Justin Bimmer

"PUT MAX IN SPACE" "NASA does not have a Max in the astronaut program"

Wait................. So the government is NOT going to run them?

What? the government is not going to run GM?

I think the conventional wisdom on this is when you are the biggest carmaker in the world, you are not going to fall flat on your face and go to $h!.

By Micheline Maynard Monday, June 1, 2009 Provided by The New York Times Link to Article It is a company that helped lift hundreds of thousands of American workers into the middle class. It transformed Detroit into the Silicon Valley of its day, a symbol of America’s talent for innovation. It built celebrated cars, like Cadillacs, that became synonymous with luxury. And now it is filing for bankruptcy, something that would have been unfathomable even a few years ago, much less decades ago, when it was a dominant force in the American economy. ------------------------------ I thought this was a really good article.

as borat would say "Very Niiice!"

Chrysler FAIL!

Now they can ghostride the whip!

GOOD NEWS! Which plant will it be?

By TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher, Ap Auto Writer – 2 hrs 44 mins ago Article Link DETROIT – General Motors Corp. said Friday that it plans to reopen a shuttered U.S. factory to build subcompact cars that will be the smallest vehicles GM has ever produced here. The company said in a written statement that the retooled factory will be able to build 160,000 cars per year. The automaker did not say which factory would be selected or which models it will build. GM, which is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, also plans to announce then that it will close 14 more factories, including four assembly plants. A person briefed on GM's plans said the small cars would be built at one of the plants to be announced Monday. The person, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the plans, said GM has not determined which plant will get the new vehicles. The reopened factory, he said, would create 1,200 jobs, offsetting some of the 21,000 that will be lost when GM closes the 14 factories by the end of next year. The automaker had said in documents submitted to Congress that it planned to produce up to 51,000 subcompacts per year in China and ship them to the U.S. starting in 2011, when GM plans to start selling the Chevrolet Spark here. The three-door hatchback with a 1.2-liter turbocharged engine is about the size of a Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris and is set to go on sale in Europe next year. But in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said GM will not import the cars from China and had agreed as part of a concession deal to build them in the U.S. "Small cars represent one of the fastest-growing segments in both the U.S. and around the world," GM CEO Fritz Henderson said in the statement. "We believe this car will be a winner with our current and future customers in the U.S." Henderson said the UAW concessions ensure GM's manufacturing competitiveness in the U.S. GM already builds the compact Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 at a plant in Lordstown, Ohio, and it plans to retool that plant to start making a new small car, the Chevrolet Cruze, next year. It also jointly manufactures the Pontiac Vibe, a rebadged Toyota Matrix, at a factory in Fremont, Calif. A summary of a concession deal between the UAW and GM deal says an innovative labor agreement is needed for the company to produce small cars in the U.S. But Gettelfinger said that deal is near completion. "I think basically we're there," he said. "There may have to be a few minor tweaks. The agreement that's in place here is competitive." GM's plan to make the Spark in China and ship it to the U.S. drew criticism from the UAW and some members of Congress as it was negotiating the concession agreement. The plan was a political problem for the company, with the UAW saying it was wrong to take U.S. taxpayer loans and then ship jobs overseas. GM has received $19.4 billion in federal loans and likely will get another $30 billion from the U.S. government as it makes its way through the bankruptcy court process. The company faces a government-imposed Monday deadline to complete restructuring, but all signs point to Chapter 11. The person briefed on GM's plans said the company made the decision to build the small cars in the U.S. with the blessing of the government's auto task force. Although GM had planned to import the cars, the cost-cutting UAW agreement and new fuel economy standards that require the U.S. new vehicle to average 35.5 miles per gallon changed the equation and made it a favorable business proposition, the person said. GM would become the first automaker to make subcompact "B-segment" cars in the U.S., the person said. GM now imports the Chevrolet Aveo subcompact from South Korea.

This is not Bob Lutz's fault. This all goes back to Roger Smith and the 80s. All this slash and burn they are doing now SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE THEN! BUT THEY HAD NO BALLS!

*bump*

I'm sure some dealer will take advantage of this in the future. COME TO SEASIDE CHRYSLER BECAUSE WE GIVE IACOCCA A CAR BECAUSE CHRYSLER WON'T!

By Emily Chasan Emily Chasan – Fri May 29, 8:27 am ET Link to Story NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lee Iacocca, the car executive credited with saving Chrysler from bankruptcy in the 1980s, is to lose a big chunk of his pension and a guaranteed life-long company car due to the U.S. automaker's bankruptcy filing two decades later. Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli told a U.S. bankruptcy court on Thursday that Iacocca's pension would be among the obligations Chrysler will no longer have to pay if it gets bankruptcy court approval to sell itself to a "New Chrysler" to be owned by its union, the U.S. and Canadian governments and Fiat SpA (FIA.MI). Iacocca, the storied former chairman and CEO who revived Chrysler in the 1980s and appeared in car commercials, has participated in a supplemental executive retirement plan that was comprised of non-IRS qualified pension funds and is subject to bankruptcy. The claim is unsecured, and typically would be paid after secured creditors in a bankruptcy, but even secured creditors are not expected to get full recovery in a Chrysler bankruptcy that will see hundreds of dealerships shuttered and plants closed. Chrysler has also written to former executives saying that as a result of its April 30 bankruptcy filing it will stop a program that furnished company cars to former executives and directors. Iacocca, famous for the phrase "If you can find a better car, buy it," and other senior executives who were part of the program are being asked to return their cars to a Chrysler marshalling center or arrange to pay for them, according to the document. Chrysler said it regretted the action "in light of the many contributions these individuals have made to Chrysler over the years" and that the "New Chrysler" does not expect to reinstate the car program. (Additional reporting by Tom Hals and David Bailey, Editing by Ian Geoghegan.)

This was a great comment!

On gauges of the grand prix after like 2001 they only hash out ever 5 mph, where on mine every MPH is hashed out.

TF2 1337! my Steam ID: CadillacKing3

I said somewhere that DeLorean called it in his book. He knew what Pontiac was supposed to be, and if they would have just kept on that path, instead of turning it into a $h! sandwich with mayo, who knows.

I like everything about this article, even the name of the city where the SRX is being built. I know it's in Mexico, but what a cool name.

What is Detroit going to do to keep GM? You know if you want your city to not become the site for Fallout 4, you have to be active!

Nice to see some good news on the front page! Volt

By TOM KRISHER and KIMBERLY S. JOHNSON, AP Auto Writers Tom Krisher And Kimberly S. Johnson, Ap Auto Writers – 11 mins ago Story Link DETROIT – General Motors Corp. said Thursday a committee of bondholders has agreed to a sweetened deal proposed by the U.S. government to erase the automaker's unsecured debt in exchange for company stock. A person familiar with the deal said that it is probable GM will file for bankruptcy protection. The person asked not to be identified by name because discussions are still under way with the U.S. and Canadian governments and there is a small chance that the company could avoid a Chapter 11 filing. The company said in a statement that it offered bondholders 10 percent of the stock in a newly formed GM, with warrants to buy up to 15 percent if the bondholders agree to support selling the company's assets to a new company under bankruptcy court protection. The company made the disclosure in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing says if the bondholders don't agree to support the sale, then the amount of stock and warrants they get would be substantially reduced or eliminated. Under the proposal, which has a deadline of 5 p.m. Saturday, GM would at some point enter bankruptcy protection and its good assets would be separated from bad ones. The U.S. Treasury would get 72.5 percent of the new company's shares, while a United Auto Workers' retiree health care trust fund will get 17.5 percent and the old GM would get 10 percent. The bondholders' stake would presumably be additional shares that would dilute the first batch issued by the new company. The UAW trust and others would get warrants for additional shares that would further dilute the stock. A bondholders committee and other large debtholders agreed to the deal but still called it unfair. They collectively hold about 20 percent of GM's unsecured debt. "While the committee continues to remain troubled by preferential treatment that the UAW VEBA is receiving compared to the bondholder class — rejecting this offer in the expectation that the bondholders will do better in a litigated outcome was a risk the committee is unwilling to take," the committee said in a statement. The deal would wipe out GM's $27 billion in unsecured bond debt, converting to equity a total of $50 billion in company debt. The person familiar with the GM plan said that if the deal goes through, the new GM would emerge with a total of $17 billion in debt — $8 billion owed to the U.S. government, $2.5 billion to the UAW trust and $6.5 billion in mainly overseas and capital lease debt. It was unclear what would happen to the GM's current $6 billion worth of secured debt, but the person said the U.S. government will provide financing to operate the new company and for the old GM to be liquidated. Trading of GM shares was halted for a short time Thursday morning, but resumed to rise 3 cents to $1.19 in midday trading. An Obama administration official said the agreement is an important step in GM's restructuring and said the government's auto task force "will continue efforts to help ensure that GM emerges from restructuring as a strong, viable company that can operate independent of government support." ___ Associated Press Writer Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.

Bush v. Gore lawyers take on gay marriage ban 59 mins ago LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Two lawyers who squared off in the legal case that determined the 2000 U.S. presidential election joined forces on Wednesday to ask a federal court to halt California's same-sex marriage ban, despite warnings from gay rights advocates not to mount a federal challenge. Ted Olson and David Boies, who opposed each other in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case, said that gays and lesbians were made into second-class citizens by California's voter-approved ban, known as Proposition 8. They sued on behalf of two same-sex couples who want to marry but cannot because of the Prop 8's passage. California's supreme court on Tuesday upheld the initiative, approved by voters in November. The decision said California's state constitution allows voters to make such changes despite broad protection for same-sex couples. Prop 8 ended a brief period of legal same-sex marriage in California, begun when the same court opened the door to gay nuptials early in 2008. Gay rights advocates, fearing a loss in the socially conservative top U.S. court, have avoided going to federal court after other state ballot box losses. "A federal lawsuit at this time is terribly risky," said Jenny Pizer, one of the lawyers for Lambda Legal who argued against Prop 8 before the California court. Her organization, the American Civil Liberties Union and others said in a statement, "without more groundwork, the U.S. Supreme Court likely is not yet ready to rule that same-sex couples cannot be barred from marriage." Olson, who represented then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush, and Boies, who represented then-Vice President Al Gore in 2000, jointly filed the lawsuit on Friday, before the California court acted. On Wednesday they asked for an injunction on Prop 8. In the lawsuit they argue that Proposition 8 violates the U.S. constitutional amendment guaranteeing equal rights and due process. "This unequal treatment of gays and lesbians denies them the basic liberties and equal protection under the law that are guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution," the lawsuit reads. (Reporting by Steve Gorman, writing by Peter Henderson, Editing by Sandra Maler) Yahoo, Reuters

OMGWTFBBQ!?