Automotive News [AN, sub] reports that GM won’t even try to make a $1b debt payment due on June 1st. The non-move virtually guarantees that the firm will enter bankruptcy protection. GM CFO Ray Young says the General is “hoping” for a successful debt-for-equity exchange with its bondholders. If that effort somehow fails (as every other GM debt-for-equity swap has so far), Young says GM will enter bankruptcy protection to reduce its unsecured debt load. My, we’ve come a long way from the Voldemort days, no? Meanwhile, AN also reveals that an Italian union official claims the Fiat-Chrysler deal is “90 percent complete.” In fact (or theory), it could be signed as soon as this afternoon—an assertion that Fiat has flatly denied.

The Washington Post reports that Chrysler Financial turned down $750 million worth of federal loans to avoid executive pay limits. Surprised? Me neither. And that’s not a whole lot of money in the grand scheme of things ($1.5 billion already “loaned” to Chrysler Financial, $6 billion for GMAC, $7 billion for Chrysler, $17.4 billion for GM, $5.5 billion for suppliers). Anyway, the WaPo sure has its dander up. “In forgoing the loan, Chrysler Financial opted to use more expensive financing from private banks, adding to the burdens of the already fragile automaker and its financing company . . . The company’s decision comes amid a firestorm on Capitol Hill and elsewhere over the lavish pay of executives at companies being aided by government money. The uproar has made companies skittish about taking federal aid and hindered the Obama administration’s effort to revive lending by replenishing the coffers of the nation’s financial firms.” Ah. OK. So, NOT accepting federal support is bad. Welcome to Bailout Nation. And its media dupes, like Autoblog, who called ChryCo execs’ explanation (after the jump) “disingenuous.” Folks, the LESS taxpayer-funding in the US auto industry, the better. Period.

It’s a hard knock life for a truth-telling autoblogger. On one hand we have auto-related websites sitting in the happy-clappy pews—whose main contribution to veracity is reprinting PR releases for dissection and pointing us towards source material. On the other hand, we have Automotive News—who can’t ask a proper follow-up question even when the news source simply repeats the only word spoken in Mel Brooks’ “Silent Movie.” And then we have the big boys: The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Bloomberg. Distressingly, these behemoths have shown a remarkable willingness to cite unnamed sources as the basis for their reports on the Motown Meltdown. Not that anyone (but us) is keeping track but the resulting stories are usually misleading PR put-up jobs, that turn out to be dead wrong. The whole “sale of GM brands” story is a perfect example . . .

The general thrust of the General Motors Death Watch series—the American automaker is headed for bankruptcy—has been proven right. In all but the technical sense, GM is already bankrupt. It depends entirely on $19.8 billion worth of federal life support (a.k.a. “loans”) to survive. Until June 1. At which point the re-constituted American Leyland will need more federal “investment.” Same again? Sure! More to the point, it’s been over a year since I’ve seen a comment promising “See you at Death Watch 2345!” But I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way. I was sure that bankrupt former GM parts supplier Delphi would be the final straw. Somehow, the zombie parts maker has kept sufficient distance from the former mothership to avoid delivering the killer blow (which Wagoner may have been snorting). Uh-oh, here’s comes another bullet! And here comes the Presidential Task Force on Automobiles (PTFOA), ’cause Uncle Sam’s favorite automaker can’t spend over $100 million without Steve Rattner’s say so.

As part of GM CEO Fritz Henderson’s “ Deeper, Faster, Oh, Baby” plan to implement GM’s previous plan—only more quickly and, uh, dramatically—the General wants to slice 1700 franchised dealers from their roster. Automotive News [AN, sub] reports that a combination of a bad economy and the American automaker’s piss poor management [reading between the lines, paraphrasing, stating the obvious] has shuttered 200 GM dealers so far this year. Only 1500 more to go; you know, in Fritz’s ideal world. Which raises the question: how are they going to do that? “GM officials have told dealers that they would identify underperforming locations and could move to terminate franchise agreements by June 1, a dealer who had received such a notice said on Wednesday.” As AN correctly points out, you can’t just pull the plug on a franchised car dealer without providing them with financial compensation, or stand ready to fight hundreds of lawsuits in all 50 states.

Saturn dealers, customers, managers, assembly workers, The Presidential Task Force on Automobiles, what’s left of General Motors and the mainstream media (MSM) would all like to believe there’s life after GM for the moribund “rethink” brand. A group of investors calling themselves Telesto Ventures has stepped forward to enable these champagne wishes and caviar dreams. Their plan: rebrand other people’s stuff and sell them as Saturns. It’s the same sort of plan that saw Americanized Opels in Saturn showrooms—that led to a 58 percent sales drop so far this year, compared to 2008’s miserable 188,004. (Toyota sold 158,884 Priora last year.) It was also a part of Cerberus’ original plan for the bankruptcy-bound Chrysler Corporation. Anyway, the MSM’s down with Saturn’s “rescue.” “While such a business model doesn’t exist today,’ the Detroit Free Press almost warns, ‘Telesto’s backers say the global overcapacity among automakers and the growing number of start-up firms in China and elsewhere would give the reformulated Saturn several possible sources of new vehicles.” Gullible much?

“Shanghai car-maker SAIC makes approach for Vauxhall,” headlined London’s Telegraph over the weekend. Of course SAIC doesn’t want just the Vauxhall badge, they are interested in the whole Opel/Vauxhall enterprise. What looks like “Opel” through German eyes looks like “Vauxhall” to the British. It’s one and the same.

According to the Telegraph, “Shanghai-based SAIC has requested a sale document from General Motors (GM), the stricken US car-maker, which has warned that it may file for bankruptcy in an effort to ensure its survival. Commerzbank, the German banking group, is orchestrating the sale process on behalf of GM, which is to establish a new subsidiary comprising Vauxhall and Opel, the German car manufacturer. A new investor would be invited to acquire a controlling stake in the company, with GM potentially retaining a minority interest.” Saab and Chevrolet Europe would not be part of the deal. More Chinese interests are lining up:

Fair enough. At the congressional bailout hearings, Tennessee Senator Robert Corker gave Chrysler and GM CEOs major NSFW for running their business with all the efficiency of a federal agency. (And Corker should know.) We haven’t seen such public humiliation of powerful people since the Kefauver Committee raked the mob over the coals in 1950/51. Yes, well, who’s crying now? GM’s Spring Hill plant is on Corker’s patch; as we reported earlier it’s running at 24 percent of capacity (building the fourth Lambda platform Chevy Traverse). Corker knows the Presidential Task Force on Automobiles has the ex-Saturn plant in its sights; he’s claiming it makes rational business sense to keep Spring Hill open. Yeah, right. And good on the Detroit Free Press for not gloating. “This week, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee continued his campaign to keep Spring Hill open, saying if politics is left out of the equation by the Obama administration, as he hopes, the plant and its 3,000 workers should survive. The evidence to the contrary is significant . . .”

GM had promised to have a decision by the end of March on whether it would sell or fold HUMMER. They missed that deadline along with other key targets set by the White House-appointed Presidential Task Force on Automobiles (PTFOA). Not that there wasn’t interest in the aptly named pornography-on-wheels. GM simply, well, blew it.

Reuters would have us believe that it has “sources” close to GM’s federally mandated sale of its boat anchor brand: HUMMER. “Three bidders remain for General Motors Corp’s Hummer [sic] brand, two sources with knowledge of the matter said, adding that current offers range from $100 million to $200 million in cash, in addition to other commitments. None of the bidders are automakers. One bidder is from the United States and the other two are from overseas, the sources said, adding that the bidders include private equity and wealthy individuals.” Folks, let history be our guide.

According to Reuters, GM “is in intense and earnest preparations for a possible bankruptcy filing.” Meanwhile, GM’s joint venture partner in China, SAIC, is making preparations of its own. They might just buy Buick before it goes to hell in the GM hand basket. The matter has received added urgency by a note from Moody’s Investor Service that the agency reckons there’s a 70 percent risk of bankruptcy for Detroit’s three automakers given the difficulty of restructuring out of court.

When GM CEO Roger Smith wanted to create a different kind of car company (like he didn’t have several already), he commissioned a Saturn factory in Spring Hill, TN. For a short time, the factory, the brand, the model they built, the dealers who sold them and the customers who bought them all lived happily ever after. And then the GM borg assimilated Saturn. At first, they neglected it. Then they gutted it like a fish. Then they stocked dealers with a bunch of unloved German-style imports, built somewhere other than the Volunteer State. And now, that pioneering Saturn factory builds GM’s fourth badge-engineered Lambda platform. The Chevy Traverse is not doing well, saleswise. In fact, LSJ.com reports that the TN factory producing these unloved CUVs is currently operating at 24 percent of capacity. That’s after the General spent, wait for it, $690 million re-equipping the plant for the task. And remember what we said about politics informing GM’s business decisions? Check this out . . .

Ad Age only lists GM and Chrysler’s ad spend for all of ’08, before the ailing American automakers bellied-up to the federal bailout buffet. But the writing’s on the wall for a number of media who depend on the two teat sucklers for ad cash. The carmakers’ $3B ’08 combined ad spend has already been slashed. When Chrysler and GM go Tango Uniform, well, there’s a black hole out there with their name on it. At risk ’08 ad bucks: Car and Driver ($20.6M from GM), Automobile ($15.4M from GM), Motor Trend ($6.1M from Chrysler). If you’re wondering why the buff books’ reviewers treat GM and Chrysler products with kid gloves, I’ve just shown you the money. And here’s a pdf charting the ch-ch-ch-changes from 2007 to 2008, in terms of the two automakers’ percentage of the buff books’ total ad take [NB: ’07 was a very good year, for small town dealers, with perfume in their hair, until they came undone.] Steve Parr, president of Source Interlink Media, is non-plussed, allegedly.

In the pigs-will-fly department, newly installed GM CEO Fritz Henderson told the Financial Times that “private investors are interested acquiring a stake in Opel.” Wow. Really? We know that there are a number of people who’ve expressed interest, amongst them such unlikely prospects as some Opel dealers and the workers council. But do they have the wherewithal, the money, and the blessing of the German government, which would have to guarantee a large chunk of the loans needed, and seems to be more reluctant to do so as the days go by?

Delphi is the former GM parts division. It had been spun off, only to go into bankruptcy not much later. Delphi also was amongst the first to embark on an aggressive “source in China” policy. Large chunks of Delphi’s production were moved to China. Large chunks of Made-in-America cars were actually Made-in-China. Now, China buys large chunks of Delphi. Possibly all of it.

According to the Freep, two Chinese companies and the Beijing government banded together to buy Delphi Corp.’s brakes and suspension business. The Chinese auto supplier Tempo Group will acquire a 24 percent stake, China’s Capital Iron & Steel Co. will purchase a 51 percent stake, and the Beijing government will own the remaining 25 percent. They will form a new Chinese company called Beijing West Industries Co. Ltd., based in Beijing. Delphi needs the money:

GM CEO Rick Wagoner promised to reveal the fate of the HUMMER brand today. Old Sparky was warmed-up and everything. Of course, that was before the President of the United States fired Wagoner’s ass. And so the maker of pseudo-military SUVs will spend its eleventh month on death row—sorry, “under strategic review.” Automotive News [sub] reports that GM will now postpone a decision “for a few weeks as it works to complete a sale.” No, they don’t mean “a” sale; they mean the sale of the entire brand. Wait! Does that mean . . . ?

“Our efforts to sell Hummer are proceeding, and there are several parties interested — and I would say really interested — in the brand,” Troy Clarke, GM’s president of North America, said during a call to dealers today. “We’re still very much in the process, although that process is maturing.”

WTH is a “maturing sales process”? Does GM have a buyer for the world’s most politically incorrect automotive brand or not?

So, where does DC vs. Detroit leave Opel, Vauxhall et al.? The “private intelligence agency” Stratfor [very expensive sub] summed it up most succinctly: “Add to this the complexity of Opel, a German car maker owned by GM, which Germany wants the United States to bail out but which the United States wants nothing to do with, and the fundamental problem is clear: While both Germany and the United States have a common interest in moving past the crisis, Germany and the United States have very different approaches to the problem.”

Germany’s approach: Do nothing.

On Friday I was in Washington for a meeting with Administration officials. In the course of that meeting, they requested that I “step aside” as CEO of GM, and so I have.

Fritz Henderson is an excellent choice to be the next CEO of GM. Having worked closely with Fritz for many years, I know that he is the ideal person to lead the company through the completion of our restructuring efforts. His knowledge of the global industry and the company are exceptional, and he has the intellect, energy, and support among GM’ers worldwide to succeed. I wish him well, and I stand ready to support him, and interim Non-Executive Chairman Kent Kresa, in every way possible.

Dagens Industri has published a letter from Saab’s union bosses which accuses GM of playing silly buggers with the brand’s accounts. As Saabs United says, “The report tends to support the idea that GM are handy at shuffling results around to suit their reporting needs.” [Thanks for the TTAC translation to commentator Naser Rouholamin]

Recently, the future of SAAB has been the subject of many allegations and much debate. Specifically we are thinking about such claims as “using tax money for playing monopoly”, or “SAAB has always made a loss, hence there is no point in saving it now”.

In order to rebuke the latter claim one must realise that not even GM would have kept Saab afloat the last 20 years from pure goodwill.

Kroymans Corp of the Netherlands plans to file for bankruptcy and shame the General, reports Automotive News [sub]. GM’s importer for Cadillac, Corvette and Hummer in European Union markets will “transfer” the distribution business to GM, “a process it expected to complete by next year.” Har. Har. By the way, has everyone filed their taxes already? It’s best not to wait until the last minute with these things. Your money is urgently needed to allow the CTS sportwagon roam free in its natural environment.

Good news, everyone! A finance company whose risky investments in auto and real estate loans required it to beg for $6B in bailout cash is at the ready to teach you the secrets of smart financial planning. According to a release at PR Newswire, GMAC “has bolstered its effort to provide consumers with personal finance education with a $20,000 grant to InCharge® Education Foundation, Inc. (ICEF). The funding will be used to co-sponsor a series of financial literacy courses throughout the country in 2009. The courses, named ‘Smart Edge by GMAC,’ are designed to help people make better financial decisions by providing them with information about budgeting, real estate and automotive finance, insurance, credit reports, credit scoring, and other tools.” Lesson number one? Pay your CEO $11.6M even if you’ve been bleeding red ink all year. Lesson number two? Savagely screw over the people your business relies on.

The Detroit News is reporting that Presidential Task Force on Automobiles (PTFOA) is ready to float some trial balloons—I mean, announce part of its master plan for “saving” the U.S. auto industry. The News reckons the PTFOA will place the cart before the horse, revealing its bailout strategy for the domestics’ suppliers sometime this week. Then they’ll unveil the new new bailout arrangement to fund GM’s new new new new new new new turnaround plan and, believe it or not, Chrysler’s mythological recovery strategy. Meanwhile, Saturn’s keepers are busy pre-stretching the limits of credibility.

Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) has had a look at Chrysler, Ford and GM inventories vs. the Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate of Sales (a.k.a. SAAR), and it’s even uglier than we thought. Given that The Big 2.8 have already cut WAY back on production AND increased incentives, it seems that the US new car market is suffering from the worst case of constipation since WWII. CSFB’s analysis gives us further reason to doubt GM’s motives in declaring a 45 percent production increase for the second quarter of ’09. Whatever the reasoning behind GM’s announcement, it has nothing to do with market reality. These numbers also cast the chortling IHS Global Insight analyst—who bashed Honda for its inventory problems—in a slightly different light. But I’ll save those bon mots for after the data dump . . .

* Big 3 inventories fell by about 3% from Jan to Feb, compared to the normal seasonal increase of about 2.5%. Despite the favorable move in absolute stocks, the overstocked level worsened, owing to a dismal sales level that lowered our estimate of the number of vehicles dealers should be holding.

Chrysler has a non-binding deal with Italian automaker Fiat, which has agreed to take a 35 percent stake in Chrysler in exchange for access to technology and overseas markets, and not a single dime.

But wait! It’s a miracle! Just as Jesus Christ turned water into wine, Bob Nardelli turned the no-cash-at-all deal into a bonanza.

The deal with Fiat is worth up to $10B for Chrysler and could preserve 5,000 North American manufacturing jobs, Chief Executive Bob Nardelli said on Monday in a missive to his minions.

DW reports that German Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is in the US talking about how best to disentangle/jettison the Opel brand from its “struggling parent company.”

One of the main issues Guttenberg will address is the ownership of patents and other intellectual property Opel requires to continue producing cars. He will also explore GM and the US government’s willingness to let go of Opel.

Chancellor Angela Merkel told public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that Guttenberg needed to “clarify how General Motors would be able to back away in order to give Opel more room to move.”

We shouldn’t read too much into meetings such as those of the G20. Even G8 confabs usually produce nothing other than nice announcements. Finance ministers of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the U.S., the U.K. and the European Union met this weekend in Horsham, England.

According to Bloomberg, the meeting produced the not too unexpected pledges of a sustained effort to end the global recession. The U.S. called for more spending. The Europeans called for restraint. The usual solution was a joint decision to monitor further developments closely. But there were undertones that could signal the end of wholesale bailouts.

Friday the 13th was a bad day for GM Europe, and by extension Opel, Vauxhall, and Saab. Ministers of eleven European countries where GM has a presence met in Brussels to decide what to do about the ailing American automaker’s foreign empire. First, they listened to reports by Frederick “Fritz” Henderson, COO of GM, and Carl-Peter Forster, CEO of GM Europe. Then, they decided to do nothing. Even more disconcerting for GM, the ministers decided that no country should do anything to bailout GM unilaterally. “There will be no rescue measures on a national level without prior European coordination,” reports Automobilwoche [sub]. And as if this wasn’t bad enough . . .

Folks, TTAC has serious competition. GM just issued a press statement, headlined “GM and Opel Launch Website to Support Fact-Based Discussion.” (As opposed to what? Faith-based?) The lead-in of the statement isn’t really conducive to getting to the main part, but in the interest of fact-based reporting, here it is: “The current need for bridge-financing for GM’s European operations is rooted in a catastrophic economic crisis, the worst of its kind in more than 70 years. Given the significance of the situation politically and for society, it’s only natural that rumor, speculation and urban myths should begin to circulate at this time. In addition to informed reporting based on fact there is also misinformation and repetition of statements that are clearly not based on fact.” Still with us?

GM intends on increasing vehicle production in the second financial quarter, from 380k to 550k. I know: it’s a major WTF moment. There is no evidence whatsoever that the U.S. new car market is headed for recovery. If anything, the opposite is true, what with home foreclosures and unemployment rising like steam from a New York City manhole. Not to mention the headline of The Detroit News story wherein this information resides: “GM Dealers Balk at Ordering New Vehicles.” The article reports that GM’s orphaned HUMMER, Saturn and Saab dealers aren’t ordering any more vehicles (duh), and current inventory levels at the other stores are, to use the old Bentley power output description, “adequate.” No wonder GM spokesman Chris Lee said “that [production] number could be adjusted.” Still, you’d kind of hope GM PR could do better than that, what with more than a decade of spinning bad news into gold (for the executives anyway). And so they do . . .

Automotive News reports that GM CEO Rick Wagoner tagged-along with 69 other working stiffs to hear President Barack Obama put his entire hope-and-change spiel in a single, pre-written sentence.

“We must build this recovery on a foundation that lasts — on a 21st Century infrastructure and a green economy with lower health care costs that creates millions of new jobs and new industries; on schools that prepare our children to compete and thrive; on businesses that are free to invest in the next big idea or breakthrough discovery,” Obama said in remarks released by the White House.

Uh-oh. Isn’t that whole “next big thing” thing the thing that allowed GM to avoid making the hard decisions that would have prevented its $30 gazillion dollar call on the public purse?

Automotive News [sub] reports that GM spin-off supplier Delphi has received approval from bankruptcy court to cut benefits to 15k non-union retirees. The ruling will save Delphi an estimated $70M per year, improving the chances Delphi will end its nearly 3.5-year sojourn in Chapter 11 restructuring. GM has been helping generously towards that end, having offered to buy Delphi’s steering component business for an undisclosed sum and funneled hundreds of millions to its crucial supplier. Or quasi-independent division. Or whatever Delphi really is to GM. The full text of the order in question is here (pdf). It’s long, so check out a few highlights after the jump.

Things are either rapidly falling apart for Chrysler in China. Or someone is tidying up for the rumored asset transfer to Beijing Auto. Place your bets.

Anyway, China’s Great Wall Motor has terminated its small-car joint venture project with Chrysler, Gasgoo reports. Why? “Due to changed situations,” said Great Wall’s president Wang Fengying.

Chrysler had signed a memorandum of understanding with Great Wall Motor in July 2008 to explore the viability of a long-term strategic relationship. The two companies have since developed an A-class car model that was scheduled to be produced by Great Wall and sold around the world as a rebadged Chrysler. What now?

Or die trying given the late unpleasantness of all things economic. But the model that Euroda, a group of 4,000 Opel/Vauxhall dealers, is attempting is innovative enough to attract some attention. Under the arrangement, member dealers would donate €150 per vehicle sold over the next three years. Euroda would use the estimated €400m to buy a minority stake in Opel/Vauxhall, which cannot secure support from European governments without better long-term viability plans. Euroda seems to be acknowledging the symbolic nature of the effort, telling Automotive News [sub] that even taking a minority stake sends “a clear signal of support” to the government, worker and customer stakeholders.

Developing. Actually, not.

Delphi and Visteon were spun off from GM and Ford respectively at the turn of the millennium, in hopes of cutting costs and improving efficiency. But rather than creating healthy, solid companies they could rely on as major suppliers, the Detroit OEMs used the spin-offs to dump unwanted assets, UAW workers and fixed-cost obligations on their new partners. And now GM and Ford are reaping the bitter harvest of their ill-advised spin-offs. Visteon, which has never turned a profit, just had its stock delisted last week after losing $663M in 2008. Delphi has been in Bankruptcy since October 2005, and, having lost $1.48B last year, it is barely surviving on cash infusions from the General, which really could have used the dough. And both suppliers are threatening to take down America’s two largest automakers.

German newspaper Die Welt had reported on Saturday that GM and Opel seems to be preparing for insolvency at Opel, having hired three law firms with renowned insolvency experts. GM denies the report, writes Reuters. “This scenario is currently not on the agenda,” a GM Europe spokesman told Reuters on Sunday. Note the careful usage of “currently” and “agenda.”

Die Welt says GM Europe would be advised by Baker & McKenzie as well as Clifford Chance, while the management of Adam Opel GmbH had hired Heidelberg-based firm Wellensiek. GM doesn’t deny that they have hired counsel: A GM Europe spokesman said the company had hired the firms to assess the effect of potential restructuring measures. Meanwhile, there is growing outrage in Germany about the fact that Opel never paid tax in Germany because it transferred profits to its U.S. parent.

GM’s Steve Harris is dancing all over the bankruptcy issue at GM’s Fastlane blog. Yesterday Haris was sounding resigned if still-delusional. “So, by now you’ve seen the news reports,” he wrote. “You know that auditors have said that there is substantial doubt about GM’s ability to survive as a ‘going concern’ through the end of the year. It’s certainly led to some scary headlines – some more accurate than others, of course.” But all scary. Yeah, believe it or not, we kind of saw it coming.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the usual unnamed “top executives” are saying GM is warming to the idea of bankruptcy after all. “The change in thinking, combined with the disclosure Thursday that GM’s auditor has raised ‘substantial doubt’ about the car maker’s ability to keep going, appears to move GM closer to the possibility it will file for reorganization.” Something about staring at the hangman’s noose brings a new clarity of thought to the fore. The journal’s new owner seems to have brought a bit of dry British humor to the biz: “The increased threat of bankruptcy could prod bondholders into making concessions, since these investors are said to believe a bankruptcy reorganization could harm their holdings, according to a person familiar with their thinking.” Wow, those bond manipulating masters of the universe sure are smart!

A message to the troops from GM’s VP of sales and marketing for GM North America:

Today’s submission of our annual report has generated a significant amount of media speculation about GM. Specifically, the media are covering the auditor’s language about whether or not we are a ‘going concern.’

Let me be clear — neither is this “new” news, nor does it change our viability plan to succeed.

For months we have explained the need to restructure and recapitalize our business for the long-term. As dealers, you are integral to that long-term success. Dialogue with the Auto Task Force team in Washington is ongoing, and we remain focused on implementing our viability plan.

So, here’s what I’d ask of each of you: Stay focused on the business, not the media hysteria. Reassure your customers that we are here for the long haul and that we’ve overcome challenges many times before in our 100 year history. Also remind customers that we deeply appreciate their business and support. For new customers, take a few extra minutes to show them the great GM cars and trucks we offer, and demonstrate our commitment to the best service in the industry.

As always, we are very appreciative of your support and welcome your continued comments.

The statement we are using in response to media questions is attached for your reference.

Mark LaNeve