General Motors' sales chief Mark LaNeve is leaving the company and leaving behind a job opening that falls somewhere on the impossibility spectrum between handling Goldman Sachs' PR and opening a Focus on the Family chapter at Yeshiva. GM's problem isn't just that it's an old cripple of a company carrying a mountain of debt and pensions (although that's certainly a leading concern). There are so many reasons why GM is hosed:
Sales were down 45 percent in September, and it didn't even win
the Cash for Clunkers sweepstakes. GM isn't just a slowly-failing
company, it's just been a bad auto maker, objectively. Consumer Reports
recommended 19% of its cars this year. That's worst in the auto making
world, and under the Mendoza Line. You could even say GM isn't a car company any more. It's pretty much turned itself into a truck company that also makes some cars.
