It’s only because they lasted so long (lasting mainly because of the horrendous cost of entry to the business and the high cost of shipping vehicles overseas for the first 60 years of business, that they have survived) that anyone would mistake a car-maker for a safe profitable investment.

Invested capital is capital at risk. Especially if it’s in the car business and the government is not committed to extending a hand to keep them out of bankruptcy.

I would be a millionaire

This is exactly why electric cars and trucks are THE best solution for our transportation. Most of them will be recharged at night and will use power that would otherwise be wasted or wastefully generated (at less than peak efficiency).

But to be practical in the near term, I am also a member of the army for the Pickens Plan to run all the diesel trucks and heavy equipment off natural gas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_load_power_plant
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10230930-54.html
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/003955.html

========================================================
… No Plug = No Sale! …

ELECTRIC CARS + 40% NUCLEAR POWER + 10% HYDRO/TIDE POWER + 50% SOLAR AND WIND (0% COAL/FOSSIL FUELS!!!) = AMERICAN ENERGY INDEPENDENCE and ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

… and jobs for Americans!

How about No Good Motor COmpany?

/hopefuly this is what you are looking for
—————–

#9 Statik said:
May 15th, 2009 at 6:51 am
http://gm-volt.com/2009/05/15/gm-to-cut-1100-dealers-today/

SImple transportation is a good place to start.
—-How many deliveries does a dealership get in a week…total? Them trucks carrying cars don’t cost like $10 to run. Your looking at say $700 bucks a drop? Maybe the dealership gets a delivery every other day of the week from the mothership. $700 x 3 drops x 52 weeks = 110k per dealer. So the savings on 3,600 dealers per year would be….about 400 million. If he gets 5, thats 655 million. If he gets 7, thats 900 million. (Easy to see the money saved when you look at the fact oyota is selling close to GM’s volume, but only dropping to 1,200 dealers instead of 6,000+)

How about the white shirts employed by GM?
–There is a hierachy above the dealer that has a immediate impact. GM has approximately 1,200 ‘white collar’ shirts looking after these dealers, ie) there is a rep for each cluster of dealers (maybe like 8-12), then he has a boss that looks after a region, then he has a boss that has a whole big ‘chunk of the map,’ all of whom report to a souless VP.

This white collar guys are all making 75-150K…42% less dealers = less shirts, probably 500 less. 500,000 x 125,000 = 62.5 million

Lastly, stuff that sucks:
–Some of these closures, are a necessary evil to get rid of, because they are one of the main contributing factors to the brand not being shuttered. The Oldsmobile fiasco cost a billion (that was a lot of dealers too)…but you are probably looking at another billion here if they try to do it outside of the GSB.

–What is the value on getting rid of those 150-300 orphaned dealerships…the ones that make no sense, the ones that have long since been displaced by highways and city growth? You know the one, in the worst part of town, in a field by itself. It used to be a good dealership, but now won’t die. Probably the dealer owns the land, and the building, and can live on a dime…these are money losers to GM. They have minimum standards of support they have to give, and that minimum probably costs them a easy 100K once you factor it all in. Another 30 mil a year.

I’m sure there is lots of other junk I’m missing, but with just these things you are looking at a savings of probably 2 billion in the first year…and 600 million to a billion each subsequent year.

Appeals loom as GM tries to exit from bankruptcy after judge approves plan to sell assets

NEW YORK (AP) — Groups representing plaintiffs in car accidents said Monday they would oppose General Motors’ attempt to quickly exit bankruptcy protection, arguing that hundreds of victims could be hurt by the government-led plan.

…Steve Jakubowski, who filed the appeal notice for the accident litigants, said his appeal would assert that the bankruptcy judge overstepped his authority by preventing victims from pursuing litigation under their state product liability laws.

He estimated that about 1,000 lawsuits could be pending with potential damages in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars.

“It affects … virtually every walk of life in this country,” he said. The deadline to appeal the case to the District Court is noon Thursday, after which point Gerber’s order takes effect and the sale is free to close

more here:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Appeals-loom-in-GM-plan-to-apf-3047600078.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=6&asset=&ccode=