GM Thanks the American Taxpayers...

[chefdennis]

Yeap Government motors and the UAW want to thank the American Taxpayers for the bailout that lets them continue to send money and jobs to Mexico....

Where are the GM/UAW backers on this!?!?

Hope and Change you can believe in.....

August 04, 2010

GM announces major investment in auto plant (in Mexico)

Cindy Simpson
American Thinker Blog: GM announces major investment in auto plant (in Mexico)

That's Government Motors gratitude for you! From the Wall Street Journal:

U.S. automobile giant General Motors Co. said Tuesday it plans to invest close to $500 million in its Ramos Arizpe plant in northern Mexico to produce a new line of engines as well as a new vehicle...

"We estimate that these technologies allow for a 9% improvement in fuel efficiency from current engines," Lieblein said, adding that the investment will directly create 390 jobs in Coahuila state, where Ramos Arizpe is located.

Another $215 million will go toward upgrading the factory's production lines to build a new vehicle for the domestic and international markets, she said, noting that the investment will be key to maintaining 400 jobs.

Assembly of the vehicle, which wasn't named, is set to begin in the last quarter of 2011. GM plans for it to "give long-term viability to this plant by gradually substituting some production volumes."

Lieblein said General Motors has invested $4.1 billion in Mexico over the last four years.

US taxpayers bailed out GM, next came the Volt, and now this is the payback.

On the bright side, at least there may be fewer Mexicans crossing the border.

 

[chefdennis]

The Volt will die on the cord...its just another one trick pony from GM....

 

[chefdennis]

Oh you are going to see altnatives yes, but not in the numbers that the gv wants...it ain't going to happen....the Volt is slated for a production run of 3 yrs at this point..it will die before that...the gov pushed it out too early...40 miles on a charge...please.....

 

[greg334]

You guys missed out on the best part.

GK is handing out grants to companies to develop electric vehicle technology. They have over $100M to hand out of US taxpayer money that they won't pay back. There is serious talk that the treasury department is talking to GM to purchase the stock they own, or a portion of it and then forgive the loans, all the while the UAW and the same leadership of GM will get retro adjustments back to pre-2009 agreements.

GM isn't doing as well as they claim to be, their numbers are up but they are also padding the dealerships again and the dealers actual sales numbers are not in sync with GMs. Coupled with the need for the purchase of a sub-prime lender by GM to push cars onto people who can't afford them, I see GM being in the same bad situation they were in, in 2008 by 2015.

 

[chefdennis]

GM, Chysler and Ford sales are all lagging behind estimates....

GM, Ford and Chrysler Sales All Lag Estimates - Bloomberg

 

[greg334]

Read carefully,

The numbers are not accurate, they are not counting sales to consumers but sales to dealers - a difference. They are looking at how many cars they are "selling" and skewing the numbers to give to the press.

Beside that, they are not looking good with market share, which GM and Fiat both dropped even more than expected. Toyota with all their problems still seem to be ahead of GM and Honda and Kia made gains in the US market. It seems that this 'investment' wasn't much of one because the consumer still choose other brands of American made products to buy.

The one BIG problem with GM is the continuing arrogance of the leadership, they and the administration has openly lied about the changes made during the bankruptcy of the company that the leadership has changed and still seem to parade their success to screw the heroes (stockholders and bond holders) and reward the villains (the leadership and the UAW).

Ford is counting on the Fiesta to help them, they are hyping it but missing the opertunity by having made in Mexico and not offering the diesel engine. They hyped the Explorer (which is a downsized over-optioned SUV that we don't need) which may do well in the lease markets and they hyped the Taurus which actually did well and brought up Ford's numbers. Ford has a better chance of a real recovery because they did something GM and Fiat didn't do - close dealerships. They maintained the Old Man Ford's idea - access to the product matters.

Fiat, which has spun off Dodge trucks into the Ram line is now parading around Jeep as if it was God's gift to man kind (which is a joke, it is the same as any thing else except the Landrover Aluminum box on wheels) but is going to bring real cars to the market, Fiats.

 

[Pilgrim]

Just a few random thoughts - rather obvious ones at that:

• The Volt is an overpriced turkey that won't sell in significant numbers in the US or anywhere else. If GM is hanging their hat on this loser the same way Oldsmobile did with the Aurora, they shouldn't be surprised when they get the same end result.
• When they invest big dollars in Mexican plants, they do so at locations where they don't have to deal with the UAW - sounds like a smart move to me.
• Why should we expect the US Govt to run an automobile business any better than they run TVA, The Dept of Energy, The Post Office, etc, etc.?

 

[chefdennis]

Pilgram wrote:

When they invest big dollars in Mexican plants, they do so at locations where they don't have to deal with the UAW - sounds like a smart move to me.

The UAW owns something like 17-18% of GM. GM will answer more the the UAW then they ever did in the past. You can bet that the UAW was well aware of this investment in Mexico and that they were fully in agreement with it now that they have to look at the buttom line...LOL, if anyone thinks they are only looking out for the employees at GM now...think again....Profit 1st...

 

[Pilgrim]

17-18% is hardly a majority shareholder stake. They may have been aware of the Mexican investment, but could do nothing about it. I'll be convinced the UAW is concerned about corp. profits when I see them make the concessions necessary to make them competitive with Toyota and the other non-union manufacturers. There's a reason Kia, Volkswagen and the others built their new plants in the South - and it's not because they're SEC football fans.

 

[chefdennis]

When the Fed Gov owns 60% of GM, 17-18% makes it the 2nd largest share hold with GM holding the rest. I know as of May 2010, there still was no public offering for GM stock....

So yea 17-18% along with the backing of the Gov, makes the Uaw a pretty strong voice in what happens at GM....