LOS ANGELES – Former Detroit 3 auto executive Lee Iacocca took Congress to task in a letter issued Tuesday that said replacing the current CEOs at General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Chrysler would hurt, not help, the chances of avoiding bankruptcy for US-based automakers.
Iacocca, is the former Chairman and CEO of Chrysler and former President of Ford Motor Company. He’s credited with creating the Mustang at Ford and the minivan at Chrysler.
“Running a multi-billion-dollar automobile company with thousands of
employees, retirees, suppliers, dealers and communities counting on you is
not for the weak of heart or for the timid or the untried,” Iacocca said. “Especially the untried.
“Having been there, I do not agree with the sentiment now coming out of
Congress that the management should be changed as a condition of granting
loans to the Detroit automakers,” he said. “You don’t change coaches in the middle of a game, especially when things are so volatile. The industry has been
brutalized by a totally unpredictable series of events over which it had
little control and that is beating it unmercifully into the ground.
“The companies may not be perfect but the guys who are running them now
are the only ones with the experience and the in-depth knowledge and
understanding of how the car business really works. They’re by far the best
shot we have for success. I say give them their marching orders and then
let them march. They’re the right people to get the job done.”
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