GM's Wagoner Makes Case On YouTube (VIDEO)

If you are GM CEO Rick Wagoner, what do you do? The man in the top job at the struggling automaker is pulling every move possible to keep his company from collapsing.

And by all accounts, he's done a hell of a job. Even his critics in the industry have told me Wagoner and his top lieutenants don't get enough credit for the job they're doing in Detroit.

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Comments

[Pam4Waters]

GM is more of a credit issuer these days, than a POC auto maker. Both is businesses are going down the drain. If we could find a way to get better management in there I'd still like to save them since they are an American Company.

[jonlinehp]

Maybe GM is simply succumbing to the global cooling that Bob Lutz is so fond of. Good riddance.

[didleijoe]

Who Killed the Electric Car? How Ironic.. ina 2006 documentary film that explores the birth, limited commercialization, and subsequent death of the battery electric vehicle in the United States, specifically the General Motors EV1 of the 1990s. The film explores the roles of automobile manufacturers, the oil industry, the US government, the Californian government, batteries, hydrogen vehicles, and consumers in limiting the development and adoption of this technology.
I don't want to spoil it for anyone but GM had this technology 18 years ago and what they did with it was an atrocity and what they did to us was to.... You will be a bit unhappy if you get this one from Netflix...
http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com/

[Friday025]

We can discuss all day long the mistakes GM made as an auto company, but my concern lies in the fact that my 78 year-old dying father depends on his GM pension to live.

He worked for GM most of his life until retirement in '88. I'd hate to see my father go down and live his last moments on the earth while suffering because of all the hard work he put into being a former GM employee.

Hell, if GM goes down, my father goes down, and my mother too - they depend on that fix GM pension.

Not good.

[Lefty08]

Sorry about your father. I hope everything works out for your folks.

[josephebacon]

This is what happens when MBA's only concern is maximizing short run profits.

[AnthonyAfterwit]

That's one sun burnt dude. He should see if McCain's makeup people are available.

[kstuff]

1 in 10 jobs in this country is linked to the American Auto Industry. That's 10% of the entire American workforce, blue collar and white collar. If GM, Ford and Chrysler go down, so do the rest of us.

[Ecocat]

I do not believe we will go down if GM goes down. Or Ford. Or Chrysler. Maybe, no pain no gain.

[NoOtherWay]

Should have listened to the hippies, old man.

[Ecocat]

I will not allow any car owned by my family greater than 4 cyllinders. NEVER WILL!

[sofla954]

CAFE and fuel efficiency are not the issue for GM in the short run. The problem they have is that, without credit, they can't move metal... and they're not only the automaker, but also the bank... they own 49% of GMAC, which also has its hands in lots of crappy mortgages through its subsidiaries.

They're in deep doo-doo.

[crayola 08]

Hopefully they can do what Apple did when we were in a recession earlier this decade. Steve Jobs said,

"We"re not laying off boatloads of people. We"re taking those talented people and saying that if we"re going to get out of this, we"re going to get out of it by innovating our way out of it."

and they did. GM must do the same.

[KillTheMessenger]

To compare Apple with GM is like comparing the Sistine chapel with an after hours paint job on grandma's home's facade.

[MyTake]

Boy I like that word "ELECTRIFICATION"! Oh and "fuel cell" technology is down the road, I like that too!

Gee, Mr. Wagner, why is it that Honda are starting a Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicle production line as you speak at this time and you are not? Why does actress Jamie Lee Curtis have one of these hydrogen fuel cell-powered FCX Clarity vehicles right now when you say it is "down the road" technology? She would like to drive her car across country but there is not a god damn hydrogen fueling station anywhere because the oil cartels will not install those stations at their gasoline pumps? I wonder why, Mr. Wagner!

Apparently no one has informed you, Mr. Wagner, that there is more energy in a barrel of water than there is in a barrel of oil! Last time I checked, the oceans are full of water and 90% of the global population lives within 100 miles of a coastline. Isn't it about time to go off shore and not build oil rigs but sink electrolysis machines in the water and "electrify" them with wind, solar and wave generated electricity, flow the hydrogen gas to the shore, compress it and sale the gas to Jamie Lee Curtis driving her HYDROGEN FUEL CELL POLLUTION FREE HONDA CAR!

You sir, are a joke!

[liberalmomof7]

I have total faith in American ingenuity to do something great. Go, Rick, Go!

[Ecocat]

You may have to wait a long time. We seem to always be behind the curve on cars!

[Lefty08]

I do not share your faith. GM cars, for all their great attributes, are just plain ugly vehicles. You'd think they would have figured that out years ago. And they are way behind the curve in developing fuel cell technology compared to other manufacturers.

[rcozad]

Wagoner is the same genius that was fighting increased CAFE standards 3 weeks before the oil prices hit $4.00 per gallon. With leadership and foresight like that can anyone doubt that this is the basic part of why the US automakers can't make good cars that get high mileage ? They want to keep advertising high horsepower cars, low fuel economy, big SUV's and think we have an endless supply of oil! WRONG!! Lee Iococa is right where are our leaders?

[kassandranobody]

WHY ARE WE SUFFERING THESE FOOLS GLADLY?

THEY HAVE HAD CARS RUNNING ON ALTERNATIVES FOR ALMOST TEN YEARS

WHAT HAPPENED TO LEADERSHIP IN THIS COUNTRY?

HE WILL PROBABLY BE THE NEXT ONE TO GET A PUNCH IN THE NOSE AT HIS GYM

ALL THE CEO'S NEED THEIR BILLIONS- SO THEY CAN HIRE SECURITY TO PROTECT THEM FOR THE REST THEIR LIVES
SOME LIFE!

[ProudAm]

Leadership, these guys are certainly following the lead of our political leadership, which is garbage! It is all about greed and arrogance - GM could have been one of the leaders in all Electric Car technology but they went with the oil industry and corrupt government. All about the money it seems... in my opinion the worst , most shameful kind of Americans!

[Ecocat]

I have always wondered what engineers and designers from American car companies think about their own skills when foreign cars smoke theirs year after year!

[jcahill]

rick

i'm on the waiting list for the volt

can't wait---gm rocks and we must get the volt and future minded cars out there

also---maybe we go back to the 55mph speed limit for a couple years till we all (USA) get our balance back

GM fan forever

[FreedomFries]

The Volt is going to be uneconomical in a recession with the high price tag.

[KillTheMessenger]

Mr. Wagoner, is that you, Sir?

[anniegirl9]

I too was very excited about the Volt when I read about it months ago. Even though I will not be able to afford it, my hope is that enough people that can afford it will buy on and eventually the prices will start coming down.

But then I heard Mr. Wagoner on the Cobert Report. Why, why, why would a sound business man go out and take a proverbial crap on a good portion of the potential buyers of the Volt by claiming that Global warming was a farce? Even if he believed that, a smart business man should know not to piss off so many customers in what just may be the only thing that can save his company.

That type of forward thinking.... (had to stifle a laugh there)... is what got US car companies in the danger they are now in. Had the companies seriously worked on this type of technology all along, even if there wasn't that great of demand before now, they would be in a lot better shape.