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The NY Times is reporting GM CEO Rick Wagoner is resigning at President Obama's behest one day before unveiling his rescue plan for GM and Chrysler. March Madness? Ha! More like Carpocalypse Carnage! UPDATE! More »
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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.)] More »
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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 »
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GM is accelerating development of the 2010 Chevy Volt in an attempt to ready the production version for a reveal as the company celebrates its 100th anniversary in September. Although we know GM desperately needs a cutting-edge Prius-killing success to stem the sales slide, given past RenCen rush jobs, we're not sure that setting a time deadline instead of a performance benchmark is the best way to move forward. A look at potential pitfalls after the jump. More »
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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 »
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Mark Phelan, columnist for the Detroit Free Press, today argues both sides of the "should Hummer stay or should it go?" coin. On one hand, Hummer's gas-sucking asshole image isn't doing GM any favors, and poor sales numbers make the abuse harder to absorb. On the other hand, Hummers are truly capable vehicles with a rabid (if shrinking) fan base. Then there's the issue of Hummer dealers getting all sue-happy if GM shut the brand down. There still seems to be a logical option, however. More »
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GM's Chairman and CEO, Rick Wagoner, took on a new role yesterday, that of Business Model. Wagoner traveled to Gilbert, Arizona to cut the ribbon at Henry Brown, a local dealer that's the first nationwide to finish construction on a new facility that combines the Buick, Pontiac and GMC brands under one roof. During the event Wagoner remarked, "Henry [Brown] has a real passion for our products, and he's one of the best in the business, He does what a lot of other dealers aspire to." It's not known if the Business Model theme song, Like a Rock, was playing at the time. [Source: The Arizona Republic] More »
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Those involved in the automotive industry, known for having a firm grasp on the future, have backed Mitt Romney nearly 2-to-1 in donations compared with other Republicans and Democrats. This is no surprise, as Mitt Romney's dad, George Romney, was the former head of American Motors and governor of Michigan (two enterprises that have really prospered over the last four decades). Giuliani came in second with $228,000, and McCain third with $151,000. On the Democratic side, Clinton beat Obama $123,000 to $112,000. More »
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Now that the parties and fun of the Detroit Auto Show are over, GM has decided to get back to business. If you haven't heard by now, GM is planning on offering buyouts to an additional 46,000 hourly workers under the terms of the newly negotiated UAW contract. When successfully implemented, this move to push out high wage members in favor of a lower wage, younger workforce will save a planned $5 billion annually by 2010. Apparently that means they've completed their turn around plan as well, so we're assuming the sales figures to be released Wednesday confirming Toyota has taken GM's global sales leader status away won't be that big a deal. [via Financial Times] More »
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One of our favorite Simpsons was when Mr. Burns got the one billion dollar bill and him, Smithers and Homer flee to Cuba. They hook up with Castro who wants to have a look at the filthy lucre. Mr. Burns isn't sure, but Homer tells him, "C'mon Mr. Burns — you can trust Castro." So, Burnsey hands Fidel the bill and the great Cuban revolutionary immediately puts it in his pocket. Mr. Burns asks for it back, to which Castro responds, "What bill?" And now the General is pulling the same thing. What Saturn EV-1? We don't know what Ed Begley Jr. is so upset about? Ladies and germs, may we present to you the Chevy Volt concept car. Totally electric, yet complete with a turbo-charged one-banger to produce juice for the batteries after they go dry. This gives the Volt a range of 640 miles. Not quite up to the awesome technology of Audi's 800-mile twin-turbo diesel A8, but hey - greenish celebs will take it. Seats five, too. – Jonny Lieberman More »
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Kicking off the 100th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Auto Show, hizzoner Antonio Villaraigosa asked Rapping Rick to move GM to Los Angeles. Rick said no. More importantly, Wagoner assured the booze hounds assembled journalists that General Motors is committed to "energy diversity." And that means, gasoline, E85, high-value (low-tech) hybrids, "advanced" two-mode hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fully electric fuel cell vehicles. Edison, it turns out, was right. The brothers Stanley, wrong. In fact, in about seven minutes, Saturn will be debuting the VUE plug-in hybrid, a world first, that will provide "significantly higher fuel savings" than the massively advanced, though yet to be released, two-mode VUE. Go planet Earth! More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=218002&view=rss&microfeed=true In the latest installment of Farago's GM Death Watch, he lasers in on the skills of GM boss Richard Wagoner, specifically those of leadership. By taking the path of least resistance, Farago says — otherwise defined as serving too many masters other than his own gut — the CEO is doing no more than forestalling an inevitable cataclysm. And here we were thinking "forestalling" was a good thing. More »
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