New management can take a fresh look at how to save GM. Shed vehicle models, brands, dealers, suppliers, factories, real estate, overhead, unions, health care, pensions: how is it going to get done?

Next, how is GM going to serve and delight consumers in the future and repair damaged brands? A daunting task that will take a decade.

One thing is for sure: the same old tired and burnt out management is not going to succeed.

Don’t the board of directors work (in theory) for the stock holders interest so shouldn’t they try to avoid bankruptcy if possible so the stock holders get something.

GM should buy back Cerberus’ share of GMAC, merge GMNA into GMAC, recharter GMAC as a “bank” and then Paulson & Co. will start shoveling cash at them just like the big banks.

It isn’t. True, the domestics were in trouble, but the instant cause of the current crisis is the credit crunch/shitty economy. Note that the importers are renting record space at the all the ports to store their unwanted vehicles. GM/Ford/Chrysler were in worse shape than the imports to begin with, so they are in more dire straits now.

And the fact that the three domestic are (today) still in business, meeting payroll and selling cars means, on its face, that things are not (yet) a “complete disaster.”

This fear of disclosure suggests there is more corporate hanky panky that we may even know already, doesn’t it? This makes me think that ANY government support has to bring out the stuff from the closet.

What closet are speaking of? GM and Ford are publicly traded companies. They make innumberable filings with the SEC, their bondholders, their shareholders, etc. It’s all there in plain view.

To the extent that you wish to see any proprietary information from GM or Ford, it ain’t gonna happen outside of a bankruptcy filing. In fact, it would be the height of irresponsiblity to do so.

Otherwise, no way!

Let our domestic manufacturing base die, but give billions more in no-questions-asked funds for lending institutions who drove us into this ditch in the first place, and who are using the money not to get credit flowing again (as was supposed to happen), but to buy one another up.

America — what a country!

The puny part that Saab plays in this(and to some extent Saturn now that it sells “Opels”) is that it is a part of GM Europe that happens to be sold here. Those $20-40K GME cars(see Saab, Opel, gmeurope.com) that are made today, including their turbodiesels and even smaller engines and the hybrid systems, are the models that GMNA needs to truly compete. And GMs gotta stop bragging about 30mpg highway, when 40 or 50 is whats needed.

We will see what we see when the $40K+ Volt shows up in two?? years, but before all GMNAs eggs seemingly get thrown in this basket, cars GM makes today(but just dosent sell here)need to be integrated.

Bankruptcy of GM, or any other car maker, would cause sales to drop an additional 20-30 percent, on top of the 30-45 percent drop that has already occurred. A lot of people would not buy a vehicle from a bankrupt automaker.

as was previously noted, this is already priced into the market. the only way c11 would be successful is if, it is directed by the new administration and congress. by directed, i mean that the gov’t needs to underwrite the guaranties on existing gm cars and those that will be sold under c11. also, the gov’t need to set up the post c11 debtor financing. also, the administration has to manage all the creditors by declaring it a national emergency to keep the factories working and not let that goal get bogged down in the courts.

in addition, there has been a lot of talk of having the government finance the lion battery research that would make the volt and other electrics a reality. this type of thing has been done successfully before. essentially, the gov’t did this with such technologies as jet propulsion and the internet.

sorry the photo made me feel a need to channel Slim Pickets.

Otherwise, no way!

Then, they can say that they tried and that Congress/Senate failed them.. it distracts the public from the poor management and crappy cars that got them here in the first place.

Either way, its gonna be a rough ride.

On paper, there is much to be gained for GM with a Ch. 11 filing. In reality, it would be a complete disaster. That is why we haven’t seen it done and, hopefully, we won’t.

Even GM knows it needs to shed dealers, renegotiate debt, alter or cancel contracts with suppliers, etc. But the minute they pull out the bankruptcy gun, it will be wrestled away from them by senior debt holders and pointed at their heads. And the gun will be fired. A GM attempt at Ch. 11 reorganization would last about two weeks before being converted (either voluntarily or involuntarily) into a Ch. 7 liquidation.

Not to mention that, regardless of the chapter (7 or 11), very few people will purchase a new car from a bankrupt company.

The end result would be a bunch of dumb ass Wall Street money men (the same ones responsible for the current credit crises and who are absolutely clueless about the automobile industry) gaining control of GM. See Cerberus & Chrysler for how well that sort of thing works out.

Or, even worse, Tata and/or Geely buy GM for pennies on the dollar, shut all N.A. production, and receive an instant (and huge) N.A. dealer network.

Wanna see a real race to the bottom? Let GM file bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy protection does not have to run forever. A restructured company could emerge out of it in less than a year. While there might be a sales drop in the first couple of months, a marketing campaign worth less than $50M would be sufficient to convince people that this is not the end of the company and its cars. In addition, the very-likely-in-the-event-of-C11 government bailout money could make up for the lost sales.

Now, GM is probably toast anyways. But bankruptcy is not the cure.

The cure is to sell more vehicles, at a price that makes GM money. I’ve seen no plan that will accoplish this, and, frankly, I can’t think of one myself.

In short, GM’s fear of chapter 11 is entirely misplaced.

I think the only “fear” of Chapter 11 at GM relates to Red Ink Rick and Co. having to admit that they are incompetent, and give up their place at the trough.

I fully expect any “plan” that is presented to Congress will be mostly an attempt to explain why they should not be tossed out in the cold. The remaining 10% will be a reiteration of “jobs! jobs! jobs!”.

Bruce

Uh, no.