General Motors Case Study

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Entering the 1950s, no corporation even came close to General Motors in its size, or it's profits. GM was twice as big as the second biggest company in the world, Standard Oil of New Jersey (father of today's ExxonMobil), and had a vast diversity of businesses ranging from home appliances to providing insurance and building Buicks, Cadillacs, Chevys, GMCs, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs and trains. It was so big that it made more than half the cars sold in the United States and the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division was threatening to break it up(to prevent Monopolies, Like how Standard oil was broken up). In the 21st century, it's almost hard to imagine how powerful GM was in the 50s and 60s.Sports cars from Europe were getting popular, because of servicemen coming back from WWII, and wanted sports cars, but American Automakers didn't make sports cars, so they would either buy foreign, or go without. A man named McLean would still try to make a low priced sports car. But it didn't work. The idea of a car coming from GM that could compete with Jaguar, MG or Triumph was pretty much considered stupid and insane. C1:Generation: Bad but valuable. Just 300 Corvettes were made in 1953. Each of these first-year Corvettes was a white roadster with red interior. The Corvette was made of fiberglass for light weight, but the first cars were made with a really weak, (and kind of pathetic for a “sports car”) 150 horsepower 6-cylinder engine and an automatic transmission. The result was more of a look at me, I’m rich car than a race car. The first generation of the Corvette was introduced late in 1953. It was originally designed as a show car for GM's traveling car show, Motorama, the Corvette was a Show Car for the 1953 Motorama display at...

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...he American Le Mans Series, and kicking some European butt. C6: POWER!!!!. the C6 generation was pretty much a technologically advanced supercar designed to compete at the highest levels of sports car performance. As the first decade of the 21st century progressed, Chevrolet joined every other automaker in squeezing race track horsepower out of street-legal engines. The ZR1 Corvettes made during this generation were capable of speeds over 200 MPH, and cost over $100,000, so they were a bit of a change from the “cheap” car Corvettes were previously known for being. C7: The Return of the Stingray. Modern Corvettes are now achieving Ferrari racing status and power.They are about $65,000 and are usually look pretty nice. A really nice touch is that for an extra $800 you can drive your Corvette out of the Corvette museum with the staff clapping while you drive out.

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