AUTOS: The Battle of Detroit

(9 of 9)

* Among them: Executive Vice President Louis Clifford Goad, 53, who, like Curtice, was general manager of AC Spark Plug; Vice President Roger Kyes, 48, former Deputy Secretary of Defense, who now runs G.M.'s appliance divisions and G.M.C. Truck & Coach; Vice President Ivan Wiles, 56, who followed Curtice as Buick boss and grabbed third place in sales this year; Vice President John F. Gordon, 54, head of the body and assembly group and a fast breaker of bottlenecks; James E. Goodman, 49, vice president in charge of Fisher Body; Vice President Sherrod E. Skinner, 58, head of G.M.'s accessories group, who did a crack job in getting G.M.'s Livonia transmission plant back into production after its fire last year.