In May 1992 José Ignacio López took over purchasing at General Motors. He reopened long-standing supplier contracts and demanded sharp price concessions. Automotive News later wrote that he “turned the supply industry topsy-turvy by shredding contracts, demanding price cut after price cut.”
In 1993 López left GM for Volkswagen. The Christian Science Monitor reported that some of GM’s new low-cost suppliers could not deliver the quality or volume they had promised.