Whacked: How GM Careened into Bankruptcy and Took the Innocent With Them

On June 1, 2009, General Motors declared bankruptcy. The aftermath has been catastrophic for many of those involved in the business of selling cars: the dealers.

GM terminated hundreds of committed and long-standing dealerships, causing losses of millions of dollars. The author uses the term “whacked” to describe this wholesale destruction of these successful businesses.  Hiding behind the shield of the Canadian and United States governments, General Motors as well destroyed the net worth of thousands of workers, investors, and customers in its desire to save itself with taxpayers’ monies.

The media has given excellent coverage about the downfall of GM. They even have tried to give some opinion as to why it failed. The author has found that most of these explanations were both superficial and simplistic:  too many dealers, too many brands, the unions, and the economy. In this book, Dennis Gazarek, a former dealer, carefully analyzes what happened and comes to his own remarkable conclusions.

“If the U.S. government really wanted to end the drug problem in America, they should give the marketing and distribution rights to General Motors.” — An anonymous statement initially
attributed to Michael Moore at the end of the twentieth century about GM’s ability sell and market automobiles.

“As long as the unwritten rule stands that the best way to achieve success at GM is to be a good finance man, the bad habit of juggling numbers in order to present the picture people want to see cannot be broken.” — Maryann Keller, Rude Awakening

Please contact the author directly to get your copy.