????維拉斯克在書中引述了兩人的對話：

????魯茨：“我們要做的是在每輛汽車上多投資一千美元，提升汽車的核心品質，增加它的價值。這樣我們就能賣出更好的價錢。”

????瓦格納：“我明白。可問題在于，就算汽車質量提高了，也不能馬上賣出好價錢，我們怎么才能熬過中間的這段苦日子？”

????魯茨：“如果我們繼續大打促銷戰，最終就無利可圖了。一旦利潤為零，就算翻再多倍也還是零。”

????瓦格納：“別跟我扯財務——我比你更擅長。這個系統讓我們無法脫身。我們現在唯一能做的，就是開足馬力往前沖。”

????（維拉斯克在批注中解釋道：“所有對話都根據至少一位參與者的回憶重新進行了整理；并向其他相關人士驗證了對話的準確性。”）

????而福特公司的兩位主要人物得到的待遇要溫和許多，這也恰恰適合他們的能力。通過大舉借貸，他們讓福特躲過了破產厄運。平易近人的比爾?福特看上去并不出眾，卻頗受人愛戴（他只是偶然得到掌管這家汽車公司的機會），可由湯姆?漢克斯飾演，而湯姆?克魯斯這位總是面帶笑容、本領高超，讓超人也黯然失色的銀幕硬漢則飾演艾倫?穆拉利。

????福特在安阿伯市福特公司辦公室里秘密會見了穆拉利，希望將這位波音公司（Boeing）高管招入麾下。正是這次密會為兩人的友情奠定了基礎。

????福特：“我非常擔心公司未來的命運。如果能有一位有過類似經歷的人來領導公司，情況也許會好得多。”

????穆拉利：“你知道，我是一名工程師。我負責解決問題，進行創造。如果你想扭轉目前的局勢，得有個計劃。”

????（福特提出研發燃油經濟型混合動力汽車，并且要足夠環保）。

????穆拉利：“真是英雄所見略同！我一定要把它變為現實。”

????（僅僅經過幾周的猶豫，穆拉利就下定了決心。最后，他撥通了福特的電話）：

????穆拉利：“你的條件讓我無法抗拒。我希望能與你一起拯救這家偉大的公司。”

????福特：“太好了！你什么時候過來？”

????這部戲中有一位主要配角——全美汽車工人聯合會（United Auto Workers）主席羅恩?蓋特芬格爾。每次汽車公司提出方案，降低汽車業沉重的用人成本時，他都會從中作梗。該角色可由威廉?達福飾演。

????但在一場關于薪酬福利讓步的談判中，蓋特芬格爾與菲亞特（Fiat）公司CEO塞爾吉奧?馬爾基翁棋逢對手，針鋒相對。蓋特芬格爾最常用的策略是，突然站起身，然后一言不發地離開會議現場。

????馬爾基翁（阿爾?帕西諾飾演）：“你以為我他媽是傻子嗎？我們得拿出一個更有競爭力的工資標準和工資結構來！”

????蓋特芬格爾：“德國人來的時候，我相信了他們。之后，我別無選擇，只能支持瑟伯勒斯。你是第三個聲稱自己要拯救這家公司的人。我憑什么要相信你？”

????馬爾基翁：“我可不像瑟伯勒斯的那些廢物，我懂怎么運營一家汽車公司。別的方面我可能不在行，但是經營汽車公司，我可是行家。”

????《汽車往事》中還有許多重要的配角，例如：福特公司的馬克?菲爾茲（喬治?克魯尼飾演），帥氣的外表并未妨礙他在職場上取得令人注目的成就；史蒂夫?葛斯基（達斯汀?霍夫曼），自稱“快言快語的紐約猶太人”，他是通用汽車公司敢說真話的人；另外一位打醬油的配角九十多歲的投資家柯克?科克萊恩則由布拉德?皮特飾演【因為皮特曾在電影《返老還童》（The Curious Case of Benjamin Button）中有過飾演老年人的經歷。】

????演員的選派應盡快進行，因為故事中的角色隨時可能發生變化。美國汽車業風云變幻，龍頭老大的位置大家輪流坐莊。誰知道會發生些什么？如果喬治?C?斯科特依然在世，由他來飾演通用公司CEO丹?阿克森，或許會為我們帶來一場精彩的好戲。

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

????Here's an exchange that Vlasic quotes:

????Lutz: "What we've got to do is put another thousand dollars worth of goodness into the car to give it more value. You can command better prices then."

????Wagoner: "I understand. The problem is, how are we going to live through that time when the vehicles are better, but we are not commanding better prices?"

????Lutz: "If we keep this incentive war going, we're going to give whole margin away. Once your margin is zero, you can multiply it all you want, and it is still zero."

????Wagoner: "Don't get all finance-y on me -- that's my specialty, not yours. We're trapped in this system. The only thing we can do is to move full-steam ahead."

????(In an author's note, Vlasic explains: "Conversations were reconstructed based on the recollections of at least one participant; others involved were asked about their accuracy.")

????Over at Ford, the principals get much gentler treatment, as befits their ability to steer past bankruptcy by taking out a monster loan. Picture Tom Hanks as Bill Ford, the popular, easy-going everyman (who incidentally controls an auto company), and Tom Cruise as Alan Mulally, the ever-smiling, high-energy action hero who makes the superhuman look ordinary.

????The seeds for the Ford-Mulally bromance are planted at a secret meeting in Ann Arbor at Ford's house where Ford tries to recruit the Boeing executive to the automaker:

????Ford: "I'm pretty fearful of what I sense is coming at us, and it would be so much better if I had an executive who had been through what we're about to go through."

????Mulally: "Remember, I'm an engineer. I solve problems, and I create things. If you're going to turn this around, you need a plan."

????(Ford brings up fuel economy, hybrid cars, and protecting the environment).

????Mulally: "God, I have your vision too! I have to make that happen."

????(But Mulally's decision to "make that happen" comes only after several weeks of dithering. Finally, he places a call to Ford):

????Mulally: "This is just so compelling. I want to turn around this great company with you."

????Ford: "Oh my god. How soon can you get here?

????A key supporting role in this melodrama belongs to the United Auto Workers' president Ron Gettelfinger, who throws a wrench in the works every time a solution appears to ease the industry's crushing labor costs. Paging Willem Dafoe.

????But Gettelfinger meets his match when he battles Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne over concessions on wages and benefits. Gettelfinger's favorite tactic is to get up and leave the meeting without saying a word.

????Marchionne (played by Al Pacino): "Do you think I'm fucking stupid? We need to come up with a competitive wage rate and structure here!"

????Gettelfinger: "I believed the Germans when they came in. Then I had no choice but to support Cerberus. You are the third guy saying you are going to save it. Why should I believe you?

????Marchionne: "I know how to run a car company, not like that nonsense at Cerberus. I may be lousy at a lot of other things. But I know how to run a car company."

????Once upon a Car contains plenty of meaty supporting roles as well: George Clooney as Ford's Mark Fields, whose good looks don't prevent him from building an impressive career; Dustin Hoffman as Steve Girsky, the self-described "fast-talking New York Jew" who became GM's truth-teller; and a walk-on role for Brad Pitt as nonagenarian investor Kirk Kerkorian (that's Pitt as an old man in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.)

????Casting should start as soon as possible because roles could change. Leadership of the domestic industry seems to rotate every few years, and another company may find itself on top. Who knows? If only George C. Scott was still with us to take on the role of GM CEO Dan Akerson.