Mike Rutherford's column

I should have known better than to play the smart alec with G Richard Wagoner Jr

He's better known as Rick Wagoner, chairman and chief executive officer of General Motors. A guy doesn't get to keep the top job at the largest manufacturing organisation and biggest motor company on the planet without dealing with little guys who cross his path. You may recall that prior to a scheduled dinner date I had with Wagoner in Geneva at the start of March, I boasted in this column that I was going to ask the big man (he's nearly seven feet tall) if he was "out of his mind" for even considering buying the troubled Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge brands, which have been put up for sale by their current parent Mercedes.

	Under GM control, the 300C could be rebadged, Chrysler and Dodge axed and the legendary Jeep brand rebuilt

Over dinner, he was the perfect host. He engaged in polite small talk, explained how GM cars are built to an increasingly high world standard regardless of where they are constructed, and repeatedly assured me that GM and Vauxhall are over their darkest days. He also revealed that about 60 people had asked him that day whether he was going to buy the three marques, and he gave them all the same reply: no comment.

Wagoner and I had a formal interview at 10.30 the following morning. And unbeknown to me, as he'd been commuting in his private jet between Detroit and Geneva, he had thumbed through some magazines - including the issue of Auto Express that included the column containing the above question. "If I understand you correctly, Mike," he said, looking me in the eye, "you're wondering whether I'm mad. And my response to you is this: I don't think so. But I have to tell you that everything we've gone through in the last year and a half would be enough to drive many people out of their minds."

Point taken. Yet I pressed on and suggested a solution might be for Chrysler to shut up shop and exist as a non-producing, rather meaningless umbrella company, with Dodge and/or Jeep actively continuing beneath the Chrysler banner, if only for nostalgia's sake. "Can't rule that out," he replied. "But it's not clear to me why you'd keep a Dodge brand, and not a Chrysler brand?"

Because Chrysler, I told him, is a lost marque, and buyers around the world will not miss it. The 300C executive car is the exception to the rule... so just bless it with another badge. "All that could happen," admitted Wagoner. "But my perception is that Chrysler is neither the highest nor least-valued brand - and that's probably true of Dodge as well. Yet Jeep is well known and enjoys a specific position in the market. And it helps any brand to be specific."

Couldn't agree more. That's why Rick Wagoner would be mad to say anything other than "no" to surplus-to-requirements Chrysler and Dodge, their tired factories, demoralised and often over-stocked dealers and expensive workers. But on the understanding GM could pick up the exclusive rights to the overall architecture of the chunky 300C, he'd be wise to grab Jeep, halt production of most cars in the current line-up, strangle the embarrassing Compass at birth and start a near-total rebuild of the legendary brand.

It would be a straightforward operation, I told him, with the trusty Wrangler and the car-like Jeep 300 at entry level, then new-from-the-wheels-up versions of the abysmal Cherokee, tired Grand Cherokee and ugly Commander coming later on. Job done.

OK, so Wagoner didn't confirm that this was, more or less, his master plan. But then again, he didn't deny it.