Automotive News, Media & Press - GM loses $4.8 billion in 4Q of 2005

http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/26/news/companies/gm/?cnn=yes

Ack.

Wow, that sucks,

And if any of you go out and use this excuse to try and buy a car cheaper, REALLY think before you speak. Does that make sense at all? That we are gonna sell something CHEAPER since we lost money. THINK. I've already heard this 20 times today from my salespeople telling me customers are using this as an argment.

Ouch :(

this can go one of two ways for the following year. gm and the financial guys go into crisis mode and stop all developement of new cars and all r&d. or they restructure a little and head back out into the market place with alot of promising designs and innovative ideas (in other words they let their engineers exercise their brains a little). i think they need some serious restructuring in they way of money management, how can you loose $1-2 billion per quarter and still be afloat. if i were on the board of directors i would fire a lot of the financial big wigs then kick them in the balls for sucking so much at their job. this could mean the death of the unborn 2008 camaro.

how can you loose $1-2 billion per quarter and still be afloat.
i think they have something in the way of a 30 billion dollar war chest?

i think they have something in the way of a 30 billion dollar war chest?


Not for long.... GM has a huge operating cost... and at this rate... their black ink is going to turn red fast! :(

Put the Camaro into production and get some of that money back!

They really need to get the UAW from clinching their balls. The amount of money GM pays for their employees pensions and benefits is unreal. I can see where unions were needed 30 years ago, but today companies have to provide for their employees to avoid lawsuits and retain their workers. GM can't hope to compete with Toyota while it has the UAW to deal with.

GM and the UAW just came up with a new agreement that saves GM 15 billion dollars over the next few years by having the retirees pay more for health care. The active work force took a pay freeze including cost of living raises for the next 15 months. GM praised the UAW for coming to the table and helping them out. GM states they expect to see at least a 4 billion dollar savings just from this agreement in the year 2006. What I don't understand is why no one talks about the mgt. side of the house which got GM into this problem by producing poor quality and box car design cars in the 80's which caused GM to lose a large amout of its market share and causes GM to continue to get ragged out for poor quality even though the surveys show their quality is as good or better than the imports. Take away the UAW and other union wages and see how much more GM's market shares drop, who do you think buys the largest amount of GM cars and trucks? Hint GM workers/retirees and family members is the answer.
Tom
They really need to get the UAW from clinching their balls. The amount of money GM pays for their employees pensions and benefits is unreal. I can see where unions were needed 30 years ago, but today companies have to provide for their employees to avoid lawsuits and retain their workers. GM can't hope to compete with Toyota while it has the UAW to deal with.

i think it is really the managements fault. not the designers or the engineers, or the consumers. the management made all the decisions that put Gm on the path it is currently on. years of bad decision making and greedy managers can catch up to you, right....about....NOW!!! and the uam really isn;t helping yeah they took a wage freeze but only to save their own asses. uaw workers are some of the best paid factory workers out there if i'm not mistaken.

While the current top GM execs are receiving hefty salaries and benefits, they are not the same ones who put GM into this situation. Also, keep in mind, this only applies to GM North America. Global sales/profits are up, just not their biggest market, GMNA. Current management has been working to reverse the ill effects of having poor leadership in the past, but they do have a hard battle ahead. I'm excited to see some of the recent changes they've made, and hope they continue in the direction they are going.

If GM would stop making ugly ass cars and put in the same effort as they do in the Vette, they might be ok.

that's not all of it, james. To be competitive, and make money, they need to sell the cars for the same price as the competition, while actually making a profit. The union workers and poor past leadership are / have been leeching so much out of the company, that car sales arent helping much at all in the way of making money. The employees wages, benefits, retirement, etc.. are so high that to make money, theyd have to sell cars at uncompetitive prices, where they wouldnt sell cars at all. Some MAJOR reconstructuring needs to take place, very fast. I personally think the unions need the boot.
olly

In general, the pension is going away in Corporate America. It's not sustainable in most cases.

GM actually lost over $8 billion in 2005. That's pretty bad.

Hopefully GM will get away from mediocre styling and crappy quality ratings. In this current world you need cool styling or high quality to lure customers.

The pension has to go away. Higher base salaries caused by inflation plus desired pensions result in a compensation package which begets an insurmountable expense. More and more people are venturing into self employment which has changed the overall culture from "being taken care of" to "taking care of one's self."

I created my own pension plan (SEP). Hopefully my asshole boss (me) doesn't screw me over. :)

Ford and Dodge are kicking GM in the Nuts. I know ford cut 25K jobs recently along with 25K or more from GM. What about blackberry thats only billions of dollars! what a shitty time

Ford and Dodge are kicking GM in the Nuts. I know ford cut 25K jobs recently along with 25K or more from GM. What about blackberry thats only billions of dollars! what a shitty time

I'm not an expert but I think Ford's situation is far worse than GM.Ford has went from 24% market share to 17% in 5 yrs.

Ford has released quite a few new car's recently and they can't give them away.If GM doesn't come up with something new their going to be in the same boat.

Gm and Ford will never have the market share they used to have.While they're closing plants foreign automakers are replacing those jobs in our economy.

A Honda plant in my area employees thousands and is getting expanded right now.

If the Japanese can put together a diesel powered dually with at least a 350/650 engine the last area of big 3 dominance will be over.

has GM made any efforts to get ride of some excess mngt. positions?


from what i understand theyre very overstaffed there. theyve reduced their workforce tremendously over the last 30 yrs. and still produce more cars so being productive isnt the problem.

Where is that Pontiac Aztek anyway?

Ford lost money in 2005 too. DC is cutting 6,000 jobs right now, and Ford is cutting 30,000. Changes are happening.

You guys know when a company's stock goes way down, it makes it easier for other companies to buy them. And the company is also weaker because their cost of funds go up. Reason GM is finally take harsh steps is because they are junk bond status and they've hit bottom.

If the Japanese can put together a diesel powered dually with at least a 350/650 engine the last area of big 3 dominance will be over.

Roof

The Isuzu Duramax is a good start!

You will probably see alot more powertrain and driveline part sharing between the companies in the years to come. It is pretty costly for everyone to be designing a replacement engine for the newer models when they can share a few between them.

Like GM-Saturn and Honda, etc.

has GM made any efforts to get ride of some excess mngt. positions?


from what i understand theyre very overstaffed there. theyve reduced their workforce tremendously over the last 30 yrs. and still produce more cars so being productive isnt the problem.

I'm pretty sure that it's part of GM's restructing efforts prior to them posting their most recent loss. IMHO, they need to reduce their product line, comeup with better designed vehicles (I mean innovative designs like the new camaro, etc), and increase their quality ratings across the entire lineup. Also they have to reduce their operating costs whether its by closing plants (excess capacity), and/or eliminating workers (union/non-union). That's the only way GM can compete with the Japanese, and Germans.

This situation is ugly, ugly, ugly at GM. Essentially, the corporate cost structure, including legacy costs (pension, retirees, etc.), combined with a corporate culture that reacts at the speed of molasses to changing market environments = trouble for the next few years. GM (and Ford for that matter) may surprise me and pull out of the tailspin, but this is not looking good. How can the company survive when many of its rank-and-file hourly employees hate the management, the retirees have no other income support, and labor from competitor countries overseas costs less than half as much? And then throw betting the whole company on giant SUVs when the SUV fad seems to be waning?

I hope GM survives, and think it likely that at least a sizeable portion of the company survives intact. But I cannot say it for sure.