The Car Connection [ The Web's Automotive Authority ]

The Car Connection [ The Web's Automotive Authority ]: "Everyone knew GM was in serious trouble, so the building was crawling with reporters sniffing for news. Then-chairman Robert Stempel was struggling to turn the GM battleship around and steam it out of the giant sucking whirlpool his predecessor, Roger Smith, had steered it into. Under Smith's financially driven leadership, GM products had devolved into shoddily-built ho-hum lookalikes, uncompetitive with cross-town competition from Dearborn, let alone the rising tide of quality imports. But the Board felt he wasn't moving fast enough."