uncle bubba

December Car Sales: Gruesome

GM still out sold all other auto makers in 2008. We are very gald our elected officials saw the light and helped GM with financing when the credit dried up. GM was not the only auto manufacturer to be helped by it's own country. Still the largest and selling the most. Hard to equate that to the statements published here about no one wanting GM cars and trucks. The facts don't jive with Seeking Alpha's spin. Sorry guys. You're just idiots I guess. But keep pushing the rising sun, maybe you can retire in Japan in a large 400 sq ft flat in the homeland.

GMAC: Happy to Lend You Some of Your Own Money

One last thought, with the government using the TARP funds to help GM this program may do what it was intended to do. The economy is slow due in large part to people not buying, not putting dollars through the system. If Joe six pack buys a car, the dealer profits, the manufacturer profits. Those profits are paid to employes who in turn spend at the local resturant and stores and the economy starts working its magic as the dollars turn. This seems to me to achieve the ends envisioned by the congress as opposed to the banks who have held on to their funds to make the balance sheet look better without putting the money into the economy.

GMAC: Happy to Lend You Some of Your Own Money

The help is the stability of GM and keeping GMAC out of bankruptcy which could have pulled GM down further. The fact is credit is and has always been availible to anyone with decent credit. GMAC went to cutting off approvals at anything below a 700 credit score because they did not have the funds to lend. They now can and will look at credit down to a 621 credit score. This is still much higher than in the past, persons with scores as low as 480 had sources for financing with high rates. Credit now is generally unavailible to persons below 600. Credit has tighten but not for the majority of the country. The news made it sound that even with good credit auto loans were hard to get or unavailible. This news helps GM from the standpoint of changing that perception. It is amazing that people with very limited understanding of the financial workings in general are given space to write about things they don't understand.

U.S. Auto Brands Receive Higher Ratings Than Their Japanese Counterparts

Everyone seems mute when any good news or positive feedback on domestic autos is printed. I guess the facts don't support some peoples preconcieved stereotypes, but I knew better all along. Happy Thanksgiving

Do the Automakers Deserve a Bail Out?

An open letter to Congress,


I am writing in hopes of gaining your support for the American auto
industry in general and General Motors specifically. I would appreciate your
efforts in helping our industry with a bridge loan to help through this credit
crisis. I have put together some facts and thoughts that could be useful in
your decision making process. Right now the financial analyst have down
graded GM’s corporate rating to less than junk. Just 6 months ago this was
not the case. It’s a problem that feeds on itself. If GM can secure capital to
fund operations through 2009 they should be in a position to ride out the
current recession and auto sales should rebound back and cash flow would be in
the positive again. Some people say GM doesn’t build cars that people want
and that is just not true, up until this year GM was the largest auto manufacturer
in the world and sold the most vehicles, so that argument doesn’t hold water.
Also in 2010 GM has set up to move the retirement load from its books to
the UAW which will make GM’s overhead per car in line with other manufacturers.
The talk on the street is how uncompetitive GM is but if they can hold on until
2010 this will not be the case. What GM needs is a government backed loan for
operating capital to get through the next year, just like we did for Chrysler, and
when the business turns, as it will, then the loans are paid back with interest and
GM remains a private enterprise, just like Chrysler did. Once a plan is in place
and the financial analysts see that GM has a plan and sales come back with the cash
flow then the corporate investment rating will improve and the credit crisis should be
over and GM will take advantage of the private sector once again as it always has done.
There are some who say we should let private business live or die on their own but I disagree with this. We have become more and more a service based economy
and if we lose the auto manufactures we will have lost our manufacturing backbone.
If circumstances were to present themselves as they did during World War II and we
no longer owned or controlled a manufacturing base we may be reliant upon another
country for tanks and planes and that would not be a good position to be in. Plus up to
3,000,000 jobs are connected to the auto industry, mine being one of them, and this could
drive unemployment past 10% and increase and prolong the recession if GM were to go
under today. Our economy is based on consumer confidence and consumer spending. We need the leadership of this country to back GM, give people the confidence that everything is going to be all right and believe or not, it will.

Sincerely

Mitch Mayberry
Van Matre Buick Pontiac GMC Cadillac
Sales Mgr. and Business Mgr.