Remember Wagoner is the one who thought GM needed another corporate jet because his wife was without one when he was jetting around to meetings. Remember he is the one that thought the new CAMERO was going to save GM. He really believes that Americans want their muscle cars and that in the long run that will save GM.
Read this great article in Forbes!!
Why Rick Wagoner Had To Go
Jerry Flint, 03.30.09, 12:10 PM EDT
The ouster of GM's chief executive was long overdue. But will his successor be any better?
The fall of General Motors Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner was unavoidable. There is no way President Obama could hand out more billions to a management with a practically unblemished record of failure.
Yes, it's certainly good news; the Wagoner management was never going to turn around General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ). Never. After all, Wagoner has been chief executive since 2000 and head of North American auto operations six more years before that. His predecessor and mentor, Jack Smith, became chief in 1992. GM lost market share in the U.S. in all but a couple of those years. The losses in Wagoner's last four years topped $80 billion.
Worse, GM seemed adrift in this crisis. Its European operations--and they are key to saving GM--seem to be without serious direction. In the U.S. we hear mostly of program cancellations, and the Vice Chairman Robert Lutz, the only real "car guy" in top management, is giving up and retiring at the end of the year.
But it might be a mistake to cheer Wagoner's leaving, because we don't know if his replacement will be any better. The second in command, the president and chief operating officer, is Fritz Henderson, and he is expected to succeed Wagoner, at least for now. Frankly, it is difficult to see what he did to become president of the once largest automaker in the world. Like Wagoner, he is a fairly colorless financial officer. But it's unfair to knock him before he's had a chance to do something.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/30/rick-wagoner-gm-jerry-flint-business-autos-backseat-driver.html