Customer Reviews

Collision: GM, Toyota, Volkswagen and the Race to Own the 21st Century

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This was a bit of a disappointment for me: the writing is not inspiring, structure is a bit haphazard. It IS useful for learning a basic--very basic--grounding in how Toyota, GM, and Volkswagen came to be and a bit about what happened to them in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She is appropriately tough on GM--which I suspect is her real field of expertise. She understands VWs problems pretty well--they are, after all, well documented. She seems to understand Toyota far less well--perhaps understandably; it's clear that it's just a lot harder to understand what's going on over there. Of course with the benefit of hindsight the clearest flaw in the book becomes obvious: she equates Toyota's problems with those of the other companies. And seems to predict that General Motors will come out on top. 13 years after the book was published--today--I read that GM's bonds had been lowered to junk bond status. Volkswagen had a decent run in the 90s though things don't look so great now; Toyota is utterly dominant. Unfortunately the fact that she got that so very wrong--who'd come out on top was the subject of the book--makes me question almost everything else she wrote. Too bad.

If you are interesting in automotive industry stories this book will you like it. Collision has a very nice narrative and it is not difficult to read. I recomend it.