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Automotive News & Views Do You Favor A Government Loan To The Detroit 3?
3958 messages, Last post on Oct 02, 2009 at 4:52 PM
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Replying to: dave8697 (Dec 02, 2008 8:29 am) Dave, you really need to get out more, or read more car reviews.  Road&Track is my favorite. The turbo 4's in the Solstice and Cobalt are making 260hp from a 2.0L engine. My Mazda makes close to 300ft-lb of torque also. I was thinking of an HHR SS before I bought the Mazda, but the lack of AWD was a killer for my 15-degree driveway. And the HHR was recalled because they needed to fit side-curtain airbags which weren't standard then to make the crash-test respectable.
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Mr. Reid won't have to have his sensibilities offended by BO of the tourists (constituents?) who tour the capital building now that the visitor center is finished. It costs THREE times the original--government control anyone? I don't picture Thomas Jefferson or George Washington being offended by BO from their constituents. These are the people complaining about flying to DC by automaker executives... http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/YeasandNays/Reid_We_wont_smell_the_touri- - sts_anymore_12_02_2008.html Reid: We won't smell the tourists anymore By Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin POSTED December 2, 2008 | 11:00 AM The Capitol Visitors Center, which opened this morning, may have tripled its original budget and fallen years behind schedule, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid found a silver lining for members of Congress: tourists won't offend them with their B.O. anymore. "My staff tells me not to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway," said Reid in his remarks. "In the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol. It may be descriptive but it's true." But it's no longer going to be true, noted Reid, thanks to the air conditioned, indoor space. And that's not all. "We have many bathrooms here, as you can see," Reid continued. "Souvenirs are available." |
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Replying to: xrunner2 (Dec 02, 2008 8:02 am)
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Replying to: lemko (Dec 02, 2008 9:57 am) Ford, Rivals Stress New Parsimony to Congress GM's plan will surface later today. |
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Replying to: dave8697 (Dec 02, 2008 8:29 am) Two words - Turbo Charged |
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| The Big Three's solution to downsizing and its never-ending job losses? For the past 24 years, all three U.S. automakers had tens of thousands of "workers" sitting in job banks, watching TV, playing cards and collecting 90 percent of their pay. Asks University of Maryland business professor Peter Morici, "Why should a waitress in Indiana have her tax money sent to Detroit to subsidize that?" | |
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if closing Oldsmobile only cost $1 billion, then the bailout could go to closing five brands at GM (assuming Hummer is already sold as had been hinted at earlier this summer) and two at Ford. That's only $7 billion. Cerberus is private, NO taxpayer money to them, no way. Spend another $1 billion closing down 2000 each of the excess Ford and Chevy dealers (both currently near a count of 4000, possibly higher for Chevy, if I am correctly informed). Lay off all the corresponding Ford and GM hourly employees and 2/3 of the executive staff, pay them a year's severance (that's for hourly employees only, who would be barred from claiming unemployment, salaried executives get only 3 months), there's another $10 billion. We've only spent $18 billion and we have right-sized GM and Ford! Trickle out the remaining $7 billion propping up suddenly beleaguered suppliers for 2 years.
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Replying to: nippononly (Dec 02, 2008 12:47 pm) Now the problem with a small GM and Ford is that they still have the commitment to LARGE # of retirees. The reduction in size has not reduced the $'s going to the pension funds. So this gets passed on to the cost of each car, increasing the cost of each car, which increases prices and make them even LESS competitive, which decreases sales more ... no profits in sight, at least $25B spent, and they close it up in the spring or early summer '09. I'm against any loan even as you describe though. Why spend $25B in taxpayer money to give it to well-paid people who screwed up for many years, to leave a company that otherwise would fold up? Why should Joe the Plumber who only gets his unemployment check if laid off, put up his tax-money to give all this money to someone else? Forced charity?! I definitely agree even if a loan is approved somehow; that not 1 cent should go to privately held Chrysler. Cerberus and their family of companies can transfer the $ to Chrysler. |
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Replying to: kdhspyder (Dec 01, 2008 6:21 am) I'm not necessarily talking about them moving back to Japan, but what about India??? China??? South America??? With all the "billions" that Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, etc. make IN THIS COUNTRY, why aren't they made here??? BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO INCENTIVE TO DO SO. Greed: When the Big 3 are gone, the only incentive others will have is to go with the lowest bidder, no matter where in the world that is. |
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Ford tells Congress profit may be restored in 2011 Amy Wilson Automotive News | December 2, 2008 - 10:25 am EST DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co., the first of the Detroit 3 to submit its plan to qualify for federal aid, says it doesn’t expect to make money until at least 2011. That’s when Ford expects global and North American auto businesses to reach break-even or be profitable on a pretax basis, according to a news release summarizing its plan to Congress. In May, Ford abandoned a previous pledge to post a profit in 2009. The automaker has lost money every year since 2005. Ford also said it is asking Congress for access to as much as $9 billion in federal loans. The company stressed that management hopes to complete its turnaround without accessing the loans. “For Ford, government loans would serve as a critical backstop or safeguard against worsening conditions as we drive transformational change in our company,” Ford CEO Alan Mulally said in the release. Selling the jets Mulally said he would work for a salary of $1 a year if Ford draws money from a potential federal loan pool. Ford also said today that it would sell its five jets. Those moves are responses to widespread criticism of the Detroit 3 after Congressional hearings in November on federal bailout money for the automakers. The CEOs of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler LLC were lambasted for traveling to the hearings in separate corporate jets. Mulally plans to make the nine-hour drive to Washington in a Ford Escape Hybrid for another round of Congressional hearings this week. The high pay packages of the Detroit 3 CEOs also came under scrutiny during the hearings. At that time, Mulally declined to work for less than his $2 million salary, saying “I think I’m OK where I am.” Mulally’s total compensation package was $21.7 million in 2007. Ford reiterated that it would continue the turnaround plan Mulally implemented after arriving from Boeing in September 2006. A key tenet of that plan is to accelerate the development of new products that customers want. As part of that, Ford has said it will introduce several small European-developed cars in the United States beginning in early 2010. Mulally's YouTube video Technology spending Today, Ford said it would spend $14 billion in the United States on advanced technologies and products to improve fuel efficiency during the next seven years. That includes a plan to make available for sale a family of new hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles by 2012. Ford said it will partner with suppliers to deliver a full battery electric van for commercial fleet use in 2010 and an electric sedan in 2011. Ford also said it is discussing with the UAW ways to further reduce costs and eliminate the remaining labor cost gap existing between Ford and import-brand automakers. Ford said it doesn’t anticipate a liquidity crisis in 2009 barring a bankruptcy by General Motors or Chrysler LLC -- or a more severe economic downturn that further hurts auto sales. It expects U.S. industry sales of 12.5 million vehicles in 2009, bouncing back to 14.5 million vehicles in 2010 and 15.5 vehicles in 2011. Ford finished the third quarter of 2008 with $18.9 billion of cash and another $10.7 billion in available credit lines. The automaker burned through $7.7 billion in cash during the third quarter, a rate of $2.57 billion a month. 'Home improvement loan' Ford wants to convince Congress and U.S. taxpayers that it should be seen as “different” from GM and Chrysler. To that effort, Ford today launched a new web site, www.thefordstory.com. It includes a youtube.com video of CEO Alan Mulally talking about Ford’s turnaround vision. In the video, Mulally said Ford is asking for access to federal loans in part because the failure of GM or Chrysler could have a “domino effect” on Ford. “I like our position today, as tough as it is,” Mulally says in the video. He talks about the $23 billion “home improvement” loan Ford took out two years ago to finance its turnaround and the development of new products. “Now we have in the pipeline what arguably everybody believes is the best product lineup we’ve ever had at Ford,” he said. “I’m just so glad that we all pulled together early so that we are ready to take on the worst of times. And we’ll get through this and we’ll come out the other end as a turbo machine.” |
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