Blake Noble

Spied! Subaru's new RWD coupe This one will be shared with Toyota Link to original Article @ Autoblog Another competitor is going to eat GM's rear-drive lunch.

oil

They'd better. :AH-HA_wink:

If conditions in the auto industry don't start improving soon, General Motors will have to start looking for coins between the seats of its vehicles. The automaker currently has $24 billion in cash and another $7 billion in undrawn credit lines--plenty of liquidity, it says, to sustain its global operations through 2008. But will it be enough to limp through the economic downturn swamping the company's recovery efforts? Maybe not, say analysts, who expect General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ) may need to tap the credit markets for as much as $9 billion over the next two years. Not as easy as it sounds. While credit markets are loosening up a bit, GM might have some difficulty selling bonds, says GimmeCredit.com's Shelly Lombard, because lenders are already heavily exposed to automotive debt from Ford Motor (nyse: F - news - people ) and Chrysler. "There's a price at which they can raise bonds," she says--12% to 13% yield, she figures--"but they probably don't want to pay that price." More likely, she says, GM will seek less-expensive bank debt by offering assets (perhaps some of its healthier foreign subsidiaries) as collateral. Ford mortgaged virtually the entire company in fall 2006 to secure a $23 billion credit deal. "Even so, it's tough," says Lombard. "Banks are not in any condition to do a lot of leveraged lending right now. But if you can get anything done in this market, it's in the secured market." GM officials aren't commenting on the eve of Tuesday's shareholders meeting, at which Chief Executive G. Richard Wagoner is expected to disclose various strategies to curb spending and conserve cash. J.P. Morgan Securities analyst Himanshu Patel says these might include eliminating the $600 million annual stock dividend, making salaried job cuts and other restructuring actions. On May 29, GM said 19,000 hourly workers (25% of its total) had agreed to take early retirement packages, which Patel says will save the company an estimated $2 billion. GM keeps trying to adjust to a shrinking market, but the problem is that its recovery effort is running into severe headwinds company executives didn't anticipate: a worsening economy, higher prices for steel and other raw materials, and $4 gasoline, which is killing sales of its most-profitable trucks and sport utilities. On top of that, says Lombard, "they're being pecked to death by ducks"--a reference to the many cash outlays GM is facing in an attempt to put its legacy problems behind it. In all, GM has agreed in recent weeks to write $1.7 billion in checks to escape those problems--$200 million to help settle a strike at American Axle, $650 million to support bankrupt Delphi (other-otc: DPHI.PK - news - people ), $375 million as a potential backstop to GMAC's (nyse: GJM - news - people ) troubled Rescap mortgage subsidiary, and $826 million to repurchase its headquarters. GM predicts an uptick in the economy in the latter half of the year. But with sales of high-profit trucks and SUVs tanking, Lehman Brothers analyst Brian Johnson expects GM to burn through $7 billion cash this year--potentially more, if steel companies hit the automaker with additional surcharges, as some expect. That would leave GM with $17 billion in cash at year-end, Johnson estimates. That would put GM's liquidity in danger. To weather a downturn, GM Chief Financial Officer Raymond Young says the company needs at least $18 billion-$20 billion in cash, plus access to another $4 billion-$5 billion in credit lines. With continued losses in North America, Lehman Brothers expects GM to burn about $10.3 billion in automotive operations between now and 2010, including $8.4 billion in cash and $1.9 billion in restructuring costs. Without refinancing its debt or drawing down the $7.3 billion credit line, GM would be down to $7.9 billion in cash by 2010, Lehman says. Since it needs $10 billion to $12 billion in working cash to fund operations, GM would need to find additional financing, Lehman says. GM has $9.1 billion in debt coming due by January 2010, including $4.3 billion of long-term debt and a $4 billion note owed to a new trust fund for retiree health benefits. If the company can refinance that long-term debt, "that would be huge," says Lombard. In the first quarter, GM did refinance $400 million of debt through foreign markets. It's a good sign, at least. http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/06/30/..._jm_0602gm.html

DETROIT -- General Motors' U.S. market share fell below 20 percent for the first time as the impact of $4 gasoline knocked the Detroit 3 into a minority share of the U.S. market in May. The 44.4 percent share not only was the worst-ever showing for GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC, but it was also less than 2 percentage points ahead of the Japanese brands. Led by Honda, Japanese brands gained 5.7 percentage points to finish May with a 42.5 percent share of light vehicles. The Detroit 3 lost 7.4 points. Also in May, GM's U.S. market share fell below 20 percent for the first time since the automaker was formed in 1908. Excluding Saab, GM sold 268,892 vehicles, down 27.5 percent from May 2007, for a 19.1 percent market share. GM's U.S. sales lead over Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. narrowed dramatically as consumers shocked by soaring fuel prices shunned light trucks for small and compact cars. Overall May sales plunged 10.7 percent to 1.4 million units, yet Toyota still gained more than a point of market share as its volume fell 4.3 percent. Toyota finished at 18.4 percent market share, only 0.7 percentage points behind GM. In units, GM's lead over Toyota fell to 11,488 from 102,033 just a year ago. May was the fifth month in the past year that the Detroit 3 fell below 50 percent. But May's share loss was the deepest and sharpest yet. And the sales swing has been dramatic. As recently as 2004, the Detroit 3 controlled 60 percent of the U.S. market.

TORONTO — Premier Dalton McGuinty says Ontario will continue to offer incentives to the auto sector despite the controversy surrounding the planned shutdown of a General Motors of Canada Ltd. truck plant in Oshawa, Ont. The move by GM, which will affect about 2,600 jobs when it closes next year, will not deter his Liberal government from providing other loans to secure investment, Mr. McGuinty said Wednesday as debate over the closure continued to rage. Nor, he said, would his government think twice about making other loans on the generous terms as the one extended to GM. “It's not something we pull out of the air,” he said. “It's based on what the competition's doing.” Other jurisdictions, notably states south of the U.S. border, are willing to put more money on the table than Ontario to land auto deals, he said. Mr. McGuinty also said he should have been more forthcoming about terms of incentives given to GM in return for a new manufacturing project. His government had described the $375-million in federal and provincial funding for GM's Beacon project as an investment. Tuesday, however, when GM announced the move, it became apparent the aid consists of federal and provincial interest-free loans that are not repayable until 2053. “We should have made that information available much earlier,” Mr. McGuinty told reporters at the provincial legislature. “The loan puts us in a better light than, frankly, what looks like a giveaway.” The incentives consisted of a $175-million loan from the province and $200-million from the federal government. At the time three years ago, his government was constrained by “commercial sensitivities,” he said. GM received the single largest chunk of the $500-million in provincial aid for the auto sector. Mr. McGuinty said government officials have not revealed the terms of any deal it has struck with an auto company to any industry players. GM Canada president Arturo Elias said Tuesday that the company likely will be in breach of the loan agreements, which will force it to repay money well before the original due date. As part of the loan agreement, Mr. McGuinty revealed Tuesday, the company had agreed to maintain a specific number of employees at the truck plant. He did not disclose the number. His comments were in contrast to how Economic Development Minister Sandra Pupatello last month described job pledges provided by GM. She insisted to reporters any job guarantees were attached only to the Beacon project itself. Under that project, GM is in the process of transforming two car plants in Oshawa into one flexible facility and investing in the company's Cami joint venture in Ingersoll, Ont. Ms. Pupatello told reporters Wednesday that she thought the recent contract negotiated between GM and the Canadian Auto Workers would ensure that the pickup truck plant would remain open. “We were feeling confident that we were holding on a bit longer, so this really was a surprise,” Ms. Pupatello said. “It was a surprise to all of us. This is probably the most significant event in the history of GM in the country.” The Ontario government set up a $1.1-billion fund last year to help the sector develop more environmentally-friendly autos. But no funding has been distributed as yet. http://ctv2.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/st...BN/ctv-business

Camaro News: Chevrolet Camaro to be sold in Europe, U.K. Camaro may not be branded with Chevrolet badges for European markets. Link to original Article @ Autoblog So does this mean we will see a return of the Camaro badge overseas?

You forgot one thing: guns.

Yes. And I know the temptation. I found an 2005 A4 in London this past weekend for fifteen-thousand. Oh so tempting indeed.

A very nice and restored 1967 Chevelle in Tuxedo Black at an asinine asking price ($5,700).

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cars-Trucks...0269413875& Look at the price, look at the car, look at the terms. It all sounds like a scam to me.

fjord

Although the mid-cycle enhancement for the Equinox/Torrent did bring about better materials versus those used in '05, the main details and arrangement of the design went largely unchanged. And it always looked generic to me. This has a few irks, but it has some personality, in my opinion.

The good the Solstice in my sig possesses outweighs its few minor evils.

Forgot one: Silver = No deal. Silver is the new white, if you have not noticed.

Well, if you consider what we have had to put up with before, you see it with different eyes. I will say I have realized that I do not like the square housing for the gauges, however.

rocks

The GMC Graphyte concept?

Yes. Center covers vary somewhat, however.

be bop

How rude of me. Almost forgot your gift.

Looking very nice.

It looks to be shaping up to eventually be pretty top-notch.

MORAINE, Ohio (AP) — The General Motors Corp. plant in this Dayton suburb is a forest of smokestacks that form the nerve center of this industrial community built along the banks of the Great Miami River. Each day, about 2,500 workers file inside to assemble the GMC Envoy, Chevrolet Trailblazer, Saab 9-7X and Isuzu Ascender sport utility vehicles. But some time before the summer of 2010, the Moraine plant will be no more: It is one of four that GM announced Tuesday it will close. And there are fears here that the people — and the city's fortunes — will disappear with it. The loss of the SUV plant will leave behind a bleak landscape for the surrounding community, an area scarred by a dwindling population, high poverty rates and one of the nation's hardest-hit pockets of the housing slump. "It's going to be a ghost town," said Debbie Miller, 52, who owns The Upper Deck, a restaurant and bar next to the plant. "There are no jobs here. I don't know what they're going to do." The plant closings are casualties of surging fuel prices that are hastening a dramatic shift to smaller vehicles. The 10,000 jobs at the four plants — here, in Janesville, Wis., and in Canada and Mexico — will be lost. "There are going to be a lot of houses for sale," said Miller, born and raised in the area. "We'll see people leave this area. This is a dying town." Once, the Dayton area was dotted with so many auto factories that it came to be likened to a small-scale Detroit. Delphi Corp., an auto supplier trying to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, has five plants in the area, all already hit by layoffs or buyouts. GM also operates a separate engine plant here that employs about 1,000 people. But the plant closure nearly marks the end of GM's dominance in a town that once housed five of the auto maker's presidents in the late 1960s, said John Heitmann, a history professor at University of Dayton. "Next to Detroit and Flint, this was number three," Heitmann said of the Dayton area. "That's a lot of power. This was a great GM town." Heitmann said he had thought the area's skilled labor pool and favorable geography would entice the automaker to keep the plant open, but its future was ultimately doomed by what he called an outmoded product — the fuel-guzzling SUV. "The future of Dayton is certainly not in the auto industry anymore," Heitmann said of the number of jobs in the region's auto production and auto parts industries. "We're kind of an historical relic." The commercial strip in this town of 6,700 people is dominated by fast-food restaurants, transmission shops and office buildings with "for lease" signs tacked in front. Community services that are already struggling, like groceries, will probably face more strain now, said Rhine McLin, the mayor of next-door Dayton, where the poverty rate of nearly 30 percent is more than twice the state average. "There's no way you can sugarcoat that," McLin said. "We're already in a recession, and it's difficult, and this just adds to it." The outlook is brighter in Janesville, a city of about 63,000 near Milwaukee that has diversified and no longer counts GM as its biggest employer. But the plant closure will still sting. "It's going to have a devastating effect, but not as bad as if GM had pulled the plug 20 or 30 years ago," said Gary Green, professor of rural sociology and director of the Center for Community and Economic Development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The announcement of the plant closing in Toluca, Mexico, was a blow to the industrial hub tucked into the mountains outside of Mexico City. The factory was one of the main employers in a city where many people work in manufacturing and farming. "The news hit us like a bucket of cold water," said Edgar Arroyo, a leader of the union at the Toluca General Motors plant, who said that about 4,500 people work at the factory west of Mexico City. "It's going to affect us all." And at the GM plant for pickup trucks and SUVs in Oshawa, Ontario, Randall Carswell, a 24-year veteran of the factory, said he had seen a lot of changes in his time, but none quite like this. "I have never seen such a drastic slam, so fast, and everybody fall so hard, so quick," he said, worrying about how he will support his five children now or pay his bills. Here in Moraine, GM workers bring in about half of the business at Miller's restaurant, an orange brick building with a green awning stretching over the front. On Tuesday, as waitresses mopped tables and filled red plastic glasses with ice, Miller closed her eyes and rolled her head back. "If the local people don't support us and our food by keeping us here, then I don't know what we'll do," she said. Gaylen Turner, president of Moraine's local International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications Workers, which represents the plant's workers, said he's not giving up on the plant. "It's not optimistic, but I plan on staying around and continuing that fight as best I can," said Turner, who is 53 and has worked at the plant for 28 years. At least one political scientist, William Binning of Youngstown State University, suggested the news could even be a blow to Republican Sen. John McCain's hopes of winning the White House by underscoring the weak economy. "I'm not saying McCain can't win Ohio but it's a bad environment because of the economic malaise," he said. As for what will become of the remaining workers, Heitmann predicted they will have few options, all distasteful: Leave town, or accept a lower standard of living. Unless another automaker sweeps in and decides to build a new plant, the jobs simply won't exist. "Many of these workers have extended families here," Heitmann said. "You just can't pack up all of your things in a trailer and drive down to Texas and start over." http://www.gulflive.com/newsflash/national...rylist=national

WILMINGTON, Del. -- General Motors shareholders blasted the company's chief executive for raking in huge salaries and bonuses while the automaker has struggled financially, but a proposal to give investors a say on executive pay was soundly defeated today. Shareholders also defeated a proposal under which at least 75 percent of future stock options and restricted stock awards for senior executives would be tied to the company's performance. John Lauve of Holly, Mich., who sponsored the proposal on performance pay, said GM's market share, stock price and credit rating have decreased in recent years, but management and directors have not been held accountable. "We either need to change this company or have the Japanese come in and run the whole place," said Lauve, whose proposal received only 16 percent support in preliminary voting results. The proposal to give shareholders an annual advisory vote on executive compensation fared better, receiving almost 32 percent support, but fell fall short of passage. The sponsor of the proposal, John Chevedden of Redondo Beach, Calif., said the company successfully blocked an effort to have a similar measure put to a vote at last year's annual meeting. "It's long overdue, especially given the results this year of our company," Chevedden said, referring to GM's $38.7 billion loss in 2007. According to an Associated Press calculation, GM chairman and chief executive officer Rick Wagoner received compensation valued at $15.7 million for 2007, up 64 percent from the previous year. "I came to scold you for your greed," Mary Ann Wiley of Seattle told Wagoner. Wiley, 77, said she has owned General Motors Corp. stock for 70 years, but that Tuesday marked her first annual meeting. Wiley said afterward that GM has moved far too slowly in developing new and better products and embracing next-generation fuels, and that management should not receive higher salaries and bonuses when the company is struggling. "If the company does not do well, management should take an equal hit, and I don't think they've taken an equal hit," she said, adding that GM has grown so big that it has lost its humility and its "sense of democracy," not caring about shareholder concerns. "This was a charade," said Wiley, looking out over the ornate Gold Ballroom of the Hotel DuPont, where GM has held its annual meetings for more than a decade. "I would suggest they have a stockholder meeting at a factory," she said. "They don't need to rent the DuPont hotel." Meanwhile, Farhad Irani of Wilmington urged GM to look to emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil to diversify its 14-member board, which is predominantly white men. "Since you are trying to increase your sales around the world, how about trying to get some people from around the world into the board?" he said. Other shareholder proposals defeated Tuesday included efforts to force GM to disclose more information about direct and indirect political contributions, develop a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and adopt principles for comprehensive health care reform. A proposal recommending that the board adopt cumulative voting for shareholders received a bare majority of 50.5 in preliminary voting. Wagoner said the measure would be directed to the board's corporate governance committee for review. A similar measure was approved by shareholders in 2006 but has yet to be adopted. The company said it's unclear how cumulative voting would work in tandem with majority voting, which the company's board adopted in 2006. Majority voting requires directors to be elected by a majority of the votes cast, not just a plurality, while cumulative voting would allow individual shareholders or groups of shareholders to pool their votes and cast them for a specific candidate. Supporters say that would give shareholders more of a voice in corporate governance. "This is an easy, painless way to turn our company around," Chevedden said. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gmpa...story?track=rss