Customer Reviews

Sixty to Zero: An Inside Look at the Collapse of General Motors--and the Detroit Auto Industry

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I have known Alex Taylor III for many years and have long admired his work for Fortune. I also work for one of the companies he writes about, General Motors, in the news relations department. So I can hardly argue that I am free of bias.

That said, I think Sixty to Zero has some obvious strengths, and some equally obvious shortcomings. The strengths lie in its sketches of the larger-than-life characters who ran the U.S. auto industry from the 1960s through the end of 2009. Taylor has done a great job of bringing these people to life, complete with their sometimes tragic flaws. I also admire Taylor's honesty about the challenges he faced in covering these leaders and their companies. It is sobering to be reminded that even a reporter as experienced as Taylor and a publication with the resources of Fortune sometimes struggle to find the right balance for an important news story.

What's missing is a discussion of the outside forces that set creative destruction in motion in the U.S. auto industry in the late 1960s. For more than half a century, the U.S. auto industry enjoyed a closed market with stable energy supplies and minimal government regulation. Companies and cultures came into being to maximize performance in that market, and these companies were incredibly successful -- they were like the Google and Microsoft of their era. When the industry was hit in quick succession with new government regulations, new competitors from Europe and Japan, and wild swings in gas prices, these companies and their leaders found it difficult to change what had been so successful for so long, and they struggled to adapt. A bit of Schumpeter could add some much needed perspective to Taylor's history.

The companies that are emerging from this period are smaller, leaner and more global. Many challenges still lie ahead, as the auto industry deals with the rise of new markets and competitors such as China and India. But I personally believe that the new GM has a great future ahead of it.

Eventually, all industries come face to face with the kind of seismic shifts that hit the auto industry starting in the 1960s. The magazine and book industries are now entering a similar period of creative destruction. Perhaps in another 20 years, someone like Taylor will write their story.

G.M.'s meltdown was some 40-years in the making, claims Taylor. It had served as a model of efficiency and organization that hundreds of others copied. It's decline was caused by bad management, combined with ego, and covered up by the ineptness of its domestic competitors and its once huge market share - 56% in 1962. The wide spaces between lines and letters in each word suggest the author doesn't have much to say, and that's true. His closeness to the industry led Taylor to write, as late as 2008, optimistically about G.M.'s coming turnaround. The book is almost entirely narrative/anecdotal, and lacks quantitative analyses - eg. why G.M. (and others) retreated into large cars, or caved in to the UAW. Just not much here -

Sixty to Zero was a quick read. I felt that it only scratched the surface of the topic, compared to "Crash Course" by Paul Ingrassia.

Not enough meat to justify the length of the book. Could have been much better. Highly repetitive chapter to chapter.

In between tedious accounts of his experiences reporting on General Motors over the years, Taylor throws in some of the common assessments of what went wrong, all of which we have heard before. Never does he put them together into any original, coherent analysis.

For those who like American automotive history from the second half of the twentieth century, this is a good read. For those who, like my son and me, lost money when GM finally threw in the towel, this is a must read. Mr. Taylor is quite a talented business writer with personal access to many of the players in this rather tragic period in American business history. Mr. Taylor explores not just the downfall of GM but also explains the missteps and missed opportunities that Ford and Chrysler made. The book takes a whole lot of the sheen off of the Iacocca mystique. I, for one, have a whole new opinion of Lido after reading Mr. Taylor's take on the former Mopar chairman. He also points out the hazards of any organization that becomes an entity unto itself, as GM did. This insular nature and unbridled hubris, Mr. Taylor shows us, led to the rather sad ending of the once mighty GM colossus. Roger Smith, of course, takes more lumps although this time not from Michael Moore. Bob Stempel takes his licks, too. Bob Lutz, who is once again a hot topic in the news, is also examined somewhat more closely. Rick Wagoner, in my book one of the biggest villains in the whole affair, is actually portrayed by Mr. Taylor in a somewhat less critical light. As a Michigander I still want to know how something that started out so well ended up so terribly wrong. Our state still suffers economically as a result of the demise of this once vibrant domestic cash machine. I do not feel too much better for having read it, but I do feel a little less confused and a little more informed. Nice job, Mr. Taylor.

the book reveal lots of details of author personal experience with Detroit's executive. good personality description on those leadership. However, the perception on auto industry has no new idea. plus, detailed description on personal experience neglect the macroenvironment of the competition. the book is supposed to deliver the road map of auto industry collapse. unfortunately, I can't grasp this picture by reading this book.

There is no doubt that the author, Alex Taylor III, has the credentials and credibility to write on the subject matter of "Sixty to zero". I was especially impressed with his willingness to admit mistakes he's made as a journalist covering the auto industry. That's refreshing coming from a journalist.

While a very informative work, Taylor missed out on mentioning a few things that should have been included. For example, he states that Bob Lutz, when with GM, never produced a failure similar to that of the Pontiac Aztek. Wrong. He neglected to mention the incredible flop of the Chevrolet retro-truck, the SSR.

Like so many new models, GM hyped the SSR to the hilt before it's introduction in 2004. The problems with the vehicle were two-fold: It was under-marketed from the time it hit showrooms until Chevy mercifully pulled it off the market; it was overpriced. Most were in the $29k-34k range. Sadly, the SSR had some very nice features, especially the retractable hard-top roof.

On the positive side, Taylor neglected to mention On-Star. To my knowledge, GM was the first domestic automaker to install such a product on any of its models. They certainly advertise it quite well, which is why it is so curious that Taylor omitted it from his book.

Taylor also takes a very biased approach to discussion of the UAW. He openly admits he doesn't like the union. He also appears to make them one of the significant scapegoats in the collapse of GM and Chrysler. It disturbs me that he gives little credit to the union for its negotiations with Rick Wagoner and the GM brass in late 2008.

Overall, however, I would encourage anyone with an interest in the US automobile industry to read "Sixty to zero". Its positives definitely outweigh the negatives.

I really enjoyed this book as both a study of business and as a auto enthusiast. It is an interesting account of how GM died a death of a thousand paper cuts.

Alex,

Just finished your book and thought it was a good read. For the record, there's no way I would trade my Pontiac Solstice GXP for a Mazda Miata.

Style trumps trunk space and ease of putting the top up and down every time!

Regards,
Dave Curtis
Bloomfield Hills MI