Hey, ho, another week in which General Motors continued to dominate the news and just-auto readers clicked avidly on each breaking headline. Top of the pops: the first of the chairman and new CEO Ed Whitacre-instigated changes to the top level of management.
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And that was just the start. In quick succession, the much-respected Nick Reilly, now in the hot seat at GM Europe, and heading Opel/Vauxhall in his spare time, set out his stall. Then there was this report that GM was still looking for a new CEO, to replace the axed Fritz Henderson and the ‘interim’ Whitacre.
Next, our colleagues at SupplierBusiness put the two-way executive floor traffic at RenCenter under scrutiny, reaching a mostly positive conclusion. That was soon followed by word a likely candidate for new GM CFO had been identified and the rollercoaster moved on to news of two new bosses at business units here in the UK.
Finally (we hope), came news just yesterday of an abrupt Chevrolet chief change followed soon after by the report the new GMC-Buick boss had said “bye-bye” after just nine days in his post. And, somewhere in the middle of that, the aforementioned Reilly said announcement of his plan to revive The German Patient would likely slip back into January.
In answer to the obvious question, did anything else happen? Yep. VW and Suzuki became the latest automakers to find some common ground, jointly painting a target around fast-growing India, in particular, where Suzuki is already firmly entrenched, via Maruti, and VW, with an assembly plant, has a growing presence. We thought the deal important enough for closer scrutiny.
Fiat UK is continuing a shake-up of its own – getting a once-poor dealer network into the shape it needs to be for the noughties.
Saab? News today that Spyker is still in the frame but there is also still a question mark over what Saab is – or is not – going to sell to BAIC.
There’s been suggestions flogging off the old family silver to BAIC would be the end of Saab but selling old model tooling to China (or India, for that matter), is nothing new and doesn’t mean a new, improved Saab can’t get on with cranking out the nice looking redesigned 9-5 while the Chinese knock up something new for themselves on outdated 9-3 and 9-5 platforms.
Enjoy your weekend,
Graeme Roberts
Deputy/News Editor
just-auto.com
