New GM Chairman Is Not A Motorhead: Should We Worry?

I would say no, his job should not be to guide the company in terms of design. It is to guide the management and make sure the books make sense first! If anything its good that he isn't a motorhead.

“I don’t know anything about cars,” Whitacre, 67, said yesterday in an interview after his appointment."

He and the car czar are a PERFECT match! ;)

001

HEY I SAY AT THIS POINT HOW MUCH WORSE CAN HE DO?
Give him a chance he might beable to turn gm around to be the power-house they were back in the 70's, 80's, and 90's. GM put out garbage for well over 3 decades and now when they used to promote their commercials at the beginning of last year they were saying their quality was as good as Toyota's....>WTF.....so what does that say about toyota HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.....now they finally got the f__king picture a little to late even though the new malibu is sweet NOW and the pontiac G8 is sweet the corvette is a icon but it took them well over 30 years of giving us garbage to make the changes they are doing now. GM did this to themselves and now they want to try to blame the economy....please save that shyt for the birds.

NOW THERE IS ONLY ONE THING I WANT TO ASK THE NEW GM CEO:

WHEN IS THE TYPHOON COMING BACK OUT IF YOU WANT TO RETRO SOMETHING THATS THE TRUCK TO DO IT WITH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

another DEBOOSTER w/o leaving a comment....Thats odd no one ever plays follow the leader on this site

Gotta agree with "Joe_Limon". Whitacre is not the man making the call on whether a product meets his approval. He has a team of advisors, a board, and Whitacre is in his position strictly to manage the business.
He will be watching spreadsheets instead of what color looks pretty on a Camaro.
Don't worry GM lovers. This is for the best.

As of late GM products have been pretty good, and as long he realizes this and continues to improve these new products to remain competitive... then he's fine with me.

Alan Mullaly came form the outside and, by allowing the product guys to do their thing unimpeded, has done a great job with Ford. If Whiteacre is smart enough to let Chevy, Buick and Cadillac continue on nhier roll to world class products, this could work!

Good call!

Nope.

On one hand I would say it would be great if he had a driveway that got greasy on a Sunday morning once in a while. But I don't know anything about the auto industry and how its run, but if I got the chance to run GM I'd do it in a heartbeat because I think I'm that smart. Smart enough to let the accountants add 1 and 2, let the designers adjust tumblehomes, let the engineers adjust stoichiometric ratios, and then we all sit and watch the money roll in. Of course...that's my fantasy...leave me alone with it!

He's not a telephone head either. Agree with Joe_limon.

I would prefer a car guy with good business sense. Passion for what your company does can make a big difference. I am not saying he cannot do ok ... I am saying I think GM could have done better (as usual).

Stongly prefer a product guy who surrounds himself with super smart functional people(r&d,production, finance, etc). Ford doing well because head is a superior marketer with strong sense of how to build a brand.

I'm dying laughing right now.

One thing I'm willing to bet on...He will move GM's executive offices to Texas.
Bob Lutz should be running GM...NOT retiring.