GM’s Bankruptcy & Corvette

It has been ten years since The Great Recession that almost ended GM and the Corvette. But it turns out when GM filed for bankruptcy, it saved the company and the Corvette.

In early 2008, GM was buckling down, looking at ways to save money. One of the decisions was to cancel the development of a new C7-generation Corvette, despite the best efforts of then-GM product-chief Bob Lutz. These cost cutting efforts did not work and in 2009 GM declared bankruptcy.

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In 2009 Tadge Juechter, chief engineer of the Corvette, prepared to do his best to save the Corvette, and the Bowling Green, Kentucky plant. To do this, he had to convince bankruptcy courts and U.S. Treasury Department that the Corvette was worth saving. To his, and the Corvette team, it turned out that the government team knew something about the Corvette and asked about the plans for the new C7. The government team knew how to count beans and saw that the Corvette made money for GM. But it was more than just the money, it was also that the Corvette was an extremely valuable brand that is known globally.

In the end, the government team decided that the C7 had to be added to the to-do list coming out of bankruptcy. So, we owe the government for giving us the best Corvette to date.