After being skewered by Congress and lampooned on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” the CEOs of Detroit’s three automakers may end up making their return trip to Washington by car as they seek a federal bailout.
It is a little late to try and impress the Senators, theyt already have the idea that these guys are arrogant pricks.
The Detroit area’s auto industry, whose livelihood depends on the health of Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. spent the weekend e-mailing and discussing how to set up a giant car caravan to seek help from Congress.
What’s for certain is GM CEO Rick Wagoner won’t be going to Washington by corporate jet, although the company’s policy is not to comment on executive travel plans for security reasons, said spokesman Tony Cervone. A Chrysler spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on executive travel plans, and a message was left for a Ford spokesman.
The carpool idea came out of meetings on Friday at Dura Automotive Systems Inc., an auto parts maker in suburban Rochester Hills. President and CEO Tim Leuliette said that during the weekend they contacted the automakers, suppliers, dealership groups and the United Auto Workers and the movement began building.
The movement comes after last week’s disastrous hearings in front of two Congressional committees. Ford CEO Alan Mulally, Chrysler LLC CEO Robert Nardelli and GM’s Wagoner traveled to Washington on separate corporate jets to seek $25 billion in government loans to help them make it through the worst U.S. auto sales downturn in 25 years.
Many of the CEOs’ answers were vague, and it appeared as though they had no specific plan to change the way they do business in order to justify the bailout. Lawmakers have demanded restructuring plans by Dec. 2, with hearings to follow.
Maybe they should drive a Ford Festiva…..that would be a better way than to show up in a limo.
I love it! Carpooling back to Washington in a Festiva… Brilliant.
Even then they would appear arrogant because they would be wearing Armani suits. Happy T/giving
Instead of just carticipating to D.C., they should encourage all dealerships to mark all their vehicles as “carticipation ready”. Giving one or two people a lift in a Suburban beats the gas mileage on a prius, and it is a much nicer ride. That is how you get those cars of the lots.
We gave a talk on carticipation at the Silicon Valley iPhone Developers’ Meetup in Palo Alto last week and posted the video here (select “high quality” mode):
Steffen–thanx for the comment and hope you have a great T/giving Day. A good idea and hopefully more people will jump on this idea, but unfortunately in my area few use carpooling or mass transit–I guess it is just ignorance, after all we are the fattest state…LOL….Thanx again