Board endorses direction of reorganized GM (click title to entry - thank you)
Wed Aug 5, 2009 1:35am EDT
DETROIT (Reuters) - The board of General Motors Co endorsed the automaker's direction and the focus of management after the first meeting of directors since GM emerged from a U.S. government-financed bankruptcy last month. A...";
GMC has abandoned, ONCE AGAIN, the American Auto Worker. The people of the USA saved the company from complete liquidation and now thanks to 'old blood' at GMC there will be plants manned in foreign nations rather than expanding the production of GM's products in the USA.
The Volt proved to be a hopeful new beginning for the car manufacturer and its work force. An exclusive design of a car that achieved 230 mpg. The sales from such a vehicle would have opened new plants and employed more workers, expanding the USA tax base and increasing the USA GDP while exports of the car helped balance the USA trade deficit. Now, in one simply action by the Board of Directors of GM, there will be production plants of GMC vehicles in India, China and Germany. So much for the loyalty of improving the USA economy, increased work force, expanding tax base and a better position for GM and the USA in the world.
Roger Smith's spirit continues to live in the 'Slimeball Halls' of GMC.
Chevy needs bigger share of GM sales, brand’s boss says (click here)
Jesse Snyder
Automotive News
August 28, 2009 - 2:56 pm ET
DETROIT -- Chevrolet's target as the value brand of a leaner General Motors Co. is to capture 60 to 65 percent of GM sales globally, Chevy boss Brent Dewar said today.
He identified the United States, China and India as Chevrolet's best opportunities for growth but also said Chevrolet intends to double its European sales to 1 million over an unspecified period.
As GM shuts or sells its Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab brands and reduces the number of U.S. Chevrolet franchises by 1,000, surviving Chevy dealers are being asked to expand and upgrade stores to handle anticipated higher volumes in 2010 and 2011, Dewar said outside a regional dealer meeting in suburban Detroit.
"We're asking them to step up to higher sales targets" that follow a reduction in Chevrolet dealers following GM's bankruptcy and the reduction of brands, Dewar said....
...There isn’t much left of the GM brand, and one wonders what will be there a year from now when GM, the new GM, will be in the midst of an expected initial public offering.The automaker, fresh from Chapter 11, has decided, as was first reported in The Wall Street Journal, that it will phase out attaching a small GM badge in the front bumper of each vehicle. There will be no such badge on 2011 models.As the bandit in The Treasure of Sierra Madre famously said, “We don’t need no badges…I don’t have to show you any stinking badges.”
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2009/08/_there_isnt_muc.html
Big Deal: German Government financed General Motors with taxpayers’ money
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hesitating to use more taxpayers' money for the rescue of General Motors European carmaker OPEL. But an embarrassing fact remains: According to information from LifeGen.de, the German Federal Government has financed through the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) two important research projects of General Motors in the past- with German public money.
http://www.lifegen.de/newsip/shownews.php4?getnews=m2009-08-26-4708&pc=s02
Merkel party ally urges delay in Opel decision: report (click here)
Sun Aug 30, 2009 11:47am EDT
..."I think it would make sense to delay the decision until after the federal elections," Hans-Peter Friedrich, conservative parliamentary deputy floor leader, told German daily Die Welt.
"An objective decision could only be made with difficulty in this heated atmosphere in light of the election campaigns," he was quoted as saying in an article to be published on Monday.
Talks to sell Opel have been running for months and loom as a hot political issue ahead of German elections on September 27, because of the state support required for the eventual buyer....
Spain Doesn’t Rule Out Aid If GM Drops Opel-Sale Plan (Update1) (click here)
By Javier Marquina
Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The Spanish government said today it wouldn’t rule out giving financial aid to General Motors Co.’s Opel unit even if the U.S. carmaker decides to keep the European division.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Spain is “following intensely” the negotiations on a possible sale of Opel. Asked whether Spain would still offer aid if GM decides not to sell Opel, Zapatero said his government is “ready to give help to different alternatives for Opel and GM in Spain.”...
