Bloomberg reports that the US Treasury has decided to bless post-C11 Fiat-controlled Chrysler with a $6.6 billion dowry. And just for S&G, the feds will write a check to pre-C11 GM for an “extra” $360.6 million, earmarked for its presidentially guaranteed warranty program. (That’s thanks to the Troubled Asset Relief Program, for some reason.) “The assistance brings to $19.76 billion the total that Detroit-based GM has received so far,” Bloomies tallies. Oh, and “new” Chrysler is also set to scarf an additional $350 million under a loss-sharing deal with GMAC LLC. Rounding it up a bit . . .
GM received $20 billion pre-C-11 and gets $30 billion post bankruptcy, for a total of $50 billion. Chrysler hoovered $7 billion pre-C11, and gets $7 billion post bankruptcy, for a total of $14 billion. GMAC clocks in at $12 billion, all in, so far. I make that $78 billion.
Add in the Department of Energy’s $25 billion retooling loans and $2 billion in Advanced Battery grants, and we’ve broken the $100 billion barrier, at $105 billion. That’s without the aforementioned warranty program or Delphi’s forthcoming bailout or the cost of the new Small Business Administration’s inventory guarantees. And the hits keep happening.
considering the quality of the products the warranty expense seems reasonable :-)
$100 Billion, and they are just getting started. How many more times will “new GM” and “new Chrysler” be back for more cash?
If instead of all of these bailouts, and the bailouts to come, what if the government just gave every last GM and Chrysler employee a check, and liquidated both companies? I assume that could’ve been done for less than $100 Billion. The resulting massive surge of sales at Ford would keep them healthy for quite awhile.
The only way to stop the bleeding is a total consumer boycott of GM and Chrysler that forces Washington to close the doors on these two disasters, or at least to cut them back to something so small that the cost of supporting them Amtrak-style is severely curtailed.
At some point in the near future, I expect Washington to clear excess dealer stock at Government Motors by paying us (with our own money) to buy the surplus. This will cost us many more billions, and cannibalize sales during future years. The resulting car-buying boom will be proclaimed evidence of economic “green shoots”, just like the current house-buying binge in Nevada. Good lefty team-players that they are, the environmentalists will look the other way while a couple of million otherwise-unwanted SUVs pour onto our streets. Anything to help Comrade Obama solve his immediate political problem.
@tparkit: “The only way to stop the bleeding is a total consumer boycott of GM and Chrysler that forces Washington to close the doors on these two disasters”
I am so down with that.
That’s about $1000 per taxpayer so far…Using political violence (theft) instead of free-enterprise is for scumbag parasites that should not be allowed to live in civil society…They are just like any mugger/rapist.
I’ve boycotted GM since 1999, and Chrysler since 2002, myself. Oh, and Ford since 1997.
I’d given up on Ford after buying a new 1975 Pinto on my 18th birthday, and it took almost 20 years before I bought another one. A used Lincoln which constantly broke down, helped rekindle the memories of why I shouldn’t have bothered. As well as friends with blown Ford V6 head gaskets wondering where they’d get the money to fix what they thought was a reliable car.
I’ll stick with Hyundai (Sonata, manufactured – not assembled – including the engine, in Montgomery Alabama USA) and Toyota (Prius, manufactured in Japan). Look at it this way; at least I’m buying 50% American (or zero, in some people’s minds – but that’s not my problem, it’s theirs).
It’s so sad that the SNL sketch from November 2008 is turning out to be accurate. I’ve boycotted the weak 3, but am interested to at least look at a Fiesta. Not to say I’d ever buy one though.
Ford is just as sick, they just have not asked for help – yet. Even if GM and Chrysler die, Ford would only get the full size truck market. Ford’s cars are not competitive, at least not yet. Who can get excited about a Focus. I think it is national pride – losing our home based auto industry – that is the major support for trying to save the car companies. Maybe it is foolish pride.
What we are mostly seeing is a monumental failure of American management. These idiots (starting with Jack Welch) have off-shored and destroyed every industry they have touched.
Having Fiat run Chrysler makes a lot of sense. Maybe we should hire away the president of Hyundai to run GM, and when Ford files, maybe recruit a CEO from Japan.
Can I get a simple 1 million dollar bridge loan over here? When the bottom falls out of the dollar I’m going to need it to buy a loaf of bread.
GS650G: Ask for more. The Gov’t’s good for it. Really.
Even as a Jeep guy, I am done buying any UAW built vehicles. Never, ever again. Hopefully Chrysler will be forced to sell the Jeep brand.
Davekaybsc and tparkit…to use the vernacular ‘Word!’. There’s barely a day goes by there isn’t evidence that the bailout money required isn’t going to be more. Write the people retirement cheques, wind the damn companies up, sell them, whatever the f***. Just don’t tell me some more bullshit about ‘ripple effects’ and ‘multipliers’ and God knows what else and imply that somehow, someway, it will pay off in the end.