Did Ford Marketing Maven Jim Farley get Rick Wagoner high? How else do you explain the GM CEO’s Valley-speak whilst describing what will be incontrovertible evidence that the company he’s running has hit the wall? What’s that? What do you expect from an accountant who never uses the word “accountability?” Don’t be so churlish! “Last month, we also had tight credit, so I think there’s no question that it’s affecting automotive activity,” RW told Automotive News [sub]. That seems sort of kinda definitive. And then.. “I can’t tell you honestly as we sit here today that it seems worse than last month, but certainly no better.” Uh. OK. So what’s the plan? “Wagoner held out hope a federal auto loan package, tax breaks and a banking bailout, all pending in Congress, would support demand.” As opposed to, say, building vehicles people want to buy? I know, more churl. Anyway… “He also said the automaker, which is scrambling to shore up its cash position, was hoping for more liberal rules that would allow the loans to be used more widely. ‘We’d like to see them to include all new technologies with significant improvements in fuel efficiency, like our new Lambda-based CUVs, which get significantly better mileage than full-size SUVs.” See? I made that last bit up and you didn’t even notice.
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I wonder if Bill Heard can still get Rick Wagoner on speaker phone?…Or vice versa?
Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ‘seems.’
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly. These indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play.
But I have that within which passes show;
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
In other words, I’m bummed. No, really.
“I can’t tell you honestly as we sit here today that it seems worse than last month, but certainly no better.”
Huh? What the heck is that supposed to mean? It reminds me of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series where some characters in the novel analyzed a politician’s speech and in the end it was detrermined he had said nothing.
I wonder if RW can tell me anything honestly.
Could that sentence be rewritten as “I can tell you dishonestly as we sit here today…”
WOW!
big surprise…
now that the working class cant get themselves in over their head on car payments..the car business turns to shit?
I think that ALL the automakers are going to get pinched badly!
Even the ‘shit don’t stink’ imports!
With a good bailout package..the big 2.8 might do well..If any middle class…now lower class makes the commitment.
Wagoner’s got to know he’s a dead man walking right now. Even worse, his legacy will be as the CEO who flew GM into the ground. Hard. Roger Smith will look like Jack Welch in comparison.
I’m sure the undeserved millions that he collected in the process will soften the blow, though.
Given the veritable blizzard of bad economic news we’ve had this past week or so, the chances of anything other than a continued sales slide are even lower than the chances of me waking up beside Megan Fox.
Can we all take a big guess to see how much bonus money Wagoner and his cronies get from getting that $25B loan (now that they don’t need to invest their own money into fuel efficient small cars)? I say Wagoner gets a $5M bonus for leading GM to this money. It’s not about success it’s about bailout.
I know everyone is calling this a bailout. To be honest Toyota received money from the Japanese government to develop the hybrid. What’s the difference?
@truthbetold37 :
The difference is that Toyota is not financially relying on the hybrid. They actually have a decent vehicle portfolio that proofs to be sales efficient.
The Detroit 3 bail out is not going to do anything as you would first have to get rid of all the upper top morons that got the companies in that position in the first place.
At a burn rate of 1- 1.5B per month, `6B for GM buys them 4-6 months. So it will be next fall before the inevitable.
@truthbetold37:
I would make the point that government money given to a corporation that actually uses it to drive technological improvements could be accurately classified as “an investment”. You would have a tough time convincing me that any of the D2.8 are going to use this money wisely, therefore “bailout” seems much more appropriate.
truthbetold37: I know everyone is calling this a bailout. To be honest Toyota received money from the Japanese government to develop the hybrid. What’s the difference?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partnership_for_a_New_Generation_of_Vehicles
Our automakers have received money before too. Can anyone point to anything the big 2.8 released with gov’t backing? I can’t. This is what worries me about the Detroit bailout package. Will they waste this too?
^ To Tex and Joe:
Very good points. In addition, the one certain car that wants to be be the product of an impending bailout is a $40k small Chevy semi-hybrid shaped like a marshmallow. As if this promise of viability weren’t laughable enough, I haven’t seen a thing from Ford or Mopar. What will change? I don’t mind laughing at the new Sebrings, but seeing my tax dollars go to its surely terrible successor will just make me hurt inside.
truthbetold37: I know everyone is calling this a bailout. To be honest Toyota received money from the Japanese government to develop the hybrid. What’s the difference?
Toyota wasn’t going broke when it received the government money.
And because of this, the Japanese government could be reasonably sure that it wasn’t basically flushing said money down the toilet.
For everybody who says Toyota has received Japanese government money to build the Prius, please provide a link proving it. And, anything Jim Press says doesn’t count-he’s working for another team now and has incentive to stretch the truth and/or outright lie.
That is:
1. Name the Japanese government program from which the funds were disbursed.
2. Provide a timeline when they were provided.
3. Provide a figure as to ho much yen Toyota got.
4. Heck, provide any details at all as to this supposed Japanese government hand out.
You know what-you can’t, because there was no such program and no such Japanese government funds.
Now, on the other hand, America’s Partnership for a New Generation of Vehciles (and it’s successor, FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies) is documented to exist, and so is the more recent $25 billion dollar bailout.