The Big 3 - Bail out or Bust

[James48843]

Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Propel General Motors April U.S. Sales Increase of 27 Percent​

Chevrolet Cruze posts best month since launch with 25,160 total sales

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GMC Terrain, Chevrolet Equinox set April sales records
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Retail sales rose 25 percent for April; up 35 percent year to date


Incentives decline more than 10 percent while retail sales rise 4 percent from March​

DETROIT – General Motors dealers in the United States reported 232,538 total sales in April, a

27-percent increase versus April a year ago. Solid gains by GM’s lineup of fuel-efficient

passenger cars and crossovers powered the gains, led by the best sales month for the
Chevrolet Cruze and record sales for the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain compact
crossovers.​

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Retail sales, those to individual customers, rose 25 percent versus last April with cars and

crossovers up 49 percent and 28 percent, respectively. Retail sales for the Cruze were 180
percent higher than the Chevrolet Cobalt it replaced. The Equinox and Terrain also posted retail​

sales records, up 53 and 61 percent respectively.​

More:
http://media.gm.com/content/dam/Media/gmcom/investor/2011/9352001AprSales.pdf​

That's good news. ​

The economy and car sales continue to rebound, despite all the gloom and doom. ​

I'll take it. ​

 

[James48843]

GM to pay more than $400 million in worker bonuses​

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110214/ap_on_re_us/us_general_motors_bonuses

Analysts are now saying they expect GM to earn $4 per share by December 2011- that's the consensus estimate.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ae?s=GM+Analyst+Estimates


In order to fully pay back all debts to taxpayers, the price of a share will have to reach about $53 a share for the break even point. It's currently at $36 a share.

So, will the price go to $53 a share by this time next year? If so, should the government sell shares then, or hang on a while longer and make a profit on the deal?

I think over the long run, the taxpayer will be fine, getting more than they pitched in back from GM's recovery.

GM still owes taxpayers $2.1 billion dollars. I think within a year or so, that will get paid off. Then they just have to do well enough to raise share prices up to the $53 mark, and then start peeling off those shares, for taxpayers to be in the black.

 

[Buster]

GM to pay more than $400 million in worker bonuses​

DETROIT – Less than two years after entering bankruptcy, General Motors will extend millions of dollars in bonuses to most of its 48,000 hourly workers as a reward for the company's rapid turnaround after it was rescued by the government.
The payments, disclosed Monday in company documents, are similar to bonuses announced last week for white-collar employees. The bonuses to 76,000 American workers will probably total more than $400 million — an amount that suggests executives have increasing confidence in the automaker's comeback.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110214/ap_on_re_us/us_general_motors_bonuses

 

[Buster]

As of today, GM has repaid in full and interest," said GM CEO Ed Whitacre to a crowd assembled on floor of a GM plant in Kansas City, Kan.
To smiles and applause from workers, Whitacre also announced GM's plan to invest $257 million in that plantand another in Detroit to ramp up production of the Chevy Malibu.
Cheering on the floor of a GM factory would have been unthinkable a year ago, when the company was on a downward spiral towards its bankruptcy in June 2009.
When it emerged from restructuring last year, GM had converted most of the $52 billion in federal bailout funds into company stock, leaving a $6.7 billion outstanding loan from the U.S. Treasury. The Canadian government lent the company an additional $1.4 billion.

Benefits of Bankruptcy

With ownership of 61 percent of GM's shares, American taxpayers still have billions invested in the auto maker, but analysts say there's reason to believe that investment could now pay off

Do we still want to have 61% of GM to be owned by tax payers?...will we receive a dividend check when the stocks profit?


What does this all mean?

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/general-motors-repays-81-billion-government-loans/story?id=10437944

 

[James48843]

Ford offers retirement, buyouts to factory workers

Ford offers retirement, buyout packages to all 41,000 factory workers to thin ranks


Monday December 21, 2009, 3:08 pm

DETROIT (AP) -- Ford Motor Co. says it is offering buyout and early retirement incentives to all of its 41,000 U.S. hourly workers to further reduce its factory work force.

Company spokesman Mark Truby would says Ford still has too many factory workers for its current sales levels.

He would not say how many workers the company wants to leave but said Ford is working that out with the United Auto Workers union. Ford currently has about 600 blue-collar workers laid off but available for recall.

The buyout offer includes $50,000 cash plus a $25,000 car voucher or $20,000 more in cash. The retirement package includes $40,000 cash for skilled trades and $20,000 for production workers.

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(You gotta wonder- if ALL of them took it, who would be left to build cars? Perhaps they plan to outsource that to China, don't cha think? Ford had 300,000 employees as recently as 2005, and is now down to just 41,000 hourly workers still making cars and trucks. How many will remain when the cutting is done? )

 

[Buster]

The Big Block L18 was the 496 cubic inch V-8, used mostly in Chevy 2500 and 3500 big trucks, Caddy Escalade, and other very large vehicles. Good bye, 496!

And Good bye to 298 more tax paying jobs..

 

[James48843]

The Big Block L18 was the 496 cubic inch V-8, used mostly in Chevy 2500 and 3500 big trucks, Caddy Escalade, and other very large vehicles. Good bye, 496!

http://archives.media.gm.com/us/powertrain/en/product_services/2006/Spec%20Sheets/Big%20Block%20V8/2006%20Big%20Block.pdf

 

[Buster]

The V-8 era comes to an end at GM's Tonawanda plant



By Matt Glynn
News Business Reporter
December 18, 2009, 2:01 PM

The era of the "big block" V-8 engine came to an end at the General Motors' Town of Tonawanda plant today.
The plant marked the end of production of the L-18 V-8 engine, a move that is causing the layoff of 150 hourly workers at the plant.
The L-18 was the latest in a series of "big block" V-8 engines that have been made at the plant since 1958. GM announced in June that production of the engine would cease by year's end. The engines were used in GM vehicles as well as commercial applications and powerboats.

Employees, managers and retirees who gathered for a ceremony called the occasion as bittersweet, with the end for a staple of the River Road site's production. The final engine, covered with employees' signatures, is destined for the GM Heritage Center in Sterling Heights, Mich.

The 150 layoffs bring the total number of workers on layoff at the plant to 298, said Robert Coleman, shop chairman of United Auto Workers Local 774.

Coleman and Steve Finch, the plant manager, said they are striving to secure a new engine line that would enable workers to return from layoff. "We're all working very, very hard to make this the place to put GM's next engine," Finch said. While the L-18 accounted for only about 3 percent of the Tonawanda plant's annual output, it had a loyal following among customers that enabled it to keep being produced when its future was in question over the years.

mglynn@buffnews.com

 

[coolhand]

Speaking of the big 3...check out this sobering report on Detroit.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6926247.ece

 

[Buster]

I just assumed you wanted to know where it came from originally.
The sting in any rebuke is the truth

Do yourself and everyone on this MB a favor and don't assume anything.

 

[phil]

I just assumed you wanted to know where it came from originally.
The sting in any rebuke is the truth

SO what!:suspicious:

 

[Buster]

GM Announces It Will Pay Back Gov’t Loan


Let's put it into proper context:

"GM’s announcement today was just about No. 2, that $6.71 billion loan—it will begin repaying next month, it said. But the money to repay the loan will come from a portion of the government money it has set aside. In other words, GM has not actually drawn down every dollar of the $50 billion. It has about $13.4 billion [1] sitting in an escrow account, and it’s tagged $8.1 billion [2] of that to repay loans it owes both the U.S. and Canadian governments. (Incidentally, GM also got a $1.3 billion loan from Germany in support of its European unit.)"

More: http://www.propublica.org/ion/bailout/item/gm-announces-it-will-pay-back-govt-loan-with-govt-money-1116

 

[grandma]

Perhaps we need to slap a tariff on those 4.5 MILLION containers of goods you have been sending over here--mostly from companies working on your communist five-year plan......

(sorry, but China is a sensitive topic in a state that used to be a major manufacturing center, but now has 17% unemployment...)

And not only that - what they do send us is poisoned - pet food, milk, - even sheet-rock that the importers don't seem to be able to take responsibility for; and the families are virtually homeless.
(that newspaper article went out in the recycling pick-up today - sorry I can't quote any of the details...)

 

[James48843]

Here's one for you.

COMMUNIST CHINA now claims American built cars are subsidized by the U.S. government with unfair government assistance, and wants to file a trade claim against GM, Ford and Chrysler:

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China to pursue trade case against US automakers

China to launch investigation that could result in higher tariffs on US autos

• By Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writer
• On 9:15 pm EDT, Wednesday October 28, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) -- China has told the U.S. that it will take steps that could lead to higher tariffs on imports of autos made by GM, Chrysler and Ford.

Steve Collins, president of industry trade group the American Automotive Policy Council, said Wednesday that U.S. officials have told the three Detroit automakers that China is expected to begin an investigation under anti-dumping laws into their business practices as soon as next week.

If the investigation concludes that the companies receive government subsidies, or sell products in China at below-market prices, China could slap tariffs on U.S. auto imports.

The move is the latest trade dispute between the two countries, which are already fighting over steel pipes, chicken products, and pirated movies and music. The trade spats worsened after the Obama administration last month announced up to 35 percent duties on Chinese-made tires, to be imposed for the next three years.

The U.S. auto companies export only about 9,000 cars to China annually, Collins said. GM manufactures and sells more than a million cars a year in China, though those sales wouldn't be affected. Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Nissan also export cars to China from plants in the United States, but those won't be included in the investigation, Collins said.

More: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/China...tml?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=

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Yeh. Right.

Ok- go ahead and slap an import duty on those 9,000 American made cars per year you are importing from us. We won't even notice. Perhaps we need to slap a tariff on those 4.5 MILLION containers of goods you have been sending over here--mostly from companies working on your communist five-year plan......

(sorry, but China is a sensitive topic in a state that used to be a major manufacturing center, but now has 17% unemployment...)

 

[Buster]

From a factory rat's disloyal daughter is actually a Salon.com article.

http://open.salon.com/blog/laurel_n...l_to_gm_from_a_factory_rats_disloyal_daughter

SO what!:suspicious:

 

[phil]

From a factory rat's disloyal daughter is actually a Salon.com article.

http://open.salon.com/blog/laurel_n...l_to_gm_from_a_factory_rats_disloyal_daughter

 

[coolhand]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125668489932511683.html

 

[James48843]

Thanks for the post, Buster. I can relate- everyone around here is in the same boat- loosing dental and vision insurance as of July 1st, since that was one of the things lost in the GM Bankruptcy. My wife's mom is now without vision and dental. She had gotten a small pension as the spouse of a GM worker who died on the job. Now she just gets a small monthy check in her senior years- that and Social Security is her only income left.

We buy only GM cars. Always have. Always will.

 

[Buster]

From an Email I got..


Farewell to GM, from a factory rat’s disloyal daughter


It’s been nearly a quarter of a century since my dad punched a clock for the last time, but he’s still got his tools, the ones he used for 37 years in the die room at a Chevy spring and bumper plan t, though they don’t get much exercise anymore. My parents moved into senior housing a couple years back, and if something breaks, Dad just calls maintenance. The only thing he fixes now is supper, a job he’s taken over from my mom, who suffers from dementia. Dad is 83 and, like his former employer, he’s seen better days.

Back when I was a kid growing up on the northwest side of Detroit, everybody we knew was connected in some way to the Big Three. The streets in our neighborhood were named after Ivy League colleges, but it was a solidly blue collar area; block after block of modest little houses plunked down like tokens on a life-size Monopoly board, most of them crammed to the rafters with kids. Every morning at six thirty, with the precision of a choreographed dance, back doors would open and men would emerge and, after hasty goodbye kisses from women in curlers, they would vanish into the steel jaws of the great automotive giants, only to be belched out again eight hours later, twelve during model changeover time.

“Generous Motors” (with the help of the U.A.W.) put the food on our table and the roof over our head and the money in my parents’ bank account, money that financed much of my education, supplemented by what I earned from my own well-paying summer jobs at my dad’s plant, one of the perks that went along with being in a GM family. My dad, the son of an itinerant laborer from Arkansas, was lucky to graduate from high school. I, on the other hand, like most of the kids I grew up with, viewed college as a birthright. I even tacked on three years of law school. Such a huge change in just a single generation, made possible by virtue of a strong union and a robust industry.

And how did I return the favor? How did I express thanks for my new found upward mobility? I packed my bags, moved to California and, like millions of my fellow baby boomers, promptly went out and bought a Japanese import, which I subsequently traded in for a Volvo.

On News Hour late last week, I listened to an interview with Micheline Maynard, New York Times senior business writer and author of two books about the decline of the American car industry. According to Maynard, the demise of General Motors comes largely as a result of changing brand loyalties among baby boomers. By 1990, half of all Americans under age 45 did not own American cars. Just as we rebelled against our parents’ taste in music and clothing and hair styles, so we came to reject their choices in transportation as well.

Okay, maybe we had good reason. American cars didn’t last as long, or so the thinking went. They weren’t as fuel efficient. But how hard did we try, really? How much comparison shopping did we actually do? The truth is, in my case, and in the case of many of my peers as well, it never occurred to us to buy an American-made car. And so we went blithely on o ur way, tooling around in our imports, listening to Bruce Springsteen sing about decaying cities and forgotten workers, and we never even made the connection.

All I ask is that we take a second look. Start by reading this article, Misconceptions about the Quality of American Cars Continue. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=114x16660My husband and I have decided to only buy American from here on, figuring better late than never. He likes his new GM car, a Yukon hybrid. It’s good for a big guy like him, and for hauling big dogs and navigating country roads, and the mileage isn’t bad for an SUV. When the new Chevy Volt comes out, I’ll trade in my Mini.

Yesterday morning, as I drove home from San Francisco on Highway 101 in a sea of foreign-made cars, listening to the bankruptcy news, I called my dad to see how he was holding up. He sounded tired. Like many in his generation, he put his faith in big institutions, things he thought would last forever. Now he wonders what will happen next. His dental and vision care coverage will end July 1. After that, who knows? (Though in another few months, his own wife may not even recognize him, which puts things in a certain perspective.)

My dad could always fix anything, from a toaster to a ten-ton drill press, and even, on occasion over the years, his daughter’s broken heart. He’s my institution. After we hung up, I thought of a line from Middesex, the brilliant novel by Jeffrey Eugenidies: “Grow up in Detroit, and you see the way of all things. Early on, you are put in close relations with entropy.”

The traffic was sluggish, as it often is at that hour and, while I waited for it to clear, I contemplated the rear end of a shiny black BMW 750i idling directly in front of me. It had vanity plates, surrounded by a frame that said “life is a Cabernet.”

Yeah, right, I said to myself. Tell that to the folks back in Michigan.

 

[Buster]

I've lived all over the country in the past 50-odd years, and my family is well-scattered as well, so I know a LOT of the towns where dealerships are closing. When I look at distribution of closings within 50-100 miles of here, I think to myself-go long towing companies-either that or forget about warranty work on new vehicles and go to your local shade tree mechanic and hope he's current on his training for newer vehicles.

Good point..and I'm sure that will be a big issue with people that live miles away from the nearest dealer that can service the warranty work...This handicap alone will make a lot of people switch brands to a maker that is closer to home..So far Ford is looking like a better deal.