Once Upon a Car by Bill Vlasic

Once Upon a Car by Bill Vlasic

Once Upon a Car is the brilliantly reported story of Detroit's fight for survival, chronicling how the country's Big Three auto companies--General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler--teetered on the brink of collapse during the 2008 financial crisis. Bill Vlasic takes readers behind closed doors and into the executive offices, assembly plants, and union halls to introduce a cast of memorable characters, many of whom speak out for the first time, including the executives who struggled to save their companies but in the end had to seek a controversial, last-gasp rescue from the American government. The story moves from the gleaming corporate skyscrapers and massive auto plants to the U.S. Congress and into the Oval Office, where President Obama and his aides wrestled with how to keep General Motors and Chrysler from going out of business. Vlasic shows why the bailout worked, and how Detroit can succeed under new leadership and build automobiles equal to any in the world.

An award-winning business reporter with more than fifteen years of experience specializing in the automotive industry, Bill Vlasic is currently the Detroit bureau chief for the New York Times. The coauthor of Taken for a Ride, Vlasic is a winner of the Gerald Loeb Award for excellence in financial journalism and has been recognized for his reporting and investigative journalism by the Associated Press and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.