"It is a matter of record that poor styling or improperly timed styling has proved financially disastrous to some automobile manufacturers." 

"Maximum width and length have been reached in most of America's automobiles" & "the tendency is to reduce length..." 

Isn't it ironic that the above declarations made by Harley Earl in the magazine article, shown below, over fifty seven years ago point to the heart of the matter why General Motors is about to go into "creative bankruptcy" and/or has lost over 25 big points of market share during the last 26 years (1982 to 2008) of operation. Continue to examine the evidence on how this man was a great champion of diversifying his company away from building large cars, and wished to take GM down a more harmonic direction going into the 1960s...building millions of small cars to meet the demand of the market place. Putting it mildly though, Mr. Earl had a formidable collision with opposites...but that's another story. 

No doubt, the one quote by Harley Earl on "poor styling and improperly timed styling has proved financially disastrous..."is going to help him rise back up in notoriety in 2009 once the giant U.S. auto industry forest fire finally burns out. Because, Earl's story succinctly cuts through all the fog of claims and counter claims and succinctly explains why GM and Detroit's other major automakers have lost so much so fast (and why GM's leaders continue making the same giant mistakes...relating to product designs, over and over again) moving forward: 

Harley Earl's remarkably clear forward vision is confirmed below in this 300-word article published in the March 1950 issue of GM Folks magazine; circulation exceeded 480,000 copies.

The following two 2008 WSJ articles, detailed below, pinpoint the decades-long slide of the U.S. auto scene. GM was precariously hovering at a 24% level heading into its centennial year of 2008, now just 12 months later, the company's market share has plummeted well below this point. America needs a leverage point to kick out the entire management team of the GM CEO, Rick Wagoner and the horrific board of directors who blindly have supported him, that are responsible for this titanic loss of wealth and jobs. These auto leaders never thought reform and re-instituting good design principles (in the decade leading up to this debacle) would save this great American institution from quickly going out of business! In December, 2008 GM is on the brink of going POOF. Again, just look at the facts; GM has already surrendered the No 1. position to Toyota (this story began unfolding in April, 2007) and now America's largest company of the 20th century is now well below a market share level [under 25%] not seen since prior to 1925! 

It's important to note that none of GM's current leading auto execs even worked for this corporation while it sustained an upward move in market share and sustained profitability...those days ended back in the late 1960s. Although the stats and charts presented below are dated, they clearly detail the strong downward trend.

With a history that includes 35 million Buicks built in the 20th century, it will be tragic to see this valuable brand go away. 

Look at the horrendous statistical performance detailed inside Tom Krisher's AP newspaper story written on June 9, 2007. Notice what's fleshed out in this story, "Gradual deceleration of the Big Three --- The combined U.S. market share of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler declined from 73.8 percent in 1980 to 37.6 percent through the first five months of 2007."