I'M QUOTED IN A BOOK!

But in stark contrast with 1953, the prevailing conviction among many American opinion leaders, including the senators who grilled Wagoner and the heads of Ford, Chrysler, and the United Auto Workers, was that GM doesn’t matter at all. Because GM had lost so much ground to Toyota and other Japanese manufacturers, decision makers in New York and Washington seemed to have concluded that a Toyota job in Texas was the same as a GM job in Michigan.

Many average Americans also seemed to have turned against GM, judging not only from their purchasing patterns but also from the burst of letters from readers in major business publications. “While the GM corporate types were hauling their truckloads full of salary, stock options and bonuses to their banks, realtors and brokers year after year, Japan’s automakers were quietly feeling our nation’s pulse, watching world events unfold, adjusting their corporate strategies and building our automotive future,” wrote Mark Nickels of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, to the Wall Street Journal in early 2008. “What does GM stand for? Visionless pathetic leadership, master blame gamers, out of touch with
American consumers, laggards— I could go on.”

Or as a blogger, williambanzai7, put it on BusinessWeek online in June 2008, “This company is a giant quagmire of mismanagement, intractability, intellectual laziness and competitive stupidity. I don’t know anyone who would buy one of their gas guzzlers, and I predict that after a long drawn out pro cess of denial, this hulk will be extinct. Labor, if you want to build cars, tell your members to go work for Toyota.”

Bet you did'nt know I am a closet Auto industry expert.