Stung by the public outcry over Jet-Gate, Detroit’s automakers are orchestrating a “cavalcade of fuel-efficient American-brand vehicles to Washington, D.C., in December, when Congress reconsiders the industry’s plea for quick action on low-interest loans,” according to the Detroit Free Press. “The aim,” intones the Freep, “is to put a populist face on the need for the American auto industry’s survival and to build grassroots support for federal aid, in the wake of criticism that the Detroit Three chief executive officers and UAW President Ron Gettelfinger did not make a convincing case during two days of congressional hearings last week.” The Caravan of Love will include auto suppliers, dealers and the UAW, escorting Detroit’s finest in a grand processional of pathos to the Mother Of All Beggin Bowls, though they’ll probably skip on the whole “Respica te, hominem te memento” bit. The events will begin with a December 7th rally in Hart Plaza, then the “cavalcade” would head to Washington, with stops along the way for rallies and news conferences. Things will wrap up with yet more testimony from Detroit’s newly-clothed-with-glory CEOs, and the ceremonial presentation of a giant check for $25b. Hallelujah, I’ve got the spirit!
Find Reviews by Make:
Read all comments
Politics is just a bunch of fake crap just for show.
And there’s barely any grassroots support for aid now. It’s all astroturf groups masquerading as such.
It’s important for the government to bail out GM, so that GM can continue as one of the main sponsors of right-wing talk radio diatribes against government and government bailouts.
So does that mean that Wagner will take the wheel of a new Aveo/G3 and drive it clear to Washington? Maybe followed close behind by the Cerebus clan in a stripper Dodge Avenger? And perhaps Mullaly (I almost feel sorry for this guy) will get the duct-tape out for a base Focus…yeah…that’ll get plenty of sympathy from the DC crowd! Heck, driving that trio of crap ought to be justification enough to give them the $25B!
It would be funny it if wasn’t so tragic. Detroit thinks if they caravan to DC in fuel efficient vehicles we will forget all about their corporate jet larks of last week. It’s like changing the course of the Titanic after it hit the iceberg.
The contempt they have for the American people, their purported saviors, is astonishing.
Usually Santa Claus is the star of the Christmas Parade. This time he’ll be the destination.
Wrath of God scenario:
Caravan attempts crossing Appalachians just as a freakish Nor’easter heads up the eastern seaboard. CEOs, major bigwigs stranded somewhere in W.Va.
Uh guys, that horse already left the barn. Just man up and declare Chapter 11 before it is too late and C.7 is your sole remaining option.
–chuck
Cavalcade: So they’re going to be driving Cavaliers and Escalades?
chuck,
the legislature along with freshly minted o-president will bailout those automotive nincompoops. There are no ifs or buts about it. The original script revealed by SNL will be modified to include some new vehicles (Volt?) that will powered on hot air, flatulence and excrement. They will be build in 3-5 years, will cost mere 12K per unit, and will produce zero carbon footprint. 3 years from now during campaign 2011 president will demand answers and will demand from congress to produce flatulence powered vehicles. Right wing and Al-Qaeda will be blamed for delays and another promissory note will be written.
Will GM’s “fuel efficient” cavalcade vehicle be the 20mpg(highway) Tahoe hybrid?
I remain in awe of the marketing genius that gives us a “hybrid” that doubles as a “gas guzzler.”
Whoops! Can’t have Wagoner riding down in a cheap-ass Tahoe… I’d forgotten that the Escalade hybrid is now available!
And it shows off one of GM’s real strengths… superior badge engineering!
Politics is just a bunch of fake crap just for show.
I believe the quote is “Politics is showbusiness for ugly people”.
Anyways, this should be interesting. I will bet that we’ll see any number of Flexfuel Tahoes, Aspens and Expeditions and not a single Cobalt XFE, base-trim Caliber and/or Focus SE.
Bonus if one of the six Hemi Hybrids to survive the crusher makes the trip.
Since GM can’t seem to kick a Vue two-mode out the door and Volt is essentially gorilla dust, Ford is going to get a lot of mileage (pun intended) over having the only commercially viable, mass-market hybrid (the Escape) of this group.
The Dems aren’t bailing out the Big 3 they are bailing out their UAW allies.
The Dems aren’t bailing out the Big 3 they are bailing out their UAW allies
The Democrats don’t need the UAW any more than the Republicans need Christian Fundamentalists. Why? Because who else are these people going to vote for? At worst, these people will stay home and not vote, but they certainly won’t cast their ballot for the other side.
Every party, once elected, drifts just to the right of centre, soaking up the money as they go along. A duopoly like the American system, this is just more likely than normal as there’s no alternative party on the immediate left or right of the Democrats/Republicans who would split the vote.
If you look at this most recent election, the total number of voters were little changed, even with all the new registered voters/dead people/illegals/druggies/homeless/felons that Obama managed to get registered.
That tells you a lot of conservatives stayed home.
Day late with the creative marketing guys. It could have been a cheap way to draw attention to their competitive cars like the Malibu, but now it just looks like desperation.
These guys live in a bubble. Just fly coach with your tails between your legs.
Too bad these guys don’t have some real stones.. they could bring down a couple competitor vehicles (the new gen Camry and accord, maybe a highlander hybrid too) and put them next to their vehicles.
If they were really feeling ballsy they could bring down a prius and put it up against a fusion hybrid or even a volt mule (I’m still convinced the Chrysler stuff is vaporware)
I’ve been in almost all of these vehicles and I think people would be surprised how close they actually are.
In the end it doesn’t matter. The delay isn’t about getting a business case together. It’s about figuring out how much bacon it’ll take to get this thing though congress ( probably another 20%, so lets make it $5B)
Screw the C11 Cavalcade of Green Love…Fly your damned Jets Boys…
Just have your peeps make sure that the day before you board said Jets, you politely email all of the Senators, Representatives and MSM scribes and talking heads who have availed themselves of the use of your Jets over the last few years (such as Neal Boudette of the WSJ who has flown on Big-3 jets many times in 2008 alone) to gently remind them that you haven’t forgotten how much they enjoyed the Big-3’s hospitality such a short time ago-how quickly you forget huh, Senator A-hole? Then you publish that list as a full-page ad in the NYT, WSJ and every major paper across the U.S.A. and on T.V. spots so that the egomaniacal hypocrites in Congress who only exist due to lobbyists and our tax dollars paying for their lavish D.C. royalty-like lifestyles can get a good taste of a little well-deserved ‘blowback’.
We get the government we voted for so…we suck too, because we allow this all to go on.
Jonathan Swift’s aphorism is as true now as it was then.
It is impossible to reason someone out of something that he did not reason himself into in the first place.
The level of antipathy towards the Detroit 3 has me convinced that for many people there is nothing the Detroit companies can do to appease them. For some people, a public burning of CEO pensions and having the executives and UAW officials open up their veins and bleed out in front of Congress and the media won’t be enough.
It’s like I said the other day, the CEOs could caravan to Washington – Wagoner could drive a Volt, Mullaly a HySeries hydrogen fuel cell powered Edge, Nardelli an Europa converted to an EV, with journalists trailing in a two-mode hybrid bus, and the press coverage and the Detroit haters would still be negative.
To paraphrase one of the comments above, the contempt shown to fellow Americans trying to work themselves out of a crisis is astonishing.
Meanwhile, Citigroup is getting another $20 billion in cash (the meter is now running at $45 billion) plus up to $300 billion in loses the taxpayers will cover, and there are no demands for business plans, no demand for axing executive planes and perks, no dog and pony show hearings with grandstanding politicians.
When the folks above show half the ire towards Wall Street that they show to Detroit, I’ll believe they care about this country.
While Detroit may have sold your dad a crappy car 20 years ago, they haven’t destroyed much of the value of your life savings, but go ahead, bash Detroit while you’re writing a blank check to Wall Street.
Ronnie: Don’t assume that antipathy towards Detroit is the same thing as sympathy for Wall Street. If our opposition to the Detroit bailout isn’t on the same level as our opposition to TARP, it’s because we are a car site. Believe it or not.
Ronnie: Don’t assume that antipathy towards Detroit is the same thing as sympathy for Wall Street. If our opposition to the Detroit bailout isn’t on the same level as our opposition to TARP, it’s because we are a car site. Believe it or not.
Ed, I know that this is a special interest web site, but it’s not just on TTAC. Washington is just shoveling money at Wall Street and there’s hardly any anger that I can see. Frustration with 401Ks and the like going down, but not the hot anger you see targeted at the Detroit 3.
There’s just such a clear double standard it makes me want to scream. The shear chutzpah of the bankers is amply illustrated by the CEO of Bank of America, $25 billion of taxpayer money already in hand, telling the Detroit Economic Club that Detroit should accept the stipulation that one of the Detroit 3 should disappear before Congress should bail them out. Imagine an auto CEO suggesting to the NY Economic Club that we might have too many banks.
I’m hardly a pollyanna booster of all things Detroit but fair is fair. Detroit CEOs have to come to Congress, hat in hand, and go through grilling first by grandstanding buffoons like Sen. Shelby and then financial miscreants like Rep. Frank (attn: Dr. Lemming, please note the bipartisan choice of names). Compare that to the back room deal for Citibank that was cooked up over the weekend. Bank CEOs must be getting a good laugh at the expense of Wagoner, Mullaly and Nardelli.
Detroit’s been bleeding to death for years really, with plants closing for the past 30 years. I can well understand Thaddeus McCotter’s righteous indignation. But the Detroit CEOs have to go to Washington once, twice, who knows how many public floggings there will be? Meanwhile, an article appears on Time’s web site on Friday about Citibank’s board meeting over the weekend to consider their options even after they got their $25 billion, and by the time I turned my computer on this morning (Monday), Citibank, the Fed, and Commerce Dept. had a nice new bailout deal wrapped in a tidy bow. No oversight by elected officials, no mea culpas from Citigroup execs on how they screwed the pooch. Just what appears to be a blank check for up to $300 billion in bad loans. Not that oversight by elected officials would do much good. It’s not like Congress knows anything about fiscal responsibility.
Sometimes I feel like saying screw them all, let them have their depression.
Maybe it’s because that while people hate Detroit, they are afraid of Wall Street.
While Detroit may have sold your dad a crappy car 20 years ago, they haven’t destroyed much of the value of your life savings, but go ahead, bash Detroit while you’re writing a blank check to Wall Street.
I think, that when you’ve done as I and others have and watched GM gut it’s highest-quality plant in North America in favour of traditionally lower-quality (but lower-cost) facilities elsewhere, you have a special love for them that really needs no justification. I’d agree that the hate of the domestics in non-manufacturing areas might be a little baseless, but those of us in Michigan, Ohio or Ontario have a free pass to consider them malicious incompetents.
We used to have an viable auto industry on this continent, and it’s largely through greed, laziness and stupidity on the part of the automaker’s management that such is no longer the case.
And it’s not like this is a new thing, either. Detroit has been all about wholesale incompetence since at least 1975. Unless you’re a ideology-drunk right-winger with a burning need to dump on Jimmy Carter, Wall Street’s screwups happened with much less advance preparation.
I like what Ronnie is saying because he is right-there is a double-standard. For example Sunday night George Bush signed the Citibank deal with Hank the Bank Paulson on board Air Force One-how quaint is that juxtaposition? The Big-3 get blasted for using their own business jets that they pay for and Citbank gets a sweet deal signed-off on board a jumbo jet that we ALL pay for? Nice.
Ronnie Schreiber:“But the Detroit CEOs have to go to Washington once, twice, who knows how many public floggings there will be?”
Hmmm….Okay maybe I’m crazy but maybe it’s time for a little reverse psychology and stop treating the Congress like the sacred cows they view themselves as-Nope screw that-try this nice swift kick to the head for the pompous A-holes in D.C.:
On the Friday after Thanksgiving the Big-3 CEOs should announce:
1: We are NOT coming to Washington to testify again due to the fact that we clearly cannot get a fair hearing. Until you the Congress treat us in the same fair-handed manner as the executives at Citigroup and AIG, we will stay up here in Michigan and focus on the job at hand running our Global Companies. Oh yeah-and stop asking us why we build cars in countries other than the U.S.A.-it’s a ‘Flat World’ Congress and we build where we want-get used to it…
2: We are going to immediately layoff 50% of all white-collar staff, suspend all R&D for the time being and close 50% of our U.S. plants next week and begin moving all plants, tooling and R&D to Mexico, India, China and Canada.
3: We will no longer accept bids from U.S. based suppliers. We will only be open to bids from offshore L.C.C. vendors for all future programs and we will be opening up our current contracts to new offshore bidders as well-our goal is to re-write all of our contracts within 12 months just as so many of you Republicans on the Hill have suggested.
4: We will immediately suspend all health care benefits for all remaining white and blue collar workers and dump all of them into your Medicare and Medicaid systems and we suggest our starving U.S. based supply base do the same themselves until we can offshore everything and starve them out.
5: All three us us have instructed our Corporate and Real Estate arms of our companies to begin the process of relocating our HQ and articles of incorporation to the Cayman Islands where the local government has offered us some beautiful ocean-front property, free water, free sewer and no taxes whatsoever for us for 10+ years to build our new HQs-and BTW the way they will be LEEDS certified.
6: We the Big-3 automakers will also be posting on our respective websites just how much lobbying money we have been sending each one of you so your constituents will have a real nice understanding of just what kind of folks they voted for and how much cash we pushed your way just to be beat up by you-nice gratitude Congress.
7: We will also be making money in the near future by leasing some of our Cayman Island land and a whole bunch of land we got from the Mexican government in the N.A.F.T.A. zones by leasing it to what you folks lovingly refer to as ‘the transplants’ because once the world goes into a Depression, believe it or not, the U.S. Dollar will again be the strongest currency in the world and once the Dollar-Yen and Dollar-Euro ratio reaches a certain tipping point it will no longer make any economic sense for the transplants to build cars in the U.S.A. it will simply cost too much…bye bye transplants-see y’all in Mexico, China, India once you get tired of the U.S. Congress treating you like a pinata too.
You in Congress took our money in the form of taxes and lobbying cash for over 100 years and when we asked you for a small loan, you turned your back on us. So now we will be turning our back on you and and the U.S. market since we (except for Bob Nardelli) can easily make money with greater margins in markets overseas that don’t over-tax us (35% in the U.S. for corporate) and actually appreciate us being a part of their economy.
You in Congress have suggested we restructure ourselves and that’s exactly what we are going to do-we’re just not going to do it here anymore…See ya around-next time you’re on some junket to the Caymans, swing by, we’ll show you around the new digs.
I’d like to think Congress would instantly soil itself with such an announcement, but they’ve exhibited nothing but daftness so far, so why should I expect that they would give a damn now? They’d probably not even notice as the U.S.A. sunk swiftly into a Not-So-Great Depression. Thanks Congress, thanks for nothing. Again, we get the government that we voted for.
Uh, Stu, Congress is made up of, among others, MY elected representatives. In essence, you’re suggesting Detroit thumb its collective nose at me. Not the best plan, if you ask me.
Second, your plan turns The Big Three into, de facto and de jure, non-American auto companies. Who do you think Detroit’s customers are? For the most part, it’s people who will only buy from American auto companies (even if the cars are made in Korea and Mexico). You’re suggesting that Detroit kill off the one thing that they’ve got going for them. Who do you think is dying to buy Impalas? Icelanders, Finns and Iranians?
@Kixstart: it’s called ‘Hyperbole’…I’m simply ‘flipping the script’ on Congress.
As for selling Impalas in Iran etc…the GMT900 plants are working 2 and 3-shift OT to build enough FS SUVs to satisfy the Central American and the Middle Eastern markets and BELIEVE me, 90% of these sales are made in cash, rarely financed and have zero cash on the hood.
Opel, Vauxhall, Holden, SAIC all have been making money while GM NA has been losing money over the last 5+ years…GM without NA could make more money right now than a GM with the NA Division…Ford of Europe, Asia and Australia/NZ make money and make a great product…While not a great analogy, Honda and Mazda both make most of their profits overseas-their home market operations are not very strong…GM and Ford could be the same way if my crazy scheme came true-if the U.S. market is TOO HOSTILE a place to conduct business, why be there?…but again, I’m using hyperbole.
…GMT900 plants are working 2 and 3-shift OT to build enough FS SUVs to satisfy the Central American and the Middle Eastern markets…
Last I checked, they’re closing Oshawa Truck, which builds–wait for it–GMT900s. I think it’s safe to say they’re running only the cheap plants at this point.
Remember, kids. At GM, it’s not about winning quality awards or producing a rock-solid product, it’s about how much you’re worth if Rick Wagoner needs to cut of another chunk of flesh.
Unless you’re a ideology-drunk right-winger with a burning need to dump on Jimmy Carter,
One needn’t be ideological to dump on Jimmy Carter. His odious behavior is sufficient reason for anyone with even half a sense of decency to want to see that preening, smug, self righteous, self promoting, gasbag get some kind of comeuppance. He’s in good company with Desmond Tutu.
It’s interesting that their group, The Elders, has Christians, Muslims and Hindus, but no Jews, nor do they include the Dalai Lama (mustn’t offend the rulers in Beijing).
Uh, Stu, Congress is made up of, among others, MY elected representatives. In essence, you’re suggesting Detroit thumb its collective nose at me. Not the best plan, if you ask me.
The last time I looked, YOUR elected representatives are still paid with MY taxes. If they’re going to grandstand on my dime, completely disrespecting the people who live and work around here, they’re gonna get an earful.
I’d love to see someone representing the auto industry pull a Joseph Welch.
Today I called up Rep. Ackerman’s office and asked the aid that if the representative is so concerned with how the Detroit CEOs fly, perhaps his office could provide me with an accounting of how much the taxpayers have spent on the representative’s travel, including whether he flew coach, business or first class and how many times he’s traveled on business jets owned by the military.
This is a no-win deal for these guys.
If they drive now they’re shamelessly pandering and if they fly the G5s they’re clueless.
Mullaly (since he’s leading the team that actually has a plan, a clue, and a shot) ought to just say, “Screw this… fire up the Gulfstream boys.” …Then caravan Town Cars from Dulles to the steps of the capitol…. and leave them idling the entire time Congress is grandstanding and pontificating.
Oh yeah …and I suggest the menu for their in-flight snack ought to be fricaseed spotted owl and snail darter soup.
Quote: ” Last I checked, they’re closing Oshawa Truck, which builds–wait for it–GMT900s. I think it’s safe to say they’re running only the cheap plants at this point.”-psarhjinian
I wrote: “ the GMT900 plants are working 2 and 3-shift OT to build enough FS SUVs to satisfy the Central American and the Middle Eastern markets”….Notice the ‘SUV‘ portion of that comment?!?! That means that I was referring to the SUV portion of the GMT900 line….Oshawa Truck only builds the extended cab and crew cab light duty Pickups…not the SUVs.
Silao, Mexico, Arlington, Texas and Janesville, Wisconsin, the three SUV plants are currently ALL working OT-shifts (only running the cheap plants, huh?) to keep up with demand so your assertion that just because a light truck plant is scheduled to close sometime next year means that GMT900 SUVs are not selling well in the world’s markets is totally baseless…That would be like saying that because Honda Ridgelines are not selling well that Honda Pilots must not be selling well. Check your facts…Oshawa Truck builds light-duty trucks, not SUVs. Here check this link from GM about Oshawa Truck if the TTAC Spam Filter will let it be posted…
http://www.gm.com/corporate/about/global_operations/north_america/cana_osh_truck.jsp
Check your facts…Oshawa Truck builds light-duty trucks, not SUVs. Here check this link from GM about Oshawa Truck if the TTAC Spam Filter will let it be posted…
The point is, Oshawa makes a high-quality product. Heck, they’ve won awards for it. Awards, I might add, that are global, not restricted to domestic automakers and–this is important–not puff pieces like Car Of The Year or 10Best. GM pushed the hell out of this fact in their advertising.
Maybe I’m being petty and regional, but I wouldn’t shutter my highest-quality plant when by my own admission I’m facing perception problems. Of course, I’m not GM, doing the corporate equivalent of looking under the couch cushions for loose change. I maintain that shutting Oshawa and moving the GMT900 trucks for Mexico sends exactly the wrong message, which is: “When given a choice between cheap and good, we’ll choose cheap.”
Quote: “ The point is, Oshawa makes a high-quality product. Heck, they’ve won awards for it. “-psarhjinian
If you are referring the the J.D. Power Gold Award that Oshawa won, that was for the Oshawa One and Two Plants that produce cars, not trucks. Oshawa 1&2 produces LaCrosse, Impala, Monte Carlo etc…I don’t know of an award for the Oshawa Truck Plant which coincidentally is right across the street from the Oshawa Car Plants.
BTW that same award-winning car plant is now producing the Camaro and will produce any other Zeta platform that GM hopes to build in North America but unless they find some cash….