Here’s General Motors chief Rick Wagoner (circled above) on his way to Washington – in a car, of all things.
Two weeks ago, GM’s CEO flew from Detroit to Washington on a corporate jet to ask the nation’s lawmakers to rescue his embattled company.
The action provoked a loud Bronx cheer, so yesterday, acting like the ordinary American he is not, the hapless fellow was driven to the nation’s capital.
He rode in a black hybrid Chevrolet Malibu, the kind of high-mileage vehicle that critics say Detroit should be concentrating on.
The trip through four states was 500 miles, and Wagoner – no elitist, he – did some of the driving himself. When not driving, he sat in the passenger’s seat and made calls on his cellphone, wearing sunglasses to protect him from the glare.
Today and tomorrow, Wagoner, along with fellow CEOs Alan Mulally, of Ford, and Robert Nardelli of Chrysler, will appear before the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee to beg for up to $34 billion in financial aid.
Mulally and Nardelli also made the trip in hybrid cars.
Wagoner’s Malibu was accompanied by two other cars – a Buick Lucerne, which runs on fuel that is 85 percent ethanol, and a Chevy Cobalt XFE, the brand’s highest-mileage vehicle.
An Associated Press reporter tailed the caravan from the Ohio-Pennsylvania border to Washington, noting that it routinely exceeded the speed limit by about 5 mph.
The weary travelers arrived in Washington during the evening rush hour and stopped for the night at the JW Marriott Hotel, a few blocks from the White House.
Wagoner didn’t exactly cheap out.
The least expensive room at the hotel costs $399 a night and a suite goes for about $800. In the restaurant, a glass of white wine can cost $15.
Meanwhile, the United Auto Workers agreed to scrap or dra matically downsize a controversial program in which workers are paid even if they’re not on the job.
As part of a package of concessions to Detroit’s struggling Big Three, the union plans to give up “jobs banks,” which guarantee laid-off rank-and-file employees nearly full salary and allow the automakers to delay payments to a cash-strapped health trust fund.
“We are willing to take an extra step here,” UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said after an emergency meeting with execs from GM, Ford and Chrysler.
“Concessions. I used to cringe at that word. But now, why hide from it? That’s what we did.” With Post Wire Services
cbennett@nypost.com