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Old 11-18-08, 05:23   #149 (permalink)
Len_A
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Re: Should the government bail-out include domestic automakers?

Quote:
Originally Posted by jfelbab View Post
Sure, this one was posted on Sunday:


What do you account to the clear failure of the big three to make money on their vehicles?

I also read that Rick Wagoner of GM got a 64% salary increase for GM's great 2007 performance of a $39 Billion loss.

Here it is:


Not just sour grapes at GM as Ford carries a bag of suck too.



Hard to understand that companies who are performing poorly give their chiefs exorbitant salaries.

Now I didn't bring up any of that baggage you posted about about the UAW and the CAFE standards. My point was simply that the big three are losing money on every car and their Asian big three competitors are clearly not. These are published and verifiable numbers. I could find no more current numbers for profitability available. If profit formula have changed I'd be anxious to see them but looking at the last few months it is clear that sales of the big three have suffered a much greater loss than the Asian big three so I tend to think that profitability has not changed much.

To check on just how well managed GM has been I went and looked back at GM's stock performance over the past 5 years and compared it to Toyota and the DOW.

So why do GM and Ford chiefs seem to get outrageous salary increases while they seemingly run the companies into the ground then ask for bailouts?
The profit per car changes as soon as the retiree health care kicks over to the union in January, 2010.

Last quarter, Toyota lost $336 million, so even they aren't making money now - estimate I saw yesterday on sales was that we're down now to around the 10 million unit annual level. At that level, no one is profitable. My information comes from Automotive News, which you need a subscription to, or else I'd link to it. I found a reprint, link here

Fitch Ratings has now put Toyota on "Ratings Watch Negative" because of their exposure in the USA. Link Here

As far as executive compensation, just about every union in manufacturing has been complaining bitterly for years. You & I can join the crowd.
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