GM's Prez Begs Customers To Plead On GM's Behalf
Consumerist reader Darkrose writes, "I just got this in my e-mail. Thought you guys might be interested in it." In the email, GM's president Troy Clarke is in high PR mode, pointing out the grave consequences and emphasizing that GM wants not "a bailout but rather a loan that will be repaid." We thought other readers who aren't GM customers would find it interesting.
Tonight, the president of Ford Motors will be on Campbell Brown's "No Bias, No Bull" program on CNN at 8pm ET/5pm PT, presumably to hit similar talking points. Dance, auto monkey! Dance for the TV audience!
Dear [redacted],
You made the right choice when you put your confidence in General Motors, and we appreciate your past support. I want to assure you that we are making our best vehicles ever, and we have exciting plans for the future. But we need your help now. Simply put, we need you to join us to let Congress know that a bridge loan to help U.S. automakers also helps strengthen the U.S. economy and preserve millions of American jobs.
Despite what you may be hearing, we are not asking Congress for a bailout but rather a loan that will be repaid.
The U.S. economy is at a crossroads due to the worldwide credit crisis, and all Americans are feeling the effects of the worst economic downturn in 75 years. Despite our successful efforts to restructure, reduce costs and enhance liquidity, U.S. auto sales rely on access to credit, which is all but frozen through traditional channels.
The consequences of the domestic auto industry collapsing would far exceed the $25 billion loan needed to bridge the current crisis. According to a recent study by the Center for Automotive Research:
• One in 10 American jobs depends on U.S. automakers
• Nearly 3 million jobs are at immediate risk
• U.S. personal income could be reduced by $150 billion
• The tax revenue lost over 3 years would be more than $156 billionDiscussions are now underway in Washington, D.C., concerning loans to support U.S. carmakers. I am asking for your support in this vital effort by contacting your state representatives.
Please take a few minutes to go to www.gmfactsandfiction.com, where we have made it easy for you to contact your U.S. senators and representatives. Just click on the "I'm a Concerned American" link under the "Mobilize Now" section, and enter your name and ZIP code to send a personalized e-mail stating your support for the U.S. automotive industry.
Let me assure you that General Motors has made dramatic improvements over the last 10 years. In fact, we are leading the industry with award-winning vehicles like the Chevrolet Malibu, Cadillac CTS, Buick Enclave, Pontiac G8, GMC Acadia, Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, Saturn AURA and more. We offer 18 models with an EPA estimated 30 MPG highway or better — more than Toyota or Honda. GM has 6 hybrids in market and 3 more by mid-2009. GM has closed the quality gap with the imports, and today we are putting our best quality vehicles on the road.
Please share this information with friends and family using the link on the site.
Thank you for helping keep our economy viable.
Sincerely,
Troy Clarke
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Comments:
Dear GM,
As a current Saturn owner and previous Buick owner, I believe you can make a great product and are a worthwhile component of the American economy. My primary complaint against you is your continued support of a corrupt dealership network. Over the past year, I have tried on several occasions to purchase a new Chevy, but every time ended in me storming out of the dealership in disgust. I was lied to about pricing, model availability and vehicle features. I was treated disrespectfully, and was left waiting for long periods of time. I tried at 3 different dealerships in the Houston area (including Bill Heard, heh) and each time the experience was the same. This treatment eventually resulted in my purchase of a used Saturn from a small, independent dealership. I cannot support providing a federal loan to your great company while you continue to make your products available exclusively through an outmoded and corrupt system.
@bostonhockey: Last time I checked, I'm a consumer. Also, GM makes several vehicles I want that are in my price range.
Wasn't it GM who had a fully functional full Electric car 10 years ago and decided to pull it, and crush it despite almost 100% consumer satisfaction with the product. Maybe they wouldn't be losing money right now if their business plan wasn't so short sighted, sorry no help here.
Then there is Ford, who laid off thousands a few years ago, yet still found billions of dollars to sponsor the Super Bowl a month later. I used to one of those "buy american" car people, but I have no love for the american car companies these days, they've dug their own whole
Yes.. Yes.. give us your money so we don't have to figure out how to cut back. If Toyota and the others can survive, then so can you. If not I'm sorry for the families, but things change. That's just the way it is.
Can I call your house and cell phone 10 times a day if you are a little late paying back that loan?
While I disagree with bailing them out (much like I disagreed with the bank bailout) I think that we have a much greater likelyhood of seeing the money loaned to the auto companies back.
Where's the innovation coming from American companies? Why do they buy up foreign companies and then the resultant 'retooling' brings the quality down (Chrysler, I'm looking at you!)?
They want a 'bridge loan' - how about some reassurance that they're going to start making some better energy efficient vehicles and drive better MPG standards, rather than opposing them at every turn? Why can Honda and Toyota consistently blow away American vehicles in those standards?
They've been told for years - nay, decades - now that they need to get with the program, but we've seen little in the way of actual progress. I feel badly for the workers and will support this bridge loan mainly for them, but c'mon - NOW is the time to get concrete assurances that GM, etc. are going to quit dicking around and catch up with the rest of the world already.
This would be a bailout for the Unions. They are choking the life out of the American economy. Who here makes 75$ an hour in wages and benefits to do manual labor? They had on the news that for each car sold there is included 1200$ in health insurance costs compared to 200$ per car at Toyota. Or if you disagree with that how about the labor pools where layed off union labors get paid 96% of their wages to do nothing? No wonder we can't compete.
Can I also use that link to tell congress not to give you a 'loan'?
Three links in to get to the research. The research consists of two automotive-invested groups, one of them the National Automotive Dealer's Association (come on!). The third looks suspiciously like the big three's lobby group. Even if that's all speculation, the eye-catching links are news and journalist reports and redirects back to GM's page.
We call out medical papers funded by pharma around here. I see what looks like research funded by parties with vested interests, along with huge lobbying and PR campaigns.
Any truth to it all?
@bostonhockey: I especially love this line
"Let me assure you that General Motors has made dramatic improvements over the last 10 years"
I agree, if by improved you mean you turned your affordable zero emission, all electric car into a fleet of overpriced gas guzzling luxury cars and 6 way overpriced hybrids that get marginally better gas mileage than the aforementioned guzzlers.
There was an ad in our paper yesterday telling us how the auto industry needed money from the government. I couldn't help but think, "Nice move, buy a bunch of full page ads to tell us you don't have enough money."
@Hooray4Zoidberg: The EV-1 supposedly cost GM $80,000 per car, for a 2-seater electric car roughly the same dimensions of the original Honda Insight. There was 100% consumer satisfaction from the people leasing it for $299 / month, but at this rate GM was losing huge amounts of money on them. If it was leased for more like $1300 - $1500, I'm sure there would have been a lot less interest and satisfaction.
Many of the remaining vehicles were destroyed so that GM would not have to provide parts support or deal with legal issues as the cars aged. It is unfortunate that they did not take the Ford / Toyota route and just allow people to buy the vehicles and sign a disclaimer after the leases expired. I grew up just a few miles down the road from GM's fuel cell development facility in Honeoye Falls, NY. After the leases on the EV-1s expired, many of them were provided to employees of that facility as transportation. I used to see them drive by fairly often, and the facility had parking spots with charging ports. I'm not sure how many, if any, are still in active duty there though.
I sent them a couple of "myths" for them to respond to-
The american auto industry has sub-par quility standards.
Foreign vehicles have better dependability and customer loyalty.
The american auto industry is scrambling to regroup after banking on a never ending wave of cheap oil and rampant consumerism.
This "loan" will never do any good for the taxpayer and the american auto industry will continue making products that sit on lots.
American autos are not as good as foreign autos.
There is no value in the american auto industry.
The american taxpayer does not want to give the american auto industry any money to help save them from their own poor business decisions.
I will never buy a GM vehicle.
Perhaps I will hear a response from them today?
@Kishi: Haha, yeah see my previous comment about Ford laying off a ton of people a few years ago, then spending billions to sponsor the super bowl a month later.
Dear GM: You deserve to fail. I quit buying American cars after a Buick had TWO TRANSMISSIONS IN A ROW GO BAD. The dealership just shrugged like it was nothing, while I was having my car TOWED IN and waiting weeks to get the transmissions replaced. I had never heard of one transmission going bad under normal circumstances, but two in a row within about a year? Signed, a very happy Toyota owner.
Hey Big Three,
A. Go to a bank like the rest of us, hell they were handing out loans like they are candy.
B. Quit making garbage, bring back solid economical cars like the Escort and Cavalier. These cars got 30+ MPG easy too, my Escort which after 300K miles was crushed into a cube a few months ago still got 35ish. I need wheels, A/C, cruise, little bit of storage, and a heater. No power windows, no fluffy microsoft powered stereos.
Normally, I would be in the screw 'em, they did it to themselves group. Then I thought about all the Credit Default Swaps taken out on GM. If GM does not get a government loan, they will go out of business and be liquidated. This will trigger all the CDS's to pay out and cause another round of insurance companies and financial institutions to go under like falling dominoes. If you're not sure what a CDS is, check out this video, [marketplace.publicradio.org] One of the best, most easily understood definitions out there.
What's that you say? Let them file bankruptcy and reorganize their debt? That is an option, however, would you be willing to drop $20-$30k on a car from a company in bankruptcy? Most consumers would not and that fact will turn a Chapter 11 into a Chapter 7 very quickly.
The biggest problem for their future is that they've saturated the market for new cars. Thanks to look-the-other-way financing, pretty much anyone who wanted a new car in the last 3 years has got one. They rode a bubble & the bubble's gone. I suspect that even without the current economic crisis, auto sales would be flat.
Compounding the problem is that so many buyers (up to 70%) are upside down on their loans which, in the current tight credit climate, makes it impossible to finance a new vehicle even if they wanted too.
Honestly, the best thing for GM, Ford, and Chrysler would be to file chapter 11. That way they could actually get the UAW to the table to make huge concessions over wages and benefits. Their labor and legacy costs are far too high, and the UAW does not even seem to take the situation seriously as they're unwilling to give an inch. They don't realize that there could be NO jobs if they don't.
Um, no. No way. No way in heck. GM has made crap cars for decades and although I'll be sad to see an American institution fail, well, they screwed up.
No auto bailout!
"I want to assure you that we are making our best vehicles ever..." wow. And I mean, wow! Does that statement speak volumes. If the crap they're making today is the best they've ever done, they should just close up shop. I've said for some time now--Americans need to endure the pain of getting back to reality. And maybe some of that pain means that GM, Ford, and Chrysler go away completely. We can't afford to subsidize them--and I'm not just talking federal loans here. I'm talking simply buying the crap products they put out and have been putting out for years. How hard is it for them to buy a few Accords and Camrys and tear them apart and reproduce them? Apparently impossible. And the only reason for that is a refusal of will. If you willingly refuse to do what the entire rest of the world is telling you is right, GM, then you deserve to die.
@TheBusDriver: Nope, I went to it to see. If you feel it out it, adds their automatic written letter shown on the left side of the page where you feel your name in.
Dear GM,
Boy, I bet you wish you spent more money on researching fuel efficient cars instead of lobbying to have SUVs reclassified as small trucks, eh? Well, if you're truly capitalists, you'll understand why I oppose your 'loan' 100%.
Suck my nuts and choke to death on them, you stupid greedy oil-chugging bastards,
Satyricaldude
@nataku83: hmm, well they may have cost $80K to produce, but first generational products tend to do that until they're widley adopted and mature in the market place. Look at plasma tvs, they were $20K for a 42" when they came out 10 years ago and can now be had for under a thousand. As the technology matures within the market all sorts of new innovations come about which drive down manufacturing costs and increase reliability. I realize it wasn't a perfect product, and not for everyone, but there was a definite market for it.
Like I said, short sighted, their business plan didn't see a way to profit immediately so they bailed on it. And while I hate to be the conspiracy guy, I'd bet my house that a big part of that decision was made upon the realization that the revenue from parts/maintenance would be greatly less with the EV1 than the more complicated combustion engines vehicles. It's no secret most their revenue comes from dealership repairs.
@bostonhockey: Well, part of the problem is they (along with other automakers) DID make cars consumers wanted at one point: big ol' SUVs.
Then gas prices rose and the rest is history.
That all said though, I'm still not in favor of a bailout or "loan," or whatever word they try to use to attempt to get people to support them.
(And I'm not just saying that because I bought a Volkswagen last year, heh.)
@bostonhockey: Cars no one wants huh? I keep hearing that. I guess that's why they only make up about 46% of cars sold in the US. Because no one is buying them.
Dear GM: I fly cross-country one week every month. After dealing with your crappy Chevys and even a Buick or two for about 6 weeks, I now have it on my Hertz record that I prefer Hyundai/Kia. If this is the end of your ten year "improvement" then I am glad my father was a Ford man (was - he now loves his RAV4 vs his POS Exploder). There's this theory put forth by a little known author by the name of Darwin. You may want to look into it. I am getting sick of my taxpayer dollars funding everything when I was the smart one who bought a house with a fixed mortgage rate that I can afford to be in.
Sincerely,
A pissed taxpayer (and Honda and Kia owner)
My snow selling business in Fairbanks Alaska is not doing too well. Can I also get a bailout?
@ThickSkinned: If GM will run out of money by the end of the year, it's probably not a good idea to be buying a car from them regardless of whether they get a bailout or not.
@mdoublej: Yea, and if you call in for questions about your account or request service on your "loan," can we act like a condescending dick to you, too?
@TheBusDriver: I just checked too. Problem with that would be some idiot intern would just count how many came in from the form without reading them and then report how many support GM.
@usul356: Yeah cut back. For every GM car sold its paying for $1400 in Health Care for workers. On that Toyota its less than $300 bucks. So you think we should go bust the UAW out of there and cut wages, breaks and health care. Sounds great to me.
@ThickSkinned: You're right. Instead of letting the normal flow of a "free market", we should prop up obsolete business practices- actually, be blackmailed into supporting them. After we "loan" them the money to keep building cars no one can buy, should we then "loan" money to newspapers? Any one who feels the US owes them something because their plan to make money didn't?
If you believe in a "free market", then supporting companies like this- no matter how big- will directly and adversely affect the whole system. Not now- but in the future. This is only a band-aid over a gaping wound.
@The_Red_Monkey: EXACTLY, so if they sell 46% of the cars sold in the US, why are we bailing them out?!? :D
@ThickSkinned:
The financial institutions deserve to go under for the use of Credit Default Swaps. The called them swaps soley to avoid regulation and the FDIC. You reap what you sew. The auto industry has been putting it to consumers now you want the consumers to give you a "loan". Deal with your own consequences and let the chips fall where they may. Everyone keeps waiting for us to hit bottom so we can start rebuilding this countries financial markets. Stop creating false bottoms.
@gggtur:
Oddly enough yes, all alaskins are entitled to a free 3000 federal check courtesy of Kansas taxes. Something like that.
I just sent him a drawing of a little man I did on a napkin which I value at $1,340. It's not everything, but it's a start!
Meanwhile, Honda just opened a new plant in Indiana, which will make Civic sedans (a car that Americans want/need). About 1000 new jobs created, and probably more as production gains momentum.
GM needs to trim down their vehicle line-up. They have so much redundancy. Same vehicles rebadged 4 or 5 times. Customers are getting smarter and they're not falling for it anymore. Innovate or die.
Then there was British Leyland; the UK's largest auto maker consisting of a conglomerate of disparate car companies, horrifically managed and burdened down with unworkable union contracts. The UK government poured millions into them while they continued to stamp out grotty cars that no one wanted. In the end they died anyway.
Stop me if you've heard this before...
My dad is trying to get me a GM car, and I don't really support a bailout. Chapter 11 worked for some of the airlines, although the airlines aren't exactly big on customer satisfaction now. But they emerged from it, right?
Fuck, I don't know. This is a shitty time to look for a new car. Or even a used one.
Bring back Oldsmobile and we'll talk.
@bostonhockey: I am against a bailout for them, BUT I also don't want them to fail completely...during WWII didn't they make tanks & such? I think they were the only ones (as in no other company in US was capable of) making tanks for the military...so unless there is a company I don't know of, wouldn't we be left asking some other country to make tanks & such for us say the worst should happen? I don't know the answer to it all..just a thought.
I loved my 2003 Saturn L300 when I bought it. My first car and I bought it brand new, fully-loaded, by myself, when I was 19. I took care of it like my baby. Anal about maintenance and kept it spotless.
In the 5 years that I had it, I went through a rack & pinion replacement, 8 or 9 tires, it would never stay aligned, A/C went out, replaced thermostat, replaced tired rod, and the engine computer was about to cost me a crapload of money before some guy T-boned me in October of this year and totaled it.
Currently, I'm loving my 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe.
Nope. Let them go bankrupt so that they can't get out of the egregious UAW contracts that are sucking these companies dry. Paying people 6 figures to put on windshield wiper blades is insane.
@TheBusDriver: You're assuming congress gives a flying @$@ about what the people want.
Remember that first bail out none of us wanted? They flipped us the bird and then laughed in our face we voted them back into office on Nov 4th.
Can someone explain this to me: so, we're to bailout a company - or rather, three companies - that failed to produce a car that consumers actually wanted? Will the bailout money be used simply to plug the giant hole that is their current product line? Or will that money go into R&D?
Let them fail, and then new companies with business models that reflect safe, durable, energy-efficient cars will flourish.