It Was a Good Run: GM Out of Fortune 500 Top Ten For First Time In 101 Years

BangShift.com

General Motors has dropped to number 15 on the Fortune 500 list, out of the top ten for the first time in 101 years. Ford dropped one spot, from number seven to number eight. Weirdly, without a massive bailout from the US Government, GM wouldn’t even exist. This is the first time in the history of the company that they haven’t been in the top 10.

2009 was an unmitigated disaster, not only for GM for for the entire auto industry. The General definitely took the worst of it though. It was a year spent paring down brands, closing dealers, laying off employees, and chewing through three different CEOs.

While Ford’s year was no banner-maker, that company has introduced a product line up that seems to be doing a better job than any other domestic manufacturer at dragging stalwart import buyers back to an American brand. Please don’t take that as a compliment, as we aren’t sure we’d be “proud” of luring import buyers to American cars that look and feel like imports, but at least they are paying the bills. Ford dropped a spot, but are in a position they’ve never been in before with regard to the 500 list. They’re ahead of GM.

Chrysler? That’s a whole different kettle of fish.

Source — MLive.com – General Motors falls out of top ten of Fortune 500 list for the first time in 101 years

GM Out of Fortune 500 Top Ten For First Time In 101 Years

Permalink:

Posted at 7:31 am in BangShift.com, Detroit, GM

Comments

GTwildfire
Apr 19, 2010 at 8:51 pm

I’ve always been drawn to GM, sometimes like a moth to a flame. GM’s problems are mostly GM’s doing.
-
There were quality issues, but also… as a gearhead the more I know, the more I know they did some really stupid things, things that must have made car ownership a real pain in the ass for many former customers. I got an example.
-
My 2001 Grand Prix GT. It has a 4T65E automatic transmission. There was no manual for that generation of Prix. In 2001 there were 4 transmissions used in that car. There was the “K” VIN variant and other for the 3800 non-supercharged. There was the 4T65E variant for the GTP supercharged, and there was another trans for the 3.1 V6 used in the base model. It gets better… If I needed to replace the transmission (and I have) I cannot use one from a 2002 Prix, nor one from a 2000 Prix… ONLY 2001… “K” VIN version. Period.
-
Unfortunately, this is only one of many utterly bullshit nuances that riddle GM’s product line like cancer.
-
NOTE: I have been a GM cheerleader… pom poms and all… since I owned my first Firebird back in the ’80s. I’m STILL heavily into GM and yeah maybe it’s brain damage… who knows…
-
All I know now is that the trans I replaced my bad trans with 10 months ago… quit. Something snapped and I luckily rolled the car into a perfect spot for towing. Gotta weigh my options, but I sure as hell wish I had a manual trans option for that car.

KrashingV8
Apr 19, 2010 at 4:27 pm

question, where was chrysler on the 500 list?

retroman
Apr 19, 2010 at 3:00 pm

I think GM’s troubles were forthcoming and evident at least as far back as 7 years ago and probably farther. For those who don’t recall, that’s when they killed off Oldsmobile division. It’s the job of top execs of any company to project the future 5 years out. GM’s management was clearly sleeping on the job and ordered the company full speed ahead on building trucks and large gas guzzling vehicles when an iceberg of an oil crisis was looming on the horizon. What’s worse is that when the iceberg hit, they refused to see that the ship was sinking and fast. Hmmm… now where have we seen that scenario before??