That didn’t stop Reuss from advancing. The protege of longtime GM President Jim McDonald was named general manager of Buick and a GM vice president in late 1980.
It was at Buick where Reuss perhaps enjoyed his glory days.
He was named chief engineer of Buick in 1975 following one of the worst sales years in history. In 1983, the division set an all-time sales record. After his team traveled the world to benchmark the best auto plants, Reuss convinced GM’s top brass to invest some $300 million to modernize the automaker’s aging Flint, Mich., operations in the early 1980s to create what became Buick City — modeled after Toyota City in Japan.
“His small, tense body was always on the alert,” automotive analyst Maryann Keller wrote in her 1989 book, Rude Awakening: The Rise, Fall, and Struggle for Recovery of General Motors. “He rarely unbuttoned his three-piece suit jacket, and his smooth, hard voice carried the tone of an unrelenting salesman.”
In 1987, Reuss was named executive vice president in charge of GM’s vast North American operations. He was in position to move even further up the ladder as the nine-and-a-half-year tenure of CEO Roger Smith neared an end.
Reuss and Stempel advanced at GM in near lockstep. In 1986, for example, both men were named the same day to the company’s powerful executive committee and board.
Under Smith, GM had made major investments in technology and advanced manufacturing that backfired, including factory robots that often didn’t work right. Smith also launched the Saturn brand, another attempt to build a competitive small car even as the company’s market share fell.
Still, Ford Motor Co., GM’s smaller rival, posted higher profits than GM in 1986 and 1987.
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