Commentary On Why GM Matters By Rick Wagoner

Why GM Matters is a book written about the history of General Motors Company and the struggle they endured during the 2008 economic recession. The book is broken into three parts; the first part explains what went wrong with General Motors Company including the workers that would be affected if General Motors Company had to move their production to another country or if they had to close the doors on General Motors Company and let Toyota buy them out. The book also discusses in the first part, the person most people consider responsible for their struggle throughout the recession, Rick Wagoner. The author in the first part conducted many interviews with General Motors Company employees such as, works that worked in the production plant, workers that handled the finances, but most notably, Rick Wagoner. The majority of the first part is about the history of General Motors Company and the consequences that would occur if General Motors was bought out by Toyota. The second part of Why GM Matters is about the
transformation effort that the car company had done in order to keep their doors open and make their cars Americans’ cars again. This part is the longest part of the book by far discussing the redesigning efforts of General Motor Company’s cars, China where the Buick is very popular, and the Chevrolet Volt being created. The author discusses looking into Toyota’s point of view and the American citizen’s point of view. General Motors Company endured a lot of changes throughout this transformation, because they were redesigning cars and attempting to transform an American Icon, the Chevrolet Camaro. There is a lengthy chapter in the book about the discussion to redesign the Camaro after several years down from production (2003-2009). The chapter discusses the struggle that the designers faced to decide on a new look after not making a Camaro for several years. The book briefly mentions General Motors Company's hard decision to cease making Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles due to the financial hardships of the company. When the book transitions into the topic of the Chevrolet Volt, the author explains why General Motors Company was reluctant to create a hybrid car and the ultimate design to go forward with it. The majority of this chapter is about the pressure General Motors Company felt when Tesla Motors began making a name for itself and the Toyota Prius had a lot of public relations time. General Motors Company saw the transition America was trying to make into a cleaner environment which was another factor that caused them to create the Volt. The final part of Why GM Matters is the shortest part of the entire book focusing mainly on, the future of General Motors Company and the battle of perception for the company. This part of the book has a very brief chapter on Toyota’s car company. The Toyota chapter is a brief history of the car company and how they were originally ‘Toyoda’ until the name change to make it seem more relatable to Americans. It discusses the stern discipline for the workers but the generous patronage. The chapter concludes with, the creation of the Toyota Tundra and the luxury branches of Toyota such as, Lexus and how the American public reacted to these changes. The final part concludes with the summary of the Economic Crisis and the future that General Motors Company will most likely receive and the possible outcomes if they make changes amongst their leading staff. The book Why GM Matters does a thorough job convincing readers of the importance of GM as an american company and gives insight into what caused the company’s famous downfall during the 2008 economic recession. The book is made understandable to all audiences and is very convincing when it comes to making the reader believe his conclusions are correct. Doing background checks on some of the author’s conclusions, a lot of the statements align with what actually happened for the car company. The author conducted several interviews with General Motors Company staff to properly tell the reader what actually happened and not the mainstream stuff they may have seen in the news. The arguments the author tries to make are extremely substantial because he used interviews with General Motors Company staff members to validate what he is trying to say which shows the author took a lot of time to make his book as most accurate as possible. The strongest parts of his arguments were in the chapters when he broke down every concept and gave the background of all of it. For example, the chapter titled “Battling for the New Camaro’s soul” where he discussed the history of the Camaro, which helped General Motors Company division Cheverolet create a new design for the American muscle car. The weaker parts of his arguments consisted of going off topic, each part of the book broke into specific chapters and a lot of his chapters would mesh together and not be mentioned in the chapters where they seemed most fitting. For example, the chapter titled “Who is Rick Wagoner?” is a chapter about Wagoner and his job position with General Motors Company. However, the chapter breaks into discussing the workers and how they feel about the hardships of the company not so much so, Rick Wagoner. When the author interviews with the workers are mentioned in Wagoner’s chapter they should have probably been with the other employee interviews in the chapter “People on the Front Line” or in “Does GM Matter?” Overall, the book was very informative and an interesting for readers with valid information. In William J.
Holstein’s book Why GM Matters there is a very logical argument about why the car company is important of the United States of America and how it would hurt the American economy if General Motors Company had to shut their doors or be bought out by Toyota. Doing some research on the author it is very apparent he is very knowledgeable about economics and their trends. However, it is also very apparent how biased he is towards General Motors Company. Holstein may not drive a car by General Motors Company, but he is very in favor of keeping the company in America to help boost the economy. He mentions not only the struggles the car company would face if they went out of production, but their workers and how behind that would put America’s economy. Overall, Holstein’s arguments were definitely influenced by his bias towards the car company and keeping it in America, but the topics he did discuss validated his opinion and were historically
accurate.
In conclusion, William J. Holstein’s book Why GM Matters was a very interesting read and would most likely be enjoyable for any person fond of cars. The book can also be relatable to an audience with little information about cars. The book was very well constructed and historically accurate when it comes to the struggles of the car company. However, there was a bias towards keeping General Motors Company in America. Among all, the book was very interesting and relatable for all audiences and there was a bias in favor of keeping the company in America.