About $5.6 billion. 566,163,000 outstanding shares at today's close of $10.00.
GM
yitbos
Posted on 08/30/2008 12:19:08 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
A leading General Motors executive has called for government loans of up to $50bn to help American car markers build more fuel-efficient cars.
Bob Lutz, GM's vice-chairman, warned that major US car manufacturers need the money to re-tool their factories and are unlikely to be able to raise enough capital alone due to tight credit markets.
Mr Lutz's comments come against background of ongoing talks between leading US car makers and politicians in recent weeks over enhanced government backing to enable a shift to greener production.
The three major US car manufacturers, GM, Ford and Chrysler, are working with the United Automobile Workers union to lobby Congress for a further $3.75bn on top of the $25bn in loans authorised for the industry last year.
"The American auto industry is deserving of government loan guarantees," said Mr Lutz during a GM launch of new line-up for next year.
Detroit carmakers have announced plans to revamp numerous truck plants so that they can build the smaller cars and crossover vehicles that have become scarce at many dealers.
But the industry wants more money - up to $50bn (£27m) - to cope with the demand for more fuel efficient cars, a response to record petrol prices.
GM is at the forefront of the move to focus on greener vehicles. It has announced plans to potentially sell its gas-guzzling Hummer brand, and is working hard to ensure its Chevy Volt becomes the first fully electric-powered car on the market when it launches in 2010.
Financially GM continues to struggle, as sales slip and the cost of raw materials increases.
GM has recorded losses of $57.5bn in the last 18 months, but Mr Lutz said that the board is hoping for a return to profit in 2010.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Obama will open the nation’s checkbook for anything that anybody calls “green”.
what is GM’s market cap?
He77... For 49.5 billion dollars, the government could just buy a nice electric bicycle or scooter for everyone in the country, over the age of 10, providing the ‘geeenest’ transportation possible.
GM, you’ve made your bed. Don’t make us pay for your stupidity.
Please, go bankrupt, if you must. We can get quality elsewhere, as that wasn’t your strong suit, nor was energy efficiency.
The US has no role in subsidizing the bad decisions of businesses.
About $5.6 billion. 566,163,000 outstanding shares at today's close of $10.00.
GM
yitbos
Hey GM... a GREEN car is one that you can actually sell and make some GREEN. Get a clue!
Hey Mr. Lutz,
I don’t work for you and your mismanaged company that thought it was a great idea to produce more trucks and SUVs when Toyota thought it was a good idea to build more fuel efficient cars, so you can’t have my money.
You can KMA.
This thread represents in spades, the (only) objection this poster has to FR.
There is a tendency on this board, to be quite simply hostile, to working Americans.
GM, represents, those working Americans.
GM, represents, the sort of industrial base, which America mobilized in WWII, to defeat German Nazis, and Imperial Japan.
Most of the time, FR posters are pretty astute.
However.
There’s clearly, a (MASSIVE) blind spot, FReepers seem to have about the risk of sending American industry overseas.
Let’s make this as simple as can be:
“Georgia”.
Most Freepers DO NOT believe in rewarding STUPID or LAZY, especially with the hard earned tax dollars of those working Americans you mention.
GM represents STUPID and LAZY.
The AMERICAN WAY is be smart and hard working, or die to those who are. The old SOVIET WAY is to have the State subsidize STUPID, LAZY, INEFIENCT.
I say no.
They are failing in the Darwinist free market which is the ultimate judge of the validity and viability of any good business. We do not subsidize failure (which is why they are turning to the government...*sigh*).
Hang 'em for all I care. Let a competitive business take their place.
Actually, it’s worse than that. (Though Lutz isn’t really that much at fault for it - it’s Rick Wagonner, Lutz was trying to get GM to make cars instead of trucks.)
No, the problem is that GM, after getting stomped in the car market, decided to make/market more and more trucks and SUVs as this was the area in which they were still leading the likes of Toyota. Now, this wasn’t inherently a bad idea. It raised much needed cash and kept some of the customers loyal.
The problem is that unlike Toyota, who also developed new trucks and SUVs, GM didn’t take the money off the truck/SUV moneymakers and use it to boost their unprofitable and lagging cars. They could have plowed all that money back into product R&D and actually had a whole stable of excellent world beating, efficient cars 10 years ago. Instead, they blew it all on sponsoring various events and causes that would NEVER benefit the bottom line.
Toyota also built newer, bigger, better SUVs and trucks during this time period. However, they took their profits, plowed them into R&D, and came up with the Prius, which is a sales success. They came up with the entire Scion line, which is a sales success. They invested in hybrid technology, which, gimmick or not, is what the customers wanted.
GM has yet to learn that if you don’t make what the customers want, when they want it, those customers go away and don’t come back. Domestic brand loyalty is dead, largely due to the 40 years of the consumer getting the shaft from the domestics - and GM just doesn’t realize it yet.
Was going to add this, but hit Post too soon.
GM needs to learn that despite how stupid they think it is, if customers want a hybrid 5-door hatchback painted green with pink polkadots and a rotating windup key in the back, they better make one. Otherwise, someone else WILL, and those customers are *gone*, never to return.
The best part about this is that GM was offered the Prius-type hybrid system license at a discount, since GM and Toyota partner up on a number of ventures, and GM said they didn’t want it as they didn’t think customers would buy it. Nissan picked up that license instead - which is why there is now a hybrid Altima and there still is no hybrid Malibu or Impala.
And, let’s see what happens when a government does this?
“British Leyland.”
Oh, how about another example of what happens when a goverment props up a business that’s failing because of stupidity:
“Zenith”
You still lose the capability in the end. It hurts a lot less in the long run just to let it die and get a fresh start than to suffer a long lingering death; the Brits proved that out, John Bloor had the devil’s own time getting anyone to supply his resurrected Triumph Motorcycle Co after buying the rights from the UK government because of the decades of bad business deals attached to the name.
Don’t give them a cent and we won’t have to put up with the green garbage!
GM & Chevy had 2 cars that got 45 mpg in the city to 55 mpg on the highway about 25 years ago called the Sprint and the Geo. It had a peppy 3 cylinder 1 liter engine. I drove a Sprint during college and really loved it. Why would it take 50 billion to build a car that rivals the Prius in mpg if they already had the technology 20+ years ago? Sounds like they want a Chrysler-style bail out to me.
The hack politicians, loser Auto executives, and thieving unions are a circle of thieves and liars, united in stealing from the taxpayer.
F GM, the Auto Workers, and the politicians.
If GM doesn't know, someone else will.
By the way, about two years ago I heard GM CEO Wagoneer say the GM would 'meet any quality improvement' the Japanese or Germans did. Not lead, not beat, but ...just..sort of wait..and then, supposedly, meet. What a putz.
Tell G.M. to forget it.
They screwed the americna consumer for years with poor products .
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