Car and Driver writer Brock Yates

Car and Driver? I thought he was a TTAC writer…

Oh, I see he’s not on the “About Us” page either. Came to your senses and realised I was right about him not being all that relevant any more, didja? (Not as relevant as he wanted to get paid for, anyways, I’d bet.)

Here’s hoping that’ll learn ya not to go deleting my comments when I’m right.

Triumphantly yours,

C.R.C.

If banks don’t have funding anymore, the whole economy stops, including the whole auto industry. Given the importance of financing for car manufacturers and buyers, no car industry specific baylout is of any use without a functioning banking industry.

You can kick and scream as much as you want, but it’s the truth. No economy can afford a collapsing banking sector.

Do I have an inside angle to the machinations of the domestic auto industry? On a peripheral basis perhaps. Directly, no. My circle of friends does include current and former auto workers and individuals within the middle to upper ranks of management and one special person who is trying, very hard, to sell these cars.

So why comment? Because of pain. The pain that will undoubtedly be felt by the poor schmucks on the line should this house of cards fall. The pain of associated industries. The pain that will be afflicted on the taxpayers who foot the bill while simulateously buy the cars.
So who do we target for our wrath? You alluded to this target in the above editorial. But are they the only ones?
The complexity of the answer is worthy of your best verbage but for now perhaps we can focus on what SHOULD have been? When a CEO is focused on profit and shareholders focus only on their immediate dividends what happens? Any CEO worth his salt goes to the product line that generates that cash flow…of course. A long term moderately profitable product doesn’t have the glamour but it does provide a baseline upon which a high ticket product can be presented.

I believe that the “3″ gave over the baseline products that did make the auto industry as strong as it once was.
I believe that once it became obvious that this demographic was vulnerable other manufacturers filled in the gaps. Hence Corollas and Civics and such. Solid, reliable…you know the drill.

Now the “3″, in their arrogance, want to continue, as they always have. I don’t see the validity of any argument they present.

Gentlemen, rework that 1950’s business plan before you become a footnote in a book on how NOT to respond to market forces!

ciao, t

http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=arEE1iClqDrk

If they pump out 14 or 24 trillion; is it going to be any worse then printing 7? Is some amount going to fix and solve all the economic problems?

I don’t think they should print any. Consolidate and liquidate and work on making the dollar actually worth a dollar. Hell, I’ll drive a Honda.

Escorts for everyone!

But even THAT would send the wrong signal, that somehow America might survive without business day-trips to kiss ass in another town.

Along with the FELONS on Wall Street, the boys (and girls)who MANAGE Detroit belong in orange jump suits…on a Federal prison farm…sweeping, mopping floors, and cleaning toilets.

After WE (the American taxpayer) bail out the banking/credit industry, the sub-prime mortgage mess, now the domestic automakers, then WHOM is next? The steel industry? Anyone/everyone who lines up in front of Congress?

Correcting a wrong with another wrong does not make a “right.”

Will SOMEONE please send me a copy of Brock Yates’ “The Grosse Pointe Myopians.” (Car & Driver, April 1968 issue.) Along with my former students, I will FORCE all my family, friends, and neighbors to READ it.

Said prescient article should be distributed to all 535 members of Congress…to vividly color their thought processes…as they decide the fate of Detroit.

“The certainty of being hanged, two weeks hence, does wonders to concentrate the mind!” (Samuel Johnson) Mr. Waggoner, Mr. Mulally, Cerberus Capital, WHY should anyone consider any of YOU worthy of attention? WHY do blitering IDIOTS, such as YOU, deserve any sympathy…and charity???

In the meantime, I shall(gleefully)continue driving my Honda Accords…which were BOTH built in MARYSVILLE, OHIO…unless and until (GM CEO)Mr. Rick Waggoner attempts to pry my cold, bloody hands off the steering wheels.

With gasoline and oil running through my veins, this fiery,old “Gear Head” (and MBA), I’d LOVE to have a piece of YOU, Mr. Waggoner! Ditto for (the late)Roger B. Smith!

Mr. Alfred P. Sloan, Jr: DO YOU HEAR ME??? ARE YOU ROLLING IN YOUR GRAVE NOW???

Very Sincerely,
Robert Warden

There’s obviously a dual-track pecking order for the Harvard grads getting bail-outs for the companies they go on to (poorly) run, and those who do not, and it seems the nexus of the haves is whether you can get an invite to Goldman Sachs office Xmas (Hannukah?) party.

However, one of the biggest motivators for keeping insolvent banks solvent vs. insolvent automakers is the credibility of US debt instruments. Fact is, this country is mortgaged (no pun) to the hilt with overseas creditors.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are good examples of this. Foreigners own vast amounts of those “securities” and the unspoken expectation with those firms and their debt is that it’s backed by the US Treasury. Maybe that wasn’t “official policy,” but it definitely was implied by the nature of those institutions. If we would have let them go under, the credibility of our promises of repayment, implied or not, would have been called into question.

Protecting American banks and all those mortgages with all that (currently unknown) counter-party risk is critical not necessarily for “financial stability” I think in so much as it is about protecting America’s collective FICO score, especially our own sovereign debt rating.

Ironically, we are falling into the same trap as a teeny-bopper with too much on the Macy’s card, who then takes out a Capital One Visa to pay the Macy’s card. Obviously there is going to be a day of reckoning for the teeny-bopper as much as there will be for us, but right now borrowing seems to be exclusively to cover debts, and not buy more vote-toys like a defunct automaker. Using a loan to get votes via deficit spending…those days are over for the good ol’ USA.

The ONLY responsible action is to cut this ludicrous transfer of wealth now. Want a bailout? No problem – it’s called Chapter 11.

Get these elected, media-whore “representatives” of ours to start doing their jobs. I don’t recall there being one person with turnaround expertise sitting on this committee. They have no expertise is in this area, so let’s cut the crap.

I’m not sure which group is more reprehensible: the hypocrite ‘leaders’ from Detroit, or the grandstanding sycophantic politicians wanting to appear to be doing something, when really doing nothing at all.

I drove a rental Chevrolet Cobalt Sport on a 3441 mile road trip this summer. Not a great car, but a significant improvement over the Cavalier. Unfortunately for GM, the Honda Civic weighs less while having significantly more usable passenger room.

The better PR angle would be to drive a prototype Chevrolet Cruze to Washington DC to show what the money will bring. GM might be able to work a deal where funds allocated for “green” cars gets redirected toward more desirable domestic small cars.

Rick wouldn’t know the difference between a Cobalt and a Focus due to having 2 major competitors in the same town where they share employees from the same pool of relatives and friends along with sharing the same pool of people with the supplier base and local media.

How can their be any competitive advantage when all the company secrets are being shared at the dinner table or in the bedroom?

Oooh, that took me a minute. You’re talking about the Gulfstream G5…

I thought for a minute you were talking about the Pontiac G5! Ah, there’s a re-badge from hell.

Really, send him in an Escalade with a detour through Gary. Problem solved.

Right! Now here’s what they can do: the CEO’s charter a bus and along the way they pick up the governors of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, etc. and the mayors of Detroit, Cleveland, etc. There’d be brief rallies at major factories of the D3 and suppliers where employees can cheer begging-bowl speeches. Now, that’s a media event.