Because these folk are plain ignorant and not interested in understanding how the world works (or doesn't work) let alone their own country. Until the *** starts to impact on their own lives .

 

Z28 Wilson,

are you a member of some of these boards? If you are, Post them the reprocussions of GM tanking to AMERICA not just the auto industry..and if they dont beleive you just link this thread in your posts..
Then we can tell them the truth.

 

exactly Z28Marcus,

lets see how wonderful it is when Ford does the Chapter 11 thing. Then DCX and before you know it the loosing american manufactureres will cause a reflex against import manufacturers and they will suffer. just a whole domino effect.

 

well i have a qestion sorta not to hijack this thread but you guys go ford would be right after GM, if gm goes bankrupt. but i mean i think it would strenghten fords market or if ford went under first, i mean think about it most domestic owners wouldnt buy import cars i know i wouldnt and i hate dodge ( to many problems with there cars in past for me) and they got bought out by diamler-benz few i guess so for me that only leaves ford wich is how i think a lot of domestic owner would see it to mabe im wrong. and at with that point made it might be in GM's and FORDs interest to work togeather to benifit from each others techincal experince in the long run and yes i know easier said then done

 

Contracts are up in 2007, negociations will begin soon, any benefit from filing for the purpose of contract renegociation, would be pointless right now.
A court forced temp contract would almost certainly end in a costly strike. Contracts take talented people, months to negociate fairly.

 

Chrysler didn't get a single dollar from the government. Chrysler got loan guarantees. Basically, the government co-signed for Chrysler to get private loans.

The ONLY reason GM isn't in that position is because they are selling off anything that isn't nailed down, they managed to save some cash from the SUV years, and because today's government would rather see GM collaspe and drag the US economy down with it.

 

Ford will need to declare chapter 11 if GM does because GM would have a serious advantage over them. Chrysler. again, would be forced to as well even thoughh they aren't in financial trouble.

 

Ford and Chrysler may need to, but isn't there some type of criteria that they would need to meet? Is just needing to remain competitive enough to do that?

 

Just like any other individual or corperation, all you need to do is file the papers, and have the court agree.





Another thing worth mentioning, if GM did file, and other US makers filed suit, when the dust settled the order of the big 3 could even be reversed at best, or become the big 2 at worse.

Simply ask yourself which company has enough resources to survive after paying off it's creditors. GM is by far in the worse shape, and would be least likely to survive. If memory serves correctly, GM currently has $30 billion, but owes something like $300 billion. Question then becomes "Does GM have enough property and other assets to cover their debt?"

Ford on the other hand is at least turning a small profit and would wind up better than GM from bankruptcy. Chrysler by comparison is doing very well financially at the moment, and would no doubt emerge from bankruptcy almost entirely intact. In theory, when the dust settled, Chrysler could be far bigger than General Motors.

But all this would be moot because the fallout from all of this would at best throw us into a very serious recession and jack up unemployment pretty severely. Like Scott pointed out, if you think you'd be completely unaffected you're either self-employed or not paying attention. Even government & military jobs can be cut.

 

Ford has about as much debt as GM does, so just because they've managed to make a billion here or there doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of having a few hundred billion in outstanding debt (both companies are the #2 and #3 most indebted companies in the world; GE is #1). It's interesting; while many avid observers of the industry seem to think that GM is in the worst shape, the "deep insiders" (i.e. those that work for certain consulting and marketing companies) will tell you that for as bad as GM may be hurting, Ford's feeling more pain.

Don't in any way take this as saying that GM isn't in bad shape - it most certainly is. It's just that Ford is facing every problem that GM has, and it's a smaller company with less revenue and fewer resources. From a practical standpoint, it doesn't matter which is in worse shape; as Guy states, if one goes, both will go.

If Chrysler goes down the bankruptcy path, it will likely look much different than Ford or GM's trip down that same road because of the German ownership aspect.

 

Here's a good comparison...

Many people think twice about buying a ticket from a bankrupt airline. And that's just for a $250 seat and a 2 hour ride. Compare that to a $20,000 vehicle and years product use and warranty service.

 

While I agree with that somewhat, its not really the same. By purchasing an airline ticket, you are trusting your life to the pilots and the maintenance crew. Buying a car, you are simply trusting that it wont break down too much. Not quite the same.

 

So the only way to save GM, as of today, would be for consumers to spontaneously start buying up their cars tomarrow?
I know its unrealistic...but what if law makers could allow all US automanufacturers this year to be tax free?