GM out of bankrupcy today!

[darren]

Are things looking better? They are also experimenting with direct sales to customers online...this has got to piss off dealers to no end.

http://www.freep.com/article/2009071...007/1014/rss13

The 100-year-old General Motors was reborn today after a historic rush through bankruptcy that lasted all of 40 days.


GM CEO Fritz Henderson this morning announced changes to the company’s management structure that, he said, will allow the company to move more nimbly going forward. He promised that “business as usual is over.”

“The last 100 days has shown everyone, including ourselves, that a company not known for quick action can in fact … move very fast,” Henderson said. “Starting today we want to take that intensity, the decisiveness and the speed of these last several weeks and then transfer it from the battlefield triage of the bankruptcy process to the day-to-day operation of the new company.

“This will be the new norm of the General Motors.”


,...the rest of the article is in the link

[dzlhead]

Here is what I don't understand; the company has the cars that we would buy, even sacrificially, but won't sell them here in the domestic market. I would buy one of the turbodiesel powered cars, minivans, and small diesel pickups that they sell in the overseas markets in a heartbeat if they were available.
If anything, GM ought to offer a huge discount and easy access to credit as payback for using our money to bail them out. I know it was in the form of loans but the fact still remains that if it were a regular person needing the same bankrupcy protection and capital, they would be denied.
I have no sympathy for any of the automakers, because it was not listening to the customer and not supplying a superior product that got them in the mess that they are in right now. The loss of jobs, tightening credit markets, and out of control energy costs (which really started the domino effect on our country) just added fuel to the fire.
Did they know? Of course they did, they pay people to keep track of these things, yet despite this, they did not do the right thing.
Forgive my soapbox moment, but if GM and the rest want to clean up in sales, make sure that the cars and minivans do 45mpg or better (55mpg is more like it) and that they are price pointed so that anyone can afford them. And make them so reliable that no one has anything to complain about. Wait, someone did that already. It's called the Mini Cooper.

[Adamgolf]

...and horrible labor and union rules, selling what they thought the American consumer wanted....poor manufacturing and design...I hope for the sake of Detroit that they really are fixed this time around...