Whether longer term that actually makes a difference, I have questions about that.
With them losing market share the way they have been, they are most certainly going to lose more, so this just will not be enough.
Obviously, that doesn't endear Delphi to the union.
I would have to believe at this point that bidders who are serious players, to the extent they've already done their due diligence, this is not a surprise. What it could do is tip the balance more to the buyer, give them a little more leverage on the price.
But despite the pressure, I can't think of anyone who would be better than him to do this job. The issues facing the company are so long in the making. They are just rising on his watch, but they weren't created by him.
China is a growing market, an important market for them. But growth there is not enough to make up for the large losses in North America.
GM today is in worse shape than Nissan was when Carlos took over. It's just a much bigger company with a much bigger problem in a much worse situation.
GM's new products are just not getting the job done and the company is losing market share, ... It's really a combination of three things going on. There's lower sales mixed with falling prices and higher input costs.
GM needs much larger concessions than this to have a material impact. The kind of cuts that GM needs are cuts that the union would simply not agree to. And GM needs to face that at some point, just like Delphi is facing it now.
What you're getting now with the stock where it is trading, there is a lot of news-event volatility, you get people betting on the next move... they're basically just trading on the momentum being generated by the news.
His motivation was to unlock that equity in GMAC. Rumor has it that it's not going well.
I wouldn't read too much into one month of data for any automaker. What I'm looking for more is the trend. And Toyota shows the continuation of a positive trend, albeit at a slower pace.
I think it's more of a one-month blip than an indication that the truck trend is starting to reverse.
I think they kind of hit it at the right time with that sedan.
That could really short circuit the cost benefits GM expects in the second half of the year.
The quarter as a snapshot is certainly a move in the right direction. But that being said, it didn't convince me of anything.
The deal is a move in the right direction, but no one thinks this is the end to their problems. The laundry list of the things that GM needs to do to fix itself is about a dozen items long, and this deal was a small item on that list.
This reverses the feeling investors had that a deal would get done by this summer.
Under the value pricing system, on average, the sticker prices are down a couple hundred bucks. To be effective, value pricing has to be four times that, and incentives required to sell vehicles must be removed.
There is still a lot of work to do beyond the Ford agreement. The scale of restructuring in the industry is just enormous. It is going to take time, take some aggressive actions, and it is going to be expensive.
We have today and tomorrow as the last trading sessions of the year. With the stock being down so far, you would be looking at a little bit of tax selling to harvest those capital losses to offset gains in other areas.
With Ford and GM's dependence on trucks, and a lack of significant meaningful products on the sedan side, they will continue to struggle.
Even though it is not completely Wagoner's fault, you just have to shake things up.
At this point I still feel they'll get something done that avoids a strike. But that said, it's still a long way to go.
The sequential decline in GMAC's income reflects the increase in their borrowing costs following the credit downgrades.
The supply chain is so weak right now that it can't go on this way. That relationship needs to change, but it might be too late.
The move to value pricing offered (price) declines that just weren't great enough to attract buyers,
You really start to wonder whether anyone is going to buy a car at regular price anymore.
This is going to be a difficult year, probably worse than 2005.
This is not a company you would buy for its fundamental attributes or its operational strengths.
This is a crucial time for GM. They need to get everyone talking because they are the ones that really have the most to lose with a strike.
It's not saying much, because of how bad the first quarter was, but it's a step in the right direction.
It's like the GM and Ford locomotive has stopped, but all the cars behind it, all the way back to the caboose, are still moving, and it's piling up like an accordion.
The numbers are much worse than I thought they would be, especially given how Ford beat the estimates earlier this week.
That's scary -- the fact that they are saying there is no reason to even negotiate now. If you were to take their statement at face value, that increases the likelihood of a strike considerably.
It kind of makes you wonder. That's his gig. That's where he came from. You have a hard time believing he's unaware of things like this, or didn't know what was going on. It's certainly disconcerting, at best.
It's too soon to say that (GM turned the corner). There are certainly potholes still out there to negotiate.
Is this another blow to management? I would say yes. But you can't say management was on very steady ground in the eyes of investors.
It's really not a zero-sum game where one wins and one loses. It's really everybody or nobody.
The last couple of days illustrate that there is a lot of work to do at this company and it's debatable whether it's actually doable outside bankruptcy court. I don't think it is.
The consensus number in this case is very hard to use as a barometer. The estimates were all over the place.
In a nutshell: No, I don't think it's enough.
If you look at the trailing four quarters, as bad as those numbers were, they were unsustainable. Unless the company was sitting on its hands and did nothing, they couldn't remain that negative for very long.
If you look at the total compensation package, it's close to $125,000 to $130,000 per year. If you have UAW workers making $130,000 to assemble oil filters, it's very difficult to turn a profit.
Investors are reacting to the Toyota figures. Although it shouldn't be any great surprise. ... We've been saying for a while that at the current pace, Toyota will surpass GM next year.
If there is a continued dip in US market share, board members will have to say enough is enough,
If GM does file for a bankruptcy, he would be the one to take them into the Chapter 11 filing,
This is a little bit of relief of one of (Ford's) many problems.
This is a company and an industry that has a lot of bigger issues to deal with.
You've got three different parties here -- GM, Delphi and the UAW -- trying to figure out what GM's obligation is, ... GM could be on the hook for a lot of those UAW workers, but it's not completely clear. It's just a giant bowl of spaghetti right now.
All of a sudden we are paying $3 at the pump and SUVs are falling out of fashion. Delphi feels that pinch just as much as General Motors.
