Once Upon a Car — The fall and resurrection of Detroit's Big Three

A Book Review
By Al Vinikour

MotorwayAmerica.com

The old adage that “Truth is stranger than fiction” has never been more appropriately proven than through the pages of Bill Vlasic’s new book Once Upon A Car. If Tom Clancy or Lee Child were to write a non-fiction thriller they would still not measure up to Vlasic’s skills.

His previous book, Taken For a Ride, told the story of the German takeover of Chrysler Corporation. There was enough thrill and intrigue in that book to make Jason Bourne a bit fearful. But it was an intricately-woven truth of the behind-the-scenes machinations that eventually produced the ill-named “Merger of Equals.” Chrysler may have been an equal alright but once it realized its mail wasn’t delivered to a post office box in Stuttgart, the “equal” was removed from the equation.

With Once Upon A Car, Vlasic has again given an insider’s reporting of the see-saw lives of America’s three great domestic car companies — that almost saw two of them removed from the mix.    

Vlasic covered the auto industry for 15 years working as a reporter for the Detroit News and Business Week before becoming Detroit bureau chief for the New York Times. He has not only had a front-row seat covering the turbulent decade of the auto industry; rather, it seems like he has a front-row center seat in the boardrooms of the Big Three — General Motors, Ford and Chrysler — as each tried to not only outmaneuver their competition but to somehow keep the bankruptcy wolves at the door. This task proved too difficult for two-thirds of them.

The book basically starts around mid-decade of the new millennium. Things appeared to be roaring along for all three companies. Auto sales were nearing or surpassing the 17 million mark and all was right with the world. But then a series of events stopped the industry like a set of Brembo brakes. It began as a sudden economic slowdown; or was it a series of financial blunders from each company that came home to roost?

In General Motors case it was like the biggest elephant in the jungle lumbering through and seemingly succeeding by its own bulk. After all, GM was way too big to fail. (Memo to Pan American World Airways’ former employees and stockholders: ask if they agree with General Motors assessment.) GM’s board basically consisted of what in hindsight could be termed “Yes Men.” As long as the corporation was making money what was the problem, huh?

GM at the time was led by an affable and well-like CEO, Rick Wagoner. Everybody liked Rick. He was a good family man, had a pedigree from Duke and Harvard, and if cut open would bleed GM blue. Year-after-year GM would lose market share but Wagoner never seemed to lose the trust of the board. GM’s stock prices dropped continuously but still GM management plodded on.

Its crosstown rival, Ford Motor Company, had problems of its own. The company was led by William Clay Ford, Jr., a compassionate man who had spent his entire life working for or representing the company founded by his great-grandfather Henry Ford. He tried to be all things to all people and was smart enough and giving enough to realize he needed help if the company was to remain in the family’s hands.

He appeared to be the best family member to head the company but he needed a strong, independent-minded CEO and Vlasic spends considerable time and great insight of the circuitous route it took to eventually find the best person for the job — Alan Mulally, at the time, a senior executive at the Boeing Company. Mulally had been passed over twice for the top job at Boeing and timing being everything, was brought to Dearborn to take the reins of one of America’s most hallowed logos — the Ford Blue Oval.

Meanwhile, Chrysler eventually found itself abandoned by its foster parent Daimler Benz and into the clutches of Cerberus Capital Management, one of the largest capital investment firms in the United States. Detroit should have seen this coming because Cerberus is a mythological three-headed dog that guards the gates of Hell…and Hell seemed to have had its sights on Chrysler. Vlasic tells of the personal and private thoughts, philosophies, fights, takeover attempts and everything in between as he reports on Cerberus Capital’s stormy ownership of Chrysler.

Some of the major players during that era, Bob Nardelli, who was Cerberus’s CEO of Chrysler, and Jerry York, who was the personal representative of the legendary investor Kirk Kerkorian, are like characters from a Stan Lee illustrated novel. All three of the major domestic automakers never suffered from a wide array of personalities – mostly strong-willed – as they fought to hold on to a vastly-shrinking market share, declining stock prices and  non-existent profits.

It’s during the lowest of the days for General Motors and Chrysler, and to a large extent, Ford, that Vlasic’s inside sources really flesh out the story. Many pages are devoted to the auto industry’s incessant fight with United States Treasury to ask for a helping hand…but were reluctant to go into the process with a quid-pro-quo. We all know the public story of how GM and Chrysler wound up in essence being bailed out by the government but what we learn from Vlasic is what its survival cost each company, not in dollar value but in reputation, independence and personal sacrifices.

Although Ford steered clear of taking any government loans or declaring bankruptcy it still chartered a hazard-laden path to profitability; one that could have found it in even worse shape than its two rivals had the new management’s direction faltered.

Vlasic also goes into the ramifications that eventually led to a takeover of Chrysler by Italy’s Fiat. But unlike Chrysler’s foray with the Germans, Fiat’s management, led by the iconic Sergio Marchionne, have worked tirelessly to eradicate Chrysler’s near-death experience with Cerberus from the minds of the Chrysler work force and transform its thinking towards a positive future.

Throughout the course of the book Vlasic interweaves other events that have shaped the last half-dozen years in the life of the industry, not just domestically, but internationally as well. He discussed Toyota’s quality problems, the UAW, health care problems, industry entitlements, etc.

Even the most avid reader of adventure novels will never think about an industry or corporate biography in the same way. Vlasic reels you in with what can best be described as brilliant writing and doesn’t release you until the book is finished. Makes you wonder what set of circumstances could ever provide fodder for another book of the caliber of Once Upon A Car. (Of course, the same was said about Taken For A Ride.) Rest assured, however, that if those circumstances do arise, Bill Vlasic will be there to cover it and report it in an entertaining, factual and understandable fashion.     

Once Upon A Car, by Bill Vlasic, is published by William Morrow, An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers. It’s available at book stores and at Amazon.com.