QOTD: Do You Care About GM's Move?

by Tim Healey

Published: April 18th, 2024

Normally, when a large, well-known company moves its headquarters, it's pretty big news.

That's because in many cases, the company is moving across the country, or perhaps from the city to the suburbs.

However, General Motors announced a move earlier this week and it seems like it's been met with a shrug.

That's because in this case, GM is moving just a few blocks.

It's not like Boeing bouncing from Seattle to Chicago to Virginia, or even United Airlines decamping Chicago for its suburbs (or McDonald's, which moved from Chicago's suburbs to the city proper). The General is moving just a mile.

But it does mean that GM will be leaving one of the most recognizable buildings on the Detroit skyline. Not only does the Renaissance Center, uh, center the skyline when viewed from certain angles, but it's interesting inside, as well.

And for visitors, infuriating -- it's an easy building to get lost in. Also, the Marriott's heating system seemed to struggle with Michigan winters during some of my auto-show visits. So maybe the new office will be friendlier to outsiders, let alone GM corporate employees.

I guess I will miss the RenCen in some ways, but I can't bring myself to care too much otherwise. If GM left Detroit for NYC, or even for Ann Arbor, I might struggle to get my head around it. But regardless of what I think of the RenCen complex, I can't get too upset about GM moving just a 15-minute walk away.

The question I ask of you, especially those of you who live in the Detroit metro and/or have connections to GM, does this matter to you? Or is it such a small move that it doesn't really matter?

Sound off below.

[Image: GM]

Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.

#GM #GeneralMotors #RenCen #QOTD #QuestionOfTheDay

Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

Comments

Join the conversation

5 of 80 comments

Groza George on Apr 19, 2024

I don’t care about GM’s anything. They have not had anything of interest or of reasonable quality in a generation and now solely stay on business to provide UAW retirement while they slowly move production to Mexico.

Like Reply
- See 2 previous
- Jeff on Apr 19, 2024
  
  Years ago I worked with a career gm employee who use to refer to gm as "Generous Motors".
  
  1
- Namesakeone on Apr 20, 2024
  
  Jeff, I remember the "Generous Motors" reference as well. Those days are, as you know, long gone; I would believe that "the new GM" (or is it gm?) is generous to its senior executives and attorneys only.
  
  1
- RHD on Apr 21, 2024
  
  In my experience, GM stands for "Generally Mediocre". They have brought about their steadily shrinking market share from decades of below average quality. Not everything that GM built was bad, of course, but enough were to turn a very significant number of potential buyers to other automakers.
  
  Like
Socrates77 on Apr 20, 2024

They're pinching pennies for the investors like always, greed has turned GM into a joke of an old corporate American greed.

1 Reply

Recent Comments

Ptcruiser Put a PTEazer nose on it and let Chrysler sell some. Make it a 2 seater with no back seats. Have two or three battery pack versions. Affordable 140 mile pack. 180 mile pack. 240 mile pack. All versions to offer plug in behind seats, pack plug ins under flat storage floor, for EGO batteries for extended range. Room for 4 or 5 across and 2 or 3 rows back. Apartment life could have two home chargers to charge up multiple EGO batteries. EGO batteries would recharge main packs when main packs are below EGO battery level. One way power draw. Since Apartment life is without charging abilities.
Varezhka Not the biggest surprise, considering that the new 500 is a platform sibling of a similarly sized (but dead) Opel Adam. And Italy, its biggest market, is not the best market for BEVs. Curious if it will be the same 1.2L I3 mild hybrid as the bigger 600.
El scotto Does it have buttons for HVAC and infotainment controls? Steering wheel controls count.
SCE to AUX Fiat USA is a joke, and may not exist in 2026. They could put a Hemi in a 500 and nobody would buy it.
SCE to AUX "CEO Atsushi Osaki said Subaru remains committed to its horizontally opposed engine because it's a brand-building icon....Mazda CEO Masahiro Moro said his company will develop future versions of its trademark rotary engine to run on carbon neutral fuels and combine with electrified hybrid setups."These statements say a lot about how lost these companies are.[list][*]Subaru sticks with the boxer because it's an 'icon', not because of any technical merits?! Sad - the boxer is a loud, inefficient engine - so they're right. Does anyone actually buy a Subaru for the boxer engine?[/*][*]Mazda predictably killed the rotary range extender on the extinct MX-30 because it couldn't pass emissions. That's the story of its life. It's a terrible engine, but Mazda slavishly wastes money on it every year.[/*][/list]