There’s more bad news in the continuing saga of the Chevy Volt. The Associated Press is reporting today that General Motors will recall 8,000 Volts in order to make modifications to keep them safe during crashes, all on the eve of the North American International Auto Show kicking off in the Motor City next week. (Bear in mind that only about 8,000 Volts were sold last year.) Guess who’s headed to the auto show, likely to bask in the glory of the industry they claim to have saved? The Obama …
It’s been a mixed day in the world of the American auto industry. While Ford Motor posted huge sales for November — propelled by a strong demand for SUVs — General Motors has been forced to make the unusual offer of buying back cars from consumers. Tom Krisher at the Associated Press reports that GM is taking action in response to news that its highly touted electric Chevy Volts have been found to catch fire: In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, CEO Dan Akerson insisted that the cars …
A glut of unsold trucks sits on General Motors dealers’ lots. Two auto plants in Indiana and Michigan stand idle, and it appears that the taxpayers aren’t out of the woods yet. GM still faces serious problems, being made worse by impending regulations. The Detroit Free Press reports: “Supply of Silverados has ballooned to 6 1/2 months’ worth at the dealership, a figure [GM dealership manager Mark] Frost calls “a little scary.” The automaker, 33% owned by the U.S. after its 2009 bankruptcy, has 280,000 Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups on …
If General Motors CEO Dan Akerson had anything to say about it, you would be paying a dollar more a gallon for gas. Yes, with $4/gallon prices hitting consumers in a tough economy, Akerson told the Detroit News: “You know what I’d rather have them do — this will make my Republican friends puke — as gas is going to go down here now, we ought to just slap a 50-cent or a dollar tax on a gallon of gas.” Akerson, 61, was appointed CEO of GM last fall, having …
If you’re looking for an expert in revisionist history, look no further than former Governor Jennifer Granholm (D). For the past several months, Granholm has been trying to erase from people’s memories the economically-destructive record she left behind in Michigan. And now, Granholm is trying to rebuild the image of the equally unpopular government bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler. Neither effort is likely to successful. Governor Granholm has been on television, in print and online for weeks now extolling the virtues of the auto bailout. On May 24, she …
Celebrating the company’s Wednesday initial public offering, President Barack Obama last night called his government takeover of General Motors a “success story.” “American taxpayers are now positioned to recover more than my administration invested in GM,” he said. Left unsaid is the fact that if the Obama Administration keeps selling their GM stock at the IPO price, the U.S. taxpayer will lose $10 billion on the deal, and that does not include the loans GM still owes, cash for clunkers, the Chevy Volt subsidies, or the millions of unseen costs …
General Motors is making moves to sell some of its government-owned stock back to the private sector in what would be one of the largest initial public offerings (IPOs) in U.S. history. While this is certainly a positive sign, it should not be used as an example and an excuse for more government-sponsored bailouts. The truth is that restructuring an inefficient business model is turning around a company. While the economic downturn and the credit crunch exacerbated GM’s problems, the automaker has been hampered by long-term problems such as high …
You can buy a lot of car for $41,000. A BMW. A Mustang GT convertible. Even a Mercedes. Or you could shell out for a brand-spanking-new electric-powered Chevy Volt and do your part to “save the environment.” Government-owned General Motors is counting on the government to encourage you to do the latter. According to a New York Times report, GM spokesman Greg Martin said in an e-mail: Policy makers can do their part to speed the market acceptance of these vehicles as part of a much broader energy policy that …
You probably have seen that new General Motors ad were CEO Ed Whitacre claims his company has repaid their taxpayer bailout “in full, with interest, five years ahead of the original schedule.” Don’t believe it for a second. Nick Gillespie explains why in the video to the right. The New York Times is also calling out the Obama administration for signing off on GM’s Enron-style accounting: But what neither G.M. nor the Treasury disclosed was that the company simply used other funds held by the Treasury to pay off its …
General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre should have thought twice about the title of his Wall Street Journal op-ed, “The GM Bailout: Paid Back in Full.” GM did announce that it would repay the $5.8 billion ($4.7 billion to U.S, $1.1 billion to Canada) remaining balance on the loans the automaker received from the U.S. and Canadian governments. GM is making good on the repayment early – the company had until 2015 to repay the full $8.4 billion loan. But the reality is that this accounts for only 10 percent of …
