[strider3700]

Fords July sales down 15% overall 21% on trucks 54% on SUV's year over year
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/art ... RTUNE5.htm
Toyota not much better down 11%

GM's numbers still to come

[TheDude]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eXpat', 'G').M. reports loses of $15.5 Billion last quarter link

[Denny]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '�')��I do not see any panic here,” Ray Young, G.M.’s chief financial officer, said in an interview Friday. “I do see more of a resolve. We need to take these actions and focus on what we can control.”

[Denny]

Even more gloom for GM in this article GM pension faces huge shortfall

"According to documents available only to plan members and regulatory officials, actuaries estimate GM's pension plan for 43,717 hourly rated employees, retirees and survivors in Canada would be short 43.5 per cent of the money needed to pay all pension promises if GM failed, based on estimates as of November of 2006."

More ominous is this statement by the head of the Canadian Auto Workers, Buzz Hargrove: "I think it's inevitable GM will file for Chapter 11 (bankruptcy protection) in the U.S., but that doesn't mean that all the GM plants will close".

[patience]

Here's a GM plant closed, and being auctioned off:

Delphi Plant Auction, Needmore Road, Cayton, OH

This plant made brakes and master cylinders. It's a whopper of a plant, requiring a 3 day sale. Former Delco Moraine? Wonder who buys all this specialized stuff? Presses, grinders, decoilers, and CNC machines, Yeah, I can see a market, if not a big market just now, but all the dedicated automation for assembling brakes?? Probably scrap iron now.

[Minvaren]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'U').S. auto sales continued their slide in August despite stepped-up incentives to buyers, with Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) posting a 9.4% decline and Ford Motor Co. (F) reporting a 27% drop.

[eXpat]

Can i have some money please? Is just temporary, till business get back again...

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')ETROIT — Executives from General Motors and the Ford Motor Company pressed their case on Tuesday for $25 billion in federal loans in a series of high-level meetings with lawmakers in Washington.
The appearances by G.M.’s chairman, Rick Wagoner, and Ford’s executive chairman, William C. Ford Jr., underscored how vital the industry considers the loans as it tries to meet tougher fuel-efficiency regulations.

Mr. Wagoner traveled to Washington shortly after G.M. unveiled the production version of its Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle in Detroit. The timing was coincidental, given that G.M. was celebrating its 100th anniversary on Tuesday.

[ubercrap]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RacerJace', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Snowrunner', '.')....

If GM really wanted to do something though, why not start bringing Astras etc. over from Opel? They would need to get re-batched, but they could at least start selling them in short order and I don't see the demand for individual transportation go away any time soon in North America, the entire country is build around the car.

[Revi]

GM is launching the volt. Wait, not until 2011...

I'll believe it when I see it.



http://www.usnews.com/blogs/fresh-green ... -volt.html

[Niagara]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Revi', 'G')M is launching the volt. Wait, not until 2011...

I'll believe it when I see it.



http://www.usnews.com/blogs/fresh-green ... -volt.html

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Niagara', '
')They'll run to Washington crying "You can't let us fail. You must bail us out because we're building a 'green' car. Can we have $100 billion? Pretty, pretty please?"

[skeptik]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('timmac', 's')mallpoxgirl wrote :
Yeah 35 km/gal would make a lot more sense wouldn't it?
I am not sure how that metric/imperial works out in American mpg but would he have really mean is that it only gets 20 mpg American,, if so that is not so great after all but not to bad for most of our big suv's over here..........

[Revi]

Let them die. That's capitalism. The future belongs to Aptera, Zap and Tesla. No need to prop up a dying car company. We can make cars here. They won't be made by the big three, but they will sell like hotcakes.

Those ICE carmakers are so twentieth century. Let's move on.

[Mesuge]

Well, I'm afraid that even after the Rummy's reshuffle of Pentagon for next gen warfare, the establishment is well versed in the WWII history and the importance of tanks, trucks and jeeps for some type of land based conflict even in this thermonuclear age.

You just can't afford to fail all three of Detroit, perhaps only one..

To let Detroit fall is just impossible from the national security standpoint, and the J6P and his offsprings will gladly work for 100hours a week and less money, to support the tax structure for these government bailouts. To run an empire is not a joke, everybody has to give his best..

[Revi]

We can't afford to bail them out. We are bailing out all the banks. Why are we going to bail out ailing car companies that make a bunch of cars nobody wants? A guy offered to trade his newish Durango for my solar-electric car yesterday. Why do we need to bail those leviathans out?

We need to build a million of these:

www.sunnev.com

[Mesuge]

There are lot of stupid central bankers in the world who will gladly support you further down the road aka lend more money from their taxpayer's pockets.. In fact that's what is going on right now.

SunNEV is a great local concept but impossible to materialize out of the corporate world, unless the government mandates it. And I'm afraid it would be great money looser even then. The vehicle is too tiny to present any profitability in the traditional car industry, and the local - low volume shops have got horrible economies of scale.
It could work only as sort of infrustructure overhaul a gift to citizens if you will.

Government mandate has to be ironhand strong and last for some predictable amount of time, unless means nothing to the industry hawks, look back at ZEV/CARB of California, EV1..

[TheDude]

Fitch sends GM's rating deeper into junk status (AP)

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')y TOM KRISHER – 1 day ago

DETROIT (AP) — Fitch Ratings downgraded General Motors Corp.'s credit rating deeper into junk status Monday, saying the automaker faces headwinds in almost every direction and its liquidity could drop to "minimum required levels" within the next year.

The credit ratings agency said it reduced GM's issuer default rating one notch to "CCC" from "B-." Both ratings are noninvestment, or junk, grade.

Fitch analyst Mark Oline said GM faces pressures from tightening credit in the U.S., weakening overseas sales, rising raw materials prices, continued sales declines in North America and the need for a large amount of capital spending to transform its lineup from trucks and sport utility vehicles to smaller, more fuel-efficient models.

"If industry sales stay flat in 2009 with a deeply depressed 2008, we do think that the revenue pressures that GM and the industry will face will likely be in excess of their ability to reduce costs," Oline said in an interview. "So we do project that liquidity will continue to decrease, and the company's access to capital is severely limited by the conditions of the industry and the capital markets."

On Friday, GM said it was drawing down the last $3.5 billion of a $4.5 billion secured revolving credit facility to add liquidity during "uncertain times in the capital markets."

[mos6507]

Take a look at this:

ENVI

Too little too late?

The Dodge EV is a _total_ Tesla Roadster ripoff. Well, it turns out it's just another Lotus (Lotus Europa).

All these are simply hastily strapping electric powerplants to existing vehicles (except the NEV which nobody cars about). I'm all for this as far as just getting the show on the road instead of treating it like a "moonshot" the way GM is, only to wind up with a car that looks no different from any other sedan from the outside. It's fast and it's no-nonsense. That's what the RAV4EV was which was perfectly adequate. Sure, you wind up with a larger battery pack for the same range, but it just cuts through the B.S. and gets stuff on the road.

[idiom]

Rather, find something anyhting you can sell inside of six months or its game over.

[lawnchair]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('idiom', 'R')ather, find something anyhting you can sell inside of six months or its game over.