The guy probably most responsible for the bad business decisions that tanked GM as a world leader in the auto business has died...Roger Smith, target of Michael Moore's widely viewed documentary, "Roger & Me," died after an "unspecified illness" near Detroit (probably Royal Oak; GM's press hacks wouldn't say) at 82.
Smith was GM's first "bean counter" CEO, not a car guy, not an engineer, and finished the long, hard attempt by the headquarters accounting wing of GM to take over all of GM's business decisions, in contradiction to the "loose federation" business model put in place by Al Sloan in the '30s, which made GM an inventive and successful powerhouse.
Among Smith's disasters were Saturn, which turned out to be somewhat of a fraud to the car buying public, which was promised "no hassle, no haggle" dealerships, which turned out to simply be an advertising hoax. Instead, GM wasted the opportunity to truly remake the "GM culture" but simply extending it to yet another division building and selling mediocre designs. Meanwhile, while keeping Saturn a separate division, Smith succeeded in destroying the car, truck and bus division that made GM what it was by "badge engineering" corporate headquarters designs and placing all former "division" functions into a single, accounting-controlled "manufacturing department," with the exception of Cadillac. Cadillac was still trimmed excessively, which hampered their efforts to compete with the Euros, the Japanese and with Ford's Lincoln-Mercury Division. The public got wind of this really quickly, and, despite accolades today from the auto cognoscenti in Detroit, Smith saw GM's market share in the US fall from 46% to 32% under his watch. This wasn't in spite of Smith's efforts, it was directly because of them. Bean counters don't build cars...car guys do, and Smith was anything other than a car guy. GM does now have a couple of "car guys" in top management (Bob Lutz from Iacocca's Chrysler comes to mind) but they're kept in check by the accounting honchos and aren't allowed to innovate.
Under Smith, all GM cars were simply "GM this or that," with no brand individuality in engineering or model offerings. Smith directed the newly formed "manufacturing department" to use the cheapest possible drive train components, such as using the inferior Chevy small block V8 and Chevette HydraMatic even in Cadillac lines, and the tired Buick V6 for almost everything else. Chevrolet, the lowest regarded of all GM divisions for decades, was allowed to keep its own engines and transmissions, while superior power train products from Olds, Buick, Detroit Gear, Saginaw and Delco were trashed to cut costs.
Wagoner, the current flailing GM CEO, praised Smith for 'preparing GM for the global competition it now faces.' Pretty words, but too bad they're a lie. The truth is that Smith started the long, steep decline of GM that they're suffering today. Continuing the slaughter, Smith descendents Stempel and Wagoner stripped GM of GM Truck and Coach, all car divisions, Delco-Remy, AC Spark Plug, Electro-Motive Division, Detroit (Cleveland) Diesel, Allison Division, Frigidaire Division and practically everything of value that GM had since the
1920s. Wagoner's hardly any better; since he took over from Stempel, GM's market share has sunk now to an all-time low of 24%, with promised hot models never making it to market, instead content to try to sell rebadged Aussie Holdens as "GTOs" and similar cheesy GM rebadge gaffes.Nice going, Roger...hope you'd enjoy Honda, Nissan and Toyota posthumously eating your lunch...and breakfast...and dinner...and desserts. You deserve it, as well as having a thousand UAW members piss on your grave, not to mention the populations of the cities of Flint, Lansing and half the state of Michigan.