General Motors in the 1980s was not highly regarded. There was the debacle with the Oldsmobile diesels, which broke all the time and kept diesels from America for another 20 years. The new W-body vehicles on which GM lost $2,000 on each car built. And GM was trying to save money wherever it possibly could, since Roger Smith's goal was to get GM's stock price up. Michael Moore had made Roger and Me which didn't make the company look good one bit.