TO THE EDITOR:
“When counting auto sales becomes almost as hard as autonomy” (Jamie Butters, autonews.com, April 13) reminded me of the days 25 years ago when all manufacturers reported retail sales every 10 days. Keeping up with the numbers and getting compared to our competition every 10 days drove us nuts at Chrysler because our sales at the time were not keeping up with our competition, so the stories were generally negative.
Ben Bidwell, our executive vice president of sales and marketing, hated the practice and fought about it with the media virtually every 10 days. When he was asked to speak to a media group, he had specially made T-shirts for everyone in the audience. The shirts included his description of the assembled media from the speech: “Nattering nabobs of negativity.”
The shirts didn’t change the discussion or the every-10-days reporting, but they became immediate collectors’ items for the media.
Oh, for the good old days.
BUD LIEBLER, Birmingham, Mich.
The writer is former vice president of marketing and public relations for Chrysler Corp.
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Source: autonews.com