History of General Motors - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

, also known as GM, is the world's second largest car manufacturer based on annual sales. Founded in 1908, in Flint, Michigan

Flint, Michigan

Flint is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit. The U.S. Census Bureau reports the 2010 population to be placed at 102,434, making Flint the seventh largest city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Genesee County which lies in the...

, GM employs approximately 266,000 people around the world. With global headquarters at the Renaissance Center

Renaissance Center

Renaissance Center is a group of seven interconnected skyscrapers in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, United States. Located on the International Riverfront, the Renaissance Center complex is owned by General Motors as its world headquarters...

in Detroit, Michigan

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

, United States, GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 35 countries. In 2008, 8.35 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under the brands Vauxhall

Vauxhall Motors

Vauxhall Motors is a British automotive company owned by General Motors and headquartered in Luton. It was founded in 1857 as a pump and marine engine manufacturer, began manufacturing cars in 1903 and was acquired by GM in 1925. It has been the second-largest selling car brand in the UK for...

, Daewoo

GM Daewoo

GM Korea Company is South Korea's second largest automobile manufacturer and is a division of the General Motors Company. GM Korea's roots go back to the former Daewoo which was split from its parent company, Daewoo Group, in 2001...

, Buick

Buick

Buick is a premium brand of General Motors . Buick models are sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, and Israel, with China being its largest market. Buick holds the distinction as the oldest active American make...

, Cadillac

Cadillac

Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...

, Chevrolet

Chevrolet

Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...

, GMC, Holden

Holden

GM Holden Ltd is an automaker that operates in Australia, based in Port Melbourne, Victoria. The company was founded in 1856 as a saddlery manufacturer. In 1908 it moved into the automotive field, before becoming a subsidiary of the U.S.-based General Motors in 1931...

, Pontiac

Pontiac

Pontiac was an automobile brand that was established in 1926 as a companion make for General Motors' Oakland. Quickly overtaking its parent in popularity, it supplanted the Oakland brand entirely by 1933 and, for most of its life, became a companion make for Chevrolet. Pontiac was sold in the...

, Hummer

Hummer

Hummer was a brand of trucks and SUVs, first marketed in 1992 when AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee. In 1998, General Motors purchased the brand name and marketed three vehicles: the original Hummer H1, based on the Humvee; and the H2 and H3 models that were...

, Saab

Saab Automobile

Saab Automobile AB, better known as Saab , is a Swedish car manufacturer owned by Dutch automobile manufacturer Swedish Automobile NV, formerly Spyker Cars NV. It is the exclusive automobile Royal Warrant holder as appointed by the King of Sweden...

, Wuling

SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile

SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile is a joint venture between General Motors and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation of China and Liuzhou Wuling Motors Co., Ltd...

.
Saturn, and Opel

Opel

Adam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...

1908–1932

General Motors was founded on Wednesday, September 16, 1908, in Flint, Michigan

Flint, Michigan

, as a holding company for Buick

Buick

(then controlled by William C. Durant

William C. Durant

William Crapo "Billy" Durant was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry, the founder of General Motors and Chevrolet who created the system of multi-brand holding companies with different lines of cars....

).

Durant's company, the Durant-Dort Carriage Company, had been in business in Flint since 1886, and by 1900, was producing over 100,000 carriages a year in factories located in Michigan and Canada. Prior to his acquisition of Buick, Durant had several Ford dealerships. With springs, axles and other key components being provided to the early automotive industry by Durant-Dort, it can be reasoned that GM actually began with the founding of Durant-Dort.
Durant and R.S. McLaughlin in November 20,1907 started General Motors of Canada and went on to start General Motors holding Company,September 16,1908. McLaughlin was on the Board of Directors and Quit when Durant lost his Job in 1910,McLaughlin traded his 500,000 shares of Buick Stock he and Durant traded for 500,000 shares of GM stock and went on to purchase 200 shares of Chevrolet stock in 1912 from Durant.
Durant acquired Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile was a brand of American automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors. It was founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1897. In its 107-year history, it produced 35.2 million cars, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory...

later in 1908. The next year, he brought in Cadillac

Cadillac

, Cartercar

Cartercar

The Cartercar was an American automobile manufactured in 1905 in Jackson, Michigan, in 1906 in Detroit, and from 1907 to 1915 in Pontiac, Michigan.-History:...

, Elmore

Elmore (automobile)

Elmore Manufacturing Company was a manufacturer of veteran and brass era automobiles, headquartered at 504 Amanda Street, Clyde, Ohio, from 1893 until 1912. The company took its name from its original place of manufacture, the nearby village of Elmore. Founded by James and Burton Becker, Elmore...

, Ewing, and Oakland

Oakland automobile

The Oakland was a brand of automobile manufactured between 1907–1909 by the Oakland Motor Car Company of Pontiac, Michigan, and between 1909 and 1931 by the Oakland Motors Division of General Motors Corporation. Oakland's principal founder was Edward M...

(later known as Pontiac). In 1909, General Motors also acquired the Reliance Motor Truck Company of Owosso, Michigan

Owosso, Michigan

Owosso is a city in Shiawassee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 15,713 at the 2000 census. The city is located on the eastern side of Owosso Township, but is politically independent...

, and the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company

Rapid Motor Vehicle Company

The Rapid Motor Vehicle Company was founded in 1902 in Pontiac, Michigan, by brothers Max Grabowsky and Morris Grabowsky, who built their first prototype in 1901. They went on to build one-ton trucks and were the beginning of GMC Truck division after they were acquired by General Motors in 1909...

of Pontiac, Michigan

Pontiac, Michigan

Pontiac is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan named after the Ottawa Chief Pontiac, located within the Detroit metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 59,515. It is the county seat of Oakland County...

, the predecessors of GMC Truck. A Rapid became the first truck to conquer Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak is a mountain in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, west of Colorado Springs, Colorado, in El Paso County in the United States of America....

in 1909. In 1910, Welch and Rainier were added to the ever-growing list of companies controlled by GM. Durant lost control of GM in 1910 to a bankers trust as the deal to buy Ford for $8,000,000.00 fell through, due to the large amount of debt (around $1 million) taken on in its acquisitions.

Durant left the firm and co-founded the Chevrolet Motor Company

Chevrolet

in 1911 with Louis Chevrolet

Louis Chevrolet

Louis-Joseph Chevrolet was a Swiss-born American race car driver of French descent, co-founder of the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in 1911 and later, the Frontenac Motor Corporation in 1916 which made racing parts for Ford's Model T.-Early life:Born in 1878 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a center of...

. After a brilliant stock buy back campaign with McLaughlin, Dupont and other Chevrolet stock holders, he returned to head GM in 1916, with the backing of Pierre S. du Pont

Pierre S. du Pont

Pierre Samuel du Pont was president of the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company from 1915 to 1919, and served on its Board of Directors until 1940...

. On October 13 of the same year, GM Company became incorporated as General Motors Corporation (reverting to General Motors Company upon emergence from bankruptcy in 2009). Chevrolet entered the General Motors fold in 1917; its first GM car was 1918's Chevrolet 490. Du Pont removed Durant from management in 1920, and various Du Pont interests held large or controlling share holdings until about 1950.

In 1918 GM acquired the McLaughlin Motor Car Company

McLaughlin automobile

The McLaughlin automobile company began life in 1876 as the McLaughlin Carriage Company, a blacksmith's shop in the village of Enniskillen, located north east of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. The company began making horse-drawn carriages in the mid 19th Century, moving to Oshawa, Ontario in 1876...

of Oshawa, Ontario

Oshawa, Ontario

Oshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario approximately 60 kilometres east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of both the Greater Toronto Area and the Golden Horseshoe. It is now commonly referred to as the most...

, Canada, manufacturer of the McLaughlin

McLaughlin automobile

automobile since 1907 (later to be renamed McLaughlin-Buick) as well as Canadian versions of Chevrolet cars since 1915. The company was renamed General Motors of Canada Ltd.

General Motors Canada

General Motors of Canada Limited is General Motors' Canadian division. Its national headquarters office, Canadian Regional Engineering Centre, and main manufacturing plants are located in Oshawa, Ontario. GM Canada is 100% owned by GM.As of Apr...

, with R.S. "Colonel Sam" McLaughlin

Samuel McLaughlin

Colonel Robert Samuel McLaughlin, CC, ED, CD was an influential Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He started the McLaughlin Motor Car Co...

as its first president and his brother George as vice-president.

GM's headquarters were located in Flint until the mid-1920s when it was moved to Detroit. Its building, originally to be called the Durant Building, was designed and began construction in 1919 when Durant was president, was completed in 1923 (Sloan became president that year) and officially dedicated as the General Motors Building in 1929. GM maintained this headquarters location, now called Cadillac Place

Cadillac Place

Cadillac Place is an ornate high-rise class-A office complex in the New Center area of Detroit, Michigan constructed of steel, limestone, granite, and marble between 1919 and 1923 and was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1985. The building houses several agencies of the State of Michigan...

, until it purchased the Renaissance Center

Renaissance Center

in 1996. The Buick Division headquarters remained in Flint until 1998 when it was relocated to the Renaissance Center.

In 1925, GM bought Vauxhall

Vauxhall Motors

of England, and then in 1929 went on to acquire an 80% stake in German automobile manufacturer Opel. Two years later this was increased to 100%. In 1931, GM acquired Holden

Holden

of Australia.

In 1926, GM created the Pontiac as a "companion" to the Oakland brand, an arrangement that lasted five years. The companion outsold its parent during that period, by so much that the Oakland brand was terminated and the division was renamed Pontiac.

GM surpassed Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

in sales in the late 1920s thanks to the leadership of Alfred P. Sloan

Alfred P. Sloan

Alfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr. was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a long-time president, chairman, and CEO of General Motors Corporation...

. While Ford continued to refine the manufacturing process to reduce cost, Sloan was inventing new ways of managing a complex worldwide organization, while paying special attention to consumer demands. Car buyers no longer wanted the cheapest and most basic model; they wanted style, power, and prestige, which GM offered them. Sloan did not neglect cost, by any means; when it was proposed Chevrolet should introduce safety glass

Laminated glass

Laminated glass is a type of safety glass that holds together when shattered. In the event of breaking, it is held in place by an interlayer, typically of polyvinyl butyral , between its two or more layers of glass. The interlayer keeps the layers of glass bonded even when broken, and its high...

, he opposed it because it threatened profits. Thanks to consumer financing via GMAC (founded 1919), easy monthly payments allowed far more people to buy GM cars than Ford, as Henry Ford

Henry Ford

Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...

was opposed to credit on moral principles. (Nevertheless, Ford did offer similar credit arrangements with the introduction of the Model A in the late 1920s but Ford Credit

Ford Motor Credit Company

Ford Motor Credit Company is the financial services arm of Ford Motor Company, and is headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan.Its business activities are concentrated primarily in the area of automobile loans in support of its parent company...

did not exist until 1959.)

At one time each of GM's automotive divisions in the United States was targeted to a specific market segment, and, despite some shared components, each distinguished itself from its stablemates with unique styling and technology. The shared components and common corporate management created substantial economies of scale, while the distinctions between the divisions created (in the words of GM President Sloan) a "ladder of success", with an entry-level buyer starting out with a "basic transportation" Chevrolet, rising through GMC

GMC

GMC may refer to:* Ganglion mother cell, a cell in the developing nervous system that divides once to produce two neurons* General motion control, a field of motion control concerned with single- and multi-axis motion controllers, intelligent drives, servo and stepper motors* Generalized Method of...

, Pontiac

Pontiac

, Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile

, Buick

Buick

, and ultimately to Cadillac

Cadillac

1933–1958

During the 1920s and 1930s, General Motors assumed control of the Yellow Coach

Yellow Coach

The Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company was an early manufacturer of passenger buses in the United States. It was founded in Chicago as a subsidiary of the Yellow Cab Company in 1923 by John D. Hertz...

bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

company, and helped create Greyhound bus lines

Greyhound Lines

Greyhound Lines, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, is an intercity common carrier of passengers by bus serving over 3,700 destinations in the United States, Canada and Mexico, operating under the well-known logo of a leaping greyhound. It was founded in Hibbing, Minnesota, USA, in 1914 and...

. They replaced intercity train transport with buses, and established subsidiary companies to buy out streetcar companies and replace the rail-based services as well with buses. GM formed United Cities Motor Transit in 1932 (see Great American streetcar scandal for additional details).

In 1930, GM also began its foray into aircraft design and manufacturing by buying Fokker Aircraft Corp of America (U.S. subsidiary of Fokker

Fokker

Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names, starting out in 1912 in Schwerin, Germany, moving to the Netherlands in 1919....

) and Berliner-Joyce Aircraft

Berliner-Joyce Aircraft

Berliner-Joyce Aircraft was an American aircraft manufacturer. It was founded on 4 February 1929 when Henry Berliner and his 1922 company, Berliner Aircraft Company of Alexandria, Virginia, joined with Temple Nach Joyce....

, merging them into General Aviation Manufacturing Corporation. Through a stock exchange GM took controlling interest in North American Aviation

North American Aviation

North American Aviation was a major US aerospace manufacturer, responsible for a number of historic aircraft, including the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, and the XB-70, as well as Apollo Command and Service...

and merged it with its General Aviation division in 1933, but retaining the name North American Aviation. In 1948, GM divested NAA as a public company, never to have a major interest in the aircraft manufacturing industry again.

General Motors bought the internal combustion engine

Internal combustion engine

The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...

d railcar

Railcar

A railcar, in British English and Australian English, is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach , with a driver's cab at one or both ends. Some railways, e.g., the Great Western...

builder Electro-Motive Corporation and its engine supplier Winton Engine

Winton Motor Carriage Company

The Winton Motor Carriage Company was a pioneer United States automobile manufacturer based in Cleveland, Ohio. Winton was one of the first American companies to sell a motor car.-1896:...

in 1930, renaming both as the General Motors Electro-Motive Division. Over the next twenty years, diesel-powered locomotives — the majority built by GM — largely replaced other forms of traction on American railroads. (During World War II, these engines were also important in American submarines and destroyer escorts.) Electro-Motive was sold in early 2005.

In 1935, the United Auto Workers

United Auto Workers

The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers , is a labor union which represents workers in the United States and Puerto Rico, and formerly in Canada. Founded as part of the Congress of Industrial...

labor union was formed, and in 1936 the UAW organized the Flint Sit-Down Strike

Flint Sit-Down Strike

The 1936–1937 Flint Sit-Down Strike changed the United Automobile Workers from a collection of isolated locals on the fringes of the industry into a major labor union and led to the unionization of the domestic United States automobile industry....

, which initially idled two key plants in Flint, but later spread to half-a-dozen other plants including Janesville, Wisconsin

Janesville, Wisconsin

Janesville is a city in southern Wisconsin, United States. It is the county seat of Rock County and the principal municipality of the Janesville, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 62,998.-History:...

and Fort Wayne, Indiana

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Fort Wayne is a city in the US state of Indiana and the county seat of Allen County. The population was 253,691 at the 2010 Census making it the 74th largest city in the United States and the second largest in Indiana...

. In Flint, police attempted to enter the plant to arrest strikers, leading to violence; in other cities the plants were shuttered peacefully. The strike was resolved February 11, 1937 when GM recognized the UAW as the exclusive bargaining representative for its workers.

World War II

General Motors produced vast quantities of armaments, vehicles, and aircraft during World War II. Its multinational interests were split up by the combating powers during the war such that the American, Canadian and British parts of the corporation served the Allied war effort and Adam Opel AG served the Axis war effort. By the spring of 1939, the German Government had assumed day-to-day control of American owned factories in Germany, but decided against nationalizing them completely (seizing the assets and capital). Soon after the war broke out, the nationalization came.

GM's William S. Knudsen

William S. Knudsen

William Signius Knudsen was a leading automotive industry executive. His experience and success as a key senior manager in the operations sides of Ford Motor Company and later General Motors led the Franklin Roosevelt Administration to commission him as a Lieutenant General in the United States...

served as head of U.S. wartime production for President

President

A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

Franklin Roosevelt, who called Detroit the Arsenal of Democracy

Arsenal of Democracy

"The Arsenal of Democracy" was a propaganda slogan coined by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a radio broadcast delivered on December 29, 1940. Roosevelt promised to help the United Kingdom fight Nazi Germany by giving them military supplies while the United States stayed out of the actual...

. The General Motors UK division, Vauxhall Motors

Vauxhall Motors

, manufactured the Churchill tank

Churchill tank

The Tank, Infantry, Mk IV was a heavy British infantry tank used in the Second World War, best known for its heavy armour, large longitudinal chassis with all-around tracks with multiple bogies, and its use as the basis of many specialist vehicles. It was one of the heaviest Allied tanks of the war...

series for the Allies. The Vauxhall Churchill

Churchill tank

tanks were instrumental in the UK campaigns in North Africa. Bedford Vehicles, GM of Canada CMP manufactured logistics vehicles for the UK military, all important in the UK's land campaigns. In addition, GM was the top manufacturer of U.S. Army 1½ ton 4x4 vehicles.

Nevertheless, while General Motors' US-based parent corporation has claimed that the operations of its German subsidiary (Adam Opel AG) were outside its control during World War II, this assertion appears to be contradicted by available evidence. General Motors was not just a car company that happened to have factories in Germany; GM management from the top down had extensive connections with the Nazi Party, both on a business and personal level. During war Opel's Brandenburg facilities produced bombers JU-88, truck

Truck

A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, with the smallest being mechanically similar to an automobile...

s, land mine

Land mine

A land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....

s and torpedo

Torpedo

The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...

detonator

Detonator

A detonator is a device used to trigger an explosive device. Detonators can be chemically, mechanically, or electrically initiated, the latter two being the most common....

s for Nazi Germany. During the war years GM declared it had abandoned its Nazi subsidiary, and took a complete tax write-off because of which they have received tax reduction of "approximately $22.7 million" or about $285 billion in 21st-century money. After the war GM collected some $33 million in "war reparations" because the Allies had bombed its German facilities for which they have earlier declared complete tax write-off and received tax reduction.

American GM Vice President (later Colonel) Graeme K. Howard was a committed Nazi, and expressed such views in his book, America and a New World Order. Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

awarded GM boss James D. Mooney the Order of Merit of the Golden Eagle for his services to Nazi Germany. General Motors’ internal documents show a clear strategy to profit from their German military contracts even after Germany declared war against America.

Defending the German investment strategy as "highly profitable", Alfred P. Sloan told shareholders in 1939 GM's continued industrial production for the Nazi government was merely sound business practice. In a letter to a concerned shareholder, Sloan said that the manner in which the Nazi government ran Germany "should not be considered the business of the management of General Motors...We must conduct ourselves as a German organization. . . We have no right to shut down the plant."

After 20 years of researching General Motors, Bradford Snell stated, "General Motors was far more important to the Nazi war machine than Switzerland ... Switzerland was just a repository of looted funds. GM-Opel was an integral part of the German war effort. The Nazis could have invaded Poland and Russia without Switzerland. They could not have done so without GM."

Post-war growth

At one point GM had become the largest corporation registered in the United States, in terms of its revenues as a percent of GDP. In 1953, Charles Erwin Wilson

Charles Erwin Wilson

Charles Erwin Wilson , American businessman and politician, was United States Secretary of Defense from 1953 to 1957 under President Eisenhower. Known as "Engine Charlie", he previously worked as CEO for General Motors. In the wake of the Korean War, he cut the defense budget significantly.-Early...

, then GM president, was named by Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

as Secretary of Defense

United States Secretary of Defense

The Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...

. When he was asked during the hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee if as secretary of defense he could make a decision adverse to the interests of General Motors, Wilson answered affirmatively but added that he could not conceive of such a situation "because for years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa". Later this statement was often misquoted, suggesting that Wilson had said simply, "What's good for General Motors is good for the country."

At the time, GM was one of the largest employers in the world – only Soviet state industries employed more people. In 1955, General Motors became the first American corporation to pay taxes of over $1 billion.

1958–1980

By 1958, the divisional distinctions within GM began to blur with the availability of high-performance engines in Chevrolet

Chevrolet

s and Pontiac

Pontiac

s. The introduction of higher trim models such as the Chevrolet Impala

Chevrolet Impala

The Chevrolet Impala is a full-size automobile built by the Chevrolet division of General Motors introduced for the 1958 model year. Deriving its name from the southern African antelope, Chevrolet's most expensive passenger model through 1965 had become the best-selling automobile in the United...

and Pontiac Bonneville

Pontiac Bonneville

The Pontiac Bonneville was an automobile built by the Pontiac division of General Motors from 1957 to 2005. It was introduced as a limited production performance convertible during the 1957 model year...

priced in line with some Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile

and Buick

Buick

offerings was also confusing to consumers. By the time Pontiac

Pontiac

, Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile

and Buick

Buick

introduced similarly styled and priced compact models in 1961, the old "step-up" structure between the divisions was nearly over.

The decade of the 1960s saw the creation of compact and intermediate classes. The Chevrolet Corvair

Chevrolet Corvair

-First generation :The 1960 Corvair 500 and 700 series four-door sedans were conceived as economy cars offering few amenities in order to keep the price competitive, with the 500 selling for under $2,000...

was a flat 6-cylinder (air cooled) answer to the Volkswagen Beetle

Volkswagen Beetle

The Volkswagen Type 1, widely known as the Volkswagen Beetle or Volkswagen Bug, is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003...

, the Chevy II was created to match Ford's conventional Falcon, after sales of the Corvair failed to match its Ford rival, and the Chevrolet Camaro

Chevrolet Camaro

The Chevrolet Camaro is an automobile manufactured by General Motors under the Chevrolet brand, classified as a pony car and some versions also as a muscle car. It went on sale on September 29, 1966, for the 1967 model year and was designed as a competing model to the Ford Mustang...

/Pontiac Firebird

Pontiac Firebird

The Pontiac Firebird was built by the Pontiac division of General Motors between 1967 and 2002. The Firebird was introduced the same year as the automaker's platform-sharing model, the Chevrolet Camaro...

was GM's countermeasure to the Ford Mustang

Ford Mustang

The Ford Mustang is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. It was initially based on the second generation North American Ford Falcon, a compact car. Introduced early on April 17, 1964, as a "1964½" model, the 1965 Mustang was the automaker's most successful launch since the Model A...

. Among intermediates, the Oldsmobile Cutlass

Oldsmobile Cutlass

The Oldsmobile Cutlass is a line of automobiles made by the Oldsmobile division of General Motors. The Cutlass began as a unibody compact car, but saw its greatest success as a body-on-frame intermediate car....

nameplate became so popular during the 1970s that Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile

applied the Cutlass name to most of its products in the 1980s. By the mid 1960s, most of GM's vehicles were built on a few common platforms and in the 1970s GM began to further unify body panel stampings.

The 1971 Chevrolet Vega

Chevrolet Vega

The Chevrolet Vega is a subcompact, two-door automobile that was produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors for the 1971-1977 model years. Named after the star Vega, the car was powered by a lightweight aluminum-block inline four-cylinder engine...

was GM's launch into the new subcompact class to compete against the import's increasing market share. Problems associated with its innovative aluminum engine led to the model's discontinuation after seven model years in 1977. During the late 1970s, GM would initiate a wave of downsizing starting with the Chevrolet Caprice

Chevrolet Caprice

The Chevrolet Caprice is a full-sized automobile produced by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors in North America for the 1965 through 1996 model years. Full-size Chevrolet sales peaked in 1965 with over a million sold. It was the most popular American car in the sixties and early seventies....

which was reborn into what was the size of the Chevrolet Chevelle

Chevrolet Chevelle

The Chevrolet Chevelle is a mid-sized automobile produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors in three generations for the 1964 through 1977 model years. Part of the GM A-Body platform, the Chevelle was one of Chevrolet's most successful nameplates. Body styles include coupes, sedans,...

, the Malibu would be the size of the Nova, and the Nova was replaced by the troubled front-wheel drive Chevrolet Citation

Chevrolet Citation

The Chevrolet Citation was a compact car sold by the Chevrolet brand of American automaker General Motors for model years 1980-1985. The Citation and its X-body siblings were among GM's first front wheel drive compact cars, following the trend of front drive compacts such as the Honda Accord...

. In 1976, Chevrolet came out with the rear-wheel drive sub compact Chevette

Chevrolet Chevette

The Chevrolet Chevette was introduced in September, 1975 and manufactured for model years 1976-1987 based on GM's worldwide T platform and superseding the Vega as Chevrolet's entry-level subcompact...

.

While GM maintained its world leadership in revenue and market share throughout the 1960s to 1980s, it was product controversy that plagued the company in this period. It seemed that, in every decade, a major mass-production product line was launched with defects of one type or another showing up early in their life cycle. And, in each case, improvements were eventually made to mitigate the problems, but the resulting improved product ended up failing in the marketplace as its negative reputation overshadowed its ultimate excellence.

The first of these fiascos was the Chevrolet Corvair

Chevrolet Corvair

in the 1960s. Introduced in 1959 as a 1960 model, it was initially very popular. But before long its quirky handling earned it a reputation for being unsafe, inspiring consumer advocate Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....

to lambaste it in his book, Unsafe at any Speed

Unsafe at Any Speed

Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile by Ralph Nader, published in 1965, is a book detailing resistance by car manufacturers to the introduction of safety features, like seat belts, and their general reluctance to spend money on improving safety...

, published in 1965. Ironically, by the same (1965) model year, suspension revisions and other improvements had already transformed the car into a perfectly acceptable vehicle, but its reputation had been sufficiently sullied in the public's perception that its sales sagged for the next few years, and it was discontinued after the 1969 model year. During this period, it was also somewhat overwhelmed by the success of the Ford Mustang

Ford Mustang

.

The 1970s was the decade of the Vega

Chevrolet Vega

. Launched as a 1971 model, it also began life as a very popular car in the marketplace. But within a few years, quality problems, exacerbated by labor unrest at its main production source in Lordstown, Ohio

Lordstown Assembly

The Lordstown Complex is a General Motors automobile factory in Lordstown, Ohio comprising three facilities: Vehicle Assembly, Metal Center, and Paint Shop. The plant opened in 1966. Lordstown currently builds the global Chevrolet Cruze compact car....

, gave the car a bad name. By 1977 its decline resulted in termination of the model name, while its siblings along with a Monza

Chevrolet Monza

The Chevrolet Monza is a subcompact, four-passenger automobile produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors for the 1975–1980 model years. The Monza is based on the Chevrolet Vega, sharing its wheelbase, width and 140 CID inline-4 engine...

version and a move of production to Ste-Thérèse, Quebec, resulted in a thoroughly desirable vehicle and extended its life to the 1980 model year.

Oldsmobile sales soared in the 1970s and 1980s (for an all-time high of 1,066,122 in 1985) based on popular designs, positive reviews from critics and the perceived quality and reliability of the Rocket V8 engine, with the Cutlass series

Oldsmobile Cutlass

becoming North America's top selling car by 1976. By this time, Olds had displaced Pontiac

Pontiac

and Plymouth

Plymouth (automobile)

Plymouth was a marque of automobile based in the United States, produced by the Chrysler Corporation and its successor DaimlerChrysler.-Origins:...

as the #3 best selling brand in the U.S. behind Chevrolet

Chevrolet

and Ford. In the early 1980s, model-year production topped one million units on several occasions, something only Chevrolet and Ford had achieved. The soaring popularity of Oldsmobile vehicles resulted in a major issue in 1977, as demand exceeded production capacity for the Oldsmobile V8, and as a result Oldsmobile quietly began equipping some full size Delta 88 models and the very popular Cutlass/Cutlass Supreme with the Chevrolet 350 engine instead (each division of GM produced its own 350 V8 engine). Many customers were loyal Oldsmobile buyers who specifically wanted the Rocket V8, and did not discover that their vehicle had the Chevrolet engine until they performed maintenance and discovered that purchased parts did not fit. This led to a class-action lawsuit which became a public relations

Public relations

Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....

nightmare for GM. Following this debacle, disclaimers stating that "Oldsmobiles are equipped with engines produced by various GM divisions" were tacked on to advertisements and sales literature; all other GM divisions followed suit. In addition, GM quickly stopped associating engines with particular divisions, and to this day all GM engines are produced by "GM Powertrain" (GMPT) and are called GM "Corporate" engines instead of GM "Division" engines. Although it was the popularity of the Oldsmobile division vehicles that prompted this change, declining sales of V8 engines would have made this change inevitable as all but the Chevrolet (and, later, Cadillac's Northstar

Northstar engine series

The Northstar engine series of automobile engines is General Motors' most technically complex 90° V engine architecture. The family is most associated with Cadillac's Northstar V8, but the family has also seen use at Oldsmobile...

) versions were eventually dropped.

In the 1980 model year, a full line of automobiles on the X-body

GM X platform

There have been two X-body automobile platforms from General Motors. All X-bodies were small entry-level models.-Rear wheel drive:The rear-wheel drive X-body underpinned the Chevrolet Nova and similar cars of the late 1960s and 1970s. It was also the basis for the Cadillac Seville's K platform...

platform, anchored by the Chevrolet Citation

Chevrolet Citation

, was launched. Again, these cars were all quite popular in their respective segments for the first couple of years, but brake problems, and other defects, ended up giving them, known to the public as "X-Cars", such a bad reputation that the 1985 model year was their last. The J-body

GM J platform

The J platform, or J-body, was General Motors' inexpensive front-wheel drive automobile platform from the 1980s and 1990s. The platform replaced the GM H platform. The J-platform is the only platform of GM to have a model in each of its "Original 5" passenger car divisions...

cars, namely the Chevrolet Cavalier

Chevrolet Cavalier

The Chevrolet Cavalier was a compact automobile produced from 1982 to 2005 by General Motors. Built on the company's J platform, the Cavalier was one of the best-selling cars in the United States throughout its life.- Predecessors :...

and Pontiac Sunbird

Pontiac Sunbird

The Pontiac Sunbird, produced by the Pontiac division of General Motors, was Pontiac's second small-car offering of the 70's. The Sunbird model ran for 18 years and was then replaced in 1995 by the Pontiac Sunfire...

, took their place, starting with the 1982 model year. Quality was better, but still not exemplary, although good enough to survive through three generations to the 2005 model year. They were produced in a much-improved Lordstown Assembly

Lordstown Assembly

plant, as were their replacements, the Chevrolet Cobalt

Chevrolet Cobalt

The Chevrolet Cobalt is a compact car introduced by Chevrolet in 2004 for the 2005 model year. The Cobalt replaced both the Cavalier and the Prizm as Chevrolet's compact car....

and Pontiac Pursuit/G5.

1981–present

Roger B. Smith served as CEO throughout the 1980s. GM profits struggled from 1981-83 following the late 1970s and early 1980s recession. In 1981, the UAW negotiated some concessions with the company in order to bridge the recession. GM profits rebounded during the 1980s. During the 1980s, GM had downsized its product line and invested heavily in automated manufacturing. It also created the Saturn brand to produce small cars. GM's customers still wanted larger vehicles and began to purchase greater numbers of SUVs. Roger Smith's reorganization of the company had been criticized for its consolidation of company divisions and its effect on the uniqueness of GM's brands and models. His attempts to streamline costs were not always popular with GM's customer base. In addition to forming Saturn, Smith also negotiated joint ventures with two Japanese companies (NUMMI

NUMMI

New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. was an automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont, California, opened in 1984 and closed in 2010. On October 27, 2010 it reopened as a 100% Tesla Motors-owned production facility, known as the Tesla Factory...

in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

with Toyota, and CAMI

CAMI Automotive

CAMI Automotive, originally known as Canadian Automotive Manufacturing Inc., was an independently incorporated joint venture of automobile manufacturing in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada and formed the third step of GM's three-pronged initiative of the mid-1980s to capture and practice the Japanese...

with Suzuki

Suzuki

is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Hamamatsu, Japan that specializes in manufacturing compact automobiles and 4x4 vehicles, a full range of motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles , outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a variety of other small internal combustion engines...

in Canada). Each of these agreements provided opportunities for the respective companies to experience different approaches.

The decade of the 1990s began with an economic recession, taking its inevitable toll on the automotive industry, and throwing GM into some of its worst losses. As a result, "Jack" Smith

John F. Smith, Jr.

John Francis "Jack" Smith, Jr. is the non-executive chairman of the board of directors of Delta Air Lines. Smith has been a member of Delta's board of directors since 2000....

(not related to Roger) became burdened with the task of overseeing a radical restructuring of General Motors. Sharing Roger's understanding of the need for serious change, Jack undertook many major revisions. Reorganizing the management structure to dismantle the legacy of Alfred P. Sloan

Alfred P. Sloan

Alfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr. was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a long-time president, chairman, and CEO of General Motors Corporation...

, instituting deep cost-cutting and introducing significantly improved vehicles were the key approaches. These moves were met with much less resistance within GM than had Roger's similar initiatives as GM management ranks were stinging from their recent near-bankruptcy experience and were much more willing to accept the prospect of radical change.

Following the first Gulf War and a recession GM's profits again suffered from 1991-93. For the remainder of the decade the company's profits rebounded and it made market share gains with the popularity of its SUVs and pick-up truck lines. Rick Wagoner

Rick Wagoner

George Richard "Rick" Wagoner, Jr. is an American businessman and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. Wagoner resigned as Chairman and CEO at General Motors on March 29, 2009, at the request of the White House...

had served as the company's Chief Financial Officer during this period in the early 1990s. GM's foreign rivals gained market share especially following U.S. recessionary periods while the company recovered. U.S. trade policy and foreign trade barriers became a point of contention for GM and other U.S. automakers who had complained that they were not given equal access to foreign markets. Trade issues had prompted the Reagan administration to seek import quotas on some foreign carmakers. Later, the Clinton administration engaged in trade negotiations to open foreign markets to U.S. automakers with the Clinton administration threatening trade sanctions in efforts to level the playing field for U.S. automakers.

José Ignacio ("Inaki") López de Arriortúa, who worked under Jack Smith in both Europe and the United States, was poached by Volkswagen

Volkswagen

Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...

in 1993, just hours before Smith announced that López would be promoted to head of GM's North American operations. He was nicknamed Super López for his prowess in cutting costs and streamlining production at GM, although critics said that his tactics angered longtime suppliers. GM accused López of misappropriating trade secrets, in particular taking documents of future Opel vehicles, when he accepted a position with VW. German investigators began a probe of López and VW after prosecutors linked López to a cache of secret GM documents discovered by investigators in the apartment of two of López's VW associates. VW, faced with a plummeting stock price, eventually forced López to resign. GM and Volkswagen since reached a civil settlement, in which Volkswagen agreed to pay GM $100 million and to buy $1 billion worth of parts from GM.
After GM's lay-offs in Flint, Michigan

Flint, Michigan

, a strike

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

began at the General Motors parts factory in Flint on June 5, 1998, which quickly spread to five other assembly plants and lasted seven weeks. Because of the significant role GM plays in the United States, the strikes and temporary idling of many plants noticeably showed in national economic indicators.

In the early 1990s, following first Gulf War and a recession, GM had taken on more debt. By the late 1990s, GM had regained market share; its stock had soared to over $80 a share by 2000. However, in 2001, the stock market drop following the September 11, 2001 attacks

September 11, 2001 attacks

The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...

, combined with historic pension underfunding, caused a severe pension and benefit fund crisis at GM and many other American companies and the value of their pension funds plummeted.

Production of SUVs and trucks vs. cars

In the late 1990s, the U.S. economy was on the rise and GM and Ford gained market share producing enormous profits primarily from the sale of light trucks and sport-utility vehicles.

Following the September 11 attacks, a severe stock market decline caused a pension and benefit fund underfunding crisis.
GM began its Keep America Rolling campaign, which boosted sales, and other auto makers were forced to follow suit. The U.S. automakers saw sales increase to leverage costs as gross margins deteriorated.

In 2004, GM redirected resources from the development of new sedans to an accelerated refurbishment of their light trucks and SUVs

Sport utility vehicle

A sport utility vehicle is a generic marketing term for a vehicle similar to a station wagon, but built on a light-truck chassis. It is usually equipped with four-wheel drive for on- or off-road ability, and with some pretension or ability to be used as an off-road vehicle. Not all four-wheel...

for introduction as 2007 models in early 2006. Shortly after this decision, fuel prices increased by over 50% and this in turn affected both the trade-in value of used vehicles and the perceived desirability of new offerings in these market segments. The current marketing plan is to tout these revised vehicles extensively as offering the best fuel economy in their class (of vehicle). GM claims its hybrid trucks will have fuel economy improvements of 25%.

Corporate restructuring

After gaining market share in the late 1990s and making enormous profits, General Motors stock soared to over $80 a share. From June 1999 to September 2000, the Federal Reserve, in a move to quell potential inflationary pressures created by, among other things, the stock market, made successive interest rate increases, credited in part for "plunging the country into a recession." The recession and the volatile stock marketed created a pension and benefit fund crisis at General Motors and many other American companies. General Motors' rising retiree health care costs and Other Post Employment Benefit (OPEB) fund deficit prompted the company to enact a broad restructuring plan. Although GM had already taken action to fully fund its pension plan, its OPEB fund became an issue for its corporate bond ratings. GM had expressed its disagreement with the bond ratings; moreover, GM's benefit funds were performing at higher than expected rates of return. Then, following a $10.6 billion loss in 2005, GM acted quickly to implement its restructuring plan. For the first quarter of 2006 GM earned $400 million, signaling that a turnaround had already begun even though many aspects of the restructuring plan had not yet taken effect.

In 2003, GM responded to the crisis by fully funding its pension fund with a $15 B payment; however, its Other Post Employment Benefits Fund (OPEB) became a serious issue resulting in downgrades to its bond rating in 2005. The company expressed its disagreement with these bond rating downgrades. In the late 1990s, the U.S. economy was on the rise and GM and Ford gained market share producing enormous profits primarily from the sale of light trucks and sport-utility vehicles. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks

September 11, 2001 attacks

, a severe stock market decline caused a pension and benefit fund underfunding crisis. GM began its Keep America Rolling campaign, which boosted sales, and other auto makers were forced to follow suit. The U.S. automakers saw sales increase to leverage costs as gross margins deteriorated. Although retiree health care costs remain a significant issue, General Motors' investment strategy has generated a $17.1 billion surplus in 2007 in its $101 billion U.S. pension fund portfolio, a $35 billion reversal from its $17.8 billion of underfunding.

In February 2005, GM successfully bought itself out of a put option with Fiat

Fiat

FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...

for $2 billion USD (€1.55 billion). In 2000, GM had sold a 6% stake to Fiat in return for a 20% share in the Italian automaker. As part of the deal, GM granted Fiat a put option

Put option

A put or put option is a contract between two parties to exchange an asset, the underlying, at a specified price, the strike, by a predetermined date, the expiry or maturity...

, which, if the option had been exercised between January 2004 and July 2009, could have forced GM to buy Fiat. GM had agreed to the put option at the time, perhaps to keep it from being acquired by another automaker, such as Daimler AG, competing with GM's German subsidiary Opel

Opel

Adam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...

. The relationship suffered and Fiat had failed to improve. In 2003, Fiat recapitalized, reducing GM's stake to 10%.

In February 2006, GM slashed its annual dividend from $2.00 to $1.00 per share. The reduction saved $565 million a year. In March 2006, GM divested 92.36 million shares (reducing its stake from 20% to 3%) of Japanese manufacturer Suzuki

Suzuki

, in order to raise $2.3 billion. GM originally invested in Suzuki

Suzuki

in the early 1980s.

On March 23, 2006, a private equity consortium including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Goldman Sachs Capital, and Five Mile Capital purchased $8.8 billion, or 78% of GMAC's commercial mortgage arm. The name of the new entity, in which GMAC owns a 21% stake, is Capmark Financial Group.

On April 3, 2006, GM announced that it would sell 51% of GMAC as a whole to a consortium led by Cerberus Capital Management

Cerberus Capital Management

Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is one of the largest private equity investment firms in the United States. The firm is based in New York City, and run by -year-old financier Steve Feinberg. Former U.S...

, raising $14 billion over three years. Investors also included Citigroup

Citigroup

Citigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate...

's private equity arm and Aozora Bank

Aozora Bank

is a Japanese commercial bank that offers service in 19 branches in Japan and in 5 overseas representative offices.-History:Aozora Bank is the successor of the Nippon Credit Bank , which was founded in 1957 under a special government trust banking license alongside the Long-Term Credit Bank of...

of Japan. The group will pay GM $7.4 billion in cash at closing. GM will retain approximately $20 billion in automobile financing worth an estimated $4 billion over three years.

GM sold its remaining 8% stake in Isuzu

Isuzu

, is a Japanese car, commercial vehicle and heavy truck manufacturing company, headquartered in Tokyo. In 2005, Isuzu became the world's largest manufacturer of medium to heavy duty trucks. It has assembly and manufacturing plants in the Japanese city of Fujisawa, as well as in the prefectures...

, which had peaked at 49% just a few years earlier, on April 11, 2006, to raise an additional $300 million. 12,600 workers from Delphi

Delphi (auto parts)

Delphi Automotive PLC is an automotive parts company headquartered in Troy, Michigan, USA. Delphi is one of the world's largest automotive parts manufacturers and has approximately 146,600 employees ....

, a key supplier to GM, agreed to buyouts and an early retirement plan offered by GM in order to avoid a strike, after a judge agreed to cancel Delphi's union contracts. 5,000 Delphi workers were allowed to flow to GM.

In 2006, GM offered buyouts to hourly workers to reduce future liability; over 35,000 workers responded to the offer, well exceeding the company's goal. GM gained higher rates of return on its benefit funds as a part of the solution. Stock value began to rebound - as of October 30, 2006 GM's market capitalization

Market capitalization

Market capitalization is a measurement of the value of the ownership interest that shareholders hold in a business enterprise. It is equal to the share price times the number of shares outstanding of a publicly traded company...

was about $19.19 billion. GM stock began the year 2006 at $19 a share, near its lowest level since 1982, as many on Wall Street

Wall Street

Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...

figured the ailing automaker was bound for bankruptcy court

United States bankruptcy court

United States bankruptcy courts are courts created under Article I of the United States Constitution. They function as units of the district courts and have subject-matter jurisdiction over bankruptcy cases. The federal district courts have original and exclusive jurisdiction over all cases arising...

. But GM remained afloat and the company's stock in the Dow Jones industrial average posted the biggest percentage gain in 2006.

In June 2007, GM sold its military and commercial subsidiary, Allison Transmission

Allison Transmission

Allison Transmission is an American manufacturer of commercial duty automatic transmissions and hybrid propulsion systems. Allison products are specified by over 250 of the world’s leading vehicle manufacturers and are used in many market sectors including bus, refuse, fire, construction,...

, for $5.6 billion. Having sold off the majority, it will, however, keep its heavy-duty transmissions for its trucks marketed as the Allison 1000 series.

During negotiations for the renewal of its industry labor contracts in 2007, the United Auto Workers

United Auto Workers

(UAW) union selected General Motors as the "lead company" or "strike target" for pattern bargaining

Pattern bargaining

Pattern bargaining is a process in labour relations, where a trade union gains a new and superior entitlement from one employer, and then uses that agreement as a precedent to demand the same entitlement or a superior one from other employers....

. Late in September, sensing an impending impasse in the talks, the union called a strike

2007 General Motors strike

The 2007 General Motors strike was a strike from September 24 to 26, 2007, by the United Auto Workers against General Motors.On September 24, 2007 at approximately 11:00 a.m. EDT, the roughly 73,000 General Motors workers represented by the United Auto Workers union went on strike against the company...

, the first nation-wide walkout since 1970 (individual plants had experienced local labor disruptions in the interim). Within two days, however, a tentative agreement was achieved and the strike ended.

On June 28, 2007, GM agreed to sell its Allison Transmission

Allison Transmission

division to private-equity firms Carlyle Group

Carlyle Group

The Carlyle Group is an American-based global asset management firm, specializing in private equity, based in Washington, D.C. The Carlyle Group operates in four business areas: corporate private equity, real assets, market strategies and fund-of-funds, through its AlpInvest subsidiary...

and Onex for $5.1 billion. The deal will increase GM's liquidity and echoes previous moves to shift its focus towards its core automotive business. The two firms will control seven factories around Indianapolis but GM will retain management of a factory in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

. Former Allison Transmission president Lawrence E. Dewey will be the new CEO of the standalone company.

Kirk Kerkorian

Kirk Kerkorian

Kerkor "Kirk" Kerkorian is an American businessman who is the president/CEO of Tracinda Corporation, his private holding company based in Beverly Hills, California. Kerkorian is known as one of the important figures in shaping Las Vegas and, with architect Martin Stern, Jr...

once owned 9.9 percent of GM. According to press accounts from June 30, 2006, Kerkorian suggested that Renault

Renault

Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...

acquire a 20 percent stake in GM to rescue GM from itself. A letter from Tracinda

Tracinda

Tracinda Corporation is a private investment corporation owned by Kirk Kerkorian. Major investments include a minority interest of MGM Resorts International . Tracinda is headquartered on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills...

to Rick Wagoner

Rick Wagoner

was released to the public to pressure GM's executive hierarchy, but talks failed. On November 22, 2006, Kerkorian sold 14 million shares of his GM stake (it is speculated that this action was due to GM's rejection of Renault and Nissan's bids for stakes in the company as both of these bids were strongly supported by Kerkorian); the sale resulted in GM's share price falling 4.1% from its 20 November price, although it remained above $30/share. The sale lowered Kerkorian's holding to around 7% of GM. On November 30, 2006, Tracinda

Tracinda

said it had agreed to sell another 14 million shares of GM, cutting Kerkorian's stake to half of what it had been earlier that year. By the end of November 2006, he had sold substantially all of his remaining GM shares. After Kerkorian sold, GM lost more than 90% of its value, falling as low as $1/share by May 2009.

On February 12, 2008, GM announced its operating loss was $2 billion (with a GAAP loss of $39 billion including a one time accounting charge). GM offered buyouts to all its UAW members.

On March 24, 2008, GM reported a cash position of $24 billion, or $6 billion less than what was on hand September 31, 2007, which is a loss of $1 billion a month. A further quarterly loss of $15.5 billion, the third-biggest in the company's history, was announced on August 1, 2008.

On November 17, 2008, GM announced it would sell its stake in Suzuki Motor Corp. (3.02%) for 22.37 billion yen ($230 million) in order to raise much needed cash to get through the 2008 economic crisis.

In 2008, 8.35 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under the brands Vauxhall

Vauxhall Motors

, Buick

Buick

, Cadillac

Cadillac

, Chevrolet

Chevrolet

, GMC, GM Daewoo

GM Daewoo

, Holden

Holden

, Pontiac

Pontiac

, Hummer

Hummer

, Saab

Saab Automobile

, Saturn, Wuling

SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile

SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile is a joint venture between General Motors and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation of China and Liuzhou Wuling Motors Co., Ltd...

and Opel

Opel

Adam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...

of Germany.

In late 2008 GM, along with Chrysler

Chrysler

Chrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....

, received loans from the American

Federal government of the United States

The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...

, Canadian

Government of Canada

The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...

, and Ontarian

Government of Ontario

The Government of Ontario refers to the provincial government of the province of Ontario, Canada. Its powers and structure are set out in the Constitution Act, 1867....

governments to bridge the late-2000s recession, record oil prices, and a severe global automotive sales decline (see also automotive industry crisis of 2008–2009

Automotive industry crisis of 2008–2009

The automotive industry crisis of 2008–2010 was a part of a global financial downturn. The crisis affected European and Asian automobile manufacturers, but it was primarily felt in the American automobile manufacturing industry...

) due to the global financial crisis of 2008–2009. On February 20, 2009, GM's Saab

Saab Automobile

division filed for reorganization in a Swedish court

Judicial system of Sweden

The judicial system of Sweden consists of the law of Sweden and a number of government agencies tasked with upholding security and rule of law within the country...

after being denied loans from the Swedish government.

On April 27, 2009, GM announced that it would phase out the Pontiac

Pontiac

brand by the end of 2010 and focus on four core brands in North America: Chevrolet

Chevrolet

, Cadillac

Cadillac

, Buick

Buick

, and GMC. It announced that the resolution (sale) of its Hummer

Hummer

, Saab

Saab Automobile

, and Saturn brands would take place by the end of 2009. (By November, however, proposed deals to sell Saturn to Penske

Penske Automotive Group

Penske Automotive Group , headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, is the world's second largest automotive dealership group.PAG operates 327 retail automotive franchises, representing 42 different brands, and 26 collision repair centers. PAG is a member of the Fortune 500 and Russell 2000, and...

and Saab to Koenigsegg

Koenigsegg

Koenigsegg Automotive AB is a Swedish manufacturer of high-performance sports cars based in Ängelholm.-Company:The company was founded in 1994 in Sweden by Christian von Koenigsegg, with the intention of producing a world-class supercar...

had failed to materialize.) The company had previously cancelled Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile

.

On May 30, 2009, it was announced that a deal had been reached to transfer GM's Opel

Opel

Adam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...

assets to a separate company, majority-owned by a consortium led by Sberbank

Sberbank

Sberbank Rossii is the largest bank in Russia and Eastern Europe. The company's headquarters are in Moscow and its history goes back to Cancrin's financial reform of 1841...

of Russia (35%), Magna International

Magna International

Magna International Inc. , is an automotive supplier headquartered in Aurora, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's largest automobile parts manufacturer, and one of the country's largest companies. It owns the Magna Steyr automobile production company of Austria....

(20%), and Opel employees (10%). GM is expected to keep a 35% minority stake in the new company. However, GM delayed acceptance of the deal pending other bids, notably a proposed 51% stake by Beijing Automotive

Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corporation

Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co Ltd is a state-owned enterprise and holding company of several Chinese automobile and machine manufacturers, such as Beijing Automobile Works Co Ltd, etc. Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co Ltd 's state-run parents may include Beijing Automotive Group ,...

. By early July, a decision had not been made, but Magna remained confident and scheduled a meeting for July 14 to announce its acceptance. After months of deliberation, however, GM decided on November 3, 2009 to retain full ownership of the German carmaker Opel, thus voiding the tentative deal with the Magna consortium.

In June 2010, the company established General Motors Ventures, a subsidiary designed to help the company identify and develop new technologies in the automotive and transportation sectors.

General Motors in South Africa

General Motors was criticized for its presence in apartheid South Africa. The company withdrew after pressure from consumers, stockholders and Leon H. Sullivan.
It retained a commercial presence, however, in the form of its Opel subsidiary. Right Hand Drive Opel & Vauxhall production took place in GM's Uitenhage plants outside Port Elisabeth in the eastern Cape Province, and does so to this day.

General Motors in Argentina

In 1925 General Motors settled down in Argentina and started producing the Double Phaeton standard and the Double Phaeton called "Especial Argentino". The production was completed with a sedan model, a roadster and a truck chassis also adaptable to transporting of passengers.
Sales increased and soon the Oldsmobile, Oakland and Pontiac brands were incorporated into the assembly line; the capacity of the facility was not enough to supply the increasing demand and the building of a new plant was required. A new 48,000 m2 plant with a covered area was opened in 1929, and since then the Buick, Marquette, La Salle, Cadillac, Vauxhaul and Opel marques also started to be produced.

When the Second World War broke out the operations were complicated. In 1941, 250.000 Chevrolets were made, but shortage of parts made car production impossible. The last Chevrolet left the plant in August, 1942. though in order to avoid total stoppage, the company made electrical and portable refrigerators and car accessories in addition to other items. After the war, GM started producing the Oldsmobile and Pontiac lines and later Chevrolet was added.

Production resumed in 1960 with Chevrolet pickups and shortly thereafter in 1962 it started assembling the first/second generation Chevy II until 1974 as Chevrolet 400, and the early third-generation (1968 model) Nova as the Chevrolet Chevy from late 1969 through 1978, both models overlapping for several years, the Chevy II marketed as a family sedan while the Nova as a sporty alternative. Thenceforth several Opel models and Chevrolet pickups are being manufactured.

Electronic Data Systems Corporation

In 1984, GM acquired Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS), a leading data processing and telecommunications company, to be the sole provider of information technology (IT)

Information technology

Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

services for the company. EDS became independent again in 1996, signing a 10-year agreement to continue providing IT services to General Motors.

Delco Electronics Corporation

Delco Electronics Corporation was the automotive electronics

Electronics

Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...

design and manufacturing subsidiary of General Motors.

The name Delco came from the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co., founded in Dayton, Ohio

Dayton, Ohio

Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...

by Charles Kettering

Charles Kettering

Charles Franklin Kettering was an American inventor, engineer, businessman, and the holder of 186 patents. He was a founder of Delco, and was head of research for General Motors for 27 years from 1920 to 1947. Among his most widely used automotive inventions were the electrical starting motor and...

and Edward A. Deeds

Edward A. Deeds

Edward Andrew Deeds was an American engineer, inventor and industrialist prominent in the Dayton, Ohio area.-Biography:...

.

Delco was responsible for several innovations in automobile electric systems, including the first reliable battery ignition system

Ignition system

An ignition system is a system for igniting a fuel-air mixture. Ignition systems are well known in the field of internal combustion engines such as those used in petrol engines used to power the majority of motor vehicles, but they are also used in many other applications such as in oil-fired and...

and the first practical automobile self starter

Automobile self starter

A starter motor is an electric motor for rotating an internal-combustion engine so as to initiate the engine's operation under its own power.- History :...

.

In 1936 Delco began producing the first dashboard-installed car radios. By the early 1970s Delco had become a major supplier of automotive electronics equipment. Based in Kokomo, Indiana

Kokomo, Indiana

Kokomo is a city in and the county seat of Howard County, Indiana, United States, Indiana's 13th largest city. It is the principal city of the Kokomo, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Howard and Tipton counties....

, Delco Electronics employed more than 30,000 at its peak.

In 1962 GM created the General Motors Research Laboratories, based in Santa Barbara, California

Santa Barbara, California

Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...

, to conduct research and development activities on defense systems. This organization was eventually merged into Delco Electronics and renamed Delco Systems Operations.

In 1985 General Motors purchased Hughes Aircraft

Hughes Aircraft

Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded in 1932 by Howard Hughes in Culver City, California as a division of Hughes Tool Company...

and merged it with Delco Electronics to form Hughes Electronics Corporation, an independent subsidiary. In 1997 all of the defense businesses of Hughes Electronics (including Delco Systems Operations) were merged with Raytheon

Raytheon

Raytheon Company is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007...

, and the commercial portion of Delco Electronics was transferred to GM's Delphi Automotive Systems

Delphi (auto parts)

business. Delphi became a separate publicly-traded company in May 1999, and continued to use the Delco Electronics name for several of its subsidiaries through approximately 2004.

Although Delco Electronics no longer exists as an operating company, GM still retains rights to the Delco name and uses it for some of its subsidiaries including the AC Delco parts division.

Hughes Electronics Corporation

Hughes Electronics Corporation was formed on December 31, 1985 when Hughes Aircraft Company was sold by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a United States non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded by the American businessman Howard Hughes in 1953. It is one of the largest private funding organizations for biological and medical research in the United...

to General Motors for $5.2 billion. General Motors merged Hughes Aircraft with its Delco Electronics

Delco Electronics

Delco Electronics Corporation was the automotive electronics design and manufacturing subsidiary of General Motors based in Kokomo, Indiana.The name Delco came from the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co., founded in Dayton, Ohio by Charles Kettering and Edward A...

unit to form Hughes Electronics Corporation, an independent subsidiary. This division was a major aerospace and defense contractor, civilian space systems manufacturer and communications company. The aerospace and defense business was sold to Raytheon

Raytheon

in 1997 and the Space and Communications division was sold to Boeing

Boeing

The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...

in 2000. Hughes Research Laboratories

Hughes Research Laboratories

HRL Laboratories , was the research arm of the Hughes Aircraft Company. Its dedicated research center was established in 1960 in Malibu...

became jointly owned by GM, Raytheon, and Boeing. In 2003, the remaining parts of Hughes Electronics were sold to News Corporation

News Corporation

News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...

and renamed The DirecTV Group

DirecTV

DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...

Delphi Corporation

Delphi

Delphi (auto parts)

was spun off from General Motors on May 28, 1999. Delphi is one of the largest automotive parts manufacturers and has approximately 185,000 employees (50,000 in the United States). With offices worldwide, the company operates 167 wholly owned manufacturing sites, 41 joint ventures, 53 customer centers and sales offices, and 33 technical centers in 38 countries. Delphi makes the Monsoon premium audio systems found in some GM and other manufacturer automobiles.

On October 8, 2005, Delphi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. On March 31, 2006, Delphi announced it would sell off or close 21 of its 29 plants in the United States.

Diesel engines

Detroit Diesel

As a corporation, Daimler Trucks North America has decided to rename the company "DETROIT".Detroit Diesel Corporation is an American-based diesel engine producer headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, USA...

was originally the GM Diesel Division then Detroit Diesel Allison Division until 1988. It made diesel engines for truck, generating set and marine use.

Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) was originally the Electro-Motive Division of GM, until 2005. It made diesel engines and locomotives.

See also General Motors Diesel Division

General Motors Diesel Division

General Motors Diesel Division was a unit of General Motors and was a manufacturer of locomotives, transit buses and military products.The locomotive unit was acquired by private investors, the transit bus divisions were purchased by TMC in the U.S. and MCI in Canada, and the GM Defense unit was...

and GM Defense

GM Defense

GM Defense was the military products division of General Motors founded in 1950. It was acquired by General Dynamics in 2003 and now part of the General Dynamics Land Systems division.-Products:Products produced by GM Defense include:...

General Motors Acceptance Corporation

By the end of 2006, GM had completed the divestiture of 51% of its financing unit, GMAC. Currently GM is a 10% owner in GMAC.

Chairmen of the Board of General Motors

Thomas Neal
Thomas Neal
Thomas Neal is an American professional baseball outfielder in the Cleveland Indians organization....

-- November 19, 1912 - November 16, 1915
Pierre S. du Pont
Pierre S. du Pont
Pierre Samuel du Pont was president of the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company from 1915 to 1919, and served on its Board of Directors until 1940...

-- November 16, 1915 - February 7, 1929
Lammot du Pont II -- February 7, 1929 - May 3, 1937
Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. -- May 3, 1937 - April 2, 1956
Albert Bradley -- April 2, 1956 - August 31, 1958
Frederic G. Donner
Frederic G. Donner
Frederic Garrett Donner was chairman and CEO of the General Motors Corporation from September 1, 1958 to October 31, 1967.He graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in economics, worked briefly for a Chicago accounting firm, and then joined General Motors's New York staff as an...

-- September 1, 1958 - October 31, 1967
James M. Roche
James Roche (General Motors)
James M. Roche was an American statistician who served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board at General Motors Corporation. He is credited for promoting racial equality within General Motors ....

-- November 1, 1967 - December 31, 1971
Richard C. Gerstenberg -- January 1, 1972 - November 30, 1974
Thomas A. Murphy
Thomas Murphy (chairman)
Thomas Aquinas Murphy was former CEO of General Motors during the 1970s.Murphy began with GM as a clerk in the controller's office after graduating in 1938 from the University of Illinois with a B.S. in accountancy. During World War II, Murphy served in the Navy for three years before returning to...

-- December 1, 1974 - December 31, 1980
Roger B. Smith
Roger Bonham Smith
Roger Bonham Smith was the Chairman and CEO of General Motors Corporation from 1981 to 1990, and is widely known as the main subject of Michael Moore's 1989 documentary film Roger & Me....

-- January 1, 1981 - July 31, 1990
Robert C. Stempel -- August 1, 1990 - November 1, 1992
John G. Smale -- November 2, 1992 - December 31, 1995
John F. "Jack" Smith, Jr.
John F. Smith, Jr.
John Francis "Jack" Smith, Jr. is the non-executive chairman of the board of directors of Delta Air Lines. Smith has been a member of Delta's board of directors since 2000....

-- January 1, 1996 - April 30, 2003
G. Richard Wagoner, Jr.
Rick Wagoner
George Richard "Rick" Wagoner, Jr. is an American businessman and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. Wagoner resigned as Chairman and CEO at General Motors on March 29, 2009, at the request of the White House...

-- May 1, 2003 - March 30, 2009
Kent Kresa
Kent Kresa
Kent Kresa is an American businessman. Formerly, he was Chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman, as well as Chairman of General Motors and has worked with the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency , the Lincoln Laboratory at M.I.T, Avery Dennison, the Fluor Corporation, and the MannKind Corporation...

-- March 30, 2009 - July 10, 2009
Edward ("Ed") Whitacre, Jr.
Edward Whitacre, Jr.
Edward Earl "Ed" Whitacre, Jr. is the former Chairman and CEO of General Motors. He is also a former chairman of the board and chief executive officer of AT&T Inc., previously SBC. He served as national president of the Boy Scouts of America from 1998 to 2000...

-- July 10, 2009 – December 31, 2010
Dan Akerson
Daniel Akerson
Daniel Francis "Dan" Akerson, is the current Chairman and CEO of General Motors. Akerson succeeded Edward Whitacre as CEO on September 1, 2010, and became Chairman of the Board on January 1, 2011. Akerson was a Managing Director of The Carlyle Group and head of global buyout prior to joining...

-- December 31, 2010 – present

Chief Executive Officers of General Motors

Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. -- May 10, 1923 - June 3, 1946
Charles E. Wilson
Charles E. Wilson
Charles Edward Wilson was a CEO of General Electric. He left school at age 12 to work as a stock boy at Sprague Electrical Works, which was acquired by General Electric, taking night classes and working up to president in 1939.During World War II he served on the War Production Board as executive...

-- June 3, 1946 - January 26, 1953
Harlow H. Curtice -- February 2, 1953 - August 31, 1958
James M. Roche
James Roche (General Motors)
James M. Roche was an American statistician who served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board at General Motors Corporation. He is credited for promoting racial equality within General Motors ....

-- November 1, 1967 - December 31, 1971
Richard C. Gerstenberg -- January 1, 1972 - November 30, 1974
Thomas A. Murphy
Thomas Murphy (chairman)
Thomas Aquinas Murphy was former CEO of General Motors during the 1970s.Murphy began with GM as a clerk in the controller's office after graduating in 1938 from the University of Illinois with a B.S. in accountancy. During World War II, Murphy served in the Navy for three years before returning to...

-- December 1, 1974 - December 31, 1980
Roger B. Smith
Roger Bonham Smith
Roger Bonham Smith was the Chairman and CEO of General Motors Corporation from 1981 to 1990, and is widely known as the main subject of Michael Moore's 1989 documentary film Roger & Me....

-- January 1, 1981 - July 31, 1990
Robert C. Stempel -- August 1, 1990 - November 1, 1992
John F. "Jack" Smith, Jr.
John F. Smith, Jr.
John Francis "Jack" Smith, Jr. is the non-executive chairman of the board of directors of Delta Air Lines. Smith has been a member of Delta's board of directors since 2000....

-- November 2, 1992 - May 31, 2000
G. Richard Wagoner, Jr.
Rick Wagoner
George Richard "Rick" Wagoner, Jr. is an American businessman and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. Wagoner resigned as Chairman and CEO at General Motors on March 29, 2009, at the request of the White House...

-- June 1, 2000 - March 30, 2009
Frederick A. "Fritz" Henderson
Frederick Henderson
Frederick Arthur "Fritz" Henderson was President and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. Prior to his appointment as CEO on March 31, 2009, Henderson was the Vice President of General Motors and has been with the company since 1984...

-- March 30, 2009 - December 1, 2009
Edward ("Ed") Whitacre, Jr.
Edward Whitacre, Jr.
Edward Earl "Ed" Whitacre, Jr. is the former Chairman and CEO of General Motors. He is also a former chairman of the board and chief executive officer of AT&T Inc., previously SBC. He served as national president of the Boy Scouts of America from 1998 to 2000...

-- December 1, 2009 – September 1, 2010
Dan Akerson
Daniel Akerson
Daniel Francis "Dan" Akerson, is the current Chairman and CEO of General Motors. Akerson succeeded Edward Whitacre as CEO on September 1, 2010, and became Chairman of the Board on January 1, 2011. Akerson was a Managing Director of The Carlyle Group and head of global buyout prior to joining...

-- September 1, 2010 – present

Vice Chairmen of General Motors

Donaldson Brown
Donaldson Brown
Frank Donaldson Brown was a financial executive and corporate director with both DuPont and General Motors Corporation. He graduated from Virginia Tech in 1902 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering...

-- May 3, 1937 - June 3, 1946
George Russell
George Russell
George Allen Russell was an American jazz pianist, composer and theorist. He is considered one of the first jazz musicians to contribute to general music theory with a theory of harmony based on Jazz rather than European music, in his book, The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization...

-- November 1, 1967 - March 31, 1970
Richard C. Gerstenberg -- April 6, 1970 - December 31, 1971
Thomas A. Murphy -- January 1, 1972 - November 30, 1974
Richard L. Terrell -- October 1, 1974 - January 1, 1979
Oscar A. Lundin -- December 1, 1974 - November 30, 1975
Howard H. Kerhl -- February 1, 1981 - December 31, 1986
Donald J. Atwood -- June 1, 1987 - April 19, 1989
John F. "Jack" Smith, Jr.
John F. Smith, Jr.
John Francis "Jack" Smith, Jr. is the non-executive chairman of the board of directors of Delta Air Lines. Smith has been a member of Delta's board of directors since 2000....

-- August 1, 1990 - April 6, 1992
Robert J. Schultz -- August 1, 1990 - November 1, 1992
Harry J. Pearce -- January 1, 1996 - May 25, 2001
John M. Devine -- January 1, 2001 - June 1, 2006
Robert A. Lutz -- September 1, 2001–present
Frederick A. "Fritz" Henderson
Frederick Henderson
Frederick Arthur "Fritz" Henderson was President and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. Prior to his appointment as CEO on March 31, 2009, Henderson was the Vice President of General Motors and has been with the company since 1984...

-- January 1, 2006 - March 3, 2008

Presidents of General Motors

George E. Daniels -- September 22, 1908 - October 20, 1908
William M. Eaton -- October 20, 1908 - November 23, 1910
James J. Storrow
James J. Storrow
James Jackson Storrow II was a Boston-area investment banker instrumental in forming General Motors and its third president . He was a business partner of Henry Lee Higginson, founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra...

-- November 23, 1910 - January 26, 1911
Thomas Neal
Thomas Neal
Thomas Neal is an American professional baseball outfielder in the Cleveland Indians organization....

-- January 26, 1911 - November 19, 1912
Charles W. Nash
Charles W. Nash
Charles Warren Nash was a United States automobile entrepreneur and served as an executive in the automotive industry.- Early life :...

-- November 19, 1912 - June 1, 1916
William C. Durant
William C. Durant
William Crapo "Billy" Durant was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry, the founder of General Motors and Chevrolet who created the system of multi-brand holding companies with different lines of cars....

-- June 1, 1916 - November 30, 1920
Pierre S. du Pont
Pierre S. du Pont
Pierre Samuel du Pont was president of the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company from 1915 to 1919, and served on its Board of Directors until 1940...

-- November 30, 1920 - May 10, 1923
Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. -- May 10, 1923 - May 3, 1937
William S. Knudsen
William S. Knudsen
William Signius Knudsen was a leading automotive industry executive. His experience and success as a key senior manager in the operations sides of Ford Motor Company and later General Motors led the Franklin Roosevelt Administration to commission him as a Lieutenant General in the United States...

-- May 3, 1937 - September 3, 1940
Charles E. Wilson
Charles Erwin Wilson
Charles Erwin Wilson , American businessman and politician, was United States Secretary of Defense from 1953 to 1957 under President Eisenhower. Known as "Engine Charlie", he previously worked as CEO for General Motors. In the wake of the Korean War, he cut the defense budget significantly.-Early...

-- January 6, 1941 - January 26, 1953
Harlow H. Curtice -- February 2, 1953 - August 31, 1958
John F. Gordon -- September 1, 1958 - May 31, 1965
James M. Roche
James Roche (General Motors)
James M. Roche was an American statistician who served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board at General Motors Corporation. He is credited for promoting racial equality within General Motors ....

-- June 1, 1965 - October 31, 1967
Edward N. Cole
Ed Cole
Edward Nicholas Cole was an American automotive executive for General Motors.- Career :Cole was the son of a dairy farmer. In his youth, he designed, built, and sold homemade radio sets, and as a teenager became a field representative for a tractor manufacturer...

-- November 1, 1967 - September 30, 1974
Elliott M. Estes -- October 1, 1974 - January 31, 1981
F. James McDonald
F. James McDonald
Francis James McDonald was an American engineer and business executive who worked his way up through the ranks at General Motors, ultimately serving as its president and chief operating officer from 1981 to 1987 during the tenure of chairman and chief executive Roger Smith.McDonald was born in...

-- February 1, 1981 - August 31, 1987
Robert C. Stempel -- September 1, 1987 - July 31, 1990
Lloyd E. Reuss -- August 1, 1990 - April 6, 1992
John F. "Jack" Smith, Jr.
John F. Smith, Jr.
John Francis "Jack" Smith, Jr. is the non-executive chairman of the board of directors of Delta Air Lines. Smith has been a member of Delta's board of directors since 2000....

-- April 6, 1992 - October 5, 1998
G. Richard Wagoner, Jr.
Rick Wagoner
George Richard "Rick" Wagoner, Jr. is an American businessman and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. Wagoner resigned as Chairman and CEO at General Motors on March 29, 2009, at the request of the White House...

-- October 5, 1998 - April 30, 2003
Frederick A. "Fritz" Henderson
Frederick Henderson
Frederick Arthur "Fritz" Henderson was President and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. Prior to his appointment as CEO on March 31, 2009, Henderson was the Vice President of General Motors and has been with the company since 1984...

-- March 3, 2008 - December 1, 2009

1930s Nazi Germany

In August 1938, a senior executive for General Motors, James D. Mooney, received the Grand Cross of the German Eagle for his distinguished service to the Reich

Reich

Reich is a German word cognate with the English rich, but also used to designate an empire, realm, or nation. The qualitative connotation from the German is " sovereign state." It is the word traditionally used for a variety of sovereign entities, including Germany in many periods of its history...

. "Nazi armaments chief Albert Speer

Albert Speer

Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...

told a congressional investigator that Germany could not have attempted its September 1939 Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg

For other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...

of Poland without the performance-boosting additive technology provided by Alfred P. Sloan

Alfred P. Sloan

Alfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr. was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a long-time president, chairman, and CEO of General Motors Corporation...

and General Motors".

Charles Levinson, formerly deputy director of the European office of the CIO

Congress of Industrial Organizations

The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...

, clearly stated in his book, "Vodka-Cola":

"Alfred P. Sloan
Alfred P. Sloan
Alfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr. was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a long-time president, chairman, and CEO of General Motors Corporation...

, James D. Mooney, John T. Smith and Graeme K. Howard remained on the General Motors-Opel
Opel
Adam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...

board . . . in flagrant violation of existing legislation, information, contacts, transfers and trade continued [throughout the war] to flow between the firm's Detroit headquarters and its subsidiaries both in Allied countries and in territories controlled by the Axis powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...

. The financial records of Opel
Opel
Adam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...

Russelsheim
Rüsselsheim
Rüsselsheim is the largest town in the Groß-Gerau district in the Rhein-Main region of Germany. It is one of seven special status towns in Hesse and is located on the Main, only a few kilometres from its mouth in Mainz. The suburbs of Bauschheim and Königstädten are included in Rüsselsheim...

revealed that between 1942 and 1945 production and sales strategy were planned in close coordination with General Motors factories throughout the world.... In 1943, while its American manufacturers were equipping the United States Air Force, the German group were developing, manufacturing and assembling motors for the Messerschmitt 262, the first jet fighter in the world. This innovation gave the Nazis a basic technological advantage. With speeds up to 540 miles per hour, this aircraft could fly 100 miles per hour faster than its American rival, the piston-powered Mustang P51."

David Farber, author of Sloan Rules: Alfred P. Sloan
Alfred P. Sloan
Alfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr. was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a long-time president, chairman, and CEO of General Motors Corporation...

and the Triumph of General Motors (2002), stated that:

"GM destroyed Sloan's files to protect itself from lawsuits regarding antitrust
Antitrust
The United States antitrust law is a body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices. Antitrust laws are intended to encourage competition in the marketplace. These competition laws make illegal certain practices deemed to hurt businesses or consumers or both,...

issues, the neglect of automobile safety and its investments in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

."

Not surprisingly, Sloan's memoir presents a different picture of Opel's wartime existence. According to Sloan, Opel was nationalized

Nationalization

Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...

(along with most other industrial activity owned or co-owned by foreign interests) by the German state soon after the outbreak of war. Sloan presents Opel at the end of the war as a black box to GM's American management—an organization that the Americans had had no contact with for 5 years. According to Sloan, GM in Detroit debated whether to even try to run Opel in the postwar era, or to leave to the interim West German government the question of who would pick up the pieces.

Given the extreme difficulty of civilian communications between Germany and Allied nations during the war, Sloan's lost-contact version of the wartime era seems credible—more so than the CIO's great-conspiracy version. However, GM's actions during the era before the war, between 1936 and 1939 when Germany was rearming

German re-armament

The German re-armament was a massive effort led by the NSDAP in the early 1930s in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.During its struggle for power the National Socialist party promised to recover Germany's lost national pride...

in open-secret violation of the Versailles treaty, are much more difficult to defend. The idea that corporate interests weren't prioritized above national or ethical ones during that era seems basically defenseless. Not surprisingly, Sloan's memoir doesn't mention this topic at all, either because Sloan himself avoided it or because GM's lawyers succeeded in getting it redacted.

Great American streetcar scandal theory

The Great American Streetcar Scandal is an unproven theory developed by Robert Eldridge Hicks in 1970 and published by Grossman Publishers in 1973 in the book "Politics of Land, Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Land Use in California" at pp. 410-12, compiled by Robert C. Fellmeth, Center for Study of Responsive Law, and put forth by Bradford Snell again in 1974, in which GM, along with road-builders, is alleged to have engaged in a policy that triggered the shift from the mass transportation of the previous century to the 'one-person-one-car' trip of today. The theory states that in order to expand auto sales and maximize profits GM bought local mass transit systems and privately owned railways, following which it would proceed to eliminate them. Alternative versions of the events have been put forth by scholars in the field. Slater, Cosgrove and Span all put forth evidence that counters Snell's theory.

Corvair

Consumer advocate, Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader

, issued a series of attacks on vehicle safety issues from GM – particularly the Chevrolet Corvair

Chevrolet Corvair

– in his book Unsafe at Any Speed
Unsafe at Any Speed
Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile by Ralph Nader, published in 1965, is a book detailing resistance by car manufacturers to the introduction of safety features, like seat belts, and their general reluctance to spend money on improving safety...

, written in 1968. Being the first major action taken by Nader, he soon established his reputation as a crusader for safety. GM was then accused of sending spies after him. "A woman at the supermarket confronted me and said, 'How would you like to have a talk on foreign affairs?' This wasn't a classroom, this was a supermarket, I was buying cookies - I don't think she wanted to talk about foreign affairs, I think she wanted to talk about domestic affairs", Nader said in the 2006 documentary An Unreasonable Man
An Unreasonable Man
An Unreasonable Man is a 2006 documentary film that traces the life and career of political activist Ralph Nader, the founder of modern consumer protection in America...

. Agents were supposedly trying to fix his mind and get him to engage in sexual activity. "Mother would get calls saying, 'We've got a package for Mr. Ralph Nader at 9 AM.' There would also be threats like, 'You better back off, buddy boy'", said Claire, Nader's sister. GM was put on trial for attempting manipulation with Nader, Robert Kennedy and numerous other notable figures present at the trial. In the end, the CEO apologized to Nader; however, Nader continued to work against General Motors.

Top-level management

In 1980, J. Patrick Wright wrote a book named On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors. This book, which critics acclaimed "blows the lid off the king of carmakers" was about the allegations of corruption, "mismanagement and total irresponsibility" at the top level of the company, as seen by John Z. DeLorean, the Vice-President, who, in 1973, resigned from his position in spite of a brilliant and meteoric rise. He was earning $650,000 per year and was expected to be the next President of GM.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

1908–1932

1933–1958

World War II

Post-war growth

1958–1980

1981–present

Production of SUVs and trucks vs. cars

Corporate restructuring

General Motors in South Africa

General Motors in Argentina

Electronic Data Systems Corporation

Delco Electronics Corporation

Hughes Electronics Corporation

Delphi Corporation

Diesel engines

General Motors Acceptance Corporation

Chairmen of the Board of General Motors

Chief Executive Officers of General Motors

Vice Chairmen of General Motors

Presidents of General Motors

1930s Nazi Germany

Great American streetcar scandal theory

Corvair

Top-level management

See also

Further reading

External links