I know most Americans aren’t happy that GM and Chrysler were given billions of dollars of taxpayer money to stay afloat.  However the vast majority of those Americans are pretty stupid and don’t seem to understand how many jobs were at stake and how huge the impact would have been on our economy as a whole.  Well now General Motors seems to be proving those people wrong; people who said it was a waste of money.  The General plans to drop another $1 billion check off at the Capital building in Washington (or wherever it is that they take huge checks) towards the $6.7 billion in loans it received last year.  This means $2 billion has been repaid to the US and $384 million has been repaid to the Canadian government.  If GM succeeds at paying off the full loan by June 30, 2010, the American people will have their money back a full 5 years ahead of schedule.  GM could also go public again later this year, meaning the rest of the government owned portion of GM could get its money back as well.  For more details, head on over to The Detroit Free Press.

(Image source: GM)

I have been a fan of John McElroy’s writing since he first appeared on Autoblog.  His show, Autoline Detroit, is really great as well, focusing on the real issues that are facing the Detroit automakers.  In this week’s article, McElroy believes that the U.S. taxpayers could see a profit from helping GM.  His reasoning is that the bankruptcy from earlier this year allowed GM to cut thousands of dollars of legacy costs out of every vehicle.  Once the market picks up, even a little bit, GM (and crosstown rival Ford too) will be able to start making more money than really ever before.

It sure is a wonderful proposition to think about, so lets all do our part to spread the word about just how great the U.S. automobiles are!

(Image source: Autoline Detroit)

GM has made a payment of $1 billion and $192 million to the United States and Canadian governments, respectfully.  GM says this is the first step towards a repayment of $6.7 billion that it plans to have completed by June 2010.  The 60% stake that the U.S. government owns in GM will be repaid after the initial public offering of stock is sold, possibly as early as the second half of 2010.  For more details, head on over to Autoblog.

(Image source: dealbreaker.com)

GM announced a $1.15 billion loss for the third quarter, an improvement year-over-year, partly due to the cost savings of going through bankruptcy. GM’s revenue fell 26% to $28 billion over the same quarter last year. Although GM had exceptional sales results in China, sales dropped in North America and Europe.

CEO Fritz Henderson did not mention when he thinks GM will become profitable, but did mention that it will begin repaying Government loans. The first $1.2 billion payment will come in December.

Read the full article at The Wall Street Journal.

In an effort to gain some of their lost market share back, Chrysler looks to be resuming leasing again somewhere on or around September 18th.  This can only be seen as a good sign for the beaten and bruised automaker.  Lets hope that the leasing picks up for Chrysler and people start to see that their cars are competitive, or else we will never see the billions of dollars back that the government loaned them!  For more, head on over to Autoblog.

(Image source: Chrysler)

That’s right!  Chrysler Financial has paid off $1.5 billion in loans it received from the U.S. government.  The loans were used to provide 85,000 customers with auto loans for new Chrysler products.  For more on the story, head on over to Reuters.

Take this with a grain of salt, since the media headlines seem to change every second. If this is true though, I hope almost everything has been figured out in terms of agreements between Chrysler, Fiat, the UAW, treasury department, bondholders, etc., allowing for a (relatively) quick chapter 11 filing.

Read more at CNBC.

GM auto show display (AP)

A New York Times article has brought something to my attention.  Before I share with you what that “thing” is, I must explain myself first.  I am not an angry person.  I try to be as calm as possible, so that I don’t die prematurely of a heart attack.  However, upon reading this article, I suddenly realized: the vast majority of people in this country are stupid!  No, beyond stupid, they’re idiots, uninformed, bumbling idiots.  I would say much worse, but I’m trying my best to keep this site PG-ish.  Whatever.

In this article, the writer points out how GM and Chrysler have made considerable cuts to their auto show displays in light of the fact that they’re losing money by the billions and have had to take government loans just to stay in business.  So they made cuts to just about every area of the business, including marketing, which means auto show displays are less fancy then they have been in years past.

Well auto-show-goers have started taking out their frustrations on the presenters at the shows.  They are often women, usually younger, who are hired by an outside firm to stand around the vehicles and answer questions about them.  So what in the world would drive someone to make a statement like this:

One G.M. presenter said a woman told her the company was responsible for the death of American soldiers in Iraq. The logic went like this: if G.M. made more fuel-efficient cars, the country would not need so much oil, and if the country did not need oil, United States troops would never have invaded.

Are you freaking kidding me?  GM is responsible for the war in Iraq?  Are they the only company on the planet that makes cars that run on gas?  NO!  What’s even more sad is that GM produces cars that are as fuel efficient or more in most cases than similar products from Toyota and Honda.  Just more proof that people in this country have no clue what they’re talking about.

This has to be one of my favorites though:

“You know how they say, ‘Never buy a car made on a Monday or a Friday?’ ” he said, getting comfortable in the passenger seat. “It’s because the people building the cars aren’t focused on the job. Well, how well do you think they’re focused today, with all this talk about how they’re going to lose their jobs?”

This comment was made by Kurt Moore, an electrician from Pleasant Valley, N.Y., as he sat in a Toyota Highlander.  What a genius!  Making fun of the union workers.  Oh wait, don’t most electricians belong to unions as well?  So should we hate all unions, or just the ones that make cars?  And if he’s not in a union, then he must be jealous of the fact that he’s doing the same job as someone else, but making way less money at it.  Mr. Moore, it’s OK, I understand that idiots like you want everyone in this country to eventually make minimum wage and buy everything from China, but it’s just not a good idea.  The race to the bottom is going to get us nowhere. 

Plus, how will the US automakers ever improve if no one will buy their new vehicles that are on par with the foreign car makers?  You can’t improve for free, it costs billions in this industry!  If people won’t acknowledge the fact that the US automakers have improved and at least consider their vehicles, then the billions of dollars of taxpayer money that they have been given will be for nothing!  So you idiots keep on spouting your garbage, and watch as we sink deeper into a recession.

Sounds like General Motors isn’t doing everything wrong. With the Chinese economy showing signs of improvement, and many economists predicting that China will be the first to rebound in the global economic recession, it comes as no surprise that their sales were up. Again proof, that GM’s woos are not only from its own doing.

Read the full article at The Wall Street Journal.

Ford Motor Company World Headquarters (Ford)

Ford Motor Company has announced that they have reduced their debt by some $9.9 billion dollars from the 2008 year ending amount of $25.8 billion.  This announcement is a key component of Ford’s turn around plan, ONE Ford, and also a sign that life is starting to come back at the struggling automaker.

Now the press release is way too complex for me to understand, but basically this news will help reduce Ford’s annual interest costs by more then $500 million, and everyone knows, having less debt is a really good thing.  If you actually care to read the technical stuff, feel free to head on over to Autoblog.