San Antonio auto magnate Red McCombs says it has been “totally unacceptable” having to watch multiple U.S. auto manufacturers fight for their survival. He says these are companies that “have taught other people around the world the industry.”

Whitacre says America needs to reestablish its supremacy in the auto industry. “We ought to work hard at that,” he says. “We shouldn’t lose site of our ability to make the best automobiles. I think we sort of got away from that over the years.

“But I think we are on the way back,” he adds. “Ford is doing well. Chrysler is giving it a shot, and I know GM is on its way back.”

Road to Recovery

When the government first called Whitacre about taking a leadership role with GM, he passed. But the calls kept coming until finally Whitacre accepted the challenge.

It’s because GM was so unstable that he agreed to suspend retirement. “That’s the reason I took the job,” he says. “This country needs this company.”

The road to recovery will not be easy. GM has to reshape some impressions and win back consumers.

“We have to change the perception they have of our products,” Whitacre says.

GM will also have to prove to folks who have grown tired of government bailouts that the rescue of the automaker was a good deal, and that the company can make better decisions moving forward.

Whitacre says one of his top priorities is to try and help restore faith in the company. “I want to pay the taxpayer back,” he says. “That means a lot to me. It’s important that we do that.”

It was Whitacre who, as chairman of what was then Southwestern Bell Corp., moved the company’s headquarters from St. Louis to San Antonio in the early 1990s and built the company through acquisitions into the present-day AT&T. Might San Antonio stand to gain in some way from his new role with GM?

“You never know,” he says.

Right now, he is consumed with turning around a company that was in dire straits.

Curtis Gunn is chairman of Gunn Automotive, which operates several San Antonio dealerships. He was highly critical of some of the decisions that arguably led to GM’s financial failure.

But Gunn told the San Antonio Business Journal last summer that Whitacre would “get things straightened out.”

Says Whitacre now, “We’ve emerged from bankruptcy. I don’t think that will ever be a concern again. I think this company is going to be very successful.”

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W. Scott Bailey writes for the San Antonio Business Journal.