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Five years after the American automobile industry nearly capsized, the business is staying afloat because of the North American market, Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The European Union, collectively a market about the size of ours, is the economic albatross of General Motors, Ford Motor, and Volkswagen Group. Toyota Motor Corporation is in a three-way race with GM and VW for the honor of World's Largest Automaker, but gets no help from China, which is doing its best to purge Japanese brands from the market as penance for the ancient dispute over Diaoyu/Senkaku Island.
Now that the politics of the 2009 GM and Chrysler bankruptcies are behind us, Sergio Marchionne's Chrysler should be the owner of Sergio Marchionne's Fiat, rather than the other way around.
The U.S. market has purged Suzuki while the industry purges executives. Since Motor Trend's last Power List, GM chairman and CEO Dan Akerson axed maverick marketing wiz Joel Ewanick, promising design star Dave Lyon, and ex-Chevrolet Volt product chief Tony Posawatz. Bob Lutz has left the building (again). Ford's Lewis Booth and Derrick Kuzak retired early last year. Two more former Power Listers, the unassuming Chrysler executive Dan Knott and the bigger-than-life racer/tuner Carroll Shelby, died last year.
Survivors have their heads down, trying to get competitive cars and trucks to market for a reasonable profit. There's less movement this year on the Power List, the tally of the men and women who move and shake the business world's most fascinating industry.
