Life with Cars.(General Motors marketing innovations help US economy following Sept 11 attacks)(Brief Article)(Column)

Byline: Rich Ceppos

It feels a little silly to be talking about cars at a time like this. Cars may be our passion, our hobby, our collective indulgence, but the nation's thoughts are focused on a cratered piece of real estate at the southern tip of Manhattan. How could cars possibly figure into that? And yet they do.

Think General Motors. The world's largest car company played a pivotal role in saving the U.S. economy after Sept. 11th. Just days after the tragedy, the powers that be at GM realized they possessed, figuratively and literally, one of the largest-displacement engines driving the economy. And as we all know, the automotive business in toto employs roughly one out of seven people nationwide, at least if you count every service station attendant and car wash grunt.

While the entire world fretted about the very real possibility of a rudderless U.S. economy running totally aground after the attacks, GM acted on a principle at once self-serving and altruistic: that a rising tide lifts all boats. If the economy survived then GM would undoubtedly benefit. Its competitors would too, but so be it.

This sense of linkage between the health of GM and America had been voiced 50 years earlier in a famous exchange between Charles E. Wilson and the congressional committee considering his nomination as Secretary of Defense for the Eisenhower administration. Wilson had just resigned as president of GM to take the position. When asked about possible conflicts of interest between ...