Once upon a Car: The Fall and Resurrection of America's Big Three Auto Makers--GM, Ford, and Chrysler - Hardcover

Vlasic, Bill

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061845620 ISBN 13: 9780061845628

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 2011

Synopsis

In this uniquely American story of success, failure and redemption, the Detroit bureau chief for the New York Times, covering events from 2005 to the present, documents the crumbling of the once-mighty car industry, revealing the impact of this crisis on workers and communities. 50,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

"Compelling... a human approach to an industry that couldn't be less human in scale... entertaining."--Wall Street Journal

"Once Upon a Car is the best book on the whole shebang that you are ever going to read... a critical history."--Huffington Post

"With almost anthropological precision, Once Upon a Car is a thorough and compelling account of the collapse of the domestic auto industry"--Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Essential account of the United States auto industry."--New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice

"Vlasic enriches his journalistic attention to detail with the drama and pacing of a thriller."--800ceoRead

"Vlasic delivers a devastating account of auto industry arrogance, ignorance, and tragedy."--Publishers Weekly

"Terrific... better than most novels... truly fascinating."--Free Lance Star Virginia

"Vlasic is a master storyteller whose prowess makes the absorption of many complex facts painless."--strategy-business.com

"The book is extraordinary. Vlasic offers what will probably become the definitive retelling of the crisis that nearly felled America's three carmaking icons."--Financial Times

"With almost anthropological precision, "Once Upon a Car" is a thorough and compelling account of the collapse of the domestic auto industry"--Cleveland Plain Dealer

From the Back Cover:

Once Upon a Car is the brilliantly reported inside-the-boardrooms-and-factories story of Detroit’s fight for survival, going beyond the headlines to chronicle how the country’s Big Three auto companies—General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler—teetered on the brink of collapse during the 2008 financial crisis. In a tale that reads like a corporate thriller, Bill Vlasic, who has covered the auto industry for more than fifteen years, first for the Detroit News and now for the New York Times, takes readers into the executive offices, assembly plants, and union halls to introduce a cast of memorable characters, many of whom are speaking out for the first time, including the executives who struggled to save their companies but in the end had to seek a controversial, last-gasp rescue from the U.S. government.

Vlasic goes behind the scenes to portray the men at the top during Detroit’s last stand. Rick Wagoner, the CEO of General Motors, tried to turn around a dying company, only to be forced to resign as a condition of the government bailout. Bill Ford, great-grandson of the legendary Henry Ford, had the will to keep Ford alive but needed the guts to hire an unknown outsider, Alan Mulally, to transform the company before it crashed. At Chrysler, leadership was constantly changing as new owners tried in vain to fix the smallest of the beleaguered Big Three. And through it all, the president of the United Auto Workers union, Ron Gettelfinger, fought to save the jobs of the men and women who build American-made cars and trucks.

This tale of an iconic industry in crisis is more than a big business drama and provides a rich, unvarnished portrait of how Detroit’s decline affected tens of thousands of workers and dozens of communities nationwide. The story moves from the gleaming corporate skyscrapers and massive auto plants to the halls of the U.S. Congress and into the Oval Office, where President Obama and his aides wrestled with how to keep General Motors and Chrysler from going out of business. Vlasic shows why the bailout worked, and how Detroit can succeed under new leadership and build automobiles equal to any in the world.

Once Upon a Car tells a uniquely American tale of success, failure, and redemption. It is an important and illuminating chapter in an astonishing story that is still unfolding. And no one is more qualified to write it than Bill Vlasic.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0061845620
• ISBN 13: 9780061845628
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 394