book is not for everybody,
A Detroit insider view on the management vicissitudes during theyears of turmoil that racked the Bigof the US auto industry, fromto.
While even within US the view of the larger public, and especially within the coastal big city dwellers most of my American Indian friends are well paid professionals either in NYC or SF, there is a perception of these companies as big, lumbering dinosaurs who are almost criminally mismanaged.
In the wake of the global financial crisis when Ford, GM and Chrysler went for congressional hearings, hat in hand, to be bailed out by the US government and the story broke about the private jets these CEOs flew in on this perception was cemented for most of us.
This book goes beyond that shallow caricature, What I liked most about it was that it doesnt preach and it tells the story of all the heroes, the villains and the victims objectively.
Of course in all such tellings it is hard to say who is the hero and who the villain and who the victim, as all of them are all of them, at varying points in the story.
The fall of Detroit can not be blamed on any one side all of them, the Big, UAW and the regulators all made the outcome inevitable.
The book is a human story above all, The only complaint I have is with the extremely excessive fawning over Allan Mullaly and sometimes not being critical enough of the culture of excess and waste, especially at GM.
Would still recommend it for people who are interested in the short history of how US auto industry lost its crown to the Europeans and the Japanese.
Do I cheer or
I enjoyed the book and what it portrayed, It hurt to see the fate of all those workers but the same help was not extended to steel or other manufacturers lost to foreign workers and eased regulations.
This was a page turner, really, The behind the scenes story of
what happened in and to the car industry as the economy was tanking post, could only be told by an objective insiderand NYT reporter, Bill Vlasic, writing for the Detroit Bureau, is just that.
This is a story that covers both the foolhardy and the wise the prescient and the blind, And the inside the story story of Bill Ford's actions are such I've almost decided to buy one of his cars.
We'll see:. Aplus, a detailed history of the most recent near collapse of the Detroit auto industry, The author is a detroit based reporter with great contacts, the deep background and extensive iterviews with many of the participants was outstanding.
A good overview of how Detroit got to the location where GM and Chrysler both had to go through bankruptcies, with both rising gas prices gutting the market for trucks and SUVs and the Great Recession drying up credit.
A good one but not a great one, Way back in thes, the UAW, as well as the Big Three, resisted building greener cars, The UAW's Douglas Fraser invited Japan, in the persona of Honda, to come over so why didn't the UAW unionize plants outside of that one, the plants outside the Midwest/West Coast Years before the two bankruptcies, the Big Three all knew that healthcare costs were an albatross around their necks visavis the Japanese plants back in Japan, so why didn't they push for national health care Why didn't the UAW earlier, for that matter
There's tentative to complete answers to much of those rhetorical questions, but Vlasic's book doesn't have a long enough time line to look at some of them.
Others, though, fit in the time frame he has, and he opts not to dig deeper,
So, while it's a good book, it's not a great book, It's also not great for ending so soon after the bankruptcy filings, with no prediction/analysis for the future, loved this nonfiction book about the big, fromto present/buyout, . . currently living in
Detroit and familiar with many of the names, this book delves into the behind the scenes strategies and personalities, and how close it all came to dissolving
not a book club choice but recommended to me by my husband In case you missed or just couldn't palate the meltdown in the auto industry a few years back, this will fill you in nicely.
It won't make you admire the UAW or the management of at least two of the Big Three, though!
The only thing I disliked about this book was finishing it.
Every page had me enthralled, Particularly as a Detroit native who lived through a number of scenarios presented in the text, It seems my life and my community was influenced and shaped by automative corporations and I / we often wondered what they were thinking.
With this book, Vlasic answers those questions and more, Makes me want to buy a Ford! But not a Daimler, er Mercedes Subtitle well encapsulates what this book is about.
Going into thest Century Anerican automakers amounted to a dinosaur industry, making gasguzzling vehicles that few people wanted to buy.
Lots were full of cars and trucks and too many factories were cranking out even more, Hourly labor costs and associated benefits were high compared to Japanese transplants, Its a fascinating story about transformation in management styles: stodgy bureaucratic dysfunction to focused competitor GM, overwhelmed leadership to energized new culture Ford and confused direction to dynamic new partnership Chrysler.
Reads like a novel
Captures your interest and tells a story that you don't want to stop reading.
Tells us the emotions, thoughts and feelings of the players, Written almost in the format of a TV program with scenes that cut in and out, Great read. This is a comprehensive story about the demise of theAmerican automakers during the last years of thes, You will discover why GM and Chrysler bankruptcy was an event that did not happen overnight,
Years of selfindulgence and bad planning and decisionmaking put the industry on the verge of collapse, Bill Vlasic did a good job of compiling the information, basing his resources on extensive interviews with the people directly involved in the matter.
In my opinion it feels a little bit rushed by the last two chapters, covering the yearsandbriefly.
However, the bulk of this book talks about the previous years, starting back on, When the systemic problems that brought crisis to the sector started to be too evident to be ignored, After reading this, you will realize it is no wonder the industry could not cope with the financial crisis that burst in.
Loved, loved, loved this! I was always a Chevy fan but after reading this although I still would never buy a Ford I have utmost respect for how the economic downturn or really just the threat of it Made Bill Ford Jr.
prepare. He knew what was needed, knew he wasn't capable, and found himself Alan Mulally, This is the story of why Ford didn't need a government bailout, what GM did before and after their bailout, and a little insight into the ride Chrysler was taken on during the turmoil check out Taken For A Ride for a deeper delve into that subject.
fairly detailed account of the going ons behind the auto sector in, its the "Too Big To Fail" for auto companies.
. . read it if you like behind the scenes shenanigans that you don't expect to read otherwise, . . I was disappointed with this book because I was seeking some detailed analysis of the condition of GM and Chrysler when then finally went into bankruptcy under the control of the Obama administration.
Instead of financial detail about the companies and the labor rates they were stuck with from the UAW, the book wasinterview notes of the author with company and union people.
This ran along the lines of soandso said this and then the other soandso responded thus and so, Stories about the people and their personalities which were of zero interest to me,
Also, the subtitle of the book mentions the resurrection of the "Big Three" but the book has no actual coverage of anything that could be called resurrection.
The book ends with GM and Chrysler coming out of bankruptcy, Essentially an opera inact, I was quite familiar with actreason for the fall of the auto industry acthow it has fallen and I finishedchapters in record time.
It was fun to read about behind the scene juicy bits, Actthe bailout and resurrection was quite short chapterand left me unsatisfied, Amazing book about the situations leading up to the demise of the bigautomakersand subsequent foreshadowing of their return that reads like a thriller! Hard to put this book down, which to be honest was very surprising going into it! Really good book about what truly caused the great meltdown infor the Big.
Out of all the automotive books I've read, save for some of the stories about Chrysler in the's, this book is definitely probably one of the best.
Once Upon a Car is the fascinating epic story of the rise, fall, and rebirth of the Big Three U.
S. automakers, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, Written by Bill Vlasic, the Detroit bureau chief for the New York Times and acclaimed author of Taken for a Ride, this eyeopening, richly anecdotal work is more than a riveting and insightful business history.
It offers a cleareyed view of the present day automobile industry and of Detroit, the city that spawned it, going far beyond the corporate and federal maneuverings to explore the impact the car companies failures have had on the overall economy, and more importantly what they have done to peoples lives.
Relevant and thoughtprovoking, Once Upon a Car is an unforgettable journey deep inside this quintessentially American industry,
.