Steve Jobs may have been as you described him, but, with all due respect, that is the subject for another thread.....this is the auto industry.

No...Bugattis and Phaetons, in my book, don't cut it for the industry as a whole (I'm thinking of more than just myself here). I personally liked the Phaeton when it was sold here. But it was a niche vehicle at best, the W12 version didn't sell even though it was a real bargain compared to Mercedes and BMW V12s, and it was pulled from the American market. Did it deserve to sell? IMO, yes, but the public, as a whole, has the last word, with their wallets. And, as for the Bugatti, how many people are going to buy a car that runs seven figures, even before dealer mark-ups and can go 250 MPH? A car like that, IMO, is fine for the cover of Road & Track LOL, but completely out of place in the real world.

I respect your opinion, but disagree that the average VW product, under Peich's leadership, was necessarily better than the average GM product. VW, particularly in the American market, at that time, developed a long-standing reputation for unreliability, electrical problems, poor warranty coverage, low customer service, and indifferent dealerships. They got themselves into a mess long before the diesel-scandal hit.

 

Who? Hyundai fired the CEO in late 2016, so it can't be him. Contrary to what everyone is saying about Hyundai products, they are not selling well.

 

 

 

Hyundai/Kia had it's time. Domestically. internationally their sales is sliding. Their Santa Fe, Sonata models are 25 year old. New Santa Fe
will come out in 2019 and wonder it'll sell well. World wide production ranking slipped too. From 5th to 6th. And looks like they will be sitting
at 7th soon if they don't smarten up. India, Mexico is on their tail trying to catch up. Once in a while I go to Hyundai/Kia dealers to try out one of
their vehicle. Not bad, not so good either, just hum drum line ups. So far don't feel like to drive one.

 

I don't see how this is a personal attack. It's a response with figures and data to counter a blanket statement with nothing to back it up; on a precise topic that others have discussed here before. That's part of what we do here.

 

Not the worst but in the D- category:

Tom Peters, the guy who designed the Pontiac Aztek. He wanted GM to make a statement with it.

Not the best but certainly worth a big handshake and congrats in the B+ category:

Tom Peters, the guy who had a hand in designing the Corvette C7. Most improved performance, lol.

 

Seems like it was kind of kept on the hush hush. But Hyundai Kia just recalled about close to 3 million 2.4 and 2.0 GDI motors that were blowing up.

Seems one of the problems was machining of the engine cranks was leaving shaving and metal in the motors from the factory. I was kind of shocked to hear this just after I helped one of my Daughters just Buy a very nice low miles 2016 Kia Optima 2.0T SXL.

Funny thing was I called about 3 different Kia Service Mangers to ask if the Optima 2.0T had historically been any problems. All of said no. And mentioned nothing at all about the recalls.

But they are not the only one with Engine problems. Especially the GDI motors in lots of other Manufactures.

 

You can help minimize that problem, of course, by frequent changing of the oil and filter. That will prevent a lot of shavings (if, in fact, that is happening) from building up in the system.

Some transmissions used to have built-in magnets that attached to the filter...they caught a lot of iron and steel shavings from inside the transmission, but today's transmissions have more aluminum parts to them.

 

Yes I know. The problem only affected up to the 2014 Models. She has a 2016. But it will get Full Sys oil and 5k Oil and filter changes.

 

 

OK then.....what would be your vote for greatest auto exec of all time?

I'd pick Henry Ford (the company's original founder, not his grandson Henry Ford II). True, Henry had a lot of idiosyncrasies......Anti-Semitism, obsessions in his personal lifestyle, a desire sometimes to escape from reality, a tendency to dictate terms to his employees about their own private life-styles while inspecting their homes, and, after perfecting the Model T, a tendency to shun automotive progress for the sake of simplicity. Ford, at Henry's insistence, was one of the last companies to adopt electric starters and ditch mechanical 2-wheel strap-brakes for 4-wheel hydraulic drums. And, after almost 20 years of Model T production, he only (grudgingly) approved the conversion to the Model A because his wife Clara (whom he dearly loved) threatened to leave him if he didn't LOL. And, before WWII and our war with **** Germany, his reputation was stained somewhat by Adolf Hitler pinning a medal on him. Hitler was envious of Ford's accomplishments here in the U.S., and sought to do the same in 1930's Germany with the "People's Car" ...the "Volks-Wagen".

But Henry, despite his personal quirks and the clear embarrassment of being praised by Hitler, had, IMO, what otherwise was good reason to be called the best auto exec of all time. He did more than any other auto magnate in history, from any country, to make the automobile inexpensive and plentiful enough to convert a country the size of the U.S. from horse/buggy to motor transportation....so that, many decades later, people like us, on Car Chat, can sit around each day and post about our auto-experiences. He did not actually invent the auto-assembly-line, but perfected it to the point that millions of cars could be built for an auto-hungry nation. In an age (1914) when slave-wages in large industries were pretty much the rule, he voluntarily, of his own free will (without any union-pressure) doubled the wage of his factory-employees to $5 a day (roughly $15 an hour, or $120 a day, at today's equivalent). His management philosophy (and mine, too, come to think of it) was that you can't sell cars if people can't afford them...especially one's own employees, who should be given the ability to actually purchase what they work so hard to produce. As a result, there were always far more job-applicants at his early factory than he actually had openings for. Mass-assembly-line production also meant that Model-T prices were as low as possible, with the company still making a profit on each one. Other large-industry-barons, at the time, laughed at his wage-increase move, and said that Henry would go out of business doing that...but the rest is history. Unfortunately, in later life, Henry's growing dementia meant that his son, Edsel Ford, had to take over most of the day-to-day management of the company until Edsel's death in 1943, but there is no denying what Henry accomplished with the Model T and mass-motorization for the public.

 

/\Never heard of "back to", Auto Exec. Who are they?

 

Before I get in trouble.

I vote this Guy, hope can be considered a Auto Exec?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwasaki_Yatar%C5%8D

Iwasaki Yatarō .
Mitsubishi.

 

Elon Musk wins in a landslide simply because he brought out a successful new car company in a climate where that rarely happens. Even if Tesla fails tomorrow he has still irreversibly changed the auto business. Before Tesla Motors the electric, hydrogen or whatever alternative drivetrain was something that was going to happen eventually "in the future".