GM ADMITS They've Betrayed AND Disappointed Us- Now That We've Done That, Please Give Us Your 14 Billion.

Would a man trust his wife again if she lied, cheated and stole from you for 20 or so years and said I will never do it again if you give me a second chance? Didnt think so.

There should be only one survivor allowed out of the three.

two.... not one.

Gotta have competition at least between GM & Ford. What about all the trucks/vans used for more commercial purposes? No need to import those too!

THe new "car czar" should force the 3 to merge and create a single lean and mean survivable domestic car manufacturer sans unprofitable models. The new entity can then compete successfully with all foreign car makers. The tricky part is how to distribute shares in the new entity to the respective existing shareholders. Since Ford has plenty of cash and cash is king, cash should be exchanged for some attractive convertible preferred shares. The distribution of common shares should be formulated according to recent performance that can reasonably be used as a gauge of future performance. For example a fire sale of dismal models would not count toward performance.

Under this scenario, some government funding might be appropriate if used solely for the purpose of facilitating the merger. Any broader government financial assistance should require the granting of a substantial equity position to the taxpayer in addition to repayment of assistance with interest.

better question:

Do we now trust that they will not make the same mistake again should they survive?

I'm not knowledgeable enough to say definitively, but GM has been coming out with some truly impressive cars/designs (e.g. CTS-v, ZR1, Cruze, Volt, Malibu, etc.). I'd like to see GM make the come back and make quality vehicles so that we can be proud of the American auto industry for the first time in a while.

They do, go drive one, as a matter of fact go buy one and support the US automakers, then they wouldn't need taxpayer money, face it the consumer did it to themselves, GM Ford and Chrysler have been making a quality product for years now, just no one will give them a chance and everyone likes to talk sh^!, because they think they know it all.

Well JMB1013,

"I'm not knowledgeable enough to say definitively, but GM has been coming out with some truly impressive cars/designs"

Humility on autospies!! I'll be darned. Wish more people had an open mind about this subject like you.

The only reason why they are improving is because of japanese and european engineering.

veyron1001...

Get your fishing line out of the water. Get your degree in engineering and go work for a real company.

american_made,

You said it the best. People just don't care and are too snooty to support their own country.

Cough** Californians **Cough

neutral- its a sad fact that most californians don't supports the american auto makers. however that goes the same way for the rest of america. I live in san diego and I have always supported the american auto industry. I just bought a new 2009 pontiac G8 GT. Hopefully more people would realize to take a second look at GM and even Ford and hopefully see that the products they make now arent the same that they made 5, 10, 15 years ago.

t_sotello,

You're completely correct. I was using Californians as an example... the stereotype of Californians mindlessly buying Toyota/Honda appliances like Accords & Camry is the strongest stereotype I could use of for my point.

As for your G8 GT, I'm jealous. A coworker has one, gets great mileage (upper 20's on Hwy) and has tons of power. One thing that does piss me off about the G8 is no Navigation (i know, its no BIG deal but still). Navigation systems are 1 thing that GM really needs to improve on.

So long as GM/Ford keep up the work theyve been doing, hopefully more people will look back to domestics.

By the way, its easier for you to have a G8 too.... we're having blizzards where Im living.

neutral- the navigation part doesn't piss me off. however if i had to find something that i didn't like about the car is the recline doesn't have power. but the rest of the seat controls are power. other than that, the rest of the car is awesome.

Ummmm, stop me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't you be better off buying an American made Honda, Toyota or Nissan than an Australian made Pontiac? I know it's still GM and all, but surely the net benefit for the nation would be greater in that situation?

t_sotello...the only country you're supporting with your G8 GT is Australia. It's an Ausiie design; born and bred, just like the former GTO. Calling it American is a stretch.

A Toyota Camry is more American than the Ford Mustang.

1UAW, so you're telling me that all those US made "Imports" don't have any local content? A whole lot of the components are made in the US, the assembly staff all live in the USA etc, etc, etc. All I'm saying is that for net effect for the nation ANY vehicle made in the US has got to be a better option than a "US brand" vehicle made elsewhere.
As for the profits staying in the US, ummmmmmm, what profits?

And GM's rolling in money right now, giving plenty back to the US?
And if YOU understood macroeconomics, the basic premise is that money comes from product, either material or labour. A car made in the US will give more back to the US than a car made by a US company outside of the US. All the assembly staff are getting paid in the US, all off the US suppliers' staff are getting paid in the US, and all that money goes back into the US economy. Buy a foreign made "US" car and all that money goes back to another country.
Man, I'm just saying that I think that it'd be better for the US economy if it were US MADE (not just US BRAND) vehicles being bought.

Truth is, the G8 isn't an everyday car.

Truth also is that a Ford Fusion built in Mexico supports more blue & white collar jobs in the USA than a Honda Accord built in Ohio.

People forget that theres a tons more to the auto industry than executives and line workers.

I'd still like to see more American production of American cars (even though most are still produced in USA).

its crazy these want to crucify them, i mean seriously the past few years they have beentrying to turn around....the world acts as if they were the only ones that have made poor cars, many europeans have been making crappy cars for decades, and have just gotten better along with some japanese companies. Not to mention why must we see a million negative ads about them all over everywhere....in some respects at least GM and Ford have class leaders, and cars that are at least better than many other cars or on par. Its shameful the way people are acting with them. Seriously

Agreed!! Boost +1!

Ford deserves the least help... giving us the 500, err, taurus... and giving everyone else the mondeo, s-max, fiesta, focus-st... GM gave us the corvette and cts... and at least chrysler/dodge gave us the SRT-8 series... seems like Ford is the most anti-american... ironic given its historical roots

Ford is converting plants NOW to bring those same European models to the US. They are consolidating ALL cars in the US (save trucks and SUVs) to global chassis.

So really who deserves the money?

ohhh NOW? really?... well i sure cant buy any of those models NOW... and anyway... just proves my point... they marketed these cars in other places in the world FIRST while still feeding us there subpar cars... they started the mk3 mondeo in 2000 and its taken them THIS long to "convert plants" for us? they spent their money developing better cars in other countries rather than here in the states... not an argument... just the facts

so then how do they deserve OUR bailout money? only to feed it to developing decent cars other places in the world?

Wow, troll much?

Seriously what do you want the current management to do? They are making the needed changes to become profitable and make truly world class products. So why shouldn't they get any money? All the money will do is speed up the conversions and allow them to reach stability and profitability faster.

What is your problem with that?

the main reason why I don't think they need our money (as stated before) is because they have become successful overseas with cars they are not building for us ("yet")... they lost our faith because their quality standards for our cars grew lower and lower while focusing on SUV's and trucks whose market is growing slimmer due to gas prices (unfortunate)... dont get me wrong I am all for this "conversion" process... but they should use the money they made off of these better models overseas and put it into these mysterious "conversion" plants here in attempt to regain brand quality reputation... they should use THEIR OWN money from their success (be it overseas) to slowly bring back quality reputation and faith of US consumers...

WOW!...GM 'admits' to quality problems, lackluster design, brand proliferation, out of focus with market and biased towards SUV's!!!.....like this is something we didn't know already? These guys aren't just out of 'focus' they're completely out of touch with reality! I'll admit their product has maybe improved some but why has it taken so long to admit it?

GM mrely said what we all wanted them to say. Call it admitting or "dancing to the tune".

gm should die. and there is no obligation for americans to 'support' any business. its called competition you flag waving morons. if gm had the best products we would be driving them. if you cannot give the customer what they want you should die as a business. it happens every day. rest in pieces gm. and thank stupidass rick wagoner and all the rest of the dinosaurs who have run gm into the ground in the last 25 years. and tell stick up man gettelfinger to go away while youre at it.

Well if you want Gm to go under then enjoy seeing Ford and Chrysler as well as almost every US based parts designer as well. You will see unemployment jump a few points overnight. Get ready to pay out the ass in taxes to support the people instantly unemployed. Get ready to pay for another bail out for all the mortgages that are going to collapse.

OR you could help a company that is struggling that supports directly or indirectly tens of millions of people (some estimates as high as 40%!) by loaning them money which they will repay.

Your call. And don't let your personal bias influence the business decision of what is best for the country.

Hey UAW1, any idea why we couldn't get the badass European Ford Focus here in America?

The garbage 3 have been ripping us for decades, and believe me in couple of months they WILL get our money too and rip us further, do you know why? Because their buddies in the government (senators/congressmen/presidents/etc...) have a stake with them too, so they will ONLY drag this episode a little longer then give them everything they want.

Who will be laughing at the end? Definitely not us.

lets face it. we as a country need to get a grip. we don't need to be the nation that fall's. but the way we keep going we will. we are the blame noone else. we like half way desent products at low cost. that's why everything is made over sea's. the big 3 is only a few thing's we make here. we sold our names to over sea's such as rca tv's. why? cause most american's want high paying job's that doesn't take much of a sweat to work. a man working here in toledo ohio powertrain of gm makes around 50.000 a year to screw 4 screws in a tail light. china pay's less than a dollar a hour for their worker's. so the can spend more money making hteir cars last longer. but still no matter how we all fight about it.. only hte usa had made the true muscle car's.. thank you God for gm. ford and crysler

GM needs a new CEO...