New York Times Asks: Where Have All the Car Guys Gone?

Washington DC August 13, 2007; The AIADA newsletter reported that with the surprise appointment last week of Robert L. Nardelli, the former Home Depot chief executive, to run Chrysler, Detroit has completed a new-model changeover of the executive suite, reports The New York Times. None of the chiefs now leading the three American car companies can be credited for inspiring or developing anything on the roads today — the unofficial definition of what makes a Detroit chief executive a true "car guy." This marks a sharp break from a tradition stretching back to the industry's infancy, when car builders became chiefs of the companies that bore their names. As recently as last decade, all three chief executives could brag about cars they had helped develop. Ford's chief at the time, Donald E. Petersen, oversaw the Ford Taurus and earlier Fords. Though car guys were responsible for Detroit's triumphs, they also steered the companies into trouble with errors in judgment that included relying too heavily on big sport-utility vehicles. "This is a business that needs to be run as a business," Alan R. Mulally, Ford's chief executive, said at an industry conference last week near Traverse City, Mich. To be sure, there is not a car guy in charge at the world's biggest car company, Toyota Motor, which passed G.M. earlier this year to take the No. 1 spot. In fact, it is difficult to name a traditional car guy at Toyota beyond the company's founder, Kiichiro Toyoda, who acknowledged copying a Chevrolet design for Toyota's first car, the AA, in 1936. A car guy's background is invaluable in one sense, Mr. Petersen said. In an industry so focused on trying to predict trends, executives benefit from having both their own knowledge about the industry and experience in reading what other car guys are telling them.