Chuckle. This reminds me of when my father ran the hardware department of a Montgomery Ward store. (Remember Monkey Ward?) Having been an electrician, he developed a good deal of business with small contractors who would come in for a reel of Romex or a breaker box.

Then Wards built some big new distribution centers. Very snazzy warehouses. The distribution centers were most efficient when handling large quantities. Management was eager to show the company’s investment in new warehouses was paying off. My dad was told he no longer could order, say, six or a dozen breaker boxes at a time; he’d have to order a pallet’s worth. Well, there was no way one retail store could stockpile such a large amount of inventory. So he had to give up the trade with contractors.

In a way, Detroit is like Monkey Ward, oriented to its costs rather than its customers.

This is the logic which has brought the D3 to the brink.

Thinking of factories as profit centers has brought the D3 to the brink.

Refusal to eliminate brands or at least brand cannibalism has broght the D3 to the brink.

It’s past time for real leadership. There’s no room for “we can’t do that because it’s impossible”, unless one is willing to admit that turnaround and recovery is impossible.

Every day where C11 does not happen will bring the D3 closer to C7, therefore making this truly a Deathwatch.

Now, I can see selling or closing down Saab and Hummer today, and closing Saturn down in a few years once their current batch of products need to be redesigned. But that’s it; and those brands aren’t big enough to really solve much.

Eliminating brands is not the solution.

You forgot about Saab. It should be sold off to someone who will take care of it.

Next thing you know, you have a bank collapse.

But the few guys who showed up first, got their money out.

Kapische? It doesn’t have to make total sense (yeah, a run on GM will possibly bring down multiple suppliers) – it’s called “a panic” for a reason.

This is what we’ve been told. Is it not so? If it is true would any supplier be so stupid as to get the ball rolling before at least waiting until the big O takes office to see what’s going to happen? Are the suppliers stupid or is the whole line of the interelationship of the suppliers and the manufactures not true? I had heard that even Toyota and Honda were woried about Big 3 BR because it would adversely affect the suppy base. So what’s the Truth About Suppliers?

With the world/US economy where it is right now,even the most half assed plan from Detroit will get passed.

The alternative is the hostage situation that the Detroit three are now using. ie. pay us or we take the middle class down with us. The problem with this short term approach is that in six months it will be another chorus of the same.

Further, if this recession is long and deep, there will be countless additions to the loans now that the middle class is under the protection of Detroit’s domestic car makers. This is a step towards socialism and de facto nationalization of the car industry (and who knows what other industries besides banks). Even in the depths of WWll, Uncle Sam did not nationalize industry.

Ten bucks says GM will still be here by January.

I give Nancy Pelosi a lot of credit for her decision today to hold off for the time being. But if December comes – and no loans are forthcoming – the run will start within hours, if not minutes. That you can take to the bank!

No. Mr Elias has never used that word before. If this doesn’t come to pass, many of us B&B types (especially OCD types like me) would make so many snide comments (within posting guidelines, of course), that MrChapter 11. I guarantee it.Elias would have to stop writing. And join the French Foreign Legion…

Have the government buy 1.25 million Malibus, warehouse them and use them as government vehicles until 2108.

No seriously, wait until a less bad time?

When precisely would that be? It’d be terrible to let GM die during a recovery…. be worse to kill a boom period and start a recession, and we can’t do it during a recession.

There is no good time for this shit. Might as well be now and save a 100 billion.

GMAC has applied to become a bank. Heellloo TARP! NPR’s Planet Money podcast today even implied that GM could wait out the “two year transition period” before they’d have to stop selling cars before they’d be forced to, you know, be a bank. Of course, they could sell their remaining piece of GMAC before then, right?

Good lord, people.

- Your old pal Bob

Just spend it like they normally do and burn through it in a few months and be right back where they are now. The Volt won’t be ready any time soon. It’s hella expensive too. Look at Prius sales with current fuel prices to get an idea for Volt sales numbers.

They are at the end of the line and the big people in powers egos are at stake. That’s all.

If you work the line, stock up on cash, get rid of all debt, and prepare to get by on unemployment and start now arranging for a new line of work. Or work for a US based Japanese or Korean company. You all wanted to move out of the cold north anyways right? Likely get about 30′ of snow up there this winter.

As John Mauldin pointed out today, “The Big Three have a new customer, and it isn’t you. As Detroit’s former heavyweights fight for a slice of a $25 billion bailout package, more than humble pie is being eaten. If the automakers fail and take their companies into bankruptcy, Michigan as we know it ceases to exist economically. The trickle-down impact could rapidly become a waterfall: the seat supplier in Georgia loses three major customers. The factory worker who makes seats is out of a job. The bank who holds his mortgage takes another hickey. Commercial lending at that bank dries up. Ad nauseum. In the best of economic times, this would be a troublesome scenario. In today’s economy, it’s easy to see how policymakers are as worried about social stability as they are economics.

“Few if any believe the U.S. auto industry can survive in its current form. But there is an emerging consensus in Washington that the auto industry must not be allowed to fail now. The argument for spending money on the auto industry is not to save it, but to postpone its failure until a less devastating and inconvenient time. In other words, fearing the social and political consequences of a recession working itself through to its logical conclusion, Washington – like Beijing – wants to spend money it probably won’t recover to postpone the failure. Indeed, governments around the world are considering what failures to tolerate, what failures to postpone, and how much to spend on the latter. General Motors is merely the American case in point.”

Source: http://www.frontlinethoughts.com/gateway.asp

But they aren’t. And its way too late for a marketing blitz.

That’s probably the only solid, legitimate reorganization plan they could conceivably come up with. Whether that’s enough to sustain them for any length of time after C11, even in a substantially reduced capacity, is the key question.

“We want a presence in the taxi/police car market and plan to make a solid effort to get a part of it. Cadillac is the division we have chosen for this effort.” Why Cadillac instead of Chevy? Seems like a Caddy patrol car or cab contradicts the brand image.

The plan envisions shedding a lot of employees and dealerships. IANAL, but I know of no way to break contracts with the UAW and dealers other than through bankruptcy. Therefore, the plan implicitly assumes Chapter 11 — and in the event GM won’t have freedom to unilaterally make key decisions.

Robert Farago :
November 20th, 2008 at 7:15 pm

LOS ANGELES -(Dow Jones)- Three major auto suppliers said Thursday that General Motors Corp. (GM) may have to pay cash on delivery for parts if it fails to secure additional federal aid.

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