The Tragic Death of Oldsmobile

On April 29th, 2004, factory workers in Lansing, Michigan lined up beside a cherry-red sedan and signed their names on it, one by one, the way mourners sign a funeral book. It was the last Oldsmobile ever built. But this was not just another nameplate. It was the oldest car company in America, older than Ford, older than General Motors itself, and it built the first car America ever mass-produced, a decade before the Model T. So how does a company that taught the world to build cars end up with its workers signing its coffin?