler execs are considering a pre-arranged bankruptcy (which we've already said is a good thing) as a last-resort of getting a multibillion-dollar government loan.

Mr. Wagoner Makes It To Washington, Driving Volt Mule To Morning Senate Hearing

Not-So-Big Three Automakers Take Corporate Jets To Beg For Money From Congress

It's probably a bad thing to fly a private jet from Detroit to Washington, DC when you're going to ask Congress to provide you a multi-billion dollar loan to bail you out of a financial crisis. That fact hasn't stopped Ford's Alan Mulally, along with the heads of the other automakers, who not only flew to D.C. in the Ford private jet but are, apparently, unwilling to fully cut themselves from the corporate crack that is their private air forces. This really disturbs us. We've been having all sorts of problems with the way the US automakers have managed their message in making the ask for money from the Feds for survival. First they weren't getting their message out. Now, however, they're getting the wrong message out. Frankly, when folks begin saying things like this: More »

Barack Obama Will Not Meet Rick Wagoner Without Preconditions

Barack Obama took time away from talking about his mother-in-law and a college football playoff system to talk about the automaker bailout in an interview on CBS' 60 Minutes. While admitting Detroit needs help, he said it's important to make sure it's conditioned on the stakeholders (labor, suppliers, execs) coming up with a plan for a sustainable domestic auto industry as opposed to just giving out "a bridge loan to nowhere." Oh, yes, he went there. This was taped before the scary GM video, which at the very least we're hoping, convinced him to buy a Save GM t-shirt.

NYT: GM Sought Merger With Ford First

As if the late-breaking Friday night news of merger talks between Chrysler and GM weren't astonishing enough, Bill "Pickles" Vlasic at the New York Times continued the onslaught of amazement with a follow-up story that GM had initially approached Ford before speaking to Chrysler. Apparently, GM execs approached Ford about a possible merger in July but Ford rejected the idea despite the talks progressing until as late as last month. And we though it was hard creating a name for a merger of GM and Chrysler — try coming up with one for Ford and GM. Best we could come up with was "Big Blue Moval." More »

WSJ: General Motors To Cut 15% Of Salaried Workforce By November

The Wall Street Journal is reporting GM plans to remove another 5,000 salaried workers from payrolls by November as part of its re-restructuring announced earlier this month. The cuts would amount to about 15% of GM's North American white-collar staff, continuing what has become a 40% salaried headcount reduction since 2000. News of the job losses comes as GM is preparing analysts and the media to expect a large second-quarter loss when the company reports earnings tomorrow. Rather than layoffs, GM hopes to encourage staffers to leave with early retirement packages and cash incentives. Hey, it works for the cars, so why not try it on the employees? [WSJ (sub. req.)]

Jalopnik Crashes GM's New Global Powertrain Engineering Center In SE Michigan

In a move that GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner described as "A major step forward for General Motors," the company today dedicated its new Global Powertrain Engineering Development Center. The center is located in Pontiac, MI, spitting distance from the defunct Silverdome — the former home to the Detroit Lions, and consists of a 450,000 square-foot facility touted as the most technologically advanced powertrain development center in the world. What makes it so? Join us after the jump for our look around. More »

Toyota To Lower Sales Forecast, Try To Wrest Sales Crown From GM By Tricking Them?

According to reports out of Japan today, Toyota plans to lower its global sales estimate to 9.5 million vehicles this year, down from a previous sales estimate of 9.85 million. The report comes the day after GM's "Sweeping-Reorganization Press Conference, Part II," thus making their significant 385,000-unit sales forecast cut seem like a paltry hiccup in comparison. Well played, Toyota, but will it be enough for the win and the title of the world's super best number one automaker? More »

GM Wants More Money, Fewer Employees; Cadillac CTS Coupe, Saab 9-4X Get The Green Light

GM announced in a press conference this morning that its turnaround progress was proceeding so well that significant layoffs were needed. Oh, and please, send money. But the more pressing concern this week is to come up with $15 billion through cuts to the cost of salaried employees, particularly among white-collar staffers, along with spending in areas like health care costs and dividend payments. As part of its second restructuring this year, the company also announced that the 2010 Cadillac CTS Coupe and Saab 9-4X have been green-lighted. Details on where the job cuts will hit hardest were absent, but if our job description had the word "truck" in it anywhere, we'd be dusting off the resume quick-like. More analysis after the jump. More »

GM Says Brands Not Under Strategic Review, Just Jobs

On the heels of yesterday's WSJ story that GM was planning to eliminate thousands more jobs and potentially cut another brand, GM spokespeople are denying at least half the claims. Further brands are, supposedly, not under strategic review. Job cuts? Well...yeah, those are probably still going to happen. Our snap analysis after the jump. More »

GM To Get More Layoffs, Lose A Brand

According to the WSJ, GM's early-August board meeting is likely to result in layoffs affecting both blue- and white-collar workforces. They're also reporting GM is seriously exploring sloughing off another brand, either by outright closure or by placing it up for sale, a-la Hummer's "strategic review." We've put together a quick brand-viability scorecard breakdown after the jump for those of you playing along at home. More »

Rick Wagoner Announces We May See Chevy Volt Sheetmetal Soon, Eventually

We were beginning to think GM had developed a masterpiece of long-range marketing with the 2011 Chevrolet Volt program. Let reporters in every once in a while, strategically leak images while actually showing nothing, all the while keeping a late-2010 entry on the lips of every eco-dork in the motoring press. Let them build the buzz for you! Genius. However, with Slick Rick's statement that we'll be getting a look at the production sheetmetal for the Volt, we wonder if they've made a strategic error. What it looks like is practically the only thing we don't know about the car. More »

Hummer Up For Sale, Four Truck Plants Gone?

The times, they are a changin', and this week GM Chairman and Chieftain Rick Wagoner seems to have noticed. Wagoner announced a "strategic review of our Hummer brand," yesterday. Translation: "Anyone want to buy Hummer? Anyone? C'mon...cheap! Cerberus, I'm lookin' at you." Also included in the statement was news that four truck plants will be making the ultimate sacrifice: Moraine, Ohio; Janesville, Wisconsin; Toluca, Mexico; and Oshawa, Ontario. More »

Wagoner Says G****l W*****g Not A Crock Of Something

Let's put our hands together for Rick Wagoner, the CEO and Chairman of General Motors, who just discovered how to clean up after his s**t-loving Vice-Chairman, "Maximum" Bob Lutz. It was exactly a month ago when we first told you about product czar "Maximum" Bob's claim that global warming was simply a crock of...you know...stuff and finally Wagoner is ready to touch on the topic. Wagoner told reporters in Washington that Lutz's comments about global warming "weren't coming out of the company." More »

The Rick Wagoner NADA Keynote Live-Blog

Though we doubt many care, we've got an embedded journalist in San Francisco reporting out to us on what's going on at the NADA annual whatever out there tonight. Our embed will be covering the event live for us but for reasons of NADA-nal security, can't reveal his or her name — so we've nicknamed them "Rick_Fan_001" to protect them. Without further ado, here's our live instant messenger chat of this evening's keynote by GM CEO Rick Wagoner after the jump. Just keep hitting refresh as we add more: More »

Caption This: Tailgating Edition

What are we to make of a dapper Rick Wagoner and his lovely wife taking a tailgate moment at the auto show prom charity preview the night before the public opening of the Detroit Auto Show? We throw it to you, dear readers. Caption away! Caption like you've never captioned before! [via the Detroit News]

CNET Covers GM... Favorably?

Looks like Rick Wagoner making nice at CES ended up being a smart move. The trip to the geekfest by GM's top man has led to gadget industry stalwart CNET giving GM some free press, and it's mostly favorable. CNET Executive Editor Charles Cooper comes close to damning GM with feint praise, but his article comes off as hopeful the General is actually turning the corner on tech and environmentalism. Pretty soon we'll be hearing how more companies should be like GM. Before you know it, exurbanites will be gushing about how environmentally friendly their Cadillac Escalade Hybid is (snicker). [CNET.com]