Gm Bankruptcy!

[bozodos]

GM have officially filed for bankruptcy today, apparently it's the biggest corporate collapse in US history! what do you guys think about this? I for one think that the flow on effects of this could be severe

[kessian]

Definately is turning out to be a bad time...

[All_OVR]

All news says that aus is safe but as we all know what the yanks can do we can do better. so that being said i think australia should be bending over getting as much lube as possible and brace for nasty time....

Edited June 2, 2009 by All_OVR

[DAS KAMU]

if they made better products in the past they wouldn't be going through this

that and having 5 other brands in the u.s alone is not really needed ponitiac / buick etc etc

the daewoo merger etc etc etc etc

[some_cs_student]

The US government will own x% soon (I think its 60%), and they will not die as such, simply reduce there size...

[R31Nismoid]

Writing was on the wall 2 months or so ago.

And then once they cut models (including the pontiac) about a month ago - the nail had been driven

[sh@un]

it'll be Chinese owned by next Thursday

[DAS KAMU]

makes me think this may have been nissans fate if it had not been for that wanker carlos ghson

i was cut that he axed heaps of nissans line up but it made sense in todays climate

look at the line up of usa gm products theve been releasing tard box after tard box for decades

with so many models accross the bored

useless!

[sh@un]

'bored' lol

[JAS-25T]

They filed for Banckruptcy protection, called a chapter 11 in the US.

It means they still trade and sell assets to pay their creditors.

The US government is the only one willing and able to buy them so they will own the assets.

So pretty much, US Gov buys stuff from GM. GM pays it's creditors with the money, and starts again, without going bankrupt.

This isn't to say they can't go bankrupt eventually, on the other hand though many companies in history have been in and out of chapter 11 bankruptcy protection numerous times and come back to live another day.

Thats what you get when you are a pension fund that makes shit cars on teh side for a loss.

[JAS-25T]

GM sells Hummer brand to Chinese firm

There is the first of the GM brands to go Chinese.

[kralster]

I think the writing has been on the wall for the past 5 years. The share price has dropped around 90% since then.

And it's not unusual for a car maker to sell it's cars for a loss. Off the top of my head GM lost about 3 billion dollars selling cars last year but made about 4 billion from financing them for customers, but what happened was the value of these big trucks they all drive nosedived when fuel became really expensive. And because peoples car were worth next to nothing they couldn't afford to trade them in and get a new one. And the new car market and secondhand market went to shit.

[babyskyline]

it was bound to happen...they have been making shit decisions and shit cars for years.

[grigor]

Not too sure about that.

Have you seen where most of your Holden spare parts are made these days???

Under the "Genuine GM" lion trademark, you'll see the small print "Made in China" on lots and lots of parts, mostly electrical components.

[JAS-25T]

Thats nothing new, and parts being made in a different country is a lot different to a entire company being owned by another country.

[DAS KAMU]

'bored' lol

[bozodos]

lolz.

Yeah I too had kinda seen the writing on the wall several months earlier, but had figured they were simply TOO BIG and diverse a company to do the whole 'chapter 11' thing, but yes I for one never figured that America would lose its love affair with tank sized utes until fuel was in critically short supply!

To me it seems to be a sign that the US is in a somewhat irreversible decline, and that China is emerging more and more as the dominant world power, but that's getting a tad off topic.

[STYLN]

its no surprise to me and ford & dodge/chrysler will be next IMO.

The world wide market demands fuel economy, efficiency, minimal environmental impact and minimum safety standards well beyond the crap of yester year. While GM and Ford, Dodge and all those other companies like such continue to build massive bulky over compensating statements of size, that chew juice like its goin out of fashion, struggle to meet 1996 emmissions standards and offer the drivers/ occupants very little in terms of safety (they assume they are biggest therefore safest hahahaha), they will continue to struggle to sell cars. Globally they cant compete and in their own countries the imports keep invading with status and value for money.

Sadly the economy is linked to it in many ways right down to locally so many will suffer on front page news.

Funny how the countries that ratified kyoto quickly and jumped on the efficient bandwagon early are now making the biggest profits.

Pig headed american attitudes will see them and their monstorous freedom buckets with their constantly empty trays banished to the land of the rednecks for use in trailers and jerry springer settlements in no time. Seriously did they forget that they are just one country??? I just hope our aussie economy can sling over to it's asian connection before we sink with the ship.

[scathing]

I for one never figured that America would lose its love affair with tank sized utes until fuel was in critically short supply!

When the last fuel crisis hit, small car sales went through the roof. Now that the price has dropped again, Americans are buying SUVs and moving away from small runabouts.

The love affair with yank tanks will never end, I don't think. The only way to stop them from buying uselessly massive cars is to add disincentives.

[Kranker]

GM now = GOVERNMENT motors

until its profitable once again, and can buy back the US govs 60% share.

as some1 mentioned above this could have all been avoided if they ran a more efficient company with good cars that actually sold. they had several brands all selling very similar products, they were their own undoing.

i get the distinct feeling that all we will be seeing from GM for a few years is econoboxes. pity... that new camaro was rather sexy