just so you know.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yonivore
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just so you know.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yonivore
Oh, I know.Quote:
Originally Posted by Viva Las Espuelas
GM deals Hummer to Chinese buyer
Bankrupt automaker won't disclose details of deal to sell truck line, but source identifies buyer as Sichuan Tengzhong.
By Aaron Smith, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: June 2, 2009: 12:49 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors Corp. has signed a deal to sell its Hummer truck unit to a Chinese industrial company, a person with knowledge of the deal said Tuesday.
The news comes a day after GM (GMGMQ) filed for bankruptcy in New York. The company did not identify the buyer nor name a price, saying only that the deal would close by the end of September.
But a source identified the buyer as Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd. in China.
As part of the deal, some GM plants will continue to build the Hummer brand for the new owner, at least for awhile. The company said its Shreveport, La., plant will keep building Hummers for the new owner until at least 2010.
"I'm confident that Hummer will thrive globally under its new ownership," said Troy Clarke, president of GM North America, in a press release. "And for GM, this sale continues to accelerate the reinvention of GM into a leaner, more focused, and more cost-competitive automaker."
GM also said that the deal should protect more than 3,000 jobs in manufacturing and engineering, and at dealerships "around the country."
The Hummer and other large vehicles have been a drag on the U.S. auto industry since fuel prices spiked in 2008 and the recession deepened.
GM said it sold 5,013 Hummers worldwide in the first quarter, down 62% from the 13,050 that it sold in the same period the prior year.
Hummer isn't the only brand that GM is leaving behind. The automaker will also shed its Pontiac, Saturn and Saab brands and cut loose more than 2,000 of its 6,000 U.S. dealerships by next year.
That could result in more than 100,000 additional job losses if those dealerships are forced to close.
GM filed for bankruptcy hours after Chrysler's bankruptcy process cleared a hurdle when a federal judge approved its asset sale.
The GM bankruptcy was hailed by President Obama, who wants a complete overhaul of the U.S. auto industry, even though the Chapter 11 filing is expected to result in the loss of 20,000 jobs and the closure of a dozen facilities.
Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) was financial adviser in GM's Hummer deal.
I'll give em 5 bucks for Saturn
I am very happy that they finally got it done. I just hope they didn't do it too late.
As a supplier to these companies, it is in fact, too late.
The other positive: I got a bunch of F for $1.70 or so. :kingQuote:
Originally Posted by DarkReign
Quote:
Originally Posted by Duff McCartney
But you probably believe that the 3% that humans contribute to the already minuscule amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (0.038% :wow) is killing the planet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Duff McCartney
I don't drive a large vehicle, but I don't think anyone has the right to tell another what he/she can drive. If someone wants to drive a 1 mpg land yacht, that is their business.
I agree. The only thing I don't like, is I cannot see the traffic in front of them. Makes me want to buy an SUV also, so I can see through their windows, to traffic ahead.Quote:
Originally Posted by DarrinS
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wild Cobra
I would be nice to have a higher seating position. Not to mention the fact that you are at least on a level playing field, safety wise, if you have a larger vehicle. That damn "smart" car might was well be a coffin on wheels in Texas.
CG: Now Congress wants to get involved in dealership closings. Another reason why this whole government owned auto industry mess is a bad idea.
***********************
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC, both bankrupt, will try on Wednesday to ease congressional concern, and in some cases anger, over their plans to slash more than 2,400 dealerships.
Members of the Senate Commerce Committee plan to grill GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson and Chrysler President Jim Press about the lone aspect of restructuring that has triggered a broad response from Congress since dealers are nationwide.
"Rapid dealer reductions increase unemployment, threaten communities and decrease state and local tax revenue without any material corresponding decrease in an automaker's costs," said John McEleney, chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association who sells vehicles made by GM, Toyota Motor Corp and Hyundai Motor Co in Iowa.
At risk are dealers at both companies that employ more than 100,000 people, industry estimates show.
In his testimony, McEleney will emphasize the need for government to provide new financing to Chrysler so the company can buy back unsold inventory, parts and other assets, and give dealers more time to close their businesses.
Press told Congress last month in a letter the company would help dealerships losing their franchise agreements beyond the deadline set by the company. Chrysler plans to shut 789 showrooms, about 25 percent of its dealers, by June 9.
On Monday, a bankruptcy court judge in New York approved the sale of substantially all of Chrysler's assets to a group led by Italy's Fiat despite objections from dealers and other groups that Chrysler was moving too fast.
The court must still approve Chrysler's dealership strategy.
Chrysler, which is close to stepping out of court protection, would not comment on Press's testimony ahead of the hearing.
Henderson, who steered GM into bankruptcy on Monday, plans to contrast his plan as a softer landing for dealers not part of GM's future.
GM wants to cut 1,100 of its smaller and least profitable dealerships and will lose another 470 by cutting its Saab, Saturn and Hummer brands.
GM expects to offer an agreement to those businesses slated for closure to wind down their operations in orderly fashion over the next 18 months.
GM plans to end up with about 3,600 showrooms.
That plan must also be approved by the judge overseeing GM's bankruptcy.
More than three dozen lawmakers in both the House of Representatives and Senate have asked the Obama administration to intervene on behalf of dealerships.
The U.S. government will own 60 percent of GM and 8 percent of Chrysler once their restructurings are complete. Both will be privately held for the foreseeable future.
Additional help for dealers beyond government money intended to help them finance floorplans is not out of the question, according to Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan.
"There may be a remedy that has not been considered yet," Levin told reporters.
However, Levin said a legislative solution was unlikely.
(Editing Bernard Orr)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090603/...utos_dealers_3
The year was 1902. Two teenage girls, frightened and caked with dust, were taking their first ride in an automobile.
The car was a long-forgotten French brand: Panhard. It was loud, and it sputtered as it chugged along a dirt road in Flint, Mich.
One of the girls taking that joy ride was Margery Durant, whose millionaire father was the nation's most successful seller of carriages — and no fan of the horseless variety.
William Crapo Durant scolded his daughter, who had taken the ride without his knowledge. In his view, automobiles "were noisy, dangerous contraptions that disturbed tranquility and frightened horses," wrote biographer Lawrence R. Gustin.
Durant's journey from pessimist to industry patriarch boils down to one thing, said Gustin,
"He wasn't a car guy, but the self-seller — something that can sell itself — was a big thing to him. He saw this as something that he could sell," said Gustin.
That self-seller was a vehicle that hit the roads in 1904. Its name: Buick.
Road carts
Durant had a talent for finding hit products. The first was in 1886. The Flint, Mich., resident was late for work one day and accepted a ride in a Coldwater road cart, a two-wheel horse cart with an innovative suspension system. Durant was so impressed with the cart's performance that he borrowed $2,000 from a bank, went into partnership with his friend Josiah Dallas Dort and bought the Coldwater operation for $1,500.
Using his new Flint Road Cart Co. — later renamed Durant-Dort Carriage Co. — as a base, Durant built (up) his carriage business. He did so by acquiring key suppliers and snapping up other cart companies, Gustin said.
"They didn't just have one road cart; they had carriages for different levels of the market," Gustin told Automotive News.
"They always competed well on price, and they could do that because they had created their own consolidation of all these different industries. They bought their own axle company, their own wheel company and their own top company, linseed oil and varnish companies."
Buick gets a champion
Durant was a brilliant salesman, but he was easily bored. With his company at the top of the carriage business, he left Flint to play the stock market in New York.
He agreed to come back to Flint after a rival cart company, Flint Wagon Works, enlisted him to manage its latest acquisition: the debt-ridden Buick Motor Co., which started building engines in 1903 and branched into automobiles the next year.
Re-energized, Durant went to work in late 1904. He negotiated relief from Buick's creditors; moved vehicle assembly from a one-story building in Flint to a more spacious site in Jackson, Mich.; and in January 1905 went to an auto show in New York and took orders for 1,108 vehicles. At that point, the factory had produced only 37, Gustin said.
Durant later set his mind to building the world's largest automobile assembly plant, and he did so in Flint. He persuaded suppliers, notably axle maker Charles Stewart Mott, to build near the massive Buick complex.
By the end of 1907, Buick had become the nation's second-largest automaker, behind Ford.
But Durant's biggest adventure lay ahead.
Morgan's concept
Historians trace the idea for what eventually became (Durant's future company) to banking giant J.P. Morgan & Co.
Morgan, writes historian Pelfry, was backing an automaking venture named Maxwell-Briscoe. Morgan sent one of the company's principals, Benjamin Briscoe, to investigate a major consolidation of automakers. It would be similar to the consolidation that formed U.S. Steel. Its working name: International Motor Car Co.
Briscoe called Billy Durant first. Eventually, Henry Ford and Ransom Olds, founder of Oldsmobile and then head of Reo Motor Car Co., joined the talks. But negotiations collapsed when Ford and Olds demanded cash instead of stock in the new venture.
Durant wasn't ready to give up.
"Durant said: 'I like this idea of consolidation. I'm going to do it anyway,' " said Gustin. "I think he saw it as an extension of what he'd done in the carriage business."
By then, Durant already had his eye on a company he would add to the stable along with Buick: Olds Motor Works, the struggling maker of the Oldsmobile in Lansing, Mich.
The plan in place, Durant needed a name. International Motor Car Co. was no longer available. Durant's lawyers suggested an alternative: General Motors Co.
GM was incorporated on Sept. 16, 1908. Within two months, it acquired Buick and Oldsmobile.
The road ahead would be bumpy for Durant, but in his unpublished autobiography, as quoted by Pelfrey, he clearly saw the implications of what he had created.
"I had made the first step; the responsibility was mine and it was up to me to make good," Durant wrote. "My experience and success with Buick gave me the idea. I figured if I could acquire a few more companies like Buick, I would have control of the greatest industry in this country."
http://www.autonews.com/article/2008...150384/1215/gm
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oh, how time flies.
It's funny how ppl always group the small penis with the huge 4x4.
It's true 85% of the ppl that drive huge trucks/4x4s are douchebags who throw all their money into their truck and have nothing else to their name, but one has to admit a lifted vehicle does look better than a stock truck/suv/jeep/etc. Look at most stock trucks. They have weak suspension as is and usually droop in the front by 2 inches. They are on 29 inch tires! That's not a rugged vehicle. That's a watered down big version of a honda accord. The consumer has to put a lot of bullshit money into these trucks/suvs/jeeps to make them fun. 30k for a Jeep rubicon and it comes with 32" tires and a 3.8 V6 MINIVAN engine. WTF??????????????????????????????????????????????
Fast cars, sports cars, cars in general do nothing for me. I have never gone above 80mph LOL.
GM to provide $2 billion cash for Delphi buyout
Fri Jun 5, 2009 7:01pm EDT
DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp said on Friday it would provide $2 billion cash plus credit to support private equity firm Platinum Equity's buyout of its bankrupt former parts unit, Delphi Corp.
GM, which filed for bankruptcy on Monday, said it would acquire a Class A interest in the new company for the cash. Platinum Equity would put in $250 million cash for a Class B interest and Delphi would acquire Class C interests on behalf of junior bankruptcy financing lenders that forgive some debt.
GM and Platinum also have agreed to establish a secured term loan for the new company, with GM providing $500 million and Platinum $250 million, the automaker said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
On Monday, Delphi said it reached a deal to sell most of its global operations to Platinum Equity, including its headquarters in Troy, Michigan, and five of its operations back to GM. Other assets would be sold or closed.
At that time, Delphi said it had emergence capital and capital commitments totaling $3.6 billion, but did not provide details. Delphi hopes to complete the deal by the end of July.
The deal could provide a final resolution for Delphi, which filed for bankruptcy in October 2005. A previous Delphi plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection in April 2007 fell through.
Supply agreements between GM and Delphi will be carried through to the end of related product programs, GM said. GM also said it would provide financing to support Delphi's operations, while the deal is completed.
The automaker said it would pay or take over $600 million of Delphi's senior debtor-in-possession credit facility, $300 million of its junior facility and $200 million of other obligations to be shared with the new company.
GM said it would waive $1.6 billion of pension costs that had been transferred from Delphi and $300 million of administrative claims when the transactions are completed.
GM also agreed to provide Delphi with a $250 million credit facility that will be waived if the deals are completed.
The plans require U.S. bankruptcy court approval.
The case is In re Delphi Corp, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 05-44481
----------------------------------------------------------------------
thoughts?
i'm not familiar with bankruptcy procedures, but is it normal or within the letter of law for bankruptcy to bailout other failing companies?
It's not normal, but there is a unique twist here because GM and Delphi are joined at the hip. GM created Delphi by spinning them off back in the 90s. As part of the deal GM maintained liability for the pension/retiree benefits for all the workers who were going to become Delphi employees. Benefits which now amount to a huge liability.
Basically what's happening here is the government is funneling $2 billion of taxpayer money through GM to bribe a hedge fund into taking over responsibility for Delphi's union benefits.
so basically it's launderingQuote:
Originally Posted by coyotes_geek
That's what it looks like to me, but it's possible I'm just more cynical than most.Quote:
Originally Posted by Viva Las Espuelas
when it comes to jackasses in government there's no such thingQuote:
Originally Posted by coyotes_geek
..............i liked how much publicity this news got.
Viva - that article you posted about the beginnings of General Motors in Flint, Michigan made me sad. I grew up in Flint and my father worked for AC Spark Plug for 43 years.
As a child, we took tours of the original location of the Durant Carriage Company and the automobile museum that had cars all the way back to the original "carriages". The name Mott was a big one in Flint and I remember driving past his estate many, many times.
It's so sad what has happened to Flint. My dad said about the only thing in downtown Flint now is the huge branch of U of M. My dad doesn't even go into Flint anymore because he says it's so depressing to see all the factories where he worked torn down and nothing left but empty lots. It's just so sad...
Another auto-related story not getting any publicity is how the hedge fund that owned Chrysler gets to just walk away from the whole mess without having to put in so much of a penny, yet the taxpayers are on the hook for $8 billion.Quote:
Originally Posted by Viva Las Espuelas
Well you should wait until you can get a tax break for buying this 4x4 badboy...Quote:
Originally Posted by Wild Cobra
http://digiads.com.au/car-news/image...2283-img_0.jpg
^^^Vulture!
Ed Whitacre, the new chairman, has SA connections. He still lives in SA and most probably already know he was the ex CEO of ATT.
If he had stayed ATT would have never defected to Oklahoma South.
Richers don't like plane transfers.Quote:
Originally Posted by jman3000
Senators seek answers on U.S. stakes in GM and Chrysler
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration must provide a clear explanation to Congress of how it plans to extricate the government from ownership stakes in General Motors Corp and Chrysler Group LLC, Senate Banking Committee leaders said on Wednesday.
"My hope is whatever we like or dislike about the present configuration, I want to see us get out of this business as quickly as we can," Christopher Dodd, the panel's Democratic chairman, said at a hearing.
Richard Shelby, the committee's top Republican, asked whether taxpayers will make money and if nearly $20 billion in government writeoffs of GM debt so far foreshadow more losses.
Dodd and Shelby's comments represent the first formal public questioning of the administration's rescue of GM and Chrysler.
The U.S. government has taken an 8 percent stake in Chrysler, which is exiting Chapter 11 in an alliance with Italy's Fiat SpA, and a 60 percent investment in GM, which entered Chapter 11 on June 1.
Government aid dedicated to Chrysler totals more than $12 billion while GM has received $50 billion. Billions more in taxpayer funds have been spent to help for affiliated finance companies and suppliers.
Ron Bloom, a senior member of the administration's auto task force responsible for overhauling the companies, said there will be no specific blueprint for shedding ownership because such a strategy could disrupt markets.
"There is no perfect system. It is our judgment at this point that a prearranged time schedule will create more problems than it solves," he told lawmakers.
Bloom said President Barack Obama wants to get out of the auto business "as soon as practicable" but not before GM and Chrysler can demonstrate viability. An exit plan will depend on how GM and Chrysler perform as well as overall economic factors and industry sales.
While there is no guarantee that both automakers will fully repay the government, Bloom said there were "reasonable scenarios" in which taxpayers could recover a substantial portion of their investment down the road.
[B]Senator Jim Bunning said that for taxpayers to break even on GM, its market capitalization would have to reach $70 billion or 15 percent higher than its all-time high at the height of the sport utility sales boom of the late 1990s and first half of this decade.
"It seems pretty clear to me that taxpayers will never get back their money," said Bunning, a Republican from Kentucky.
Bloom said GM's capital structure will be conservative once it is out of bankruptcy, with more room for equity and fewer deductions for debt and other liabilities.
(Reporting by John Crawley, Karey Wutkowski and Mari Saito, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Tim Dobbyn)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090610/...tos_congress_3