Anyone who has ever met Will Cooksey, who retires in March as the General Manager of the General Motors Assembly Plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky – the home of the Corvette – will remember the occasion. It’s not just that Cooksey is naturally gregarious. It’s that he is a very, very big man. Not overweight. It’s just that he’s about 125% of life size. (That’s him, in the orange shirt, mingling with Corvette owners at the National Corvette Museum, located across the street from the Bowling Green plant.
As a plant manager, Cooksey introduced quality procedures to the assembly plant that have resulted in the C6 Corvette being one of the most taughtly and carefully assembled vehicles in the GM line up.
Outside of the plant, however, it seems Cooksey has been equally concerned with quality: the quality of life.
Last week, Cooksey received the “Civil Rights Humanitarian Award” in Bowling Green for his work outside of the plant. Cooksey Cooksey sits on the Greenview Hospital board of directors, the boards of the National Corvette Museum, Tennessee State University’s Foundation Board of Trustees, the Western Kentucky University College of Education and Behavioral Science, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education Advisory Council, and the Advancing Minorities’ Interest in Engineering Executive Advisory Board.
Cooksey related that when initially asked by General Motors to take the Bowling Green assignment, he was asked if he would be comfortable as a black plant manager of a plant where most of the employees were white. He said it wasn’t a problem. “I never worried about getting to know people. People are people regardless.”
Bigger than life, and not just in physical stature.
It seems that GM has found the best solution to improve fuel economy: small engines with turbochargers. Starting 2009, the company will introduce a turbocharged 1.4-liter gasoline engine for small U.S. cars. First to use this engine are the Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Astra. Same engine could be used in mid-sized vehicles, too.
"You’re going to see turbocharged four-cylinders in vehicles that no one could have ever imagined that they would be in," said GM engineering chief Jim Queen.
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General Motors and Toyota have now both reported their global sales for last year.
At first, they reported 9.37 million, each.
That’s right, they tied. Or so it was reported.
But, then General Motors released the exact figures.
And it turned out there was a reason that Toyota was only releasing an approximate number.
The exact number released by GM was 9,369,524 vehicles. Toyota released only the rough number of 9.37 million and indicated that it will not release a more specific number because the real number was lower than that of GM.
Is it possible that this is as close as Toyota will ever get to besting GM in global sales?
The pundits think it’s only a matter of time, i.e., next year, before Toyota is number one. After all, Toyota did build more cars than GM in 2007.
But where have we heard about companies that build cars they can’t sell? Doesn’t it seem an oddly familiar refrain?
Reality seems to be intruding on Toyota.
They may never quite make it to number one.
Toyota’s sales in its home market have been dismal for several years. General Motors seems to be doing a better job at exploiting the developing markets, particularly China, than Toyota. North American sales next year are likely to be lower overall than this year. But, GM has new products that are making sales gains. Toyota, in contrast, has the Prius, the Camry, and the Tundra. The Prius has probably sold most of its converts, the Camry has lost its luster, and the Tundra is on the verge of becoming the pick-up truck version of the Cracker Jacks prize, something you have to give away.
Despite predictions that United States sales next year will be about the same as those of this year, more and more industry observers expect sales to be lower, perhaps much lower. Toyota loses if this happens. In light of the new product offerings by GM and the bad reviews of the new Camry, both makers may end up losing about the same number of sales in the United States in 2008. That means that Toyota can’t gain numbers over GM in the United States.
So, it’s got to find the extra sales somewhere else.
But, where?
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Bob Lutz.
What can you say about the Mr. Magic of General Motors, the tanned almost octogenarian that flies a MIG and know cars better than anyone. The guy that’s the tough and straight talker with the starched tab collar and the demeanor that makes journalists swoon.
Well, what you can say is that a whole lot of people aren’t buying what he’s selling.
It all has to do with E85.
And, I, for one, want to protest.
They shouldn’t be (...)
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General Motors today reported global sales of 9.369 million vehicles -an increase of 3 percent- in 2007, a total that would place it just ahead of Toyota Motor Corp.
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No, not the Pontiac Aztek.
The new car sales picture.
When asked last week about the economy by TopSpeed.com, GM’s CEO, Rick Wagoner – referring to various political proposals for economic stimulus – said he thought things would get somewhat better, but then added “or it could get quite ugly.”
It’s looking more and more like “quite ugly” is what’s happening.
Everywhere you turn, people are predicting a recession. In the opinion of may, it’s (...)
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OK, here’s the insight.
Bob Lutz is boring.
Same old same old shtick.
But I will tell you who is fascinating:
Rick Wagoner.
In case you’ve missed it, Rick Wagoner runs General Motors.
And you’ve not really met him, because he really doesn’t much care about what you think.
Which, perhaps, is as it should be. He has more to accomplish than just selling you a car.
I should explain.
This is the part where (...)
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Rick Wagoner, General Motors Chairman and Chief Executive Officer speaks about the electric driving, and what we can expect from GM in the future. The company plans to reduce fuel consumption by 10%, and C02 emission as well; the ethanol production will grow; 16 new hybrid models will be revealed in the next 4 years: one at every three months. Conclusion: future of the automobile is extraordinarily bright and truly electronic.
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"Detroit Cowboy" Kid Rock, all-around brash boy and considered by many to be the contemporary embodiment of rock and roll, brings Detroit style to GM Style, a celebration of cars, music and fashion. The Jan. 12 event leads up to the North American International Auto Show.
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A single word keeps cropping up in conversations with top General Motors executives.
The word is “global.”
In spending most of yesterday in internet “chat” sessions with General Motors executives as part of GM’s Virtual Media presentation - including Troy Clarke, president of GM North America, Micky Bly, head of GM’s hybrid development program, Ken Parkinson, the vice-president of design for GM Asia Pacific, David Tulauskas, GM Asia’s director of public policy, (...)
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