General Motors Death Watch 85: The Calm Before the Storm
According to GM, happy days are here again. Profits are up, costs are down and the company’s turnaround plan is on track. The automotive media have swa…
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General Motors Death Watch 84: Going, Going, Ghosn
After carefully considering the potential benefits of a GM – Nissan – Renault alliance, auto industry analysts have concluded that the deal makes…
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General Motors Death Watch 83: The End of Days
Relax. The news that GM stockholder Kirk Kerkorian has been playing footsie with Renault/Nissan doesn’t represent some kind of paradigm shift for GM or…
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General Motors Death Watch 82: Cut and Run
Ron Tadross. Say it softly and it’s almost like crying. If you’re GM that is. The Banc of America Securities analyst isn’t exactly what you…
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General Motors Death Watch 81: GM For Sale
GM swears up, down and sideways that they will not stage a repeat of last summer’s Fire Sale for Everyone discount program. And yet inventories are up,…
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General Motors Death Watch 80: No OCD = RIP
My name is Robert, and I’m an obsessive. You may have noticed. You may have returned to an article on TTAC and clocked the fact that our writing evolve…
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General Motors Death Watch 79: The Vision Thing
When the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the world’s largest automaker tells his shareholders to think long-term, there’s only one word f…
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General Motors Death Watch 78: The Bad News Bears
Last week, Merrill Lynch analyst John Murphy counted GM and Delphi employees rushing for the exits, struck-up a chorus of happy days are here again and watch…
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General Motors Death Watch 77: Bull
Why is GM's stock rallying to a six-month high? Delphi's Sword of Damocles still sways above The General's head. Their market share and sales continue slidin…
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General Motors Death Watch 76: Last Man Standing
When Bob Lutz launched the new-ish Chevrolet Tahoe, GM's Car Czar claimed the SUV and its platform partners would sell to a core group of customers who need…
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General Motors Death Watch 75: Desperate Times
Rabid Rick Wagoner lacks self-esteem. Why else would GM's CEO submit himself to triple presidential humiliation? First, Bush tells GM to take a hike– e…
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GM Death Watch 74: The Refresh That Pauses
Last year, GM unveiled a funky retro-styled vanlet called the HHR (Heritage High Roof). Although the HHR has generated some much-needed action on Chevrolet d…
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General Motors Death Watch 73: Running on Empty
As any good debt counselor will tell you, paying down your debt isn't enough. You need enough cash on hand to deal with ongoing expenses and extra funds for…
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General Motors Death Watch 72: Circumspice
Growing up near Flint, everyone's dad worked for GM. Not all of our fathers brought home a GM paycheck, but we all lived on GM money. If your dad was a plumb…
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General Motors Death Watch 71: The Butterfly Effect
Now that General Motors is poised on the brink of disaster, the smallest setback could send the The General sliding into bankruptcy. What will be the straw t…
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General Motors Death Watch 70: Locked and Loaded
Before you can buy a firearm in Rhode Island, you have to finish a gun safety course. My instruction consisted of a pot-bellied ex-State Trooper telling war…
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General Motors Death Watch 69: Running Out of Gas
You've got to wonder about the mood at RenCen these days. Watching the price of gas crest $3 a gallon must make GM CEO Rabid Rick Wagoner feel like the Capta…
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General Motors Death Watch 68: Predestination
The ancient Greeks knew the truth: character is fate. If Oedipus hadn't been such an asshole he wouldn't have killed his father, married his mother and kept…
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General Motors Death Watch 67: GM ED MIA?
I once complained to my accountant about sky-high UK petrol taxes. An oil-producing nation with the highest gas prices in the world? What's that all about? H…
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General Motors Death Watch 66: No No Nadir
At yesterday's New York International Automobile Show, Bob Lutz provided the hook for GM's PR counterattack. Of course, the Car Czar's rallying cry wasn't pl…
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General Motors Death Watch 65: When Billy Met Ricky
I wonder what Billy Durant would have made of Rick Wagoner. GM's founder was a man of great honesty, intelligence and drive. He was also a high school drop o…
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General Motors Death Watch 64: Too Rich to Die
When things are going well, when the US economy's humming along and the right models await eager buyers on dealer lots, being the world's largest auto maker…
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General Motors Death Watch 63: GM RIP
At 9:30am this morning, a group of lawyers representing bankrupt auto parts supplier Delphi will appear in front of Federal Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain. Th…
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General Motors Death Watch 62: Grounded
Ward's Automotive recently profiled Pete Gerosa, GM's former Vice President for Field Sales, Service and Parts. Although Gerosa's heading for retirement, he'…
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General Motors Death Watch 61: Have a Heart
As GM fast approaches the day when it surrenders its world's largest automaker title to Toyota, it's important to remember that we're still talking about a c…
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General Motors Death Watch 60: Bankruptcy is Good for the Soul
It's official: bankruptcy is good for GM. In their recent ass-covering exercise for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), The Ford Motor Company list…
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General Motors Death Watch 59: X Marks the Spot
Yesterday, The Detroit News caught-up with Maximum Bob Lutz at the Geneva Auto Show. GM's Car Czar was busy unveiling Saab's Aero-X, a Corvette-based concept…
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General Motors Death Watch 58: Supply Side Economics
A couple of days ago, I was talking to an auto industry analyst about the world's largest automaker. We were discussing the cracks in GM's hull, trying to fi…
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General Motors Death Watch 57: What the Dickens?
This is a tale of two Tahoes. The first is a wildly successful SUV that's flying off the lots at full price: a Hail Mary pass that will put General Motors ba…
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General Motors Death Watch 56: The Spin Starts Here
Last Thursday, GM's Vice President of Global Communications sat with the suits and outlined his plan to rescue The General's image from public crucifixion. T…
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General Motors Death Watch 55: My Kingdom for a Horse
As our GM Death Watch series gains traction, I've taken to scanning the skies for black helicopters, stashing Glocks around the house and avoiding the fine c…
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General Motors Death Watch 54: GM Dealers Must Die
If there's one group of people within the GM universe who elicits less sympathy than the current management team, it's the legions of loud-talking, loudly-dr…
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General Motors Death Watch 53: On A Plate
I once showed-up for a job interview in the adult film industry. (It was an honest mistake.) Before I bailed, I complimented Mr. Triple X on the spectacular…
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General Motors Death Watch 52: Kill! Kill!
If I hear that "you can't cut your way to prosperity" line one more time, I swear I'm going to post a forty-eight page article about surgical cancer treatmen…
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General Motors Death Watch 51: Dancing With the Devil
'We didn't plan it this way. But Delphi has become a metaphor for nearly every economic and social issue gripping America.' Jesus, I hope not. Before I expla…
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General Motors Death Watch 50: 399 Days and Counting
On Tuesday, the elephant in GM's boardroom removed its cloaking device. In the heart of GM's corporate HQ, in the middle of the Detroit auto show, Jerome P.…
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General Motors Death Watch 49: Paranoia Rules
If you're visiting the Detroit auto show, do me a favor. Go to the GM stand, find the new Chevrolet Tahoe Dual-Mode Hybrid SUV and ask the moto-bouncer to po…
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General Motors Death Watch 48: The Price is Wrong
Regrets? GM's Vice President of North American Vehicle Sales has had a few. Then again, too few to mention. When quizzed about the wisdom of last summer's Fi…
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General Motors Death Watch 47: Happy Days
When historians analyze GM's collapse, searching for the precise moment when The General jumped the shark, it will be like trying to pinpoint the onset of Al…
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General Motors Death Watch 46: The $2b Question
For those of you who've just joined us from Wall Street, welcome. We've been waiting for you for a while– long enough to wonder if GM's stock price got…
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General Motors Death Watch 45: In His Hands
According to Rabid Rick Wagoner, terminating his employment would only slow down GM's recovery: 'When you bring in a lot of new people, you bring in a lot of…
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General Motors Death Watch 44: As Witchita Falls
Forget GM's Toe Tag sale, which failed to extinguish the automaker's low sales idiot light and sealed their reputation as the K Mart of cars. Ignore GM's ete…
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General Motors Death Watch 43: One More Such Victory…
Yesterday, GM announced it will release former subsidiary Delphi from an agreement trimming big bucks from The General's parts bill. This despite the fact th…
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General Motors Death Watch 42: Slouching Towards Bethlehem
I used to think that spin meant arranging facts to conceal their meaning. After watching Rabid Rick Wagoner's responses to the pre-shocks signaling GM's impe…
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General Motors Death Watch 41: Fiddling Around
'I'd just like to set the record straight here and now,' Rabid Rick Wagoner wrote in an email circulated yesterday on GM's intranet. 'There is absolutely no…
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General Motors Death Watch 40: My Mother Was a Saint
If it wasn't so funny, it would be sad. GM loses billions in ill-advised overseas 'investments', produces an over-abundance of vehicles that are two model cy…
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General Motors Death Watch 39: Cassandra Crossing
For over 30 years, Maryann Keller's kept tabs on The General. The auto industry analyst has watched GM lose billions in overseas investments, surrender great…
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General Motors Death Watch 38: General by Name
While GM models continue to debut and disappear like Manolo Blahniks, the Chevrolet Corvette stays the course, slowly evolving towards excellence. To mark th…
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General Motors Death Watch 37: Get Shorty
Details of The General's highly-touted secret accord with the United Auto Workers (UAW) have finally filtered out. Even a cursory glance at the fine print&nd…
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General Motors Death Watch 36: Wattsamatta U
To paraphrase Bullwinkle J Moose: "Hey Rocky, watch Ricky pull a rabbit out of his hat!" On the very day when Rabid Rick Wagoner revealed that GM had lost $1…
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General Motors Death Watch 35: Rick Wagoner, RIP
God knows where Rabid Rick Wagoner got his reputation for being clever. Obviously, you don't get to be the CEO of the world's largest automaker by being stup…
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General Motors Death Watch 34: The Oracle of Delphi
So Delphi is bankrupt. The automotive parts manufacturer will now use the courts to reduce their labor costs, so they can make a profit and stay in business.…
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General Motors Death Watch 33: GM RIP
In a news article entitled "UAW, GM near deal on Health", Detroit News reporter Daniel Howes claims that the United Auto Workers and General Motors are about…
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General Motors Death Watch 32: How to Get A Head in Business
Today's 11th hour deal between GM and the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) is yet another example of The General's singular inability to take the bold action need…
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General Motors Death Watch 31: Ipso Facto
In his first podcast, Maximum Bob Lutz insists that the full-size SUV market will survive the changing economic climate, albeit in a diminished form. What, n…
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General Motors Death Watch 30: More Mush From the Wimps
Imagine Maximum Bob Lutz and Marketing Mark LeNeve heading for the unveiling of GM's new 'full-size' SUV's. At the precise moment when another hurricane is e…
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General Motors Death Watch 29: Everything You Know is Wrong
The GM Death Watch series has repeatedly asserted that The General has too many brands selling too many models, with insufficient focus on any level, with ex…
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General Motors Death Watch 28: Distant Waters
Last June, Rabid Rick Wagoner unveiled his five-point plan to rescue The General. He promised to downsize GM's production capacity– then let normal att…
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General Motors Death Watch 27: The Big Dipper
You get a terrific view from the top of a roller coaster– but there's only one way to go. GM execs would have known the feeling at the beginning of Aug…
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General Motors Death Watch 26: Question Time
As I write, a group of Wall Street analysts are bunkering in GM's corporate HQ for an update on The General's recovery plans. The morning session will featur…
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  • 1995 SC At least you can still get one. There isn't much for Ford folks to be happy about nowadays, but the existence of the Mustang and the fact that the lessons from back in the 90s when Ford tried to kill it and replace it with the then flavor of the day seem to have been learned (the only lessons they seem to remember) are a win not only for Ford folks but for car people in general. One day my Super Coupe will pop its headgaskets (I know it will...I read it on the Internet). I hope I will still be physically up to dropping the supercharged Terminator Cobra motor into it. in all seriousness, The Mustang is a.win for car guys.
  • Lorenzo Heh. The major powers, military or economic, set up these regulators for the smaller countries - the big guys do what they want, and always have. Are the Chinese that unaware?
  • Lorenzo The original 4-Runner, by its very name, promised something different in the future. What happened?
  • Lorenzo At my age, excitement is dangerous. one thing to note: the older models being displayed are more stylish than their current versions, and the old Subaru Forester looks more utilitarian than the current version. I thought the annual model change was dead.
  • Lorenzo Well, it was never an off-roader, much less a military vehicle, so let the people with too much money play make believe.