Morning News: Toyota Recall, GM Loss, Executive Paycuts

Toyota Largest Recall Ever Still Smaller Than GM's Loss, In Numbers CNN/Money reports: Toyota recalls 1.41 million cars. So, Toyota has to recall nearly every car everywhere and it's still a smaller number than GM's losses for one single quarter. Oy! This recall is not a major safety issue but we are mentioning it because: 1. We don't want to be accused of bias and 2. We are baised and take every opportunity to make fun of GM. Heh. 1.6 billion. In dollars. American dollars! Mercy!

GM: Yes, It's True. We Lost A Bit a'Money
CNN/Money reports: GM loss much worse than expected.

General Motors Corp. reported a huge third-quarter loss Monday, stung by soaring gasoline prices that hurt sales of big SUVs and rising health care and other costs.

The world's No. 1 automaker said its net loss was $1.6 billion, or $2.89 a share, including an $805 million charge for expected plant closings and other moves, versus net income of $315 million, or 56 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding the charge and other items, GM's loss was equal to $1.92 a share, more than twice as large as the 87 cent a share loss forecast by analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call.

"In a nutsell our financial performance continues to be quite disappointing," said GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner in comments broadcast to company employees Monday morning.

Hey, CNN, how about starting the lead off with, "General Motors Corp. reported a huge third-quarter loss Monday, stung by soaring gasoline prices that hurt sales of big SUVs, rising health care and the fact that consumers will only buy the majority of their cars at a huge, huge discount."

Frenchies Interested In Swedes?
Joe (on his kick-ass site: My Ford Dreams) offers up the rumor: "More news about those darn French, this time it's rumors about Renault wanting to buy Volvo." Man, we don't know what to think about that. Ford has done an OK... no, a good job in regards to Volvo, so we'd be surprised if Ford sold it. And, yeah, we agree, Joe: GM should sell Saab before it kills Saab. We wonder, however, what kind of meatballs would come out of a French/Swede marriage. Mmmm, meatballs.

Can No Car Company Think On Its Own?
CNN/Money reports: Chrysler: We want cuts from UAW, too. Of course you do, Chrysler. Whatever GM does, the other car companies do, too. Just because GM posts a big loss, does that mean you all are going to as well? Are you? Huh? Are you?! You can't handle the loss!

Delphi Execs Take Massive Paycut, Steve Jobs Pissed
The Detroit News reports: Delphi execs taking pay cuts. A dollar you say? One single dollar? You mean we could hire 1.6 billion Delphi CEOs for the same amount of money GM lost in just 90 days? Let's do it! In unrelated news, Steve Jobs has begun ranting about being copied once again by clueless white dudes. "What do I have to do to separate myself from the pack? Do I have to reinvent the music industry and the broadcast industry? Let me tell you this: if any of these dudes start wearing bluejeans and mock turtlenecks I'm gonna open a can on Vegetarian Whoopass on 'em! By the way, have you seen the new iPodnanos? They're impossibly small!" In response, the staff of Cars! Cars! Cars! said, "Gimme that!"

What's Good For GM Is Bad For America
The Detroit News's: Auto insider has a great roundup of GM news with the following headlines:

GM wins health cuts, may sell GMAC
GM workers dread higher health costs
GM fast tracks factory closures
Carmaker may unload profitable finance arm
Editorial: GM-UAW health care deal a good start; more needed

And all we can see is the worker getting screwed.

General Motors Corp.'s breakthrough deal with the United Auto Workers not only will mean higher medical costs for 750,000 blue-collar GM workers, retirees and their families, but also is likely to trigger a wave of similar cutbacks across the auto industry. ... GM said Monday its tentative agreement with the UAW will trim $1 billion from its nearly $6 billion annual health care bill and slice 25 percent from its $77 billion in future retiree obligations.

Wonder if Bobby Lutz is going to have trouble paying his future medical costs?

But financial analysts were quick to cheer the deal as the kind of bold action needed to turn the company around.

"These savings are a clear positive," said Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Barry in a Monday report.

He then, supposedly, dropped a kitten off the 14th floor just to see what would happen.

But, you know, this is just the beginning. Of course Ford and Chrysler are going to push the UAW to these same terms -- that's a no brainer. What happens when companies (perhaps GM in the not-too-distant future) say, "Crap, we can't afford any insurance coverage."? Who covers those people then? And, you know, once all of these companies strip health care away, other entities are going to investigate how they, too, can lower their costs. We're guessing cities are next since they have to deal with teacher unions, police unions and firefighter unions. Those people are always getting sick.

Comments

[Johnny Ancich]

[CARTOON] Toyota Sticky Accelerator
http://pastexpiry.blogspot.com/2010/01/cartoon-toyota-sticky-accelerator.html

[Bill Discher]

I'm a grad student at University of Baltimore.
I was required to do a blog as a class assignment. I choose to do a blog about
Car-blogs. I'm new to this blogging thing so
any advice or comments would be greatly apprieciated. Is there a procedure or edicate
behind asking others if they would be willing to link to my blog? I hope to draw some traffic to it so I can gather information and opinions and views as part of my class. Thanks. ~Bill

http://student-iat.ubalt.edu/classes/discher/