Government Motors

Our Government Declares (Economic) War On Japan?

Fri, 01/29/2010 - 12:18pm | posted by Peter Quinones

General Motors announced this week that anybody that owns a Toyota vehicle will receive a $1,000 “incentive” to trade said vehicle in for a GM product.

Editor’s Note: Ford has since matched the $1000 offer.

“We decided to make this offer after receiving many e-mails and calls from our dealers, who have been approached by Toyota customers asking for help,” GM said in a statement. The offers will run through the end of February.

The supposed e-mails and calls mentioned are in relation to the recent widespread recall on many Toyota products due to a faulty gas pedal that has led to at least one death. Toyota is working feverishly to find a fix but has yet to do so which has stopped production and sales of their most popular models including the Camry and Corolla.(as of this writing, a fix has been announced)

If this were General Motors declaring “war” on Toyota at their most vulnerable I would say go for it. I’m all about free markets and the best product usually succeeds. Hence Toyota outsells most if not all GM car models. But that is not what is happening here.

General Motors is now majority-owned by the Federal Government and Barack Obama is essentially the C.E.O. To believe that GM “CEO” Edward Whitacre Jr. didn’t get a thumbs up from President Obama on this is far beyond naive, it borders on gullible.

General Motors Admits It Lied About Jobs Created From Federal Stimulus Dollars

Mon, 11/16/2009 - 12:32pm | posted by Doug Mataconis

Part of the stimulus package passed in February included a massive purchase of fleet vehicles for use by the Federal Government.

Well, it turns out that General Motors fudged the numbers significantly when it reported on the impact of that purchase:

In its report, GM initially said the $88 million it had received to date for 5,279 vehicles shipped was responsible for creating or retaining more than 105 jobs.

But the company told the Free Press last week that, as was the case with the other automakers, employment actually “remained static” and the order was incorporated into regular production.

“The government asked us to attach a number of employees to fulfill the order,” said GM spokesman Greg Martin.

Yea folks, it’s a phony recovery.

H/T: Vodkapundit

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GMAC is asking for more taxpayer money

Wed, 10/28/2009 - 4:52pm | posted by Jason Pye

GMAC wants another bailout in addition to the billions they’ve already received from the federal government:

GMAC, the financial lifeline for General Motors Co., Chrysler Group LLC and their dealer networks, is asking the U.S. Treasury for more federal aid beyond the $12.5 billion it’s already received, because it remains billions of dollars short of a capital reserve requirement all bank holding companies must meet.
The request, which is subject to ongoing negotiations, comes as GMAC is caught in a financial game of chicken with Chrysler Financial that could drive some large Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealers out of business or force them to sell their operations.

Chrysler Financial, which Treasury has demanded go out of business by the end of 2011, is asserting its first-lien rights on loans to Chrysler dealers. At the same time GMAC, due to its capital shortfall, has asked those same dealers to pay additional collateral on the vehicles they order from Chrysler Group. Many of those dealers borrowed $10 million or more to expand their showrooms, and can’t sell the property for anywhere near what they owe Chrysler Financial.

It’s unclear whether additional taxpayer aid to GMAC would alleviate that problem.

The government already owns 35% of GMAC as a result of the government-financed bankruptcy restructuring of General Motors.

It is time to end this. No more bailouts for companies that cannot sustain themselves and it is time to get the government out of owning businesses (and they had no authority to do it to begin with).