You just did a great job at contradicting yourself. If you “don’t know where the magic wells are” … then you *certainly* DON’T KNOW for sure that GM has a source where they can obtain a big cash infusion.

The term “GM basher” was used- not “hater”. Two very different descriptives.

A distinction without a difference.

So what is TTAC’s prediction for GM’s demise? Is there a hard date? Or is TTAC not so sure that GM will fail?

The situation is, of course, fluid. The rate of GM’s decline into bankruptcy depends on a number of factors: the state of the U.S. new car market, the price of gas, the UAW’s reaction to its “deferred payment,” Delphi’s health (remember them?), suppliers’ health, etc.

One thing is for sure: if you take in less money than you spend, you eventually go broke. The question of the day: with what will GM replace its king-sized pickup truck and SUV profits?

Rick Wagoner say’s he’ll account GM back into shape.

He-he.

(And to someone who spoke about GM-haters on this site. I don’t hate GM – I am in awe at the sheer lunacy of management, and the fact that it’s been kept on board, but I do not hate GM. I have owned GM cars – and who knows, maybe the day will come when I own one again — but it won’t be one of the cars that Rick’s been accounting instead of building.)

I’ve felt that GM needs to get out of the auto biz and into the medical care biz since they are on the hook for billions in medical care anyhow. GM can stand for General Medical. Kaiser Shipyards, the ship building company, did this.

Think about it. If you have to pay billions for medical care, then why on earth not become the vendor yourself?

Sounds like the General not going away anytime soon. Bad news for all the GM bashers gathered here.

Actually, it sounds like GM IS going away soon (depending on your definition of soon).

And I’d like to state clearly, for the record, that assessing GM’s distress and/or predicting its failure is not “bashing.”

Personally, I have never been “let down” by a domestic product (I knew my Pinto was crap and accepted that from the git-go). And though I am offended by GM’s management (or lack thereof), telling the truth about GM is not the same as an unwarranted, unjustifiable attack.

Interestingly enough, I’m currently in the middle of a TOYOTA internship. Thanks to him for advising me to stay away from the Detroit 3.

That’s the point. It WAS upbeat to those on the stage. They actually feel good about this; or do a pretty good job of acting like they do. What would have happened to the poor bastard who had the guts to point out in their discussion of this ‘plan’ before announcement, that it was just more of the same? So that’s how this keeps going. Wagoner has no clothes on but nobody can say it. Wagoner, the board and those raking it in have bought themselves some time and way more income than they could get anywhere else. What did change today was the dividend. Some real pain will be felt, and the only relief will be return of the dividend or increase in stock price; both highly unlikely. So I’m hopeful some movement will be started among the stock holders. Too late to save the company I’m afraid but at least Wagoner might bear some shame.

Well to be fair to GM, this is legally necessary — no publicly-traded US company ever makes unqualified, outright assertions about future events that depend on market conditions. Else you not only lose the inevitable lawsuits, but set yourself up for fraud prosecution. Basic template for a public co.

Moreover, this line was talking about cash to be raised by selling automotive assets in a haywire automotive market, and that’s certainly unpredictable anyway.

Well let’s hope they’re a little more proactive and timely in declaring bankruptcy.

GM’s been mismanaging itself for the past 20 years into oblivion with short term focus on profits, market share by purchasing other automakers, and holding 8 brands that only made sense when they had 50% market share. The haters for GM are speaking loudly b/c looking at this company from the outside in – we see a rotten corpse of greed and mismanagement from it’s high level execs, to its dealers, to its overpaid line workers. They are killing the company slowly and softly trying to keep an unsustainable status quo. GM needs bankruptcy to flush out the poison, fiefdoms, unconscionable union and franchise contracts and bring in a new set of talent. Recreate itself from the ashes – this GM will be better for American than the walking corpse we have today.

General Electric suddenly decided recently that making appliances was no longer part of their core competency, GM may decide it doesn’t need to sell cars in NA. The product revival lead by vehicles like Malibu, CTS and Enclave, which by any objective measure are very competitive, may just be too little too late.

Back in the 80’s Ford looked brilliant and GM was likely the most mismanaged company on the planet. Product is cyclical and companies fortunes rise and fall. Nobody’s going into Chap 11 and there won’t be any government bailouts, unless Cerebus the hellhound goes belly-up, but that’s a different post entirely

But nothing about building intelligent, reliable vehicles that people actually want to buy and, you know, selling them at a profit.

Feh!

Of the few actions listed, they seem pretty obvious ‘lean out the inventory, cut back on cash outflows, etc.’ Why weren’t they doing this 18 months ago…?

At least, GM’s management is not pulling stops anymore. We’ll see if it really helps. It certainly buys them time.