The Toyota Witch Trials Part One
Update 1: Well it isn’t going well for Toyota from my view. Lenz indicated there was a report of trouble in the UK and it seems they did not notify NHTSA….
CNBC has LiveStream Coverage of the testimony and questioning of Toyota’s Lentz here
If they knew it was an issue in 2006 and covered it up shame on them. If Congress uses this to destroy Toyota and steal marketshare for GM shame on them.
If NHTSA helped them cover it up, then DC is working as it always has. And it is shameful. Looks like the same old pay to play shxt to me. Lobbyists, corporations, politicians in each others pockets, like FINRA and SEC ‘regulating’ their former and future employers, completely ineffective.
But I have also been doing recent reading on those GM trucks that had engine fires and NHTSA didnt do jack shxt there either did they? Yet no big show trial Congressional Panel, cause ya know they love them some GM. Waxman is playing clips of Phil LeBeau interviewing Lenz for CNBC…
Now that the government owns upwards of 70% of GM this has the appearance of impropriety and it is hard to deny these Critters now feel a much more personal stake in tearing down Toyota and thus in their minds building GM market share.
Me, I suggest peeps buy a FORD.
CNBC provides background here:
The president of Toyota’s U.S. operations insisted Tuesday that electronic problems did not contribute to sudden acceleration of its cars, drawing sharp criticism from lawmakers who said such a possibility should not be ruled out and from a tearful woman driver who could not stop her runaway Lexus….
Turning Japanese: Cash for Clunkers data in…
This is basically an excuse for me to play this song 🙂 Ed has already broken down all the data for us over at HotAir:
The Obama administration spent three billion dollars subsidizing the destruction of 700,000 vehicles in order to boost car sales. Which auto makers actually benefited from these American tax subsidies? Reuters reports that foreign car manufacturers gained market share, while the two bailed-out American automakers lost significant portions of theirs in the big summer sale…
The majority of cars crushed were American models like the Grand Jeep Cherokee 😦 I love my Jeepster! I still wish they had given vehicles to charity, it wasn’t making a meaningful impact on ‘greening’ to destroy them….the worst was seeing the video of a corvette killed…. awful…
The Vapors courtesy of Emmanuel123454321; Corvette murder courtesy of dcartjr
Update: Ron Bloom to take over, Steve Rattner stepping down as Auto Czar…
Bloomberg has it up, they say Ron Bloom who I have seen described as a friend of labor but who isn’t at this point on the auto force?? How can GM make money negotiating against its own workers interests when it owns itself?
…Ron Bloom, who has worked with Rattner on the car company restructurings, will take over the leadership of the Obama administration’s auto task force, the statement said.
…Rattner “has decided to transition back to private life and his family in New York City,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement. “I hope that he takes another opportunity to bring his unique skills to government service in the future.”
Here is a take on Rattner and Bloom from the former chief of IBM…
…“Who did we pick to figure out how to fix the automobile industry? We picked two investment bankers,” Gerstner said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s “Conversations with Judy Woodruff” airing today. “It’s sort of like asking the arsonist to run the fire department.”
In February, Obama named Steven Rattner, co-founder of private-equity firm Quadrangle Group LLC, as chief adviser on auto-industry issues, and Ron Bloom, a former vice president at investment bank Lazard Ltd., to advise his auto task force….
Breaking on CNBC Chyron. The way Rattner allegedly treated Chrysler senior bondholders is truly abhorrent to our system of law. Hope this is not so they can promote him to destroying more contract law elsewhere in our economy…Karma is a two way street. He may be going off to spend more time in his mondomansion for all I know but what comes around goes around and he did a lot of damage to American business and contract law with his actions IMO…
Our MANY previous posts on the Chrysler travesty here
He is taking his giant cheese and going back to his giant rat trap perhaps…we hear the TOTUS family will be vacationing in MASS also…
MM is also following the story
UPDATE: Saturn goes under- Penske drops bid, GM says it will not seek alternate buyer; The New GM – CNBC.com
Wow! 1992 (the album!) !? Damn am I old!
Update: 9/30 -Commenter Thomas Stewart notes GM called the end of Saturn today as Penske withdrew its bid.
General Motors will close Saturn and wind down its dealership network after a deal to sell the faltering brand to Penske Automotive Group collapsed, the automaker said Wednesday.The breakdown of a deal that had been widely expected to close this week will force some 350 Saturn dealerships to close and could cut thousands of auto retail jobs that would have been preserved under a plan by auto magnate Roger Penske.
Shares of Penske Automotive ..were down almost 10 percent Wednesday in aftermarket trade. The breakdown of the deal was announced after the New York Stock Exchange closed.
GM’s failure to complete the deal also adds uncertainty to the automaker’s production plans as it struggles to regain its footing following a $50-billion taxpayer funded restructuring.
“This is very disappointing news and comes after months of hard work by hundreds of dedicated employees and Saturn retailers who tried to make the new Saturn a reality,” GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said in a statement…
Update 2: GM Bondholders accept counteroffer….Breaking: GM to close 14 plants Monday…
Update 2: CNBC has the details:
..The bondholders will start with 10 percent equity, 7.5 percent more at both $15 billion and $30 billion market cap. GM will emerge from this deal with $25 billion in secured debt. The offer came Thursday morning from GM and the Treasury Department. However, the move may not stop a possible bankruptcy for GM.
But in exchange for the improved payout, creditors would agree not to oppose a move to sell GM’s profitable assets to a new company funded by the U.S. government in a fast-track bankruptcy process.
The exchange offer will be open to bondholders until 5 p.m Saturday EDT, GM said…
Breaking now, GM Bondholders accept ‘sweetened’ offer, but bankruptcy still a go? developing on CNBC- GM shares resume trading
developing story on CNBC chyron…coming from AP, ugh…..
SOO glad we are spending that 60-70 Billion to save GM …so we can watch all these layoffs anyway….good Gawd almighty….and the pensions will be the next shoe to drop…you and I will carry that unfunded liability as well no doubt…i hearFed Reserve Fisher says its like 11 trillion theentire unfunded public pensions coast to coast…pfffft!!!
Video Update: GM CFO Ray Young says co won’t make June 1st $1Billion debt repayment…
Update 2: CNBC’s Phil LeBeau
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Update: Bloomberg:
General Motors Corp., trying to avoid a U.S.-backed bankruptcy on June 1, may close plants and scrap models as much as four years sooner than planned to lower its break-even point, people familiar with the effort said….
…The new plan may require GM to complete many of the reductions in models and dealers planned by 2014 as soon as next year, allowing earlier plant and job reductions, people briefed on the talks said. GM said March 31 that by 2014 it would trim dealers to 4,100 from 6,122, nameplates to 36 from 43, and U.S. assembly capacity to 2 million vehicles from 2.8 million.
The bond offer may include some framework of GM’s plan to cut $20.4 billion in obligations to a United Auto Workers union- run retiree-medical fund by more than half, two of the people said. The bond offer may disclose what portion, if any, of U.S. loans would be converted to equity, one person said.
–the flintstones car at the new york international auto show–
Breaking from WSJ on CNBC Chyron…
This is in addition to GM CEO Fritz Henderson commenting bankruptcy more likely…
they are really putting the hammer down on the bondholders..were I they, I would NOT cut a deal, I would wait for my bankruptcy judge, but the pundits say a MI bankruptcy judge will be under HUGE political pressure to wipe the bondholders out anyway…
say hello to Nancy Pelosi and Henry Waxman’s Little Friend..a Flintstone mobile, perhaps all we will be allowed to purchase until they reinvent the wheel..
A vehicle that meets Waxman/Pelosi emission standards
We will then get sued by people behind us as our feet produce a cloud of dust they can claim MIGHT somehow damage them as a pollutant…
Good Grief….
Moderate in the Middle 