Word: gm
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...GM's car of the future will not be able to vroom away from a stop light with today's panache. Most GM cars now accelerate from a dead stop to 60 m.p.h. in 11 to 14 seconds; the report implies that by 1985 most will take 15 seconds or more. GM fears that the loss in performance, small though it may seem, will discourage buyers...
What will the transformation cost? GM notes that it spent $1.1 billion to shrink the length and weight of its 1977 models (TIME, Sept. 13) and figures that retooling for the more drastic changes needed by 1985 will cost several times that. The expense, no doubt, will be passed on to buyers, raising another question: will they accept higher prices for shorter, lighter, less powerful, slower-starting cars? One possible clue is the renewed popularity of imported cars, which took 20% of the U.S. market in April. Foreign car makers are far ahead of Detroit in the technology of fuel...
...case, one much talked of method of saving fuel, the development of the electric car, is not even mentioned in the GM study. Its deficiencies are familiar to Detroit, but they were sarcastically highlighted last week by Kansas Republican Senator Robert Dole, who jokingly claims to have got a look at one of Energy Chief James Schlesinger's secret projects. Said Dole: "It's an electric car that will take you from Washington to Los Angeles on $4.12 worth of electricity-but the extension cord costs...
...agency requested and has received such reports from all the automakers, but GM is the only company to have made its report public...
...plane in a crash near Kalamazoo, Mich. An engineer who rose through the ranks to become president in 1967, Cole had the rare savvy and persistence to conceive an idea, guide it through the corporate mazes and oversee its embodiment in steel. He helped design the controversial Corvair, sold GM on the merits of the pollution-cutting catalytic converter and the recently abandoned rotary engine, and supported development of the air-bag safety system. His motto at the corporation was "Kick the hell out of the status quo." Cole retired from GM in 1974 and had taken over Checker Motors...