The Big 3 - Bail out or Bust

[Buster]

Talk about getting the facts straight..I thought that number seemed rather high

Chrysler moves to eliminate 789 of 3,200 dealers

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_chrysler_dealers

 

[Buster]

Besides all the Dealers and their employees taking it in the shorts..the collateral damage to the local economies are going to be devastated too..

Very Sad!

 

[mick504]

Yes, I really think it will be bad...but should also lower oil prices due to fewer cars being sold...very sad indeed. It's going to be bloody if this happens unless they can reorganize...but with the Union obligations for some companies, I don't know how they will survive unless Uncle Obama bails them out w/our money.

 

[Buster]

GM dealers expect word on plans to cut 1,100 shops..

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090515/ap_on_bi_ge/us_auto_dealers

 

[alevin]

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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[coolhand]

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

 

[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

 

[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:

 

[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:

--------------------------------
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=

--------------

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...)

 

[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...)

 

[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

 

[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]

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.

 

[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]

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

 

[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 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..