Posted on 06/18/2011 8:22:54 AM PDT by SteveH
Are GM sales in the tank??
Is GM in big trouble??
I walked by a GM dealership today. A few months ago I had been checking out a Chevy Volt, and the dealership seemed a bit odd, but basically OK in appearance.
Now the dealership site is a mess. Evidently the lot went from being a new Chevy-GM dealership to a generic warranty pre-owned car lot.
There still is one Chevy Volt there. There are many pre-owned GM cars there along with the usual sprinkling of non GM used cars that one would normally expect.
What caught my eye is that a lot of new GM cars are sitting on the lot without their new car stickers, either ripped off or covered with other stickers. This includes Camaros, Tahoe SUVs, crossover SUVs, and even a couple of Corvettes. Many of the cars are darker, unpopular colors, but some are white. There is a truck canopy in front of the lot, but there are only GM compacts underneath the canopy. There are a couple of 2wd 4 door Silverados sitting further back in the front of the lot.
The sales building is evidently undergoing remodeling, and generally looks like a mess. It is not clear if the remodeling is continuing or has been abandoned.
The service department seems almost empty. Next door, the Honda service department of the Honda dealership is humming with activity.
This does not look normal to me at all. I have never seen such such disarray with a GM (or any other major brand name) dealership in the past. This would be the second GM dealership to go under in about 2 years, if appearances reflect a dealership loss.
I hang out with a somewhat savvy crowd and they shun GM cars.
What makes this scary is that I am scanning FR for GM news and I do not see a lot that signals big problems. Yet, new GM cars should not be hanging around a lot that lost its new dealership franchise... especially the Camaros IMHO... they should have been shuffled off to other new GM dealerships if my understanding of how dealerships normally work is correct. Market pressure would dictate that this happen.
Anyone know how well or poorly GM is doing? Perhaps I am just uninformed (possible since I have just returned from an overseas trip).
As for your question - you just should have asked.
No, they got nothing on the dollar. The old GM shares are worthless.
But don't get too upset. The company executives, the union bosses, and all the lawyers involved will still be taken care of.
However, the old share certificates do look good framed - as a reminder of the industrial might that once was the United States.
Didn’t tell the whole truth? More like, didn’t tell any truth. GM didn’t pay back the money and they aren’t profitable.
>>>The original GM stockholders — I think I read they only got 10 cents on the dollar.
You mean the original GM senior bondholders (who should have had first claim on the iquidated company’s assets). The original GM stockholders got NOTHING.
I have a ‘09 Ford Fusion and I love it.
This always bothered me what exactly is a pre-owned car?
To me pre means before it was owned. Now wouldn’t that make it a new car.
The Goonions are having their say in management. Sop is the denizen of the White Hut.
You got problems with allowing tribalism to manage the auto industry?
;-)
I wonder if the numbers are fudged, but on the other hand, I love my Ford Escape and when I finally beat this one into the ground I'll probably get another one. Apparently, Ford Escapes last as long as those two cats up at the engine last.
I think you nailed it.....this dealership is definitely on the way out specifically - and yes, GM is probably in trouble over all also....
GM doesn’t have the leadership to turn things around. The best they can hope for is that the government will give them more taxpayer money.
As you stated, they had first claim on the liquidated company’s assets. But that would interfere with His Majesty Obama's brilliant economic plans.
So the bondholders were stripped of their rights, given a handful of coins, then shown the door.
Personally, I will NEVER buy a GM product for the rest of my life so if every dealership fall off the planet I won't notice
Would you have your Ford rust-proofed, or would you be satisfied with the factory rust-proofing?
No. Original GM stockholders got zero,bupkiss,nada. which is normal in a bankruptcy.
The bondholders also got screwed almost as bad. They’re the one’s who usually get something-on-the-dollar in a bankruptcy.
Instead the UAW got it all.
GM is dead to me forever.
I did not ask at the dealership because it was just before it opened, and the only person I saw seemed to be a mechanic. I just did not have the heart to go ask the guy whether his employer was in big trouble.
My family used to be a Chevy family. I tried to stay with Chevy, even after being exposed to Hondas in the 1970s and being very impressed. Chevy lost me to Honda in 1983.
“Pre-owned” is simply the new way of saying “used”.
Back in the ‘80s when Ford introduced the Taurus, my wife decided she wanted one so we went to a very large Ford dealership in the area. Turned out all they had were Tauruses with 4-cylinder engines. We told the salesman that we wanted a 6-cylinder, but he told us that all they had were the 4-cylinder ones. The lot was full of them.
Anyway, the salesman talked us into going out for a test drive, with him driving. During the test drive the guy said to us not once, but TWICE, “This car is not overly underpowered.” My wife and I glanced at each other as we tried really hard not to crack up laughing.
Back at the sales office the salesman sat us down and went in the back to “talk to the manager”. The guy was gone for five minutes when my wife and I agreed that no way did we want a 4-cylinder Taurus so why waste time? We got up and disappeared. We then went next door to the Chevy place and picked up a 6-cylinder Corsica that treated us very well for over 150,000 miles.
“Pre-owned”, “not overly underpowered”, ... that’s just car salesman talk.
Orval Faubus, former governor of Arkansas, was a Ford man. And I mean that, bought and paid for. During the 12 years he was governor Ford never lost a bid.
“Skin in the Game”. Is anybody out there getting as sick if the Regime’s catchphases as I am? I absolutely refuse to string those four words together. More: “Take a Haircut”, we were “Shellacked”, this problem, economy, difficult situation, whatever, was “Inherited”. Anybody else?
I hope they go down too. I own a 2003 Chevy truck and will NEVER buy another GM car because of the government bailout.
GM and a lot of other American companies have been infected by parasites carrying a fatal disease. They are sick and we know it.
For GM, the only known cure was rejected by the Powers That Be. They chose to feed the parasites and the disease instead.
Now we wait...
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