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  • tripleblack: 
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  Penske has some mumble-mumble about "future stream of vehicles" as the reason they are calling off their deal to buy Saturn, but I think we will one day learn that it had everything to do with the prospect of the Obama administration jumping into their business and telling them how to run it.
  
  They are better off without this headache, and smart to run away from the deal.
  
  Unfortunately, this also means that now GM will have to lay off 30,000 more workers, which will not help the economy much right about now.
  
  And if anyone was thinking that this might mean they will not be closing as many dealerships, shame on you, it will mean they are going to close down MORE dealerships, and lay off tens of thousands more workers in those dealerships.
  
  Bye, bye, Saturn.

  Sep 30 06:05 PM | Link | Reply
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  • davidbdc: 
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  I think its another 13,000 workers but whatever the number its just another nail in the coffin of the manufacturing footprint in the USA. We might one day look back at this financial crisis and actually see the beginning of the end of the USA's industrial capability...and thus economic strength. What will our engineers do? What will blue collar workers do? What trades will our children learn to support a family? Everyone can't be a marketing director or VP finance......USA needs an industrial policy and we need to make some sacrifices to get it up and going (ie less "benefits" and "programs" that aimlessly spend/give money to people).

  Sep 30 06:20 PM | Link | Reply
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  • jpdevol: 
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  Captain,
  The brand loyalty is excellent, the dealer network is excellent. Those are the real value assets. The "distributor" model was never workable long-term - you know success in this business is based on product, product, product. Buy Saturn and do your own R&D and manufacturing - preferrably in the southeast. I'll wager Honda would make you a helluva deal on the plant @ Timmonsville, SC.

  Sep 30 11:21 PM | Link | Reply
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  • tripleblack: 
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  I'm including all those dealership jobs, but that's just an estimate from the dealer organization.
  
  There's other domino theories with higher numbers, of course.
  
  
  On Sep 30 06:20 PM davidbdc wrote:
  
  > I think its another 13,000 workers but whatever the number its just
  > another nail in the coffin of the manufacturing footprint in the
  > USA. We might one day look back at this financial crisis and actually
  > see the beginning of the end of the USA's industrial capability...and
  > thus economic strength. What will our engineers do? What will blue
  > collar workers do? What trades will our children learn to support
  > a family? Everyone can't be a marketing director or VP finance......USA
  > needs an industrial policy and we need to make some sacrifices to
  > get it up and going (ie less "benefits" and "programs" that aimlessly
  > spend/give money to people).

  Oct 03 04:52 PM | Link | Reply