GM Europe 'could run out of cash'

[qbee42]

The European divisions of General Motors (GM) could collapse within weeks without European governments' help, GM's top executive has warned.
Chief operating officer Fritz Henderson said governments should step in immediately to ensure GM Europe does not run out of money by April or May.



Full article:


BBC NEWS | Business | GM Europe 'could run out of cash'


Tom

[TonyPSchaefer]

running out of money . . . failure imminent . . . need political assistance . . . .

Where have I heard that before? I just can't seem to put my finger on it.

[dbermanmd]

Originally Posted by TonyPSchaefer

running out of money . . . failure imminent . . . need political assistance . . . .

Where have I heard that before? I just can't seem to put my finger on it.

lets see if the progressive/liberal/socialists of europe will give gm any coin. i hope they do.

and here is hoping obama goes for it some more here too.

another $100billion or two or three - pocket change for obama.

hey, once you got the ink and the paper,,, its just a matter of how quick you can turn that crank....

how much paper has obama printed in 6 weeks? and i think he should be good for another trillion or two new paper dollars this year alone.

you got to love change and hope.....

go team obama.

[jayman]

Oh we are so screwed.

Global recession, out of control spending, unpayable IOU's, yep we're heading for a depression

[malorn]

Originally Posted by jayman

Oh we are so screwed.

Global recession, out of control spending, unpayable IOU's, yep we're heading for a depression

15% unemployment, and possible revolution may be just around the corner.

[Mike Dimmick]

Anyone whose sales dropped off 28% year-on-year, as Vauxhall's did in January (Vauxhall is the main UK brand of GM and sells almost exclusively Opel cars), is going to have problems. February's figures haven't yet been released by SMMT but I would imagine they'll be worse. GM's Chevrolet brand (which is really rebranded Daewoo) dropped 58.35%. Hummer unfortunately posted a 25% increase - 10 cars rather than 8. Probably footballers. Corvette managed 3 vehicles to last year's 2.

6,000 vehicles at an average selling price of maybe £15,000? £90m. That's £1bn if spread across the entire year.

Jaguar also posted a significant upturn - 54.95%, to 1,173 cars. The only other climber was Hyundai, up 5.66% to 1,885.

Toyota did quite well, dropping the least - only 1.48% - and climbing to fourth in the market share table. Their other brands, Daihatsu and Lexus, were worse off: Daihatsu fell 69% and Lexus 52%. Worst fallers: Cadillac (91.67%), Dodge (91.3%), Ssangyong (87.9%), Daimler (85.71% - sold one vehicle), Jeep (79.32%), Chrysler (77.09%), Mitsubishi (77.09%), Daihatsu (69.01%), Bentley (59.85%) and Subaru (59.83%). Renault were 11th with a fall of 59.27%.

Nissan were the only others with a single-figure sales fall, of 3.09%.

Data from Motor Vehicle Registration Information System, UK Motor/ Car/ Vehicle Industry, Automotive Reports/ Publications, C02 Emission Data, Production, Pre-Registration /Registration Statistics.

[Mike Dimmick]

Originally Posted by Mike Dimmick

Anyone whose sales dropped off 28% year-on-year, as Vauxhall's did in January (Vauxhall is the main UK brand of GM and sells almost exclusively Opel cars), is going to have problems. February's figures haven't yet been released by SMMT but I would imagine they'll be worse.

Actually, Vauxhall had a mild improvement to only -24.2% for the month, and -26.6% for the first two months compared to last year. They were #1 in February, but it's a much slower month than January, Ford (at #2) selling less than half the number of cars they did in January.

Toyota actually gained 8.4% year-on-year, the highest apart from Jaguar (+108.09% to 360), Hummer (+200%, 15 vehicles compared to 5) and Corvette (3 rather than 1, +200%). No news on how many were Prius though - I don't fancy spending £916 for a year's subscription to find out.