TOPGEAR ARCHIVE
America’s Big Three car bosses face the music
When the US car industry sank to its knees in 2008, the bosses of the Big Three – Ford, Chrysler and General Motors – travelled to Washington to explain themselves before an important committee. Should they grovel hard enough and satisfy the politicians on the other side of the table, they would walk away with one of the biggest bailouts in industrial history, therefore saving their companies from years of further misery.
It’s hard to overstate the fnancial apocalypse in which they found themselves. In all, they needed to walk away with a total of $25bn if they were to keep the factory lights on and secure the jobs of three million workers. Which is why most people were slightly astonished to fnd they’d travelled from their headquarters in Detroit to the Capitol building in DC individually, in a feet of shiny corporate jets.
As one congressmen famously put it: “It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high hat and tuxedo… I mean, couldn’t you all have downgraded to frst class or jet-pooled or something?” Perhaps that’s why they look a touch sheepish in the picture above. It looked like a misjudgement of embarrassing proportions. Or was it?
Because after months of brutal but necessary stafng cuts, the unions had their knives out. The bosses were unpopular, so being wedged into a 737 with an angry mob was out of the question. So for round two, alternate plans were made. Ford boss Alan Mulally – a modest farm boy done good, to be fair – and his entourage piled into a feet of SUVs and drove to the capital. It’s thought it cost much more than if they’d fown in the company jet.
But a gesture was needed, so the Gulfstreams stayed grounded. Ford sold two of its planes, and GM fogged its entire feet, ironically kicking 50 people out of work. The bailout was eventually agreed, and the American car industry hit the road again.