General Motors

Link to Article

Comments follow downgrade sending ratings deeper into junk territory NEW YORK - A bankruptcy by General Motors Corp. is not "far-fetched" if present trends at the company persist, Standard & Poor's said Monday, shortly after cutting world's largest automaker's ratings deeper into junk territory. The downgrade and S&P's comments initially sent GM shares and bonds lower as investors fretted about the rising risk that the company will have trouble repaying its debt. "In the past, we might have felt at different points that the concerns about bankruptcy risk were way overplayed," said Scott Sprinzen, speaking on a conferenc…

GM beefs up its Onstar package Automaker adds Turn-by-Turn Navigation, which guides drivers to their destination. Brett Clanton / The Detroit News General Motors Corp. plans a new version of its OnStar driver-support service that it hopes will give carbuyers another reason to put a GM car or truck on their shopping lists. OnStar will begin offering a new feature called Turn-by-Turn Navigation, which uses automated voice prompts to guide drivers to their destinations and builds on other safety and communication services already packaged with OnStar. The service is the first of its kind in the market and appears to be an answer to complaints about in-dash mapping syste…

GM board meeting The General Motors Board of Directors is meeting today. As the company copes with a low stock price and eight impending plant closings, the board is meeting in an atmosphere of tension. Automotive News will report on the outcome of this meeting when details become available.

GM board to consider dividend and pay cuts, seat for York DETROIT -- General Motors’ board on Monday will consider plans to cut the automaker's dividend by as much as 50 percent, cut the salaries of top executives and give a board seat to Jerry York. According to sources familiar with GM's plans, the board is considering a number of proposals originally put forth by York. He represents Las Vegas billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, who owns 9.9 percent of GM’s shares. can someone post the link?

Source GM Bondholders Shun Offer, Setting Stage for Bankruptcy General Motors unveiled a tentative labor agreement with the United Auto Workers, though bondholders shunned a proposed debt-to-equity offering, setting the stage for a bankruptcy filing by the troubled auto maker. For GM to stay out of bankruptcy protection, holders of 90 percent of its bonds must agree to exchange $27 billion in debt for a 10 percent stake in the company. But as a midnight deadline for the deal approached, it appeared that the swap was likely to fail. Analysts have said bondholders will not want to exchange their massive debt for such a small stake. GM has said in a regulatory filing…

Chevrolet: - Brand Positioning: • Expressive Value • High Value Appeal with High Retail Volume - Dealer Throughput: • Growing to match Toyota in large markets Buick-Pontiac-GMC: - Brand Positioning • Buick: Sophisticated Quality, Luxury and Craftsmanship • Pontiac: Youthful & Sporty – with niche focus • GMC: Engineering Excellence with Capability and Functionally - Dealer Throughput: • Growing to match Nissan in large markets Cadillac: - Brand Positioning: • Performance Luxury with Aspirational Appeal • Global Luxury Brand - Dealer Throughput: • Growing to match Mercedes in large markets

I'm supposed to be doing the move in October. Things are on schedule I think, but you know timetables. I can't wait, my drive will no longer be an hour to work and back, the place is absolutely massive when you drive by it!! http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/062...070626169.shtml

Souce: Autoblog

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?A.../606180301/1148 A great article about GM Brasil and the cars they have available. Including CUV's, and small pickups. I drove those vehicles and walked away from the GM of Brazil test track wondering aloud how a global car company filled with so many demonstrably talented and intelligent people could do something so dumb as to keep some of the best small vehicles made anywhere out of a market that's clamoring for those models.

GM Builds First Lithium-ion Battery for Chevrolet Volt o GM is the first major automaker to manufacture an advanced lithium-ion battery pack in the U.S. o Brownstown Township to be first high-volume U.S. automotive lithium-ion battery manufacturing site o Plant’s battery cell processing, module and pack manufacturing capabilities strengthen GM’s in-house battery expertise BROWNSTOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Exactly three years since the day the Chevrolet Volt concept car debuted, GM today manufactured the first advanced lithium-ion battery for a mass-marketed electric vehicle at GM's Brownstown Battery Pack Assembly Plant. “This i…

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.as...9&enterthread=y Does anyone ever get held accountable at GM? Either GM's webmaster purposefully sabotaged a very expensive product placement campaign, or it was just plain old stupidity putting up anti-GM ads on the website. But the import lovers and assorted GM haters once again get the last laugh.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/conte...ws+%2B+analysis

Apparently the building was leased previously. CNN Money article

Jason Stein July 7, 2008 06:01 CET Should Rick Wagoner have spent a little more time in Europe? Four years ago, in a sun-drenched stretch of the French countryside, General Motors chose a gorgeous setting near Fayence to unveil its future strategy to the world's journalists. GM's PR folks called it a Global Product Seminar, but Europe was clearly on everyone's mind. There were new Corsas, new Astras, new diesels and new plans for GM to stake its claim as an international powerhouse. A barrel of oil was under $40. Gasoline was about $2.00 a gallon. Full-size trucks and SUVs were delivering barrels of cash. Would North America need the small stuff? Nah. Not i…

Everyone's a Winner at the GM Ring & Win Event!! Something magical is happening this holiday season at the GM Ring & Win Event. Customers who push the OnStar button will receive cash awards up to $10,000 off the purchase or lease of their new GM vehicle. In addition, 25 lucky customers from across Canada will win their selected vehicle during this year's big event.

FOR RELEASE: 2005-09-28 General Motors of Canada and Canadian Auto Workers Reach Tentative Three Year Agreement TORONTO, Ontario - General Motors of Canada reached a new tentative three-year agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers today that reduces GM of Canada's overall structural labour costs during the life of the agreement. "The agreement we reached addresses many of the issues that GM raised at the outset of these negotiations and provides the means for GM and the CAW to continue our drive for more efficient, productive operations while reducing our overall operating costs." said Al Green, GM of Canada's vice-president of personnel and ope…

http://channels.netscape.com/news/story.js...92.htm&sc=rontz

It seems all we have heard lately is doom and gloom with a bit of spice from the new Camaro but that is certainly about it. Well GM Canada (I know I live in Iowa) launched Pontiac Pulse, a very cool site that you can share stories, photographs and information of the Pontiac's of the past. What I am most excited about it the selection of old brochures in PDF's that you can download. Many are list at the buttom under the vehicle but if you change the year around in the new window when your opening the PDF you can get other years. I am going like crazy downloading them and I can get the info on the 1998-1999 Bonneville SSE I plan to get! It is very cool so play around with t…

Link to Article

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-inves...article1148545/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060523/ap_on_...e/gm_gas_rebate What do you all think. I think it's a cool idea.

Switch your GM Card to the GM extended family card and guess what, Saturn accepts it's points. If you have a GM card, contact them and tell them you want to switch it to the GM extended family card. https://www.gmextendedfamily.com/GMExtended...icles/index.jsp

Bob Lutz has a few things to say about it http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financi...dea646c&k=13708

Here is something a little closer to my GM heart! Just call me one of the troops from Europe! :AH-HA_wink: Ralph Kisiel Automotive News June 23, 2008 - 12:01 am ET DETROIT — On June 10, production of General Motors' hot-selling Chevrolet Malibu threatened to grind to a halt at the Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas City, Kan., because of a computer hardware problem. Enter GM's Global Command and Control Center. The center, in Pontiac, Mich., acts as a window into operations at GM's 185 manufacturing plants around the world. It closely monitors factory networks, servers and critical manufacturing software applications. The center identified and fixed the pr…

GM CEO jokes about automaker's reported demise Fri Feb 17, 2006 6:07 PM ET MIAMI, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Responding to reports suggesting General Motors Corp. is heading for the automotive junk heap, its chief executive joked on Friday about the words a man might like to hear from a mourner at his own wake or funeral. "Look, he's moving," was the punch line, which GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner delivered to laughter in a speech to the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. It was a rare moment of levity for Wagoner, who is under enormous pressure to turn around GM after its stunning $8.6 billion net last loss year. "Despite some speculation to the contrary, we at GM are st…

Now showing: "The Detroit Meltdown," featuring Rick Wagoner in his latest leading role. He turned it down in July, when Steve Miller stepped in the CEO's office at Delphi Corp. and proclaimed that his problems were smaller but more immediate, GM's were larger and he needed GM's help to avert bankruptcy. He spurned the role in early October because Wagoner first needed to wrest health care concessions from the United Auto Workers. Besides, he'd long since decided the only thing that would keep Miller, a restructuring-through-bankruptcy virtuoso, out of Chapter 11 would be a big pile of GM cash. He said no a third time in November, infuria…

GM CEO put in charge of exploring deal Link to original article @ San Jose Mercury News San Jose Mercury News By Michael Ellis July 08, 2006 General Motors' board of directors Friday issued Chief Executive Rick Wagoner a vote of confidence by putting him in charge of talks with Renault and Nissan Motor on possibly joining the French and Japanese automakers' alliance. After an unusually short meeting lasting about 80 minutes, the board did not follow the suggestion that billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian first aired publicly last week that GM directors form a committee to study the benefits of a three-way alliance. The board instead gave Wagoner the OK to meet wi…

ROYAL OAK, Mich, Aug 17 (Reuters) - The top executive at General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday that if the recent strengthening of the Japanese currency continues, it would represent "a huge change in competitiveness" for U.S. automakers. Rick Wagoner, the automaker's chief executive, said that he would like to see the yen in the 90-100 range versus the U.S. dollar because such a level "would dramatically change" the competitive landscape. Article continues at link... http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews...20070817?rpc=44

As General Motors slashes jobs, closes plants and battles to avoid bankruptcy, the company’s CEO has set up a retirement plan that will pay him at least $4.6 million a year – nearly twice his current salary. G. Richard Wagoner, who the New York Post calls "the greediest, most undeserving CEO since Chainsaw Al Dunlap,” was named GM’s chief financial officer in 1992, when the company had a global payroll of 750,000 employees. Under Wagoner’s command as CFO and, since 2000, CEO, the carmaker has seen its employees dwindle to 324,000. Now the company has announced plans to cut 30,000 more jobs and close 12 North American plants, and Wagoner is denying rampa…

Are you willing to give GM another chance? I personally am not, other than the GM cars I currently own, I have no plans to buy another GM product. I take exception to GM closing the Wilmington plant, especially since it's paint shop had a 300 million dollar upgrade not long ago, it has a rail yard and a port nearby. I am content to sit back and watch an epic failure take place. So tell me, will you buy from the new GM? What are your beefs, what are your gripes with the old or new GM? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (AP) General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson says the new GM will be a leaner …

GM Adds 5-Year/100,000-Mile Powertrain Limited Warranty to GM Certified Used Vehicles No-Deductible, Transferable Warranty Provides Consumers Value, Peace of Mind DETROIT - General Motors today announced that it will provide consumers with a fully transferable five-year/100,000-mile powertrain limited warranty with no deductible, on all GM Certified Used Vehicles, the industry's top-selling manufacturer-certified used vehicle brand. "Last fall, GM unveiled the best new car and truck coverage of any full-line manufacturer in the nation, letting customers know that every one of our 2007 light-duty vehicles delivers a superior level of quality," said Troy Clarke, GM …

GM CFO Chris Liddell Leaves William Maley - Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com March 10, 2011 Chris Liddell, GM's chief financial officer for fourteen months has announced he will be leaving the company on April 1st. Liddell, who came from Microsoft helped GM through the largest IPO in Wall Street history. In a statement released today, Liddell said, “I came to General Motors to be part of something great. My objective was to help rebuild this iconic company and I am particularly pleased that through this process," His successor is Dan Ammann, GM's Treasurer. Ammann joined GM in March 2010 after a stint as managing director and head of industrials inve…

Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co. Chief Financial Officer Ray Young will probably leave the biggest U.S. automaker in coming weeks, people familiar with the situation said. Click For the Rest of the Story.

By Jamie LaReau Automotive News / October 03, 2005 DETROIT -- General Motors is shuffling top management in its performance division as it pushes to reorganize product development on a global scale. Mark Reuss, 42, handed over the reigns of the performance division to 25-year GM veteran Bob Kruse, 49, effective Oct. 1. Kruse retains his position as executive director of GM North America vehicle integration. Reuss replaces Matt Tsien, 45, as executive director of GM North America vehicle systems and a 25-year GM veteran. Tsien is now executive director for global central engineering. Reuss, who has worked for GM since 1983, had been executive director of GM's pe…

Issue Date: January/Febuary 2006 , Posted On: 1/25/2006 Can GM Fight Back? Wagoner says it can with some help—not a bailout—from Washington. by william J. holstein General Motors chief executive Rick Wagoner, who has announced plans to cut 30,000 jobs and close nine factories by 2008, says the Bush Administration is making a mistake by targeting China’s currency, not Japan’s. Here are highlights of an interview conducted originally for The New York Times: Q. Is GM going into Chapter 11? I think we’ve got a good plan to get the business turned around. I think as we’ve sat back and looked at where we are this year as things turned south, I think we have a p…

One of Europe's top executives called yesterday for political action to tackle the damage being done to the car industry by the overvalued euro. Carl-Peter Forster, president of General Motors Europe, said the disadvantage European car manufacturers were suffering because of the high value of the euro against Far East currencies such as the yen and the Korean won had been underestimated by governments within the eurozone. He estimated that the currency difference gave Japanese car makers such as Toyota, Nissan and Honda a 3,000 to 4,000 advantage over their European rivals on each model sold. "It is not understood how big a contribution this makes to our lack of compet…

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/ar...8&Symbol=GM GM and Chrysler have been in talks on a possible merger, but according to sources any deal will have to wait until after the U.S. presidential elections on Nov 4 as the Bush administration ruled out providing government funding for it.

http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet...amp;docid=55359

GM completes sale of Allison for $5.6B The Associated Press | Link to Original Article @ DetNews DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. said today it has completed the sale of its Allison Transmission commercial and military business to The Carlyle Group and Onex Corp. for $5.6 billion. The sale, announced in June, includes seven manufacturing plants in Indianapolis and its global distribution network and sales offices. A production facility in Baltimore, which produces conventional and hybrid transmissions for pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, will remain with GM. Detroit-based GM said in a statement that it would use the money to strengthen its liquidity and suppo…

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...?hub=TopStories --- The comments are pretty bad, so maybe some of our members can give GM a helping hand in setting the record straight.

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti.../705485855/1065 GM confirms new products By GREG MIGLIORE General Motors is launching seven key new vehicles in the next two years, including three Cadillacs and a production version of the Buick Invicta concept, as part of a car and crossover product blitz to help turn around its troubled North American operations. The new vehicles were confirmed by GM CEO Rick Wagoner on Tuesday after he laid out a series of cuts designed to improve the troubled automaker's liquidity by $15 billion through 2009. The Cadillac CTS coupe, which turned heads in January at the Detroit show, headlines the list of new vehicles confirmed …

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/GM-confirms-...85493.html?.v=8

By TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher, Ap Auto Writer – 2 hrs 44 mins ago Article Link DETROIT – General Motors Corp. said Friday that it plans to reopen a shuttered U.S. factory to build subcompact cars that will be the smallest vehicles GM has ever produced here. The company said in a written statement that the retooled factory will be able to build 160,000 cars per year. The automaker did not say which factory would be selected or which models it will build. GM, which is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, also plans to announce then that it will close 14 more factories, including four assembly plants. A person briefed on GM's…

General Motors Corp. on Monday approved a production cut at its Pontiac Assembly Center, a move that could result in as many as 500 layoffs at the factory that builds heavy-duty pickups. With sales of its big trucks hurting in a sluggish market, GM will produce nearly 20 percent fewer pickups in two shifts at the plant. Company officials are determining how many jobs will be eliminated as part of the change. Sources had said the plan is to cut about 100 full-time workers and nearly 400 temporary employees in September. GM is still working to reach a final number, officials said on Monday. "It's still a matter of discussion," GM spokesman Tom Wickham said. GM's redesig…

http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4140660&nav=0Rce

Reports are coming in that the General is considering selling its medium truck operations to Isuzu. This news is totally unconfirmed by both parties, though Isuzu says it would be more than willing to listen if GM felt the desire to talk. All of this comes shortly after Navistar chose not to follow through on its non-binding agreement to purchase the commercial truck unit from General Motors after seeing what's been happening with the U.S. economy and gas prices. After that deal went sour, GM said that it would continue looking for options, so this particular piece of the rumormill pie is anything but surprising. We contacted GM to see if the automaker had anything to s…

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?i...iness/52-gm.inc

GM to Double Number of Crossover Entries by 2009 Text courtesy of General Motors Corporation Opel Antara and Chevrolet S3X under development already General Motors will double its number of entries in the rapidly growing crossover vehicle segment to 14 during the next four years, Bob Lutz, vice chairman of product development, said today. Crossovers, which combine the best features of cars and sport utility vehicles, have become increasingly popular with owners of all types of cars and trucks as fuel prices have increased. GM estimates that crossovers will account for more than 2.5 million sales in the United States this year, and could grow to 3.5 million uni…

By Jamie LaReau Automotive News / October 24, 2005 LAS VEGAS -- General Motors revealed the names of two of the three crossovers it will launch for the 2007 and 2008 model years at its Dealer Business Conference here last week. The GMC crossover vehicle will be called the Acadia, dealers say. The name was confirmed by a GM source. A concept version of the Acadia will debut at the Detroit auto show in January. Dealers will receive the Acadia as a 2008 model after they get the new GMC Sierra pickup next fall. The Saturn crossover will be called the Outlook, GM told dealers, confirming a previously rumored name. The Outlook is due next fall. The Buick version, which…

Thursday, February 09, 2006 Struggles at General Motors GM cuts fail to silence doubters Prominent analyst 'disappointed by the limited cash savings' in restructuring effort. Bill Vlasic / The Detroit News DETROIT -- Shares of General Motors Corp. slid 4 percent Wednesday after a prominent investment analyst downgraded the stock and cast doubt on the effectiveness of GM's turnaround efforts. GM stock closed at $21.99, down 82 cents, in trading on the New York Stock Exchange as Deutsche Bank analyst Rod Lache cut his rating from "hold" to "sell" and lowered his target price for GM shares to $17. The report highlighted the concerns on Wall Street and among investors …

Consumers Benefit Through Simplified, More Competitive Pricing DETROIT – GM today announced that it has significantly lowered Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Prices (MSRPs) on vehicles accounting for about 80 percent of its sales volume. This move covers every Chevrolet, Buick and GMC model, as well as most Pontiac cars and trucks. The new MSRPs are effective Jan. 11. This is the next step in GM’s initiative to simplify pricing and offer consumers the best value in the industry. Combining this price repositioning with adjustments made to MSRPs at the beginning of the 2006 model year, GM has lowered MSRPs on vehicles representing about 90 percent of its volume. “This…

GM Cuts The Price On China's Top Selling Van William Maley - Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com August 29, 2011 General Motors is cutting prices of their low-cost minivans by as much as 15% to help offset slow sales in China. The company has cut prices on a minibus it builds with Wuling called the Wuling Sunshine after seeing sales drop 3% during the past seven months in an otherwise growing market. The slide isn't GM's or Wuling's fault; the cause of the slide is due to a government incentive plan that encouraged sales of commercial vehicles expiring. Due to the plan expiring, commercial sales have seen a 7% drop. “The next 12 months look tough. Incent…

GM to cut production at six pickup, SUV plants Sharon Terlep | Link to Original Article @ The Detroit News General Motors Corp. will cut production of large trucks and sport utility vehicles to avoid overstocking as demand for vehicles slips, the automaker said today. The company has canceled planned overtime for the rest of the year at six North American plants, including one in Flint, spokesman Tom Wickham said. The automaker wants to clear dealer lots and avoid a surplus that would force deep discounts on vehicles such as the Suburban SUV and new full-size pickups, he said. Volatile fuel prices and a crashing housing market have driven down demand for the large ve…

Chosun News Story - Korea As GM Daewoo Soars, Kia Crumbles After Korea suffered the financial crisis of the late 1990s, Kia Motors and Daewoo Motor, two of the top three automakers in the country at the time, changed hands. Kia was bought out by Hyundai, becoming Hyundai Kia Automotive Group in 1998 and Daewoo, which went bankrupt in 2000, was sold to GM of the United States two years later. Nine years have passed since Kia was sold, and seven since Daewoo went belly up. In that time these companies have traveled in opposite directions. Thanks to stable labor relations, Daewoo has grown rapidly as a production base for small and compact GM-branded cars. In contrast, …

Reuters / September 12, 2005 SEOUL -- GM Daewoo Automotive & Technology Co., South Korea's third-largest automaker, will acquire the main plant of the former Daewoo Motor firm on Sept. 30 in a move to boost its capacity, GM Daewoo said on Monday. The Pupyung plant, located in Inchon, west of Seoul, had been left out of the 2002 deal in which General Motors and partners took a majority stake in some of the assets of bankrupt Daewoo Motor. GM Daewoo had previously agreed to buy the plant, which is now operating separately as Daewoo Incheon Motor Co. Ltd., this year when a number of conditions -- including reducing labor strife -- were met. "Our sharehold…

The new GM Daewoo Tosca, available middle of '06 in South Korea.

Updated: Sun Sep. 07 2008 4:08:05 PM ctvtoronto.ca The former president of the Canadian Auto Workers Union is unimpressed by a new deal struck by the federal government with General Motors of Canada Limited that will see the company invest $290 million in the struggling Ontario auto industry. Buzz Hargrove said the timing of the deal's announcement, which came just days before Sunday's election call, is "designed simply to buy votes of our members." "I think they will reject this type of politics," Hargrove said Sunday during an interview on CTV Newsnet. The new deal is seen as a win-win situation for both the Conservatives and GM. Two days before the Harper …

DETROIT - In the document that spells out the tentative pact between General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers, their futures are listed as: "demand and business case dependent," "no future product allocation," or even possible sale or closure. Fifteen factories in places such as Wentzville, Missouri; Wilmington, Delaware; and Flint, Michigan, have been left on shaky ground by the pact that the UAW hailed as having won unprecedented job security from GM. Most of the 15 factories, which together employ more than 40,000 hourly workers, will see their current work go out of production in 2011, when the four-year contract would expire, with the next generation of the…

GM offers dealers incentives In effort to halt sales slide, automaker will give retailers $250 for each sale through end of Aug Greg Bensinger | Link to Original Article @ DetNews | Bloomberg News General Motors Corp. is giving dealers cash awards in a bid to halt a 9.4 percent drop in U.S. sales this year, a program outlined in an internal GM memo. Retailers will get $250 for each sale made from Aug. 23 through the end of the month, the memo from Jim Bunnell, general manager of GM's Buick, Pontiac and GMC divisions, said. Dealers can use the money to boost discounts offered directly to consumers through most of September, GM sales and marketing chief Mark LaNeve conf…

and......if I must say so......some very large volume highly respected dealers at that......... from an article in Automotive News: Despite GM's hardships, the board's endorsement has emboldened Wagoner's supporters. Just before the board's special Sunday meeting, two prominent dealers each wrote a letter to the board members in support of Wagoner. The two dealers – John Bergstrom, chairman of Bergstrom Automotive in Neenah, Wis., and Carl Sewell, chairman of Sewell Automotive Cos. in Dallas – are longtime friends of Wagoner's. Bergstrom, who owns 13 GM stores in Wisconsin, says several board members thanked him for the gesture. On April 4, The Wall Street Jour…

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/content/1...27324/index.php I enjoy reading this series because there's occasionally some insight to the bigger picture. Farago is rooting for GM despite the constant gloom. He's just as frustrated by the nasty combination of historic short-sighted and ill-visioned GM execs, legacy union issues, and increased competition as many of us are. The prospect of Tower and Delphi not coming to a good-for-all-parties agreement with the UAW is troubling. Seems the UAW will run GM into the ground and there's nothing that either GM or the UAW leadership can do to stop it. People are just too fat at this point.

From my friend Robert Farago www.thetruthaboutcars.com When the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the world’s largest automaker tells his shareholders to think long-term, there’s only one word for it: sell. Yes, I know. The General got itself into this death spiral by thinking short-term: investing its precious resources in a dead genre guzzling, buying brands instead of investing in existing ones, pushing pushrods, rebadging anything that wasn’t nailed down, and so on and so on stretching back forty years. But Wagoner’s no corporate visionary. What he’s really saying is hang on boys and girls, a bunch of bad $h! is about to go down. Those of…

From www.thetruthaboutcars.com by Robert Farago Ron Tadross. Say it softly and it’s almost like crying. If you’re GM that is. The Banc of America Securities analyst isn’t exactly what you’d call bullish on GM. Unlike his evil twin, analyst John Murphy, Tadross sees GM heading for a cash burn flame-out. "We believe GM management is glossing over the current and future cost of rightsizing the business," Tadross declared. More to the point, he recommended that investors sell their GM stock, with a target that’s literally half of its current price. In other words, when Merrill Lynch talks, nobody should listen. Although the media persists in calling GM plant closures an…

From www.thetruthaboutcars.com Robert Farago 7-10-06 After carefully considering the potential benefits of a GM - Nissan - Renault alliance, auto industry analysts have concluded that the deal makes about as much sense as Finnegan’s Wake. Well duh. Anyone even vaguely familiar with GM’s current crisis knows there’s only one thing the General needs right now: vehicles that people want to buy, at a price that makes the company a profit. This they don’t have. And guess what? Neither does Nissan. The Japanese automaker’s sales are also in freefall, pending new product coming down the pike. Even if Nissan and GM and Renault could work together (a completely prepos…

The board of US carmaker General Motors has postponed making a decision on who should buy its Opel division, which includes Vauxhall in the UK. The Detroit-based firm said directors had met on Friday to discuss the options but "no decision was taken". An assessment on whether to start exclusive talks to buy German-based Opel had been expected at the weekend. The race to control Opel is between the Canadian component manufacturer Magna and Belgian financial group RHJ. The BBC understands that a number of stumbling blocks have emerged to delay the final decision. The German government - which has openly preferred the bid from Magna and has offered it bridging fina…

GM delays earnings, expects 4Q profit General Motors Corp. will delay its fourth-quarter and 2006 earnings reports while the automaker restates earnings dating back to 2002, the company announced Thursday. The world's largest automaker also said it expects to post "significant" improvements in net results from last year, including a profitable fourth quarter with record revenue. GM, which has restated results in seven of its last eight quarters, said the changes are due primarily to tax accounting adjustments and "could be material." GM's earnings announcement was originally scheduled for Tuesday; now the automaker plans to give an update the week of Feb. 5 and expect…

FOR RELEASE: 2005-12-09 Aspen Celebrates Delivery of Hybrid Buses GM delivers hybrid power for buses added to RFTA transit fleet ASPEN, Colo. - A fleet of seven New Flyer transit buses powered by General Motors hybrid technology will be helping to preserve the natural beauty and environment in Aspen and Roaring Fork Valley. The Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA), the City of Aspen, the Town of Snowmass Village and Pitkin County join the growing ranks of communities investing in transit buses powered by General Motors' hybrid technology, which offers cleaner emissions and greater fuel economy than conventional diesel buses. The Roaring Fork Valley …

GM Design Center - Conceptual Interior Elements In speaking of the future of interior design some months ago, General Motors stated that the black-tie radios seen in virtually every GM vehicle from the Aveo to the Lucerne were a "stepping stone" between the old, often clunky interior controls of the past and the fully-integrated designs coming in the near future. Today, GM released these computer-generated '2007 proposals' of radio/HVAC designs, instrument panels, and other interior design elements. Cars like the 2008 CTS are just the beginning of GM's future design language. And after seeing these, lets hope we caught a glimpse of it. As a note, the captions below are …

Once criticized for blurring the lines between its brands, General Motors Corp. has been busily trying to differentiate the vehicles it sells -- which range from distinctively American Hummers and Chevrolets to European-flavored Saabs -- by focusing on design. ED WELBURN GM • 1972 Joins General Motors design full-time • 1989 Chief Designer, Oldsmobile Studio • 1998 Director, GM Advanced Design Studio • 2002 Executive Director of Design, Body-on-Frame Architectures • 2005 Vice President, Global DesignSince 2003, Ed Welburn, the company's vice president for global design, has been charged with developing concept and production cars to do just that. Design-driven tu…

General Motors Co. boosted incentives on its pickup models this month after its biggest foes gained ground, intensifying a price war within the U.S. auto market’s most hotly contested segment. Discounts averaged about $6,996 for the Chevrolet Silverado and $5,315 for the GMC Sierra this month through Feb. 12, according to J.D. Power dealer data obtained by Bloomberg News. Incentives on GM’s models surged 56 percent and 82 percent, respectively, from a year earlier as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Ford Motor Co. dialed back their spending, according to the researcher... ...GM is being “especially aggressive" on incentives, Brian Johnson, a Barclays analyst, wr…

Richard Truett Automotive News November 22, 2008 - 12:23 am ET General Motors directors are considering a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, the Wall Street Journal and Detroit television stations reported. According to local TV reports, GM's board was meeting late Friday night in the company's downtown Detroit headquarters and had added court protection to the list of actions that may be taken as the company's cash supplies dwindle and the prospects for immediate federal aid dim. The Journal attributed the information to people familiar with outside board members' thinking. The paper said such a move would put directors at odds with CEO Rick Wagoner, who has main…

Jamie LaReau Automotive News February 18, 2009 - 5:05 pm ET DETROIT -- General Motors, focusing on mainstream products in a battle to survive, has scrapped a unit that produced high-performance vehicles. GM today disbanded High Performance Vehicle Operations, which is based at the company's suburban Detroit technical center, and redeployed its engineers, said spokesman Vince Muniga. "All high-performance projects are on indefinite hold," Muniga said. "The engineers are moving into different areas of the organization, and they will work on Cadillacs, Buicks, Chevrolets and Pontiacs." The unit created low-volume vehicles for GM's divisions designed to appeal…

FOR RELEASE: 2006-01-25 GM Restoration Parts and Chevrolet donate $2,500 in genuine parts to restore Corvette returned 37 years after being stolen DETROIT – GM Restoration Parts and Chevrolet have donated $2,500 in genuine parts to help restore the 1968 Corvette convertible that Alan Poster recently had returned to him after being stolen 37 years ago. Alan Poster, who made a number of headlines last week for having his stolen Corvette returned just before being shipped to a would-be buyer in Sweden , was surprised by the gift during an interview with Cruise Control Radio, a national automotive talk radio show. Harlan Charles, Corvette product manager, called to c…

CNN this morning says Toyota up's sales goals to 9.06 million vehicles for '06. GM is set at 9.08 million. Will they stay ahead?