G. Richard Waggoner, Jr., the CEO of General Motors, looks a little choked up in the picture that accompanies today’s New York Times story about GM’s closure of 4 truck plants. I don’t think he’s getting teary-eyed about the extinction of these steely mammoths, but about the 8,000-or-so jobs that their extinction will phase-out.
This drastic decision is clearly a result of higher gas prices (it seems $4/gallon was the magic “behavior changing” number), but what I don’t understand is why GM doesn’t re-tool these plants to start churning out the types of smaller, lighter, more efficient cars that that made Honda and Toyota so rich recently?
The story also says that GM is considering selling its Hummer brand. I can just imagine the fire-sale for that mechanized dodo bird: No credit? Low Credit? No problem! Just bring a pen to GM headquarters, because it’s Sign and Drive Week!
This article appears in Jun 4-10, 2008.
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