We are taking our family holiday in orlando next year, wounder if I could be your friend :unibrow: and come and visit you :rofl:

:thumbsup:

The latest
 

msnbc.com news services

updated 1 hour, 6 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - General Motors said Tuesday it needs $4 billion in government loans this month and a total of $12 billion by late March to keep operating. The troubled automaker said it plans to slash its numbers of workers, vehicle brands and plants by 2012.

Altogether, the auto giant is seeking up to $18 billion in government funding — including a $6 billion line of credit in case market conditions worsen.

General Motors Corp. would focus on 4 brands — Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac. By 2012, the plan calls for 20,000 to 30,000 fewer workers, a reduction of nine facilities and 1,750 fewer dealers.

GM CEO Rick Wagoner is offering to work for a dollar a year and top executives will take major pay cuts.

Detroit’s automakers, making a second bid for $25 billion in funding, presented Congress with plans Tuesday to restructure their ailing companies and provide assurances that the funding will help them survive and thrive.

Chrysler LLC said Tuesday it has asked the U.S. government for an emergency $7-billion bridge loan by the end of the year, saying it needs the funds to survive a brutal downturn in sales that has depleted its cash reserves.

Earlier, Ford said it is asking Congress for a $9 billion “stand-by line of credit” to stabilize its business, but says it doesn’t expect to tap it.

Unless one of Detroit’s other Big Three auto companies goes bust, Ford expects to have enough money to make it through next year without government help, it said in a plan that projected the firm will break even or turn a pretax profit in 2011.

GM, Ford and Chrysler LLC said they would refinance their companies’ debt, cut executive pay, seek concessions from workers and find other ways of reviving their staggering companies.

The Big Three executives also are offering a series of mostly symbolic moves to burnish their images, badly tattered after they arrived in Washington D.C. last month on three separate private jets to plead for a federal lifeline for their struggling companies. All three companies offered separate plans for hearings that will be held Thursday and Friday.

That approach the auto executives took last month led Democratic congressional leaders to declare they didn’t come prepared to justify their pleas and they told them to go back home and ready a new plan.

This week, the automakers are going out of their way to show deference to lawmakers and a willingness to flog themselves for past mistakes. “I think we learned a lot from that experience,” Ford CEO Alan Mulally told The Associated Press in an interview.

Mulally said he’d work for $1 per year if his firm had to take any government loan money. The company’s plan also says it will cancel all management employees’ 2009 bonuses, scrap merit increases for its North American salaried employees next year, and sell its five corporate aircraft.

And for this week’s appearances here, all three company chiefs will skip the lavish travel arrangements. Mulally is coming by car from Detroit for this week’s second round of congressional hearings on government help for the Big Three. GM Chief Rick Wagoner will drive a Chevrolet Malibu hybrid sedan for the 520-mile trek from Detroit to Capitol Hill, spokesman Tony Cervone said Tuesday. Chrysler LLC CEO Robert Nardelli also plans to travel to the hearings by car...........

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28012984

Why is there still Chevy and GMC? You would think the first thing they would drop would be any duplication.
Ummm, only the north american employees?

If anything GM should cancel Chevy trucks and just have GMC as thier truck manufacturer. Give each brand it's own identity and product so GM is not competing with itself. Give Pontiac the G8, Solstice and Vibe and drop the G5 and G6. Leave Saturn with it's Euro sourced cars and eliminate the Sky and Outlook. Buick has only three cars right now and that's fine. It can be done.

Bigtime Shame
 

Man, it is looking bad for the Big 3.
I still cannot believe the government & corporate watchdogs, let it get this far?? I mean, now what happens to these people that work in America for an American car company? I mean, this isn't going to shy me away from any GM product at all, but I bet it looks bad to other people out there. I think it's such a f'ning shame.:(
Meanwhile, we "continue" to send our jobs overseas for cheap labor and our own people, the American people, have to suffer. I agree to a point, that GM is a little to blame with big pay for car assembly employees and high retiree payouts. Sorry guys/gals, just had to vent a little.:mad:

I agree as well, but wouldn't trying to sell those other less popular brands be a lot more harder to do because they are already "damaged" goods? Wouldn't they be looked upon as failures and not likely to succed and not worth any good amount or any money at all? Like I said, I'm not getting political here, just bringing up a point, I think?? Just my opinion.

Tommorow is going to be an interesting day in Washington.
If I can I am going to watch as much of it as I can.
I never cease to learn something about the character of all of the individuals invloved. It seems that they are as emotional,uninformed and uneducated sometimes about what is going on as the rest of us and they are the ones who get to make the decisions on what to do.

I will be praying for the ones who need a job and may the wisdom of someone shine through and give them all a promising way to lead us out of this.

Amen to that, Jim.

I dont want my current chevy to be my last...lets hope congress comes through

Wow...I just got throught these 17 pages. Great discussion and excellent view points.

Just my .02. I have bought four new GM cars in the last four years. My trucks have all been made in mexico. Our Buick was made in mexico with a chinese "world platform" engine. Service parts come come china. When I just did LS2 crate conversion on a 1985 Corvette...the accessory parts (like the a/c) came from korea.

The quality of my 07 Silverado (new body style) is poor compared to my 04 Silverado. The interior is garbage and falling apart. The panels are thin and materials are cheap.

I have wind noise, brake squeek...rattles, issues, and electronic problems in the 07. Had stupid issues with my others.

I am a die hard GM kind of guy. My dad went way up the ladder when he retired in 1988 and I grew up believing in the company and the product. I grew up believing in the value of Made in the USA. I remember as a kid that cheap junk toys came from Japan...and now we see how that has gone.

However...I get confused and frustrated when I can't even honestly say any more that even my truck is truly made in the USA...and inferior to its prior model at that.

The whole thing is confusing and frustrating. I don't want them to go under, but I sure do want them to get a clue.

I will never buy import...but then again...I'm already buying import, just paying a fortune for the union labor...etc. associated with it! LOL