I actually suggested to my Federal Congressman early in the year that bankrupcy might be a viable alternative to the federal bailouts. I gives the company time to sort things out and causes all current contracts-like union-to be open to re-negotiation. The airlines did this in the early 80's and emerged from it in one piece.

 

Funny, because Saturn is the only U.S. brand I still care about.

 

Ditto.

I've loved every Saturn we've owned, as well as the ones owned by family members. All have been great cars. Hope they find a way to stick around.

 

I agree alot of surprise there.



as for Saturn, I liked saturn, are next new car purchase is most likely a saturn. If we had the money today, we'd probalby go pick up a new vue right now.


I mean I know its all opinion, but I don't think this looks that bad

 

I heard on the news the government now owns more than 60% of GM?

 

Why??, they won't be Saturn cars anymore. Unless there is some deal with Opel.

 

Anybody still support the bailouts?

 

Or buy some time so they can restructure and go through a quicker Ch. 11 instead of a Ch. 7

 

This is not a bankruptcy. It is a gov. takeover. Don't listen to what the media is saying, they are too stupid to know what a bankruptcy is or they are shilling for Obama(probably both).

 

I still think they should have bailed them out right up front. "Here's a low-interest $150 billion line of credit and some rules about how to spend it, what you have to do to keep it, and when you have to pay it back. Thank you, please come again!"

At the very least, the rules would have required:

• a reorganization plan that met the approval of the advisory committee (I think that the committee actually did a pretty good job of analyzing and reporting on the reorg plans).
• wage and benefit concessions from the UAW.
• immediate payment to the VEBA covering all remaining contractual commitments, even those previously intended to be paid in the future.
• an obligation to pay using NET 30 terms (or sooner) for all debts, including immediate payment of everything currently due under those terms.

The bailouts as they occurred, though? Nope, didn't like that at all.

 

Interesting, the somewhat clinical reaction of the folks in this thread... talking about the stocks, costs, etc.

For me, this is a much more emotional thing, even though nobody in my family (that I'm aware of) ever worked for GM. Then it struck me... if you're under the age of 35, you might think of GM as historically making smog-motored s*** boxes, followed by some decent cars in the past 10 years... with a long history of corporate problems. Nothing too emotional about that.

But for a guy my age... I was in high school when big block Chevelles, 427 Corvettes, Z/28 Camaros (both 302's and 350 LT1's) etc, etc were in current production and they were a somewhat ordinary sight on the street. I remember when the Camaro was introduced. I remember when the Trans Am was introduced. I remember my junior high school science teacher had a 409-powered Impala... I looked for it every day in the teacher's parking lot, with the "409" emblem right on the fender.

There's a lot of good memories here, and the developments of late - particularly today - are inconceivable... incomprehensible... a sign of the times that's almost too sad and painful to believe it's even happening.

Anyway, just one old fart's reaction to all this...




EDIT: ... and American cars were the best in the world. Everyone knew that... and GM was the best of the best, a tremendous source of American pride... a really good company making the world's best cars.

At that time "foreign cars" were viewed with humor. They were tempermental, unreliable, full of quirks, impossible to get parts for. The VW Beetle was a possible exception. This was the one foreign car that was OK to own, even though the owners were regarded as oddballs.

We talk about the loss of American pride. There's so many reasons why this has happend... a lot of it is beyond me. But I do know that whatever American pride that's left took a huge symbolic hit today. Huge.

 

You know what's absolutely chilling in this whole thing, is that over a year ago if this occured in any other country we as a country and a government would be crucifying (and did) said country for doing it. And yet here we are only 12 months later and not many normal, everyday citizens are batting an eye at the whole thing. It's absolutely tragic that we're at this point.

JakeRobb: That would be a fine idea except as we've been seeing with the banks and the states, the federal government is changing the rules in the middle of the game. If you're a business/industry or a state, taking money from the federal government in this current environment is like selling your soul. They own you.

 

And to think...the economy, job losses and bankruptcys were all started with the high gas prices. There...I said it.

They went down and people still suffered but now they are coming back up again, just what the economy needs.

We're never getting outta this

 

If GM closes its doors, the resulting cost to the nation is in the trillions. Or, for roughly a hundred billion, we (as a nation) can step in and save the day.

At least, that was the idea. It didn't exactly go as planned.

 

Will they really have their (GM) heads out of their asses or will it be business as usual?.