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  • 02 Jun 09
    mattkramer
    Matt Kramer

    For an icon of America, a sudden reversal

    By Micheline Maynard, New York Times | June 1, 2009

    It is a company that helped lift hundreds of thousands of American workers into the middle class.

    It transformed Detroit into a symbol of the industrial prowess of the United States. It built iconic cars, like Cadillacs, that became synonymous with luxury.

    And now it is filing for bankruptcy protection, something that would have been unfathomable even a few months ago, much less decades ago, when it was a dominant force in the US economy.

    Rarely has a company fallen so far and so fast as General Motors.

    "I never ever could have believed that one day this thing would go that way," said Jim Wangers, a retired GM executive who was part of the team that developed the Pontiac GTO and the author of "Glory Days," about Pontiac's heyday in the muscle-car era of the 1960s. "We were so successful."

    Founded in 1908, GM ruled the car industry for more than half a century, promising "a car for every purse and purpose."

    The expression "What's good for General Motors is good for the country" entered the lexicon, even though it was a slight misquote of Charles E. Wilson, GM's president in the early 1950s.

    But then GM began a long and slow process of undermining itself. Its strengths, like the rigid structure that provided discipline early on, became weaknesses, and it lost its ability for reading the market it helped create, as Japanese automakers lured away even its most loyal buyers.

    Only eight months ago, Rick Wagoner, then its chief executive, stood before employees to celebrate the company's 100th anniversary. "We're a company that's ready to lead for 100 years to come," Wagoner said.

    Instead of leading, GM will be following other failed companies on a well-worn path into bankruptcy court.

    GM factories sprang up all around the country, from Massachusetts to California, from Wisconsin to Louisiana. They churned out family cars, pickup trucks, and memorable muscle cars that were rolling displays of American DNA.

    A GM p

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